ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/dec/17/220-journalists-are-now-in-prison-across-the-world

220 journalists are now in prison across the world

This article is about how journalists jobs may be becoming in danger in countries like China and Iran. These two countries have jailed 220 journalists. 

• This year, Iranian authorities were holding 30 journalists in jail, down from 35 in 2013.
• Together, China and Iran are holding a third of journalists jailed globally. The 44 journalists in Chinese jails, up from 32 the previous year, reflects the pressure that the country’s president, Xi Jinping, has exerted on media, lawyers, dissidents and academics to toe the government line. Twenty-nine of the journalists behind bars in China were held on anti-state charges.
• A state crackdown in Ethiopia on independent publications and bloggers more than doubled the number of journalists imprisoned there to 17 from seven the previous year, prompting several journalists to flee into exile

The article proves the different views of countries compared to the UK and what they think about journalists, therefore this could become a dying job. 

Ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/dec/17/reading-post-bids-a-print-farewell-and-welcomes-an-online-future

Reading Post bids a print farewell and welcomes an online future

This article is about a news company deciding to stop making and selling their newspapers as they believe online content is an easier way for people to access their news and the demand for print has fallen. 

• One of the Post’s articles relates the paper’s 49-year history while another explains the virtues of its online future 
• It was one of several titles launched by the Thomson Organisation in towns around the fringes of London. The Post, then a broadsheet, benefited from what was claimed to be the world’s first computer-controlled printing press. I think it was the first, or among the first, to publish in colour.
• Now Trinity Mirror aims, its says, to continue the Post’s legacy of being at the forefront of innovation by focusing on a digital-only approach, a change celebrated by Ed Walker, who has been appointed as publisher of getreading.co.uk.  
• “The average adult in the UK who owns a smartphone (such as an iPhone) unlocks their phone more than 100 times a day, and by early 2015 the percentage of adults with a smartphone is set to pass 80%

In my opinion they are doing the correct thing as the future is more digital and it would be easier to innovate the digital reading post page to keep the audience interested in the news they give. 

Globalisation

1. Our news could be influenced by American cultural imperialism as the majority of major global news organisations are American, therefore they tend to dominate the media, America is also one of the elite powers of  the world which makes their involvement in current affairs high which make headlines. 
2. The increased globalisation of news has improved the audience's experience as now media is an essential part of many people's everyday life. Audiences are able to gather many different view points on news stories and different countries debates on certain issues due to globalisation. There are many news organisations who broadcast worldwide, this definitely improves the audiences experience as all the institutions can feed off each other sharing news stories and developing them. 
3. Globalisation has benefited major news organisations as the news enables each organisation to try and cover the news story better which pushes them to improve what they do. Globalisation  also gives major news organisations more consumers who can access their news globally making it popular in different countries such as how Fox news is popular in the UK being an American news channel. 

essay

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

A Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “information revolution” has done little to benefit audiences or to subvert the established power structures in society. Far from being a “great leveller” (Krotoski, 2012) as many have claimed, it has merely helped to reinforce the status quo by promoting dominant ideologies. The most popular news website in the UK by a considerable margin is the ‘Mail Online’, which receives more than 8 million hits every month and is continuing to expand rapidly – with forecasts that it will make £100 million or more in digital revenues in the next three years. Similar to its tabloid print edition, the website takes a Conservative, right-wing perspective on key issues around gender, sexuality and race and audiences appear to passively accept what the Marxist theorist, Gramsci, called a hegemonic view. When one of their chief columnists, Jan Moir, wrote a homophobic article about the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 there were Twitter and Facebook protests but, ultimately, they did not change the editorial direction of the gatekeepers controlling the newspaper.

The development for new/digital media means the audience is more powerful from a pluralist perspective. In terms of production individuals are able to contribute through social media using user generated content by publishing their own footage via YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. An example could be of the Arab Spring where people posted up raw footage of the current events taking place in countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia as there was a revolution taking place. Citizen journalism promoted the events taking place as then the bigger institutions such as Google and news online companies such as ‘The Guardian’ used the raw footage from user generated content. Using social media for communicating about protests enhances the pluralistic view as individuals can express their opinions.

From a Marxist perspective new/digital media means the audience is not as powerful as large institutions in terms of production. According to ‘Pareto’s Law’ the minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers which suggests most of the news the audience consumes comes from the elite institutions such as Google or Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers. This is biased information and links with the hypodermic needle theory where audiences are injected with one sided views from a minority of media producers.  Stated by Lin and Webster; the top 5% of all websites are accounted for almost 75% user volume. This suggests audiences are not as powerful as institutions in terms of consumption or production.

The theorist Andrew Keen says that web pages are like a million monkeys typing nonsense which could be seen from a pluralist’s perspective as the audiences are seen to be powerful through production. Producing web pages shows consumers can create their own blogs and chat rooms to voice their opinions and possibly start debates. Furthermore many websites are created for a variety of different audiences they would appeal to. In this case audiences seem to be more powerful than institutions as they can voice their own opinions through websites they create.

However the Marxist view on Andrew Keens quote is that they believe audiences are being dumbed down by all the nonsense that is on the internet which is not helping address social inequalities. An example of this would be the listicle articles on Buzz feed which are very simple to read and follow which is making consumers brain dead as it stops them from reading hard news. Marxists believe producers produce media texts which maintain social divides such as newspapers like ‘The Sun’. The millions of monkeys typing nonsense are the ones who create social divides. 

Alan Rushbridger who was an editor for The Guardian believes there is 'mutualisation of news' which means that news and ideas are shared rather than delivered. The relationship between journalists and consumers has changed and they are more alike as nowadays citizen journalism has become a norm. Journalists and readers happen to be equal partners now.  This is more of a pluralistic view as audiences are evolving to be more powerful in terms of consumption and production than institutions as institutions now gather their information and news from consumers as well as their own research. 

Another theorist with a pluralistic belief; Gurevitch believes audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways according to their needs, and they have access to the plural views of society enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject'. Therefore audiences happen to be more powerful against institutions in terms of consumption. 

In conclusion I believe nowadays the audience is more powerful than institutions due to factors such as citizen journalism, user generated content through social media and the mutualisation of news which I agree with as journalists and readers seem to be equal partners as they share their ideas and news rather than deliver them. The idea of democratization in society is also another factor to why audiences are more powerful in terms of production. Democratization allows opinions of individuals in society to be heard and ideas are able to flourish, this could be through social media, blogs or chatrooms. Therefore the development of new/digital media means the audiences are more powerful in terms of consumption and production. 

Feedback 
• Add an introduction
• Expand on my points
• Andrew Keens quote is mainly Marxist
• more detail on citizen journalism
• Gurevitch paragraph needs developing

Grade: B 

Learner response: 
Introduction- The development of new/digital media can portray a sense of the audience becoming more powerful in terms of production. This is mainly due to social media as individuals can create their own content which is known as user generated content. The views of Marxists and pluralists on this topic vary which will be evaluated further on in this essay. 

Citizen journalism has become very normal and is said to be taking away the job of journalists. It works the opposite way nowadays as journalists look for stories that citizen journalists make big. In a way journalists steal citizen journalists stories and make them headlines. From a pluralist perspective the development of new/digital media does mean the audience is more powerful as they create user generated content using popular sites such as Twitter. Citizen journalists can initially make up a false story and make it trend through social media which gives us a glimpse of how powerful audiences have become. 

Another theorist with a pluralistic belief; Gurevitch believes audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways according to their needs, and they have access to the plural views of society enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject'. Therefore audiences happen to be more powerful against institutions in terms of consumption. Individuals can speak out against what they believe is not true in the media, a way of manipulating them is using social media to express their opinions which challenges media institutions. 

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/dec/04/what-can-twitters-reaction-to-the-uk-autumn-statement-tell-us 

What can Twitter's reaction to the UK autumn statement tell us?

 

 

 

This article is about analysing social reaction to political events.

• Social media, particularly Twitter, has emerged as a new political battleground, where opinions are formed and public judgments made, whether politicians like it or not. Over the hour of the speech, 46,000 tweets were sent about the autumn statement – 780 a minute, and more than in both of the party conference leader speeches earlier in the year.
• In total, around 18,000 tweets came from members of the general public; close to ten thousand came from corporate Twitter accounts, especially tax, accountancy and management consultancy firms. A further 10,000 came from media voices – newspapers, the broadcasters, bloggers and writers. Politicians, charities, public sector organisations and activists were vocal too. 
• Twitter, as a rule, is unfavourable to politicians. It is a place where people join in the cross-partisan, cross-generational national sport of anti-politics, and in each of these occasions the boos have drowned out the cheers. In the first referendum debate, Darling was booed 30,000 times and cheered 435. For Miliband’s speech, he received 4 boos for every cheer.

Social media helps consumers to express their opinions on controversial topics such as politics. User generated content helps opinions to form and debates to arise.

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/01/gadget-obsessed-uk-top-digital-advertising-spend 

UK set to be first country in which more than half of ad spend goes digital 

This article is about how more than half of the UK's expenditure on advertising has become digital. This shows that advertisers are moving along with the times and have realised innovative technology is the way to get messages across. 

• Group M, the worldwide media buying arm of the market services company WPP, has forecast that the total UK ad market will hit £15.7bn in 2015. Within this online spend is forecast to grow 12.7% year-on-year to break the £8bn mark, making the UK the first in which more than £1 in every £2 of ad spend will go on digital media. 
• Next year more money will be spent on internet advertising than in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, cinema, radio, and billboards, posters and buses combined. 
• According to Group M paid search advertising will grow to £4.2bn, with about 29% of that on mobile devices, most of which is hoovered up by Google, which has more than 90% share of the UK market. 
• Group M is forecasting that more than £160m in print advertising will be lost from the UK newspaper market next year. 
• Regional newspapers are expected to see a 9.1% fall in print ad revenues to £820m, a fall of £82m year-on-year. 

I would say advertising is best shown on social media and websites as many people use the internet in everyday life as it has now become a necessity therefore it is a good thing that more than half of advertising is digital.  

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/dec/03/no-makeup-selfie-cancer-research-fundraising-benefit-quick-thinking

No-makeup selfie: Cancer Research's lesson on benefits of quick thinking



This article is about how the Research for cancer campaign trended so quickly and over night turned into a major fundraiser all because of social media.

• Within 24 hours, Cancer Research UK had received £1m in donations. Their next No-makeup selfie tweet reported this achievement and became the charity’s most retweeted tweet ever, with over 14,200 retweets. Following this tweet, the number of text donations hit their peak at more than 700,000.
• As No-makeup selfie went truly viral, Cancer Research UK kept the momentum alive. They promoted Facebook posts and reached out to as many supporters as possible, providing updates on donations, thanking donors and inspiring others to take part. They also drove the trend forward and cultivated their rush of new supporters by responding, retweeting and thanking as many people as possible.
• By the end of the week, Cancer Research UK had raised £8m. As a final thank you, they announced the money would be spent on ten important clinical trials that they previously couldn’t fund.

This is a really clever way of making people aware and support the charity even more. It gained a lot of donation in a way which was easy for individuals to give and a fun way to support the charity which was by taking a 'no makeup selfie'.

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/04/tesco-retail-stampede-social-media-create-brand-chatter

Tesco joins retail stampede to social media in bid to create brand chatter



This article is about how Tesco have realised that consumers spend more money if they are engaged through social media. So Tesco are trying to reach out through Twitter and Facebook and are trying to communicate with their followers.

• Evidence that shoppers engaged via social media spend more and people are increasingly influenced by advice and recommendations from peers on sites such as Facebook and Twitter is forcing retailers to radically change the way they communicate.
• In the first half of this year UK spending on social media advertising rose by 73% to £396m, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
• Social media is playing a role in all sectors of the market. For the second year in a row Sainsbury’s caused a stir online with a highly emotional seasonal ad, this year based on the first world war trenches. It barely mentions the brand but has prompted heated debate across Twitter and mainstream media helping it notch up more than 13.6m views on Youtube,
• Social media is now a well established channel for relationship building and a person that has had a positive experience with your brand on social media will be more likely not only to shop with you but also defend your brand’s reputation to their friends.

I believe reaching out through social media is the west way to communicate with customers nowadays as consumers are constantly using social networking sites. This gets shoppers involved even through advertisements such as the John Lewis Christmas ones, which increases their revenue in the long run.

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/03/google-facebook-uk-digital-advertising-market

Google and Facebook will have more than half of UK digital ad market



This article is about how predictions say Google and Facebook which are media giants will be taking over more than half of the £8 billion digital market in 2015 due to advertisements on smartphones and websites.

• The UK operations of Google and Facebook will make a combined £4.1bn in 2015, a 50.8% share of the total expected to be spent on ads on websites, smartphones, online video and social media next year.
• Facebook UK’s ad revenues are forecast to grow by 55% this year to £576m and by a further 29% next year to £743m, with all of that income coming from display advertising. 
• Google that continues to dominate the UK market, keeping a stranglehold on advertising derived from internet searches with a 90% market share.
• Google UK dwarfs Facebook with a 41.6% share of the total UK ad market to the social networking site’s 9.2%.
• Twitter UK is expected to make about £89.5m in the UK this year, with £82m of that coming from advertising.
• Emarketer said that a major driver for both Google and Facebook has been the explosion in ad spending on smartphones.

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/02/twitter-new-system-reporting-abuse

Twitter unveils new system for reporting abuse

This article is about how Twitter introduced a new system on reporting abuse which will be unveiled in upcoming weeks. This happens to be a quicker process with less steps on reporting someone.

·         “We are nowhere near being done making changes in this area,” wrote Doshi. “In the coming months, you can expect to see additional user controls, further improvements to reporting and new enforcement procedures for abusive accounts.”

·         Twitter’s reported 23% year-on-year user growth in the third quarter, though analysis showed that people are engaging with the site less.

·          critics received violent threats, occasionally with specific details about where they live after the information was posted on other sites.

• The revamped system includes fewer steps to report abuse, and a new blocked accounts page that includes features for managing accounts a user has blocked. A user who has been blocked by an account will no longer be able to view that profile page.

I would say this is a good innovation for Twitter as there is a lot of abuse that goes on which many people aren't aware of, therefore it should be abled for consumers to access the reporting steps quicker. This is good for the safety and mental health for people.