Monday 12 December 2016

NDM News: Globalisation and fake news

The Guardian & the global problem of fake news

1) Read this Guardian feature - Fake news: an insidious trend that's fast becoming a global problem

2) What similarities do you notice between the different countries outlined in the article and their problems with fake news?

3) Is fake news an inevitable consequence of the "culture of freedom and innovation" that the internet has brought with it? Is there a way to stop it?

New York Times and the creation of fake news

1) Read this New York Times feature - Inside a Fake News Sausage Factory: ‘This Is All About Income’

2) Which fake news stories were particularly successful for Beqa Latsabidze, the 22-year-old student in Tbilisi, Georgia, who tried to make money from web articles on Trump?

3) How much can Facebook and Google be blamed for this global rise in fake news?

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?

Twitter is not a news site, it does not come up with it's own news and report on it, it relies on other companies like CNN to publish content. These respected news brands give Twitter a good name because to an extent they're reliable and trust-worthy news sites which is what people are looking for. 61% of users stated that they use twitter to view the news, this increases twitters user statistics and will somehow enable them to profit from it.

Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?

Twitter seems like a much more formal place and it is the place to go to upload breaking news stories. A news organisation may not update the Instagram profiles before they've posted something on twitter. Twitter also makes them more accessible as Twitter has close to around 3-400 million active users.

The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?

The article looks at how Twitter and news corporations work together to benefit each other. They work in synergy as the news companies give twitter more users and Twitter makes news more accessible.

On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this?

We see a tweet from the Daily Mail's celebrity section and it is a tweet about a Kardashian. This section just looks at 'news' stories that have somehow made it onto the news because the journalist can play with the words to make it more attracting.

Do you think the increasing amount of 'gossip' or 'banter' is harming the reputation of news and journalists?

There is a visible line between the more formal news and the gossip and banter; if you're watching news on the television you can tell when they're talking about a breaking news story in comparison to looking at a celebrity affair. It is making some news organisations appear 'needy', for example the Daily Mail with it's sidebar of shame and click bait stories.

What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?

The figure used - 62% tells us that the majority of people on Twitter to follow trusted/verified news brands. This figure isn't that large and surprisingly shows that a large percentage of people would rather go else where to non-verified sources to find there news.

Do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

I think it has had a negative impact on Newspapers and has of course affected the decline of them but it has done it's part in helping the brands. it gives them another platform to present their news on. This social media app is something different than Facebook and Instagram. Twitter carries authority and could be said to be the newspaper of the digital market.

Finally, how can we link this report to the vital current debate regarding fake news and Facebook? Do traditional news brands need protecting to ensure there are sources we can trust?

If something is verified, we can automatically trust it, this is also similar as people with a large following on social media can also be trustworthy. This is not always the case as numerous times have hoaxes been reported by large news organisations and opinion leaders. Traditional news brands just need to ensure that they are fact checking correctly and they should advertise this to make sure people know that their news is not fake. However, this can be copied by people who produce fake news so something else would have to be done create awareness about fake news. News organisations could come together and create advertising campaigns which spreads awareness about fake news.

NDM stories index

NDM work index

#1 Institution: the impact of Google on the newspaper industry
#2 Ofcom report: how news consumption has changed
#3 The future of newspapers: Build The Wall analysis/future of newspapers
#4 The decline of newspapers: the effect of online technology
#5 The future of journalism: John Oliver and Clay Shirky
#6 The decline of newspapers: Media Magazine case studies
#7 Citizen journalism and hyper-reality: Media Magazine article and questions/ Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance
#8 News Values: theory and updating them for digital media landcape
#9 Marxism & Pluralism: Media Magazine article and questions
#10 Alain de Botton on the News: lecture and questions
11) Full NDM essay including paragraphs on Marxism and Pluralism
12) Globalisation and news: cultural imperialism
13) Globalisation: taking it further (Google Glass case study and capitalism)
14) Fake news and globalisation - Guardian and New York Times articles
15) News on the Tweet

Friday 9 December 2016

NDM LR

Feedback

Question: 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.

WWW: Overall, this is a highly impressive response that clearly shows critical autonomy, research and a variety of relevant examples. I particularly like the fact that your conclusion contains a genuine summary of the debate and where your opinion is – it’s a very valid opinion too! Your use of quotes is also a real strength.

EBI: One initial point - I think you’ve misunderstood Gramsci’s hegemony and will need to revise this again. It’s certainly not part of the pluralist perspective – it’s a Marxist view for how the elite control the masses. The idea is that they control people through consent rather than force or violence and the media is a major factor in this.

The other crucial feedback is to always answer the question. Your essay discusses the idea of audience empowerment throughout which is excellent but I’d like to see a little more on the key wording in the question (“consumption and production”). Be careful you don’t lapse into a much more general NDM essay. You need to make sure every paragraph begins with a topic sentence that uses the wording from the question – show the examiner that ‘sharp focus’ on the question demanded by the mark scheme.

One other more general piece of feedback is regarding your written English. This is an absolutely vital area to work on as I’m worried the lack of clarity in your written communication will restrict you to the lower levels of the mark scheme. Take your opening paragraph as an example:

These are your opening two sentences and neither makes sense! Proofreading is vital, as is accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar (you mix up there/their later in the essay).
Although you covered a fair amount of this term’s topics, there’s also more you could have included: paywalls and the future of journalism (particularly for “consumption”), hyperreality and UGC, news values etc.
Finally, one minor point: you need to clearly introduce your case study in your introduction (impact of NDM on news).

LR: Create a list of key revision topics from our new/digital case study work this term based on your essay and feedback above. Revise these topics over Christmas for your January MEST3 Section B assessment.
Write at least one more well-developed paragraph on the question above as part of your revision.

Revision topics

Gramsci's theory of Hegemony - look at what perspective it takes and examples of it
Include more theory we have learnt in this topic- Hyper reality
UGC
Look at ways to bring in Globalisation

Introduction-

Question: 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.

Old- This essay will explore the ways of how new and digital media empowers an audience in terms of what they consume and how they now create media products. More recently then ever has the media ever seen changes quite so dramatic. The Internet has now caught on and as a result pushed out older traditional media platforms like the print platform into decline. This 'new' platform has given audiences more power in terms of what they choose to consume and produce.

New- This essay will look at whether developments in New and digital media has made audiences more powerful in terms of what they consume and produce. This is essay will focus on the impact New and digital media has had on the news industry and whether or not it has caused the balance of power to shift in favour of the audience or against it.

Thursday 8 December 2016

week 13: story 26

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/07/news-corp-australia-announces-redundancies-and-fresh-cost-cutting

News Corp Australia announces redundancies and $40m cost-cutting

The Holt Street headquarters of News Corp Australia in Sydney.

This article looks at how News Corp Australia has dropped it's staff across all sectors and aims at cutting $40 million in extra costs. News Corp has already cut around 2000 jobs between 2012 and now which is a huge step in cutting costs and it did show how extensive these media corporations were before the Internet took over.

News Corp Australia suffered an 11% fall in advertising revenue in the first quarter, according to the company’s financial results in November.

Last week News Corp formalised its purchase of the Australian News Channel, which produces Sky News in Australia and New Zealand. Australian News Channel was formerly a joint venture of Seven West Media (33%), Nine Entertainment Co. (33%) and Sky PLC (33%).

Job losses are expected and something needs to be done as a result of the decline of people paying for news across all platforms. If institutions refuse to go behind a paywall then of course they loose out on a lot of money but it also comes a disadvantage because people now a days expect news to come for free.

week 13: story 25

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/07/att-time-warner-senate-hearing-merger

AT&T and Time Warner chiefs grilled on $85.4bn merger at Senate hearing

This article from the Guardian looks at another controversial merger of media conglomerates. This time it's between two American media giants; AT&T (International telecommunications conglomerate) and Time Warner (mass media conglomerate). The proposed acquisition could end up being around $billion plus.

Most mergers within the media now are probable for survival so it is a good thing for the companies who want to stay around. It is not always a good thing for the audience because it significantly restricts their choice of media content including news stories.

Globalisation: taking it further

1) Why was Google Glass controversial?

Google glass was controversial because people saw it as an invasion of privacy because of it's recording features and the ability for Google to store what you looked at. It also has raised issues about affecting peoples social skills because it withdraws people from everyday social interactions.

2) What are the positive elements to Globalisation that the article highlights?

"The world becomes more accessible and people are being enriched by getting to know and understand it better. There is also new opportunities which aim at empowering people.3) What are potential negatives to Globalisation?

Pareto's law applies here because even though it seems that we are being empowered, it is the same number of companies who dominate the market and provide for the largest audience.

4) What is a techno-panic? How does it link to moral panics?

A techno-panic is similar to a moral panic as it is still a public outcry against a group, community or practice considered threatening and/or dangerous, however it centers around fears regarding a specific contemporary technology.

What is your opinion on the privacy debate and major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data?

I see both sides of the argument that on the one it is there so that thy can monitor our history and keep us 'safe' however it does go to far when the only reason why they store out data is to profit from it.

Media Factsheet

1) Who coined the phrase 'a global village' and what multinational companies illustrate this?

‘a global village’ (McLuhan), A company like Coca Cola can be named as an example

2) What role does Slavoj Zizek suggest the media plays in global capitalism? How can you link this to our previous work on Marxism and Hegemony?

Zizek argue that the media masks the way in which western institutions ‘do business’. It links more to the theory on hegemony as it looks at how making money is the right way of conducting business which makes people feel less guilty of knowing how these goods are produced.
3) What does 'capitalism with a conscience' mean?

Even though some people can still see through these large western brands like Starbucks being for the people and only having a motive of making a profit they still buy from there. This is because Starbucks have built there brand around things like Fair trade which makes people feel better about drinking at Starbucks.

4) What is the (PRODUCT) RED campaign?

Where by buying gerneral goods or Product RED branded goods then you'd be donating to a cause to help fight diseases in Africa. An example of this is from American Express who offered a red card and as you spend on this card a 1% fee would be donated to product RED.

5) Based on what you've read in the Factsheet, what is YOUR opinion of the (PRODUCT) RED brand? Is it a positive force helping to fight AIDS in Africa or a cynical attempt to make multinational companies look more ethical than they actually are?

Any money that goes towards fighting a good cause is of course positive. However the way in which it is done is worrying. It seems very commercial and less about helping the people but more as to make these global brands look more morally correct and helps both parties make money.

Monday 5 December 2016

NDM News: Globalisation

1) Is our news influenced by American cultural imperialism? Give some examples arguing for or against this perspective.
To a marginal extent i do think that British news is influenced by American cultural imperialism, however it does depend on the type of medium that the news is being shown on. For example, when viewing news online it is noticeable that we share some of the same values as America as for many weeks it was very much focused on the American presidential election. In terms of newspapers, not much has been copied in the way in which they are presented and also the type of news shown is different. In America they are more focused on local news rather then National and international. In the UK this is different, there are a few large newspapers which look at National news and this is why local newspapers are going into decline as our newspaper industry isn't influenced by American cultural imperialism and we don't value local news as much as them.

2) Has the increased globalisation of news improved the audience experience? How? Why?
Yes, there is a noticeable, positive effect that globalisation has had on audiences. For example, there is now much more news stories and from different cultures. However, different cultures follow different beliefs and something acceptable in one country may not be in another; so if someone with different views to that in India then it can be interpreted in the wrong way and thus creates moral panics. However, audiences now see an influx of news like never before which could be a good thing because people are becoming more educated but this also comes with problems because when people learn about other cultures they could be intolerant and hold prejudices if they only see news which doesn't give the full outlook of the situation.

3) Has globalisation benefited or damaged major news institutions? How? Why?
Significant news establishments are getting to be distinctly greater through globalization and the conventional foundations are enduring, along these lines the decay of daily papers is a decent case of this. Because of new/advanced media the availability of data has turned out to be more fast and effective, thusly the requirement for daily papers has declined and along these lines the development of national news coverage has come about because of this. This could be viewed as both a positive and negative thing because of the establishment profiting from this substance, adding authenticity to the article yet it can likewise be viewed as negative because of the possibility of the substance being controlled or invalid, making it harder for organizations to balance this, particularly if a group of people need to trust the story.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

week 12: story 24

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/dec/01/metro-climbs-to-second-place-in-the-circulation-league
Metro climbs to second place in the circulation league

Punning Metro front pages: today’s, right, and one from last week.

For the first time in ages we see some potentially 'positive' news coming from the circulation of Newspapers. The metro has risen in circulation and has passed the daily mail and is now catching the Sun.

Despite Metro’s 9% fall in revenues and 12% drop in profits, as reported today by its owner, DMG Media, its £15m profit looks rather healthy compared to many a national title. Advertising, as we all know, has fallen off a cliff this year.

If any newspaper were to rise in circulation in the times where newspaper sales are in decline it would be the metro because you can't go on public transport and not see someone reading it. In my personal opinion, the only time i ever see someone reading a newspaper is either on the bus or train and 9 times out of 10 it is the metro so it's no surprise it has had to increase it's circulation to pick up the demand left out by those who are unable to meet it.

week 12: story 23

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/new-zealand-media-merger-risks-growth-of-glib-click-bait-coverage-say-editors

New Zealand media merger risks growth of 'glib, click-bait' coverage, say editors

This article looks at the potential aquisition that two of New Zealands largest media companies are going to partake in. The equivilent to the UK's CMA (competition and markets authority- a regulartory body set up to to deal with collusion in Industry) the commerce commision are against the merger and have the authoirity to stop it from happening because it would significantly affect New Zealands news environment and it could put consumers ay a disadvantage.

The two largest News organisations in New Zealand (NZME and Fairfax Media) are deciding to merge together to rise up against lower advertising revenues and falling newspaper sales. This would indefinitely give them much more control which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because in a time where the internet is rife with click bait stories and hoaxes it may be beneficial for an audience to start consuming acceptable news. This can be linked to Gramsci’s theory on hegemony as in this case a large media organisation is in control and therefore can influence other classes and groups and especially in the age of the digital revolution where people don’t know what news to trust they may start going back to traditional media platforms like Broadcast and when they do they may accept the values and ideologies as common sense once mor

week 11: story 22

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/24/daily-mail-jailing-jo-coxs-murderer-front-page

Why didn't the Daily Mail put the jailing of Jo Cox's murderer on its front page?

This article, which is from the Guardian (an important point to make) is about how the Daily mail was one of two large newspapers in the UK to NOT post a piece about Jo Cox's murderer on its front page the day he was sentenced. Even some newspapers did include a small picture even if it wasn't there main headline.

We can link this to news values. This case here is an interesting one because the gatekeepers of the Daily Mail would've had to of considered it and it was evidently dismissed as 'unimportant' because the story first appeared on page 30 of the newspaper. I personally don't see why it wasn't posted sooner because not only was the person who died and arrested British, it was recent and it was shocking news because no other politician has been killed in quite some time, and it makes you wonder whats going on at the daily mail.

week 11: story 21

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/putin-china-internet-great-firewall-russia-cybersecurity-pact

Putin brings China's Great Firewall to Russia in cybersecurity pact

This article from the Guardian looks at how Russia are not following China's initiative of putting up a 'firewall' to block and restrict certain material found online which the state deems unnecessary or problematic. Russia are looking at calling it the red web and says its doing it in attempt to stop cyber crime. The state of Russia is driving the offensive against internet freedoms and they want China's help because they do not possess the technology to deal with this alone because of sanctions from the west.

In my opinion. this is not a good thing in terms of peoples privacy and there freedom of what they do online, neither is it a good thing for countries like America and the EU as they are the ones who tried to stop this happening as it went against there own interests. With Russia and China forming this partnership it will worry the west. Russia also decided to start recording and keeping data for 6 months after usage, this is not so similar to what the UK did when they decided to record and store all Internet hits for at least a year for 'security' but does this mean were not so different from Russia?

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Marxism & Pluralism - homework 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.

This essay will explore the ways of how new and digital media empowers an audience in terms of what they consume and how they now create media products. More recently then ever has the media ever seen changes quite so dramatic. The Internet has now caught on and as a result pushed out older traditional media platforms like the print platform into decline. This 'new' platform has given audiences more power in terms of what they choose to consume and produce.

A Pluralist perspective may argue that; in terms of News consumption the E-media platform has been a significant help in giving a chance to all of the start-up and 'cottage Industries' who want to produce news content. The internet and more specifically social media (Facebook, Instagram) can be described as the "Technological blossoming of the culture of freedom, individual innovation and entrepreneurialism" (Castells, 1996) because for an audience it not only gives them far more sources of news to choose from, which is in favour of pluralism as Pluralist's see society as consisting of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant all of the time; but it also gives them a platform which is largely out of state control so they can report and talk about news stories uninterrupted. However this may be an issue in some states where the Government in control has more of a Marxist view and restricts access to views which go against their own ideologies, for example Russia and China have now both gone into agreements about cohesively expanding there firewalls to restrict and monitor content over the Internet. This of course is a Marxist view and clearly shows the view of a capitalist society as being one of class domination. Going back to look at how audiences consume media, in particular; where they view there News on the Internet as looking at the OFCOM report of national viewing statistics it stated that around 43% of people who use the Internet for their News use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are both sites which many established news organisations use to present their news but it is also a platform for citizen journalists who write what they see and this is why social media has such high user traffic because audiences can trust this and not accept the norms of a dominant culture which is what they might get when following larger news organisations.

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.

On the other hand, a Pluralist’s perspective would say that no one class can be deemed better than another and that the state does not control and force it’s values on the masses. In fact, the theorist Gurevitch stated that ‘audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite of ways according to their prior needs and dispositions and as having access to what Halloran calls ‘the plural values of society’ enabling them to conform, accommodate, challenge or reject.” This reinforces the idea that audiences have the power to interpret and produce media content in the way in which it conforms to their own values and ideologies and they don’t just accept news as common sense; which is what Antonio Gramsci proposed with his theory of hegemony. Audiences can choose to view news in terms of what they feel they believe in, for example the uses and gratifications theory suggests that Audiences actively seek out different things from media content, for example ‘surveillance’ where people choose to view the media to reassure there security. Developments in New and digital media has given audiences the means to create media content, for example apps that are owned by mass media conglomerates and start-up companies give people to ability to upload and share content to news sites around the world. This leads on to the argument about the great citizen journalist. You cannot be more empowered as an audience member if you have the opportunity to have your own content put across world or national news. The first major example of citizen journalism was the Rodney King case in America where an unarmed Black man was beaten by Police. The thing that made this case really stand out was that it was captured on tape and given to a news organisation. This led to outrage and the start of the LA riots. This empowered audiences so much more because of the impact it had on society, it also acted as a gateway to other people, who sometimes risked their safety to record footage which usually governments didn’t want people to see.

However, a Marxist perspective would argue that even though Audiences are now to an extent ‘empowered’ by developments in new and digital media that the control still lies with in the top organisations. This can be backed up with Pareto’s law and it states “A minority of (media) producers always serve a majority of consumers”. This means that although it may seem as though the audience can be selective over where they choose to view their news , ultimately they are being shown a piece that has been passed down from one organisation. Lin and Webster once stated “Top 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume”, this is evident in the fact that companies like Facebook are buying up other news sharing and producing sites like Instagram (a social media app) which could be said ‘gives them an advantage’ and some pluralists may see this them removing the competition at the risk of exceeding the concentration of power. Another example of this is the two largest News organisations in New Zealand (NZME and Fairfax Media) are deciding to merge together to rise up against lower advertising revenues and falling newspaper sales. This would indefinitely give them much more control which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because in a time where the internet is rife with click bait stories and hoaxes it may be beneficial for an audience to start consuming acceptable news. This can be linked to Gramsci’s theory on hegemony as in this case a large media organisation is in control and therefore can influence other classes and groups and especially in the age of the digital revolution where people don’t know what news to trust they may start going back to traditional media platforms like Broadcast and when they do they may accept the values and ideologies as common sense once more.

In conclusion, I do believe that to a marginal extent, Institutions and governments still have more control over audiences and they are not as empowered as they are led to believe. This however, would not have been the case 20-30 years ago as the extent to which Institutions were in control was not ‘marginal’ but it was to a rather large extent. Therefore it is true to say that developments in new and digital media has definitely made audiences more powerful in terms of consuming and producing media but ultimately the large media organisations and state controlled media still holds the majority of power.

Sunday 20 November 2016

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?

I agree with most of what he's saying, especially the part where he says that there is a plethora of news and that the same stuff keeps being circulated round and round and that we as an audience must recognize this. I also agreed about how with new and digital media that hierarchical structures in newspapers were being broken down, for example on front pages of newspapers and online news sites celebrity news and gossip can make headlines and maybe more political and 'important stuff' is placed further back.
2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?

In the speech he talked about how economic news is very important but then he linked it to Marxism soon after. But this wasn't his only criticism on the news. Marxism and Hegemony suggests that there is one ruling class over other groups and that the mass media is a way of communicating there dominant ideologies in favor of the ruling class which is usually socialist and capitalist views. They do this to appeal to another dominant class to avoid rebelling against them. The use of the mass media helps spread there views to be accepted as a 'norm', for example Patriotism and Gramsci mentioned the compulsory school system.

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?

De Botton sees the News as a Monolith and something that isn't interested in change or interested in the people. However Pluralism and the new technology change that statement. This is because ndm can change the power audiences and institutions have resulting in Institution mainly having to change the way they deliver news, for example being biased to cater one particular group or being balanced like the BBC and exploring both arguments.

4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supportsde Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/prince-england-rugby-team-lead-9247994  This link challenges his belief that the news is used for social control, the article is about The royal family and the English rugby team lead remembrance ceremonies.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/20/indian-train-derailment-kills-dozens-and-injures-over-100  supports de Botton's views

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