Weekly New/Digital Media homework 8

Can dropping the paywall and upping the story count boost Sun’s website?

Murdoch's tabloid online service aims to drop the paywall to boost figures. Demonstrating failure of strategy to try and justify payment - improving content. 

BuzzFeed changes editorial standards to allow sponsorships in entertainment programmingThe online news service chooses to adapt to commercially satisfying standards towards online subscribed users. This highlights alignment of news alongside advertisement in the industry - now demonstrating a higher focus. 

Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?

Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?

1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case. What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this? How did new and digital media create a different story? What does the police officer's subsequent aquittal suggest about the power of new and digital media?

Hegemonic views preach the corruption of the police as an authoritative force which is pardoned for brazen conduct by mainstream media. 

2) What does the author argue regarding whether hegemony is being challenged by Web 2.0? 

The author debates between the view of hegemony being challenged greatly by the idea of providing masses the mouthpiece for speech and channels for user-generated content. However, this may've led to the 'cult of the amateur' which reinforces the ultimate upper-hand of mainstream platforms in the media. 

3) In your opinion, does new and digital media reinforce dominant hegemonic views or give the audience a platform to challenge them?

My beliefs reside with the idea that new and digital media offers audiences more of an influence over decisions and views in the media, as they can openly challenge them and raise awareness to alternative perspectives. However, ultimately, the mainstream succeeds to make the important decisions in industries and governing bodies, and therefore hegemonic views can only be challenged by becoming the aggressor of hegemony in the systematic socialisation of views and ideologies. 

Weekly New/Digital Media homework 7

Snapchat Responds To Chatter About Privacy Policy Change

This story demonstrates the amusing influence of social media in creating and distributing false information which then evolve into corporation-enticing hoaxes.

FACEBOOK’S INSTAGRAM TAKES ON SNAPCHAT AND TWITTER WITH CURATED VIDEO CHANNEL

This new Instagram feature is an attempt from Facebook to compete with Snapchat’s Discover feature, and the recently launched Live Stories. The feature shows topics and events with participants that broadcast videos and photos to the rest of the community - a new way of crowdsourcing to collect news stories. Product of competition in new and digital media to gain producing audiences which rejoice in service use.

Galtung and Ruge | NDM News Values

Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly?
Ambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

How has new and digital media technology changed each of Galtung and Ruge’s news values and how would you update them for 2015's NDM?

Immediacy: With the prevalence of smart devices becoming increasingly integral in the lifestyles of first-world masses, news is instantly accessible to audiences in many multimedia formats. This leads to traditional newspapers needing to adopt a different angle (content is predominantly based on views and opinions rather than information as this is already available by the time newspapers are distributed)

Familiarity: Audiences are now able to familiarise themselves with foreign cultures which may not necessarily be relevant to them, because of the worldwide web and social media networks.  This is demonstrated by the influence of Southern American urban culture which is imitated by the urban London scene (music, clothing and dialect). The way news is reported now is in an abundance of ways which leads to the selection of no single stream of content which is necessarily already familiar to the audience. 

Amplitude: Among the millions of stories shared by the hour, the amplitude of events being reported is always a factor for selectivity and ranking by all news agents, regardless of the platform. Such is demonstrated even on Snapchat as large events will receive exclusive coverage from official 'stories', supported by UGC. 

Frequency: Local news providers tend to report frequent events more than wider-regional news services, this is usually due to the concern of residents who require information on the regular events. This includes traffic updates provided by apps and other digital news servers. 

Ambiguity: The fact that digital content is amendable and less costly allows news providers to speculate on uncertain stories before they are confirmed. This is used to generate debate within the news (opinion leaders, voice figures, journalists), as well as among news recipients via online forums and social media. 

Predictability/Surprise: Shocking news stories, by default, always make for more intriguing headlines and cause more of a buzz across new and digital media alongside the critical support (views and opinions) by newspapers. Without a doubt however, new and digital media proves to be more dominant in providing unpredictable news stories due to the audience's engagement and involvement. 

Continuity: 'Debuting' news stories which have not been previously reported will gain more momentum through traditional platforms but decrease to less predominance in the papers as it is continuously updated. This seems to differ for new and digital media platforms however which (on platforms inc. Twitter) use trending tactics to continuously discuss stories and provide in-depth analysis. 

Elite nations and people: Celebrities now receive higher attention than ever as the people choose to consciously stay tuned to their favoured public figures. National socio-political stories of elite nations receive the most coverage (adhering to Perkin's law: power to the producer) as they are prioritised above third-world national stories. 

Negativity: As ever, audiences would rather hear a story about "teens going wild" rather than "teens sitting down and studying". This reflects the nature of thrill and shock value that actually increases with the role of new and digital media due to the reactions from digital masses (parodies, memes etc)

Balance: It seems that there is no particular agenda to the balance of stories, however it is noteworthy that positive news is reported to higher extents on social media platforms as studies have proven that exposure to positivity results to correspondent feedback from audiences. 

NDM News: Citizen journalism

"Is reality becoming more real?" MM30 pg55

Examples

• Rodney King case - LAPD 
• Asian Tsunami - Dec 26 '04
• London bombings - Jul 5 '05
• Mumbai bombings - Nov '08
• Hudson river plane crash - Jan 15 '09

Theory

• Two-step flow model and hypodermic needle model transgressed by NDM providing audiences active opportunities 

Benefits to institutions

• Social networking sites - increased engagement and functionality on UGC 

Benefits to audience

• Opportunity to report, share and discuss actively 

Wider issues and debates

• Police racism towards Afro-Americans 

Socio-historic-eco-political 

• Bourgeoisie, systematic oppression 
• Power of the canon - The white man  

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1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

General public adopting the role of actively publishing/sharing reports of news.

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

The Rodney King incident in New York. 
3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Offered uploads/submissions of news info/videos/pictures/audio, discussions on online forums and social media.
4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

Professionally shot footage is usually constrained and curated according to institutional values whereas UGC is raw and original (in most cases).
5) What is a gatekeeper?

Regulator of published news content

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

Chance for self-representation and the audience can choose for themselves what is 'news' instead of the institutional gatekeepers regulating the information shared around in the industry. 
7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

Journalists fear the redundancy of their jobs due to the reduced requirement of trained staff at news organisations. 

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What impact is new/digital media having on the following:

• news stories

News stories are now available in a larger variety than ever on the abundance of forums/blogs and online sources through social media platforms 

• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)

The traditional news agenda does no longer hinder the variety of news accessible for the general public and niche audiences

• the role of professionals in news

Professionals in the news industry must strive to acquire roles which are integrated with the uprising relevance of NDM

Weekly New/Digital Media homework 6

Facebook tightens its grip on news

"Where do you get your online news? For millions, the answer is Facebook, and now the social media giant is moving to make it even easier to access news articles."  The increasing emphasis on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) alongside social media networks has led to the form rays of sunshine for news organisations who can now share their content in a multimedia interactive form in order to appeal to social media users on Facebook via the 'Instant Articles' feature. Debate is awoken through trepidation employed by the news institutions who are weary of stats suggesting a large proportion of news by Americans is accessed via Facebook. 

BBC Ukranian News Launches on ICTV in Ukraine

BBC World Services undergoes an expansion after a deal with Ukrainian prime-time leading news service ICTV news. They claim an aim for supplying Ukraine with international news that resonates with them. 

Weekly New/Digital Media homework 5

Netflix and bill: monthly fee goes up 
The success of the TV/film streaming service sees an inflation in the monthly price for the subscription service. However, it can be presumed that sales won't be affected much and the revenue collected will increase substantially to thus increase reinvestments into producing Netflix exclusive content. As a result, leading to better content and a larger library for the subscription-ship. 

Sky News Cleared over Ian King Live F-Bomb

This news story marks the prevalent tension surrounding censorship and regulation and how importantly it is considered. For a single word to be shared at the 'wrong time and place' can cause a frenzy for institutions as large as Sky News.