More than 200 journalists in prison worldwide for third consecutive year

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/dec/17/over-200-journalists-in-prison-worldwide-for-third-consecutive-year

There are 32 more journalists in Chinese jails than there were in 2013, bringing the total to 44 imprisoned journalists. Almost half of those are of the Tibetan or Uighur ethnic minorities, including blogger Ilham Tohtiand seven people who worked on his website.

Iran has imprisoned the second most, with 30 journalists in jail - five less than last year. Among the jailed is Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.

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.

Social Media has enabled the audience to have a certain amount of authority it once never had. However derivatives of the social media have been constructed by the elite nations.


Social Media has contributed to the power of the audience, by allowing users to have more flexibilty to express their views and opinions. However another argument supports hegemonic perspective of elite nations influencing the majority of the public.

The Pluralist view has exposed how people of the elite nations have been put to shame by the power of the user. an example of this is the phone hacking scandal in which Rupert Murdoch was exposed and social media was used to amplify to expose his intentions.

The statement of Al Gore "The internet is an empowering tool...an exciting and revolutionary prospect" supports the increase in  citizen journalism which has allowed individuals to provide their own news stories. This has only been made possible by developments in technology. Examples of this include UGC by those who witnessed the attack of British Army Soldier Lee Rigby. In which the UGC gained immense amount of hits on Youtube and Vimeo that helped gather awareness for the topic.

The statement by Murdoch “The Internet has given readers much more power… The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt” supports the pluralist view of how consumers are given power by the developments in technology. The internet gives the consumers more pwer than ever to interact with people from other audiences. An example of this could be a comment section of the blog where people are allowed to comment and share their opinions and by this they can influence other people. If the comment is very popular or has a very distinct and powerful view the elite nations may take this into consideration and may change or alter the content that is put out by them. This can also be linked to Todorrovs theory in which an equilbrium is broken as a disequilibrium is formed and then there is a new equalibrium.

Livingston and Bober (2005) who say “38% of UK pupils aged 9-19 never question the accuracy of online information” showing that the views of the elite class will be showcased to younger generation regardless of the platform they are accessed through. The statistic by Lin and Webster “ top 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume” meaning that despite the vast variety of resources available online to access news, it is still selected by the elite class.

Due to the developments in the production and consumption of media the Marxist view is that of  the elite and controlling class will always in control. This is evident through the change of news being accessed via word of mouth to a newspaper lead to the controlling class quickly jumping ‘on the bandwagon’ and harnessing the opportunity of providing their biased views to the masses. This is still reminiscent in the current newspapers today of which some take slanted and biased view which has been inherited. This is due to the relentless submission of the elite classes’ views onto the founder’s younger self of paper which is then precipitated down into the newspaper and its readers who adopt the view of the elite class.

In conclusion, I believe that despite the facts of the Marxist view that new and digital media is another platform for the elite class to assert their power and influence on, new and digital media developments such as the internet have made consumers more powerful than ever as they can post their own opinions online from which they can influnece a wide amount of people. This has been showed evident from  user generated content and online blogs from which users gain more popularity than some elite nations. 

Instagram now has 300m users sharing 70m photos and videos a day

When Facebook announced it was buying Instagram for $1bn in 2012, the photo-sharing app had been downloaded by more than 30m people. Two and a half years on, the app now has more than 300 million active users.

The milestone was revealed on Instagram’s blog, alongside the announcement that the app is launching “verified” badges for celebrities, sports stars and brands, while also planning a crackdown on “spammy” accounts.

“We’re proud to announce that there are now more than 300 million Instagrammers. Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day,” wrote chief executive Kevin Systrom.

Government must fund hyperlocal news, urges new report

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/dec/08/government-must-fund-hyperlocal-news-urges-new-report

It is time for the government to provide financial backing to Britain’s emerging hyperlocal online news start-ups, urges a new report by the Carnegie UK Trust.

It argues that community-run news websites have significant potential to help fill gaps in local media left by the closure of local newspapers and they should be encouraged to flourish.

I agree with this as by putting up local news on the internet, people will still be informed of their local events whilst not having to pay for it, this could help local communities feel more appreciated by elite nations. 

The future of marketing depends on ideas, not tinkering with technology

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2014/dec/08/future-marketing-ideas-digital-technology

What if we were obsessing over the tools and not the idea? I’d like to see a move to empathy over technology; perhaps it’s time to reduce the dominance of digital people.

This article sums up how consumers are taking more time using apps that are more involved with technology than those concerning real world things. For example it says that there are hundreds of apps that allow females and males to communicate however not a decent app to buy flowers. 

I think that this article does have a decent point as the creators of some apps maybe trying to hard to be innovative when in actual fact they just need to think about what normal people want and need and therefore they are likely to be more successful in creating aps that are actually useful. 

Microsoft and Yahoo respond to European 'right to be forgotten' requests

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/01/microsoft-yahoo-right-to-be-forgotten

Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search engine have begun responding to “right to be forgotten” requests for search result deletions in Europe, joining Google.

Bing published its request form in July, but the first removals have now taken place according to reputation management firm Reputation VIP’s Forget.me site, which helps people submit requests.

“There have been 699 demands for ‘search engine result’ removal requests on Bing handled via Forget.me since the 23rd of July, representing a total of 2 362 URLs. So far, 79 requests have received an answer from Bing,” explained the company.

For now, such removals are taking place within Europe on the local versions of search engines. However, European data regulators are expected to tell Google – and by extension, its rivals – to apply these search deletions outside Europe too.

I think that the right to be forgotten campaign is a great thing as users of the internet will fill more secure in the future and they will be less afraid of people finding personal information or history about them that they dont want to know.

Digital journalists have great chance to develop much-needed transparency

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/05/digital-journalists-have-great-chance-to-develop-much-needed-transparency

Digital media outlets can improve the quality of journalism by using new tools such as the CSI-style verification of social media posts and by allowing the reader not only to comment but to correct articles, media researcher Kellie Riordan argues.

These methods are being used by both traditional media outlets such as the BBC and digital natives such as the US business site Quartz, which launched only in 2012 but is already competing with the Economist and Bloomberg.

Far from the internet destroying quality journalism, digital has given the media lots of new tools to improve it, Riordan says in her study, Accuracy, independence, and impartiality: How legacy media and digital natives approach standards in the digital age.

This article focuses on how the news articles online are now allowing for users to edit them. This questions the role of a journalist as multiple people are allowed to edit articles. I think that this could make bigger companies like BBC to improve the quality of their articles as they would not want ugc to be better than their content.

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 the view that sometimes the elite nations give a bias view as they control the media and can impose their views on the rest of the public.

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?

Marxism and Hegemony can be linked to Alain de Bottons views as it is the elite nations with the most power and it them who are imposing their ideologies on the rest of the public/viewer's. We can also link Paretos Law into this as it is a small number of institutions who control the rest of the market.

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

The idea of pluralism can be linked to new technology as this gives the public different ways to express thier views on wide platforms from which instituitions can act differently and slightly alter the material they release.

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

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/10/alain-de-botton-in-quotes-the-news-promotes-a-toxic-society-of-envy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14493497