Christmas NDM story 2

BBC server taken over by Russian hacker at Christmas :

. The BBC has been targeted by hackers in the past, including a cyber-attack on its Persian service.
. A Russian hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC before Christmas and tried to sell access to it to other hackers.
. It's unclear whether the hacker found any buyers or took any data, but being able to sell such access can be used by hackers as a bargaining chip to get control of other, more important servers.
. The attack was carried out against ftp.bbc.co.uk, a computer server that manages file uploads and downloads from the BBC.
.

Christmas NDM story 1

Facebook 'dead and buried to teens', research finds :

. Teens are being put off Facebook by friend requests from their parents. Photograph: Getty Images
. Facebook is 'dead and buried' to older teenagers
. an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
. Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year olds in eight EU countries, the Global Social Media Impact Study found that as parents and older users are using Facebook, its younger users are shifting to alternative platforms.
. Critics have said ; "Mostly they feel embarrassed to even be associated with it. Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives."
. Researches found that ; Teens don't care that alternative services are less functional and sophisticated, and they are unconcerned about how information about them is being used commercially or as part of surveillance practice by the security services, but rather concerned about the fact that their parents are signing up to facebook.
. "It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore."
. In part of the study's research with Italian Facebook users, 40% of users had never changed their privacy settings and 80% said they "were not concerned or did not care" if their personal data was available and accessed, either by an organisation or an individual.
.

notes on the effects of new digital media on the Arab Spring

. December 2010 - uprising first occured in Tunisia
. Arab Spring and the revolution
. Impact on new and digital media.
. Wern't guns and bombs but internet which was exposing brutality
. media activist
. South- poor - sidi bouzid
. december 2010 26 year old committed suicide
. mobile phones showed people what happened
. captured evidence
. filming from front line
. press censorship
. slim and Aziz - university educated - showed hatred of the president
. people argued that the tunisian citizens did not have a personality or view point because of Ben Ali
. tunisian bloggers had access to internet
. 'beauty of internt' there are pathways to communicate'
. posted videos on facebook to show the audience what was happening
. broadcasted on social networking sites- Al jazeera
. copy cat demonstration occured
. ' Tunis must be mobilised '
. hacked into main untion website - centre of Tunis - mohammed ali square to protest
. leading people into what street to go because there was police everywhere
. took photographs and published it
. installed software- live streaming uploaded
. took 28 days to take him down
. 90% had phones, 20 % had broadband
. 2 million facebook users
. traditionl media - failed PR campaign ( public relations )
. Internet decentralised
. protest videos went vira

Paragraph on would revolution in Tunisia happen without facebook ?

I think that the revolution in Tunisia would not occur without the help of social media especially Facebook because people published videos and information of Facebook which informed people about the corruption which was taking place in Tunisia, this helped set a revolution as people became aware of what was happening and wanted a change.

2 NDM stories

Why the Impress Project wants to talk about press regulation :

. The newspaper owners behind Ipso are ignoring the public, so we need to think about building a robust, independent regulator

. The old talk of stones and presses is dying as new technology transforms the media landscape.

. the core function of journalism remains, whether it comes in a weekly bundle or a live feed: to entertain and inform, build our communities and speak truth to power

. Since Lord Justice Leveson published his report last November, the public have echoed his call for a truly independent regulator which would deal robustly with code breaches and provide access to justice through an arbitration scheme

. This would be a huge improvement on the current situation, where only those with the deepest pockets can fight a libel or privacy action.

. An independent regulator, would prevent politicians from taking any role. It would approve the code at the heart of the complaints system. It would direct corrections, on the front page if necessary, if newspapers didn't resolve a valid complaint themselves. And it could provide cheap and efficient access to justice, not only for newspapers and their readers but also potentially for online publishers and others who are threatened with libel or privacy actions.

. Newspaper readers say a trusted complaints system can't be under the control of the government or the newspaper industry.

 

The Sun has digital subscribers and soccer, but the goal is hard to see :

. The Bun's eagerly awaited post-paywall numbers aren't quite as revelatory as Murdoch watchers were hoping

. debate about subscription paywalls around newspaper websites

. Rupert right to want Sun punters to pay for everything? Do those heretics who still believe in free have all the best arguments? Ah! here, after four months of silence, comes Mr Murdoch's beloved Bun, at last giving us some facts to confirm the boss's prejudices.

. Since August, when the wall went up, 117,000 readers have, one way or another, bought the Sun+ digital package

. 47% of them signed up on mobile, 30% of them in the precious 25-to-34 age range. So everyone – though talking long marches – professes themselves content. Maybe, at £2 a week, the Bun could be drawing in £12m to £13m extra revenue that wasn't there last "free" July.

 

Weekly 2 NDM story

How Hitler suspended the right to mail and telephone privacy

. In 1933, Hitler demanded that Germany's president, Hindenburg, sign what became known as the Reichstag fire decree

. It nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens, and it was used as the legal basis to imprison anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis.

. It was also aimed at suppressing publications that were considered unfriendly to the Nazi cause.

BBC and Sky bosses insist female TV sports presenters are chosen on merit

. Broadcasters accused by MP of selecting 'very young, attractive' female pundits, while their male colleagues are 'mature, fat, bald'

My opinion : I believe that women are often portrayed to be identified as sex objects as the media usually use young, attractive women in the media to grab the audiences attention.

 

. insisted as they came under fire from an MP for writing off older women.

. Labour MP Jim Sheridan said at a Commons culture, media and sport committee on Tuesday that those appearing on screen were young and attractive "with one or two exceptions" – while male colleagues tended to be middle-aged, fat and bald.

 

Essay Question - the development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production.

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.

The argument about whether or not the development of new/digital media allows the audience more power in terms of consumption and production has been argued throughout the inventions of new/digital media. As the years go by the argument has become more significant to critics as new/digital media is crucial in our daily life. The depth of this argument has widened as the discussion about this argument has increased. Marxists view capitalist society as being one of class domination; the media are seen to promote hegemonic ideology. On the other hand, Pluralists would argue that they see society as a consisting of competing groups and interests. The battle between Marxists and Pluralists are effective to this argument to a great extent as they are both strong believers of their ideologies, however this does not put a boundary to our own believes. In fact both sides and my own opinion will be argued throughout this essay.

Firstly, In regards to the Utopian Vs Dystopian perspective, there has been an argument that the Utopian- Del Sola poole states that the new media will facilitate a positive media world where there is going to be a much wider range of texts produced that meets the needs and desires the audience. This is effective as it is true to an extent. An example of this would be Google or Wikipedia. Even though Wikipedia can be edited, in general it provides the audiences with information they’re searching for. This makes the audience more powerful in terms of consumption and production as Google and Wikipedia allows them to get the information they’re searching for as well as edit information on Wikipedia if they disagree on anything being said.

More than that, another example which the Pluralists would argue is the fact that people are now able to interact with each other through social networking sites. For example, Facebook and twitter – which are, at the moment the most popular sites out there. This gives the audience the feeling of power as they are once again the producers and consumers of the media. An incident which elevates this point is the Arab Spring and protests which were held in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. This is effective as the word spread around through social networking sites by people uploading videos of the government’s faults, commenting and expressing their opinions and believes, sharing daily corruptions that occur in North Africa (Libya, Egypt and Tunisia) and even creating pages. An example of these pages on Facebook are called ‘ thaleb’ which is aimed at the audiences that are pro Ghadaffi, another Facebook page which would be against Ghadaffi is ‘ almotasalakeen’ which is aimed at people against Ghadaffi and the old regime, these pages are effective as it helped spread the idea of starting a revolution which led to what these countries are going through today. The reality is that these social networking sites are an information-distribution network, not that different from the telephone or email or text messaging, except that it is real-time and massively distributed — in the sense that a message posted by a Tunisian blogger can be re-published thousands of times and transmitted halfway around the world in the blink of an eye. A theorist who backs up this point would be Katz and Blumler who has invented the ‘Uses and gratification’ theory who argue that the audience find ways of social interaction, entertainment and information where they require it. This concludes that audiences have more power by new media such as social networking sites as it allows them to make up their own decision for why they are using the networking sites and makes them apart of being the consumers as well as the producers.

 Furthermore, User-generated content, is the term used to describe any form of content such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files, and other forms of media that was created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and is publically available to others consumers and end-users. The theory ‘users generated content’ plays a major role in the view that audiences feel as if they have more power as a result in the development of technology. There has been a growth in mobile phones during the past years, which gives the audience the ability to take pictures and record. By these apps being invented, it allows the audience to feel as if they have more power than traditional media itself. It also allows the audience to attain the term ‘citizen journalists’ which means they can record major events and publish it on social networking sites. A good example would be the 2005 London Bombing, when an individual recorded what he saw had happened and published it on YouTube. This is effective as the free hand video that was published got more views than the original video published by the traditional media (News). According to my research the researches Jean Burgess and Joshua Green (2009) had researched into YouTube and found that 42% of the sample they analysed comprised of extracts from ‘traditional media’; and most of those had been uploaded by users. Therefore the clips were uploaded by fans rather than the traditional media companies them-selves. They said ‘It is likely that in the last two years this percentage will have increased, as YouTube has become a medium of ‘catch up’ distribution in the UK, for Channels 4 and 5’. This elevates the fact that YouTube even allows users to create their own channels, this is effective as it makes the audience feel as if they have power and makes them the consumers and producers of new/digital media.

Moreover, another technology which makes the audiences feel power due to new/digital media is TV and programmes such as Sky+, Sky sports etc. Sky is significant as it allows the reader to record their favourite documentary, film etc. while watching something completely different at the same time and then going back to it and can rewind or forward which gives them the ultimate power as they feel as if they have control of what they are doing to the TV. The Uses and gratification theory is argued that the audience watch for surveillance, inform or entertainment. This is an example of new/digital media and the theory backs up this point as it reflects the fact that the audience feel more power as they have the ultimate control on the reason why they are watching TV and have the control over when it is suitable for them to watch the show they might have missed.

Therefore, Web 2.0 as defined by Tim O’Reilly in 2005 is essentially a medium that allows audiences to become producers of media texts. This requires web-based software, such as blogs, which audiences can use to produce, and share, their own work. It is argued that Web 2.0, often referred to as ‘we media’, democratises the media, as anyone with a web connection can create and publish texts which is known as ‘user-generated content’; thus we no longer have to rely upon professional organisations or traditional ‘old’ media to act as the gatekeepers, for example newspapers, letter pages or radio. Today audience can easily produce texts themselves, giving them power in terms of consumption and production.

However, Marxists would argue against this statement and believe that in fact the development of new/digital media does not allow the audience more power in terms of consumption and production. A theorist that supports this argument is Carr who argued in 2011 that new/digital media has led to ‘dumbing down’ and ‘the cult of the amateur’ because anyone, regardless of who they are can create texts which doesn’t really make people special in actual fact it just shows everyone is capable of doing a certain amount of change to the new/digital media which puts a boundary to the audiences ability to change or create texts etc. Another critic who would support this view is Andrew Keen, who believes that internet is killing our culture he argues that, ‘web pages and blogs are like millions of monkeys typing nonsense’. Marxist view capitalist society as being one of class domination; which means that the media has full control over the mass and injects the audience with information that they want the audience to know, for example; the news, in some cases the news does not reveal everything but often reveal the parts that they want the audience to know and hear. Another example would be elections (anywhere around the world) when a party is determined to win the elections they do not reveal the full truth as it may change the mass’s opinion, therefore they only allow the audience to know certain information which they’re sure will benefit them. This is called the hypodermic syringe.

 Another view that the Marxist would argue is privacy and censorship. In many countries the government controls the internet and what the audience can access, this puts a boundary on the audiences ability to access whatever they like on the internet as it means even if they find a way to do so they may get caught by the government. This elevates the fact that the audience does not have any power. A theory of this approach would be the ‘hegemonic control’ this means that the government has full control on what the audience can access. Countries that portray this is ‘Mass media are seen as a way of entertaining the workers while drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs’. This is effective as it elevates the fact that the media are seen to promote hegemonic ideology and ensure the dominance of certain classes; the ultimate control is increasingly concentrated in wealthy corporations and media conglomerates. Media conglomerates is when a media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. This makes the audience not have power as much as they want as there is a dominant organization which controls the audience.

A final reason which Marxist believes that does not give the audience power due to new/digital media is censorship. While other may disagree and argue that in some countries censorship is decreasing, and those in control e.g. the bourgeoisie, who has the ‘hegemonic control’ no longer have absolute power how they used too. Another critic which supports this ideology would be the Pareto’s law who argues that censorship is decreasing. However Marxists would argue that in actual fact in many countries such as Libya and China the government controls the media and controls what the audience can access, post, watch and comment. This illustrates the argument that in actual fact audience have no power due to censorship around the world. Marxists argue that the Mass media is a tool, therefore the Mass media is ruled by the ruling class and they have the ultimate power to what the audiences are capable of on the internet. This links back to the theory ‘hegemonic control’, while some people would argue and say that the ‘hegemonic control’ is decreasing others would say it is increasing and this is due to the fact that now the government knows that many people use new/digital media or social networking sites which cause caous as individuals post their beliefs and opinions which could cause a revolution, therefore as more governments are aware of this, more of the ruling class will try to control their audiences use of certain websites. This shows that there is the dominant ideology which is the ruling class which causes the audience to not feel powerful.

In my opinion, I believe that there is a balanced argument for this statement. There are advantages and disadvantages for new/digital media and audiences are empowered by this and feel power to a great extent. However, even though there is still censorship around the world and hegemonic control, audiences are still allowed to share their views and interact with people around the world making them feel power to a great extent.

The Virtual Revolution notes part 2 :

-quarter of our planet is connected to the internet.
- web sets information free
- We've seen that when ordinary people fight for freedom and democracy
- web leads to openness and closeness more difficult  (Sir Tim Berners-Lee)
- anyone who wants to participate, can participate. ( Clay Shirky )
- there is a flow of winners and losers.
- only in the beginning
- quietly the web is shifting power
- its accelerating globalisation
- cross traditional boarders
- reinvented warfare
- Twitter threatens
- Twitter was developed in Fran sisco - 2006 along with Facebook called social networking new way to stay in touch with friends.
- you can send a message called tweet 140 characters and is read by anyone who follows you
- you can do this by phone and computer
- a microcosm of the world - when started seemed for Geeks or people who wanted to tweet about their life.
- people who didn't use it in the beginning people thought it was another example of 'all about me'
- then Iran June 2009 - in the aftermath of presidential elections- people went out because of anger (riot) protesters turned to twitter to tell the people what has happened.- no media was allowed to report inside country.
- In just 18 days 2 million tweets sent outside Iran
- 2000 tweets about Iran posted in an hour
- information placed in hand of people
- after a young Iranian woman got shot - twitter became even more wild
- the web is shegging up world politics because it can capture information from a crowd eye witness and transmit is globally
- unlike live TV web video prompts instant reaction around the globe
- the web is like a tool box for protests
- the geeks who run twitter is not surprised of revolution
- ' openness is a revolution itself ' - (Biz Stone)
- authority unable to get grip with the web
- the webs linked information is connected to internet
- internet origins lies in the cold war when america and Russia was squaring up under the threat of holocaust.
- 1957- American gov got shock of their life when the Russians launched the first ever space satellite.
- Americans set up 'advanced research project agency' - given huge budget to beat the reds
- It gathered scientist told them to look into the future to invent something amazing.
- developed Arpanet
- 1970's similar networks around the world
- 1974 networks can speak to each other- sparks the global internet that we know today.
- packing switching perfect tool for computers to talk to each other
- allows huge data to transmit fast
- this had dramatic consequences for gov
- internet today links a quarter of the planet
- Mountain view California- keeps the internet flowing across the world
- individual countries like Iran cant shut down internet even if they want to because it is connected
- do they have the power to regulate do they have the power to turn the internet on and off ?
- wiki - leeks allows people to anonymously blow the whistle on gov and co-operations
-  question of internet censorship is increasing - argues whether the audience can communicate freely in the future.
- Wiki- leeks has a database over 1.2 billion documents
- keeps no logs and keeps military grade inception to protect sources and other confidential information.
- Bill Gates - ' once you publish something to stop it is impossible'
- wiki-leeks under constant attack
- after wiki-leeks published allegation about attacks
- wiki-leeks site taken off line - by judges
- the new York times published their website (because people was interested)
- internet not controlled any more
- famous quote ' the net interprets as censorship as damaged ' Micth Kapor
-censorship is a blockage
- when organisation wants to block a web there is a geek who does that
- web enables individuals to go onto and interact
- Iranian gov blocked sites like twitter and Facebook
- 'paste -stack' - web secure way of Iranians to load sites that Iranian gov has blocked
- web gives citizens power to blow the whistle on wrong giving
- the web seems to take us back to before politics
- ''the web is not threatening to wipe the state'-David Runciman
- ' back in the day just voting was a way of expressing your feeling against politics' Leo Murray
- traditional politics - decreasing
- able to express your own views by logging into the internet
- web provides more than proof of protests
- nature of community has changed - before internet you have to be present, now you can decide you want to do something about climate change and log in to a climate website and you become a member of the communuity
- ' the web is a fantastic resource '  - web can throw up coalition over nothing
- the state can organise their fears and hope
- anyone can use it
- China - armsrace between citizen and the race.
- china is one party state - 60 years communist ruled with ion fist
- china has more people online than other nations - 253 million world effect on politics huge effect on state
- Chinese states plays cat and mouse with their citizens
- Hu Yong - Beijing University - 'web can be a threat'
- Ross Anderson - Cambridge University - ' uni students get information from the internet'
- the threats come from within the poeple themselves , the conversations they have
- massive earth quake 70,000 people washed away - communists buildings left
- taking videos and pictures and publishing it on twitter
- this is media generated inside the country
- got up to part 4 at 4:00 min.

Weekly DM story number 2 -

Instead of buying your child a boring old iPad for Christmas, get them a stick : 

. Wild Network is urging parents to encourage children to play with nature and the outdoors rather than technology

. With sales of tablets, smartphones and gadgets predicted to soar this Christmas, many British households will soon be temples to the latest technology.

. But parents are now being asked to consider a low-tech alternative – to root around in the back garden and give their children a stick or a stone instead, in place of the latest smartphone, and to swap "screen time" for "wild time".

. "easy to pick up, perform a thousand different uses and can be thrown away as easily as you found it. Great for helping with imaginary games, playing Pooh sticks, building things."

My opinion : Although technology can be harmful for kids, picking up sticks and throwing them around can be harmful too. 

NDM weekly story-

BBC to air controversial Panorama investigation into Comic Relief : 

. Director general and head of news intervened over report on charities' investment policies, which was postponed in October

. A controversial BBC Panorama investigation into charities including Comic Relief is set to be broadcast in early December following interventions by the corporation's director general and director of news.

. The programme, which was at the centre of a row that drew in BBC director general Tony Hall in October after it was postponed, is expected to air on Tuesday 10 December.

. The Panorama charities documentary could have caused embarrassment for the BBC if it had aired in the run-up to Children in Need, which took place this year on 15 November, and had a negative impact on its fundraising activities.

. The documentary reportedly examines how Comic Relief allegedly invested £150m of funds it had raised for up to eight years, before passing the money on to other causes. 

. me of the money is alleged to have been invested in tobacco firms and an arms company.

. The BBC broadcasts Day and  the Red NoseSport Relief telethons. Danny Cohen, the BBC director of TV, and Tim Davie, the chief executive of commercial arm BBC Worldwide, are Comic Relief trustees and have had to recuse themselves from any senior management discussions about the Panorama documentary.

MY OPINION : 

. This is a great opportunity for BBC to become more popular.