(14) Freedom of Information Act must be strengthened, says Tom Watson

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/29/freedom-of-information-act-tom-watson-foi

Summary:

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has said his party will push for a stronger Freedom of Information Act and voiced concerns about the government commission reviewing the legislation.Writing to the Society of Editors, which is running a campaign against what it says is an attempt to water down the public’s access to information, Watson said the party is setting up a group to make recommendations about how the act could be improved to lead to greater transparency.

Key data/statistical information:

• The government commission examining FoI is looking at the balance between transparency and the government’s desire to keep information private.

• Its official remit says it will consider the act’s impact on the government’s ability to provide “robust protection” to documents and create “safe spaces” for decision making.

• Proposed changes include new charges for requests, changes to make it easier to refuse requests on cost grounds and plans to strengthen ministers’ powers to veto disclosures.

What's my view?

I think it is important that the freedom of Information act should be strengthened as it can indeed lead to greater transparency.

(13) Sun website to scrap paywall

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/30/sun-website-to-scrap-paywall

Summary:
Publisher News UK set to make U-turn and offer its content for free from 30 November in bid to compete with rivals such as Mail Online. The Sun is poised to make a major U-turn by scrapping its paywall and offering most of its website content for free. It is understood that News UK, which also publishes the Times and the Sunday Times, has taken the decision to compete against major rivals in the free advertising market such as Mail Online. The Sun has recruited Keith Poole, the managing editor of Mail Online in the US, as digital editor to bolster its team in the transition to a free site. The Sun made its first move to look beyond the paywall model in July this year when it started to make a range of its articles available for free. The entry of the Sun to the free digital ad market marks a major ramping-up of competition among national newspapers in the battle for digital advertising pounds in a market dominated by US giants Google and Facebook.

Key data/statistical information:

• Rebekah Brooks, the News UK chief executive, informed staff on Friday morning of the U-turn in strategy, which will happen on 30 November.

• Since relaxing its paywall strategy the Sun has increased its average daily browser numbers to about 1 million.

• The national newspaper market has seen unprecedented falls of up to 30% in print advertising this summer, an issue compounded by a worrying slowing of growth in digital advertising revenues.

What's my view?

Personally, I had a theory that this would happen as no one is going to continue to pay as there are other digital news that are offered for free on-line. I think removing the paywall would definitely increase The Sun's number of subscriptions.

NDM: News values

How has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?

How would you update them for 2015?

Write how EACH news value has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken so different angles might be required. Newspapers now contain more comment or opinion rather than the breaking story.

Familiarity is when people can relate to the news becomes the event is close to them. Usually when a news is being published which relates to someone due to their area, they would be able to know about this due to social media. 

New and digital media technology has changed the amplitude of news as when a big event happens, people would find out about it as it would go viral on social networking sites such as Twitter or Instagram. People wont know the whole background detail as they would from watching broadcast news or reading print news but they would get the key details of what was going on and why the event is major.

People can recognize a reoccurring event  nowadays by the use of hashtags. For example, if you type in a racist event that has recently occurred with a hashtag in Twitter, you will notice that other news relating to the event will come up to show the frequency of how many racist events have taken place in the last year or so. 

Unambiguity is important because more and more people want clear and definite news. People want to make sure that they news that they're reading is accurate and usually through citizen journalism videos that are published on-line, do people believe in the news that they see.

Today's digital technology has made predictability more easier. Technology helps to locate where events are going to happen. For example, a charity event may be advertised on-line with details of where and when it will happen so that the news can get their camera crew and journalists prepared for the event. 

Due to the immediacy that new and digital media provides, a news with a surprise would be first seen on-line and talked about on social networking sites.

News with continuity is defined due to Twitter using a hashtag to suggest that it is news. Also if it goes viral and is repeated, then it has already become news.

Elite nations and people mostly comes into when the news is about America or the royal family, it is usually all over social networking sites including Vine, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. 

The growth of new and digital media has made negativity in the news more noticeable. Nowadays even children know about the bad things happening in the world and people are able to debate on all the negative things on-line. Because people want to hear bad news more, on-line news sources have made it available for people to get the news ASAP. 

With broadcast news, they structure it so that there is a balance of good news and bad news so as to not depress the audience. With modern digital technology, there potentially is a balance however the negative news are the ones that are trending the most.  

(12) Map shows parts of UK most excluded from digital world

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/oct/19/map-shows-parts-of-uk-most-excluded-from-digital-world

Summary:

A new report shows that 12 million adults in the UK are incapable of completing five basic online tasks. According to the study, people in London, Scotland and East Anglia were most adept online, while people in Wales are the least digitally skilled. The fact that millions of adults cannot do four things online we deem as the lowest level of entry to the internet not only holds them back, but also holds the country back. The digital skills report shows that nine out of 10 people can manage common tasks such as using a search engine, sending an email or instant message, and buying items from a website. However, 27% of people can not buy and install apps, and 28% cannot solve problems using online help. How often people use these skills varies too. In the three months before the survey, 78% managed information online, while just half of British adults created something digitally.

Key data/statistical information:

• Nearly one in four adults – around 12 million people – do not have basic online skills, according to a report that reveals considerable regional differences in digital exclusion.

• The report found that adults in London are most likely to be able to do all five (84%), followed by Scotland and East Anglia (both 81%), while Wales had the lowest proportion (62%).

• In Manchester 79% of adults have the five basic digital skills, but only a third have used them in the past three months.

• 49.9% of adults in the Highlands have no qualifications

• 82% of adults in Edinburgh have all five basic digital skills

• £18,400 is the average income in Ballymoney

• 23.1% of adults in Anglesey have a long-term illness or disability

• 43% of adults in North Lincolnshire have no qualifications

• £26,500 is the average income in Woking

What's my view?

I think that the fact that some parts of the UK are exluded from digital world could potentially hold back the country. Personally, I think that most of the people who are excluded from the digital world and were unable to complete the 5 tasks are older people who are not used to the technology that this generation has to offer. 

(11) Why the future of newspapers is not all doom and gloom

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/20/why-the-future-of-newspapers-is-not-all-doom-and-gloom

Summary:

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group, said at the Society of Editors’ conference that more and more people are recognising the value of the engaged audiences that newspaper brands provide. Some of the UK’s biggest print advertisers have increased their year-on-year print spend significantly, including Virgin Media, Marks & Spencer and Lidl, which is turning into one of the great supermarket success stories of the decade. There is a growing recognition that Google, Facebook, Snapchat and others benefit significantly from the value that news brands like the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Mail provide. So the pendulum, you could say, is starting to swing back to what some people still like to call “traditional media”.

Key data/statistical information:

• Tesco has reduced its print spend, but has also cut its overall spend by 31%.

• If you look at HSBC, it has increased its print advertising budget by no less than 73%.

What's my view?

I think that in the near future, newspapers wont die out and will still be something that people read while going to work or to find out whats going on in the world. However, as generations pass, things like twitter will become a more popular place to go find out about news due to the immediate 24/7 news people can receive. So in a couple of decades, I think newspapers won't be as popular as people hope.

10 examples of citizen journalism

Example one:

The Hudson Landing
The first image of Captain Chesley Sullenberger's dramatic landing on the Hudson river on Jan. 15 came not from the New York Times or the AP, but from the Twitter account of a man who just happened to be there. Janis Krums tweeted a picture he took on his cell phone as he ferried over to help the stranded passengers. A half hour later, Krums was interviewed by MSNBC. He sold his iconic shot to the AP and it was soon shopped to publications across the country.

Example two:

Tea Partiers
Inspired by CNBC anchor Rick Santelli's on-airoutburst against the Obama administration's bailout of the mortgage industry, conservatives organized hundreds of Tea Party protests across the country on April 15th. With no single publication able to cover so many protests, sites like Now Public and our own HuffPost Eye&Ears Citizen Reporting Unitcrowdsourced their coverage, offering thousands of photos, video and blogs from across the country.

Example three:

The Shooting at Fort Hood
The dramatic Nov. 5 shooting at Ford Hood claimed immediate national attention and dominated Twitter and the blogosphere. Texas-based newspaper, theAustin-American Statesman launched a Twitteraccount devoted to the unfolding story, and outlets like CNN and the Today Show jumped on the newly-launched Twitter lists feature to provide directed, immediate information. Many tweets were inaccurate. Tearah Moore, a soldier based at Fort Hood who happened to be in the hospital as gunman Nidal Hasan was wheeled in, mistakenly declared Hasan dead on Twitter.

Example four

The Health Care Town Hall Protesters
The town hall debates over health care reform attracted protesters of all stripes - angry and excited, politically extreme and middle-of-the road. The figureheads were conservative personalities like Sarah Palin and Michelle Malkin, whose supporters disrupted the scheduled health care discussions with impassioned and often bizarre claims. Online news organizations like Media Consortium andHuffPost's E&E assigned citizen journalists to report from town hall events, capturing inane commentsfrom politicians and public officials crossing the line with their protest signs -- like Jackson County Commissioner who brought this swastika only to cross it out receiving criticism.

Example five

350.org
On October 24th of this year, more than 5000 communities around the world came together to call for the reduction in carbon levels to the safe spot of 350 parts-per-million in the atmosphere. The effort marks the world's "most widespread day of political action," according to 350.org organizers, and was primarily orchestrated online with instruction manuals and jointly-managed schedules. Participants uploaded videos and images of their demonstrations on crowd-sourced sites Flickr andCitizenGlobal, inspiring major media coverage.

Example six

Zapruder, a woman’s clothing manufacturer, captured the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy and started a fierce bidding war for the footage.

Example seven

Whilst on holiday, a manager at a plumbing and rooting company, fired up his Sony Handycam on March 3, 1991 to record four Los Angeles policemen brutally beating up Rodney King.

Example eight

On April 4, Santana recorded a former South Carolina policeman shooting and killing the unarmed Michael Scott.

Example nine

Moore recorded Freddie Gray requesting medical attention in mid-April while under police custody — and being ignored hours before he died in the custody of Baltimore policemen.

Example ten

A gut-wrenching mobile video clip depicting South Carolina police officer Michael Slager killing Walter Scott went viral earlier this month. The bystander behind the footage, Feidin Santana, has partnered with celebrity publicity agency Markson Sparks to license the footage, causing a stir among those who claim he's profiting from a death. It was all over the news last week: Shaky cell phone footage shows officer Slager shooting an unarmed man who tried to flee a routine traffic stop on April 4th.

NDM News: Citizen journalism

NOTES...     Media Magazine archive

Examples

• Having caught Rodney King, an African-American, after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window.
• The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was another turning point for UGC. Much of the early footage of events was provided from citizen journalists, or ‘accidental journalists,’ providing on-the-spot witness accounts of events as they unfolded.
• A second terrible event, the London bombings on July 5th 2005, provided another opportunity for citizen journalists to influence the mainstream news agenda.
• The reporting of the terrible events at Virginia Tech that day when 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho, killed people was also affected by citizen journalism, and the footage that student Jamal Albarghouti shot on his mobile phone video camera.
• Twitter and flickr came to the forefront during the Mumbai bombings in India in late November 2008. As bombs exploded across the city, the world’s media got up-to date with events through reports on Twitter and Flickr.
• It was on Twitter again that the story of the Hudson River plane crash on January 15th 2009 was broken to the world.

Theory (audience reception etc.)

As technology improved over the years, incidents of this kind have become more and more common. The power to make and break news has moved beyond the traditional news institutions.emotive. An audience used to relatively unmediated reality through the prevalence of reality TV can now see similarly unmediated footage on the news. Perhaps the news now seems old-fashioned and somehow staged if it lacks the raw, grainy low-quality footage provided by citizen journalists.

Benefits to institutions

They have show the videos that they receive from the public on the news. years. Rather than launch their own challenge, they simply buy the site. Flickr is now owned by Yahoo!, YouTube was bought by Google, Microsoft invested in Facebook, and News Corp., owned by Murdoch, bought MySpace.

Benefits to audience

It is a enormous potential for the audience to expand their view of the world and their understanding of what is happening. The audience has the potential to feel involved in the news by, in a sense, becoming journalists themselves. The audience are able to see uncensored videos of incidents that's been happening around the world.

Wider issues and debates

Do journalists fear for their jobs now everyone is producing content?

Some believe that the mediators and moderators might eventually disappear too, leaving a world where the media is, finally, unmediated. If there will be fewer jobs for trained journalists, will there also be less profit for the big institutions?

Although how to ‘monetarise’ UGC – how to make money for both the generator and the host of the content – is still being debated, bigger institutions have been buying up social networking sites for the last few years.

SHEP

We first felt the effects of the new technologies way back in 1991.If George Holliday hadn’t been looking out of his apartment window and made a grab for his video camera at the time Rodney King was apprehended, none of this would have happened. King’s beating would be just another hidden incident with no consequences. It is not only in providing footage for the news that citizen journalists have come to the forefront. UGC now plays a huge role in many aspects of the media. The desire for everyone to tell their own story and have their own moment of fame may explain the huge popularity of Facebook, MySpace and other such sites. While national news organisations quickly swung into action, it was the citizen journalist, empowered by social networking sites, that first broke the story. If there will be fewer jobs for trained journalists, will there also be less profit for the big institutions? This seems unlikely. content? It is likely that in future there will be fewer and fewer permanent trained staff at news organisations, leaving a smaller core staff who will manage and process UGC from citizen journalists, sometimes known as ‘crowd sourcing.’

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

The concept of citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street"journalism) is based upon public citizens"playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information."

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

When Rodney King, an African-American, was caught after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window.

3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

Message boards, chat rooms, Q&A, polls, have your says, and blogs with comments enabled.

4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

Professionally shot footage lacks the raw, grainy low-quality footage provided by citizen journalists. User generated content is usually uncensored.

5) What is a gatekeeper?

A media gatekeeper is a journalist or editor who is tasked with the responsibility of filtering information before it is published, broadcast or posted on the Web.

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

Originally, the job of the media gatekeeper was mainly focused on the mass media, but it has transitioned toward face-to-face communication as well.

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

They are fearing for their jobs now that everyone is producing content.


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

• news stories

News stories nowadays come along with some sort of user generated content to show evidence of the event that happened. This usually starts social debates. Also news stories can now be found on-line on social networking sites rather than just broadcasting or print news. 

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

Before, due to gatekeepers, news was censored and what was shown on the news was decided. However, due to new/digital media, uncensored news can be shown on social media sites such as twitter and YouTube. 

• the role of professionals in news

Since a lot of people are now videoing incidents and producing content, the role of professionals in news is under threat as perhaps in the future they won't be needed but only a few to process user generated content. 

Newspapers: The effect of online technology

Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online? Why?

I understand were James Murdoch is coming from when he says that it is "a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision" when the BBC provides free news online and that it is difficult "for private news organisations to ask people to pay for their news". I also agree that "it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it". However, the BBC should be allowed to do what they want. Murdoch should concentrate on creating ideas of how to make NewsCorp better so that they can maintain their audiences and not focus on the BBC because if their newspapers was unique enough, they should be able to keep their faithful readers and not loose popularity.

Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a paywall?

this blog on the Times paywall three years on

Three years on exactly from launching its trailblazing digital subscription strategy, The Times and The Sunday Times have now amassed a total of 140,000 paying digital subscribers, "mainly on the tablet". This means that faithful readers are willing to pay to read the news content of The Times. The papers, published by News UK, now have more paying customers than they did on 2 July 2010, which is regarded by News UK executives as the true marker of success. However, we cannot forget the fact that there are other on-line newspapers that you can read for free such as the Daily Mail. In fact, Times Newspapers Ltd lost £28.7 million for the year to July 1, on turnover of £361 million. That 20 jobs are to go from the Times shows the costbase still isn't quite right.The digital subscription model is not a solution to those existential problems. To convince people to "pay for news" does not remove a £28 million loss overnight or even in five years. Personally, I think that Rupert Murdoch was right to some degree to put his news content behind a paywall however it was clear that it wasn't going to increase profit by a large amount due to some people not liking the fact of paying for news when there are other news that they can read for free on-line. 

Choose two comments from below the Times paywall article - one that argues in favour of the paywall and one that argues against. Copy a quote from each and explain which YOU agree with and why.

Against 

"It is so ridiculous if these mainstream newspapers believe that they can "force readership of fee-based news. One can get the same "news" for free almost anywhere on the internet...The fee model will never work."

For

"Just a thought on that: Times gets £14.99 pm from 140,000 subscribers, making it considerably more than it made in online advertising."

I agree with the quote against the paywall as it makes a decent point that people can get the same sort of news for free on the internet and therefore the fee model would be hard to put in practise in today's society.

Why do you think the Evening Standard has bucked the trend and increased circulation and profit in the last two years?

this article from the Media Briefing on the continuing decline of the newspaper industry

Because of how many newspapers they have made as they say 700,000 a day its more likely to be 900,000 as they are pushing for increase of circulation. They made a 27% increase of circulation to the ABC demographic. However they lost 5% of their audiences which suggest that they will eventually lose profit.

Is there any hope for the newspaper industry or will it eventually die out? Provide a detailed response to this question explaining and justifying your opinion.

In my opinion I think that there is no hope for print newspaper because of the way society is going. There are more places in which people can get news such as social media which provides live news 24/7. At the moment, print newspapers are decreasing which is forcing newspapers such as The Guardian and The Sun to go on-line. It is also forcing newspapers like The Sun to put a paywall to read the newspaper on-line as the industry is losing profit. Despite the amount of subscribers that they have, it does not give them enough money to re-gain the amount of money they lost over the past few years. Since the next generation is surely to be basing their everyday lives on-line, print will not be a popular option for them. Also, due to the other free news on-line, not everyone is going to be interested to pay a fee to read news much longer. Sadly, I think newspapers are going to eventually die out. 

(10) News Corp offers Times and WSJ digital bundle for corporate users

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/01/news-corp-times-wsj-digital-bundle-corporate-users

Summary:

News Corp is bundling together digital access to the Times and Wall Street Journal for corporate customers, allowing existing subscribers to either title to read the other for free and offering a dual option for new companies who sign up.The deal will increase the Wall Street Journal’s appeal for corporate customers in London, where its main business news rival the Financial Times is based. The tie-up also has the potential to increase the reach of the Times’s online advertising, which has been restricted since the introduction of charges for online access in 2010.

Key data/statistical information:

• The FT has benefited in recent years from a drive to recruit corporate customers, helping take its digital subscriber base to more than 500,000.

• There has been speculation the Times could be offered as part of a bundle with Sky TV, in which News Corp’s sister company 21st Century Fox holds a 39% stake, no deal has materialised.

• Next week the paper is planning to offer 1m sample copies across London’s transport network at stations such as Bank and Canary Wharf and at London City Airport.

What's my view?

I think that this raise competition between newspapers that focus on finance like the Financial Times. The tie-up could potentially work but due to the decrease on print newspaper, i'm not too sure if the Wall Street Journal could gain as much popularity as other print newspapers. 

(9) Female technology journalists report abuse is still the name of the game

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/11/female-technology-journalists-abuse-zoe-quinn

Summary: 

Women in tech forced to disguise their identity – and even quit the industry – after facing threats online, study finds. But women in tech, such as games developer Zoe Quinn, had told me about being terrorised, made homeless, or “screamed at by a Nazi” down the phone at night. Quinn was targeted by groups – mostly of young men – who saw her as a symbol of socially aware critiques of misogyny in gaming to which they objected. Abuse is now “a job hazard for all female writers”, according to US journalist and author, Nina Burleigh, who’s been “threatened and trolled”.What comes across in the hundreds of anonymous comments is a chilling normality: “Insults about my knowledge, rape threats, the usual,” writes one. The 100 respondents also describe a plague of face-to-face incidents, from “sexist views” in the newsroom, to being “hit on” and “stalked”. Nevertheless, an overwhelming 86% surveyed agreed that “more should be done to stop sexist abuse”. One wonders how long women will have to go on clamouring for change, many hiding their gender as they do so.

Key data/statistical information:

• Research I conducted for Nottingham Trent University found one in five female journalists covering technology has disguised her gender to avoid sexist abuse, and nearly 40% have changed working practices for fear of being targeted.

• Female writers disguising their gender is not new. “We had a vague impression that authoresses are likely to be looked on with prejudice,” wrote Charlotte Brontë in 1846 to explain why she and her sisters (aka Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell) had used male noms de plume.

• But of the female technology journalists who replied to the survey, 62% said they had experienced sexist abuse, compared with 50% of female journalists who reported similar attacks to the Women’s Media Foundation.

• Four out of 10 said fear of being attacked has affected their work or altered their writing.

• 20% are disguising the fact they are female by writing anonymously or using a non-gender-specific name.

• Just 35% of tech journalists are female, according to a Colombia Journalism Review report.

• To put it in some context, 73% of US male science and technology journalists surveyed by University of Wisconsin-Madison students last year reported “no gender-related experiences”, compared with 19% of females

What's my view?

I think it is a shame that women are scared to admit what gender they are in the tech industry. Its sad to hear that threats are being made just because a women is passionate about gaming. It's such a sexist view and i'm not sure if things will get better in the near future or the future at all. 

(8) Richard Desmond boosts Daily Star sales with price cut

Links: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/07/richard-desmond-boosts-daily-star-sales-with-price-cut

Summary:

Richard Desmond’s move to spark a tabloid war by slashing the price of the Daily Star to 20p resulted in a UK sales boost of 23,000 copies on Monday. But the move did not hurt sales of rivals the Sun and Daily Mirror. The move by Northern & Shell, which cut the price of the Daily Star weekday, Saturday and Sunday editions by 50%, has been positioned as an attempt to “inject some overdue sales and excitement” into the tabloid market. While the Daily Star put on extra sales the move did not have an impact on rivals.“If nothing changes in terms of the scale of uplift of the Daily Star’s sales I’d give it a week or two before the price is put back up,” said a second newspaper industry executive. Retailers and newsagents were certainly led to believe this is a permanent change. “If nothing changes in terms of the scale of uplift of the Daily Star’s sales I’d give it a week or two before the price is put back up,” said a second newspaper industry executive.

Key data/statistical information:

• Unofficial figures for the first day of sales of the price war indicate that the Daily Star put on about 23,000 copies and grew UK sales by about 7% week-on-week.

• The Daily Star’s overall sales figures put the circulation increase at 5.6%, however this includes Ireland where the price cut has not been introduced so is not a true reflection of the impact.

• The Sun is thought to have seen sales rise about 3% on Monday, about a 50,000 rise, in part thanks to a Tesco token collect promotion. And the Daily Mirror is thought to have risen marginally, perhaps 1%.

• Northern & Shell will need time to evaluate the impact of the price change – the 50% loss on cover price revenue could cost it as much as £400,000 a week depending upon how many additional sales were notched up.

• Trade body the National Federation of Retail Newsagents was outraged by the move, with about 50 deciding to stop stocking the Daily Star in protest at their margins per copy sold being cut in half by the move.

What's my view?

The fact that the Daily Star costs now 20p and yet it didn't hurt the sales of rivals The Sun and Daily Mirror shows that it isn't as popular as the two other newspaper. However, since it has increased sales in the UK, the change could potentially be beneficial in a long run.

(7) Meryl Streep defends feminist credentials as Suffragette opens London film festival

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/07/suffragette-london-film-festival-meryl-streep-carey-mulligan

Summary:

Suffragette received its UK premiere as the opening film of the London film festival. Scriptwriter Abi Morgan said: “A film that is fronted by an ensemble of women, and they are not being funny or romantic, is hard. That became a huge obstacle.” Suffragette tells the story of the militant campaign in support of women’s voting rights in the UK, and features Carey Mulligan as a laundress called Maud Watts,Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, Natalie Press as Emily Davison, the activist who died at the 1913 Epsom Derby; and Helena Bonham Carter as Edith Ellyn, an amalgamation of more than one prominent suffragette. The film’s status as something of a political hot potato was reinforced by the declaration of activist group Sisters Uncut to stage a protest at the premiere event against cuts to domestic violence services. Having described this year’s edition of the London film festival as “the year of strong women”, festival director Clare Stewart said that Suffragette “first and foremost, tells an important story made by British women”. She said: “The issue over gender equality, especially in the film industry, has become an increasingly important one. It’s clear there is talent everywhere, but not a lot of opportunity.”

Key data/statistical information:

• Streep cited the reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes for its skewed gender balance, saying she tabulated 168 women critics and bloggers on the site, as opposed to some 760 men.

What's my view?

Personally I think the film does tell an important story about the past and how the Suffragettes actually helped contribute to the standard of equality that women have today. Its key that people know about this as it does somewhat affect our generation. Also it could potentially bring awareness as women are still discriminated in some ways. For example, the film helped the Sisters Uncut group to protest against cuts to domestic violence services as domestic violence is still a problem till this day.

NDM Baseline assessment - learner response

Good effort, Alison
WWW- Attempts to incorporate own independent research
LR- More specific details needed in relation to the question: views/values 

Write a paragraph with specific examples:

YouTube is also a way in which a variety of views and values are shared as people can upload videos that can have great impact on the audience. For example, those who make YouTube videos such as Michelle Phan, are able to recommend beauty products or give life advice for girls. Most of the audience and fans will listen to her advice. This is an example of how the two step flow theory works. People can also like comments, and the video itself, to show that they agree with their views. These new developments in the social media sway the audiences to believe in the views and values that are presented. 

NDM News case study: Audience and Institution

What are the key statistics relating to the influence of new and digital media?

this extract from the Ofcom 2014 report

• 95% of Adults in the UK say they follow the news
• 75% of UK adults say they use TV as a source of news
• 41% of people this year use any internet or apps for news year compared to just under 32%
• In 2013, 44% of the 16-34 age group used the internet or apps for news and now it has increased  to 60% in 2014
• 28% of those who consume news in the UK named BBC One as the single most important news source to them

• Since 2013 there has been an increase in the number of people stating a website/app as their most important news source (21% in 2014 vs. 14% in 2013)
• Almost half (45%) of 16-24's say their most important news source is a website/app
• Each adult watches an average of 115 hours of national and international news on television in 2013. The majority of this (64%) was on BBC One or BBC Two and a further 12% on the BBC News channel. However, 16-24 year old's consumed only 27 hours of news on television in the same period, compared to 196 hours for those aged 55 and over.

• UK politics and current affairs, and worldwide current affairs are seen to have societal importance by half (49%) of UK adults, crime by 48% and weather by 45%.
• Among the 16-24's, specific news categories such as crime, sports, technology and science/environment fall into the top ten topics, while the over-55's are more likely to nominate, general world news and UK and regional current affairs.

• 58% of UK adults say they follow the news to find out “what’s going on in the world”
• 56% say they want to know “what’s going on across the UK” 
• 49% claim they want to know “what’s going on in my local area” 
• 46% would like to know “what’s going on in respective nations” 
• 42% say “because I feel it’s important to keep informed about certain issues” 

Come up with an example of an institution that has benefited from the changes new and digital media has brought to the news industry. Explain how new technology has helped the institution and try to find statistics or financial figures that support your point.

http://teleread.com/newspapers/uk-guardian-results-positive-for-digital-media/

Technology has helped the Guardian as their on-line media operations has aided in offsetting falling print sales without paywalls and content lock-up. 

• Guardian News & Media cited an annual loss of £30.9 million in the year to the end of March 2013, which had fallen by 30 percent from last year’s loss, “as growing digital revenues helped offset the continuing decline in income from print operations.”

• Guardian News & Media, “which now derives just over 28% of total revenues from on-line operations,” boosted its digital revenues “by 28.9% from £43.4 million to £55.9 million in the 12-month period, helping the publisher to slightly increase total revenues year on year to £196.3 million.

• Guardian iPad subscribers alone rose from 17,000 to 22,951

• Guardian News & Media’s digital display and sponsorship revenues rose by 39 percent year-over-year, online recruitment revenues rose by one third, and subscription/e-commerce revenues increased by 15 percent

• Guardian Media Group itself turned around a £75.6 million ($114.13 million) loss for 2012 into profits before tax of £22.7 million ($34.27 million) for 2013.

Find an example of an institution that has suffered as a result of the changes new and digital media has brought to the news industry. In what way has it had a negative impact? Again, try and find actual statistics or financial figures to explain your point

Due to journalism decreasing from traditional media outlets, Rupert Murdoch was forced to apply a paywall of £1 in order to read The Sun. 

• From June 2010 Rupert Murdoch has decided that he cannot sustain the losses of £57 million a year from his UK papers, and is putting up a paywall so that online editions of The Times and Sunday Times will cost the same as the print edition - £1 a day

• The paywall experiment recieved just 131,000 subscribers after two years

Who has benefited most from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry - audiences or institutions?

Due to the changes made by new and digital media in the news industry, there have been many benefits on the audience and the industries.

The audience have benefited as they have a greater variety on the e-media. They can get immediate live news 24/7 through social networking sites such as twitter that would upload news tweets. The audience also have the possibility of using news apps to get the news 24/7. On the go news also gives the audience the chance to watch the news if they have missed the 6 o'clock news for example. Also, if one is use to reading the news, now there is the possibility of reading the news on-line for free for instance the Daily Mail. 

On the other hand, institutions have also benefited from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry. Some institutions have taken advantage of this new change and have made on-line news so that they can reach the audience more and gain more popularity. The Guardian took this initiative and increased the profit that they use to receive.

Even though the audience can read news on-line some sites such as The Sun have a payroll of £! which is a disadvantage to the audience. On the other hand, newspapers suffer disproportionately as they are still running with costly and unwieldy ‘old media’ print distribution. There are approximately 55,000 shops and outlets with a delivery of heavy newspapers early every morning. In a recent radio discussion on the BBC Media Show newspaper editors admitted that no one knows if there will be print newspapers in 10 years time. Possibly everybody will be reading their newspaper on a Kindle, mobile phone or iPad.

To conclude, there seems to be more advantages for the audience then for institutions so to a certain degree, the audience have benefited the most from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry.