NDM Summary

1. 15/08/2014: Premier League warns fans not to post Vine videos of goals online.
2. 07/09/2014: Katie Jacobs Stanton: ‘Twitter is this operating system of news’
3. 11/09/2014: Channel 4 to replace 4oD with new online hub All 4
4. 11/09/2014: Google takes down newspaper's positive story about an artist
5. 17/09/2014: Live: Apple releases iOS 8 software as developers update their apps
6. 17/09/2014: US needs a Federal Robotics Commission, says think tank
7. 23/09/2014: Jeremy Clarkson in F-word response in claims to a BBC warning
8. 23/09/2014: Apple will not shut down Dr Dre's Beats Music but could fold it into iTunes
9. 25/09/2014: Google Hits Back at NewsCorp's claims that it is a platform for piracy
10. 26/09/2014: Children's apps: 'Technology interferes with the story in most apps'
11. 10/10/2014: Amazon Fire Phone review: Setting nothing ablaze 
12. 10/10/2014: The Sun's 'Unite against Isis' campaign is a proxy for anti-Muslim bigotry
13. 10/10/2014: Car that parks itself rolls off Tesla production line in California
14. 10/10/2014: Ofcom: one in three children under 15 have their own tablet computer..
15. 13/10/2014: Can Twitter make money out of breaking news or is it a PR platform?
16. 20/10/2014: How should we deal with death in the social media age?
17. 20/10/2014: The dizzying decline of Britain’s local newspapers: do you want the..
18. 31/10/2014: Spain moves to protect domestic media with new 'Google tax'
19. 31/10/2014: Google is developing a cancer and heart attack-detecting pill
20. 31/10/2014: YouTube: 'There's going to be a point where people don't want to see ads'

Learner Response

Essay Question:
Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?


Marks: 36/48
Grade: B+

WWW:
Very good argument presented on both sides of the debate.

EBI:
Focus on media texts (not online shopping) and provide specific examples of audience/UGC texts.

Learner Response:
An example of where the audiences are empowered by the media, is social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook. In the past it has been used to generate and produce content that can help produce or even advertise events. One of the most successful content that was created was in February 2012 where Nissan, the car manufacturer invited its fans to help create the worlds first crowd sourced car. The audience visited Nissan's Facebook page to vote on how to create the new car. A quote from the vice president for Nissan North America said  "..we though it'd be interesting to harness the power of social media to reach out to Z enthusiasts..".

Weekly NDM

NewsCorp

Google Hits Back at NewsCorp's claims that it is a platform for piracy

This article is about a letter written by the chief executive of NewsCorp to the EU about how Google are a platform for piracy and that they have an overwhelming amount of power. The responses from Google are from Rachel Whetstone, the senior vice president of Google's global communications.

• Whetstone said that last year Google removed 222m web pages that broke copyright rules, with an average take down time of six hours.
• News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson branded the internet giant a “platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks”.

I believe that this is an interesting article as it shows what a new digital media institution's response is to a traditional media institution. It shows that although they both have different views of each other and are expressing them publicly, due to the size of these institutions nothing may come out of this.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/25/google-hits-back-news-corp-piracy-claims 

Technology

Children's apps: 'Technology interferes with the story in most apps'

This article is about how apps that are based on children's books alter the original story that is published in the books. It contains the opinion of an author and critic on how the apps don't offer that same interaction between a child and their parents, and that children should be reading books instead of 'jabbing at screens'.

I find this article interesting as it contains the opinion of a traditional media expert and how she thinks that the new and digital media has an impact on children and that they do not gain as much with these developments in media as they would do with books.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/26/childrens-book-apps-technology-story-nicolette-jones

Weekly NDM

Newspaper

Jeremy Clarkson in F-word response in claims to a BBC warning

This article is about Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson who has been written about in his rival newspaper, The Mirror. They claim that he has been told by the BBC not to misbehave specifically 'not to cause a diplomatic row' as they travelled to Argentina, and was given a warning, however Jeremy Clarkson did not take too kindly to this claim and fired back at the newspaper. 

In my opinion this article is interesting as it's about how one newspaper is claiming that a TV show presenter has been warned. they are trying to suggest that he misbehaves and that the BBC are trying to control him and censor him, therefore there is this back and forth spat between Jeremy Clarkson, and The Mirror.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/23/jeremy-clarkson-bbc-top-gear-mirror


Technology

Apple will not shut down Dr Dre's Beats Music but could fold it into iTunes

This article is about the acquisition of Dre Beats by Apple in May for $3bn and how it was thought that they would shut down the company. However, Apple denied this from happening but did not rule out a possible re-branding of the company to play into their iTunes. 

• Beats Music has had a slow uptake of just 111,000 registered accounts in May, and an estimated 250,000 users through the combination of family accounts.
• Apple had purchased Beats Music for $3bn in May.

I think this article is quite interesting as it is an example of how powerful media institutions are, this taps into the idea that media institutions are getting much bigger and growing; so much so that they are buying out each other. Also, $3bn is a substantial amount of money to have bought a company that has had a very slow uptake compared to its headphone brand. 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/23/apple-dr-dre-beats-music-itunes

Essay Plan

Things to write about:

Twitter

• Allows audiences freedom of speech
• Claims they are the digital news for people

Websites/Blogs

• User Generated content
• Created by audiences

YouTube

• Allows people to form opinions and publish thoughts online.
• Two-step flow model - opinion formers

Paretos Law

• Media is still owned by by institutions e.g. Google owns YouTube

Digital Divide 

• Countries may not have access to internet

Allowed for 2011 revolution 

Breakthrough for countries

Young and Rubican Psychographics

Dependency Theory

Andrew Keen 

• Internet is killing our culture

Traditional Media

• Passive consumers - Hypodermic Needle theory
• Active Producers - User Generated Content

Weekly NDM

Digital Media

Live: Apple releases iOS 8 software as developers update their apps

 

This article is about the new Apple operating system used for their phones, iOS 8. It provides a live feed of the release as it happened. It shows different and new additions of which the old software didn’t have.

• Analytics firm Fiksu reports that 13 hours after release, the proportion of iOS devices it sees using iOS 8 is the lowest of the last 4 releases. Just 6.6% are using the new operating system, compared to the 15.5% who were using iOS 7 the same period after launch.

This article is interesting as it informs us of the launch of one of the world’s largest media company’s software release worldwide. It also was the most commented on article in the digital media section; this shows that many people are interested and want to read about the new Apple software.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/live/2014/sep/17/ios-8-apple-iphone-6-launch-download-app-updates

Technology

US needs a Federal Robotics Commission, says think tank

 

This article is about how the US needs a federal robotics commission due to handle all their artificial intelligence and robotics. It consists of criticism of robots and what could possibly happen with driverless cars or robots in control of things.

• This July, Vince Cable, the business secretary, announced a £10m fund for driverless car researchers in the UK.
• Driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months.

I find this article quite intriguing as there are many points and opinions for and against the whole idea of technology and robotics taking over in everyday life such as driving. It shows that people can rely on this new and growing technology however it can also lead to other side effects and could in fact cause damage rather than being safe.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/17/us-federal-robotics-commission-brookings

Newspaper

  Google takes down newspaper's positive story about an artist

This article is about how an artist had asked Google to censor a positive news article about himself and his drawings due to the fact that they may damage his artistic reputation as he believes that he is a much better artist then he was. This was considered to be one of the most bizarre examples of censorship.

I find this article to be fairly interesting as a man has censored his news story which had shown him in a positive manor and Google had blocked the story, however censorship from much more serious matters are considered and deemed too hard to censor.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/sep/11/right-to-be-forgotten-local-newspapers

Weekly NDM

Digital media

Katie Jacobs Stanton: ‘Twitter is this operating system of news’

This article is about how twitter is becoming increasingly large in terms of the company itself, and the amount of people that use it; it is fast becoming the platform to distribute information on for all its users.

• Monthly active user numbers up 24% year-on-year to 271m and revenue growing 124% to $312m.

In my opinion this article is a very interesting article on how twitter has grown as a company and what they see themselves as. In the article the ‘vice president of global media’ states that twitter is an operating system of news and that many breakthroughs have been made through twitter as it allows its users to be entitled to free speech.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/07/twitter-operating-system-news-katie-jacobs-stanton

Newspaper

Premier League warns fans not to post Vine videos of goals online.

This article is about how football fans are producing vines, gifs, and video clips of football matches and posting them on social media sites such as twitter without being aware that it is a crime due to the breach of copyright. It discusses how these free clips could force commercial partners to pay less and negotiate for deals with the premier league as the content is being revealed online for free. Also, it says that legal action could be taken out on those who produce and upload these vines.

• @FootballVines Twitter page has more than 539,000 
• Sky Sport and BT paid £3bn for rights to show 
• Twitter received a total of 9,199 copyright takedown notices in the first six months of this year. A 38% increase compared with the second half of 2013, of which in 76% of the cases, material was removed.

I believe that this story is interesting as it would be very hard to police the internet and ensure that nobody will produce these illegal videos. Also, I believe that this article is used as a scare tactic to prevent as many people from producing this type of media content.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/15/premier-league-warns-fans-vine-videos-goals

 Media

Channel 4 to replace 4oD with new online hub All 4

This article is about Channel 4 who is currently re-branding their online hub 4oD, to All4. They are trying to do this in a bid to allow their audiences to view their TV on digital devices to compliment this grow in trend.

• Channel 4 claims to have signed up 50% of all 16- to 34-year-olds in the UK to Channel4.com.
• 4oD was launched in 2006 as a part of their digital transition.

I believe that this story is very interesting as it informs the audience of what new things they are to look for in one of the most popular media institutions in the UK. It also portrays that now media institutions are relying on and using digital devices significantly due to the growing number of people who may not have time for TV.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/11/channel-4-replace-4od-new-online-hub-streaming-tablets-smartphones