Weekly NDM

Can Twitter make money out of breaking news or is it a PR platform?

This article is interesting as it discusses how the head of news and journalism partnership at Twitter has stepped down and how others have followed due to the direction of which Twitter is going.

• Twitter over whether it should largely be a conduit for journalism or PR. And whether a technology company, even one with 271 million monthly users, believes it can make money out of breaking news. 
• Twitter has always seemed bigger than it actually is because of the type of people – celebrities, sports stars and politicians as well as newshounds – who use it 

This article is interesting as it shows how big media institutions who have very intelligent employees high up are still stepping down due to disagreements with the company themselves.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/oct/12/twitter-breaking-news-pr-vivian-schiller

Buzzfeed

21 Signs Your Tea Obsession Is Getting Out Of Control

This article shows its audience signs of how their obsession with tea is getting out of control. It contains 21 pictures and sentences such as 'You have more varieties of tea than pairs of shoes. Or Shirts. Or friends.' This would appeal to audiences that like to read random meaningless articles that are made to generally kill time. This goes with the idea that audiences are dumbing down

This news is different from traditional media as it portrays short concise information in a sentence to its audience about the current news. This is different as it allows audiences to be able to pick and choose at ease what they want to read and at the same time be able to see what else is happening around the world. Unlike traditional media which only presents key information that is assumed to be relevant to its audience, like the hypodermic needle model.

Weekly NDM

Media
Ofcom: one in three children under 15 have their own tablt computer, supplanting TV

This article is about research conducted by ofcom which finds that 34% of five to fifteen year olds have thir own tablets, and has increased from 19% in 2013 to 34% in 2014. 

• Apple dominates with 50% of the UK tablet users.
• Ofcom found that 84% of parents directly supervise their children.
• Tesco says the Hudl sold 750,000 tablets in the past year.

I think that this article is very interesting as it shows that new and digital media is increasing in demand and traditional media such as television is not a must have any more due to the wide range of use of tablets. This means that the internet is more accesible for younger children, which also means they are also less protected and monitored online.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/09/ofcom-one-in-three-children-tablet

Weekly NDM

Technology
Car that parks itself rolls off Tesla production line in California

This article is about a well known car manufacturing company who specialise in making electric sports cars, who have now started to make cars that drive all by themselves, more specifically, park themselves. It also discusses other intitutions such as Google who are developing this technology to create a driverless car.

I think this article is interesting as it portrays the change in times as car manufacturing companies are looking to develop the industry to help drivers and create a safer driving environment, and media institutions such as Google, are also getting in on this technology themselves.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/10/car-parks-itself-tesla-motors-california-elon-musk

Weekly NDM

Newspaper
The Sun's 'Unite against Isis' campaign is a proxy for anti-Muslim bigotry

This article is about the Sun's attempt to persuade people of Britain, especially Muslims to stand up to extremists and display their loyalty to Britain by placing a mini cut out flag which was  placed in th Sun's newspaper where it could be seen by everyone. The front page of The Sun showed a lady in a hijab of the Union Jack.

I find this article interesting as it is another attempt from The Sun newspaper to persuade the British people as they did with the elections in 1992. However this article is controversial as this could make the British Muslims feel as if they are under watch and they must display their loyalty to Britian constantly.

Weekly NDM

Technology

Amazon Fire Phone review: Setting nothing ablaze

This article is about how the recent smartphone released by Amazon; one of the largest online shopping institutions in the world, had not met its expectations. According to the critic, the smartphone felt outdated and had a terrible software which ran everything.

I think that this article is interesting as it shows how media institutions keep on growing and they all want to get in on producing different things, other than what they set out for. Such as apple starting off making personal computers, and now produces phones and much more.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/07/amazon-fire-phone-review-android-smartphone

Research Study

Major News Providers:

Broadcast:

• BBC radio 4
• BBC news
• Sky News
• ITV News

Print:

• The Times
• The Guardian
• The Sun
• Metro

E-Media:

• Twitter
• Guardian
• Daily Mail
• BBC News
• Sky News

Commercial institutions such as The Sun and ITV news present news in a way which would allow them to gain money; The Sun, owned by NewsCorp, charges its audience a fee in order to purchase their newspapers, and ITV news presents adverts to its audiences after/before their news presentations. 

Non- commercial institutions such as the BBC and the Metro, a London based newspaper usually given out near the tube, do not charge their audience for their services as such and they usually tend to present unbiased news stories. The BBC is paid for by a TV license, of which everyone with a TV must have in the UK, that in turn pays for the news and everything that comes with it, so an argument can be made that they are a commercial institution, however they do provide their services based on the fee they receive from their customers for their customers and do not aim to generate profit.