marxism vs pluralism

"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.

If a pluralist were to answer this statement, then it would mean that audiences are in fact more empowered by the new/digital media, given that there are extensions in which communication technology has enabled these audiences to no longer be passive, and is more supportive of the statements that pluralism makes, such as the ways in which they consume news. Some of these methods include UGC, where there is a distinct view from what sometimes the media may be hiding, and therefore gives more meaning and significance to this 'freedom of speech' movement. An example includes the death of Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor who collapsed and died in the City of London after being struck by a police officer during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. The shocking part is that Ian Tomlinson was innocent, had no influence in retaliation against police officers, and ultimately wasn't one of the protesters. The video recording that shed bright lights to his death has as a result given and challenged hegemonic views of police forces that were designed to protect and serve, but obviously this is quite the opposite as evident with the seen video footage.

On the other hand, a Marxist's approach would disagree with this, and instead would insist that the audience are not being empowered enough given that their ideologies share the hegemonic view that certain social classes, specifically the 'elite', who control dominant views set in the media. This is as of course suggested by the theorist Gramsci. Similarly, theorist Alain de Botton also quotes something parallel to this, explaining that "News corrupts us", therefore instigating the core opinion of why Marxism views do not think that new/digital media empowers the audience. Factors such as the 'gatekeepers' have an influence in this, where there is believed to be a figure that controls the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, therefore inputting more dominant ideologies and "feeding" the audience targeted information, and keeping a constant and similar status quo. 

However, pluralists disagree to this sustained status quo and instead, as quoted by theorist Gurevitch the audience are enabled to "conform, accommodate, challenge or reject", meaning that the audience are yet again not passive, and in fact "manipulate" the media in some sense if they're willing to do so. Examples include social media plateforms, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, where the "culture of freedom" is more pronounced as users can express their subjective opinions on anything by tweeting, re-tweeting, pinning a post, and simply using the app's special features. As a result, pluralists would yet again agree that new/digital media empowers them, as opinions shared on the Internet can be seen by anyone and can also in a sense be unremoved, as a theorist once stated, "Trying to take information out of the Internet is like trying to take piss out of a pool...". An example of this "stained information" on the Internet would be the Arab Spring protests, where protests took place both in states with a very high level of Internet usage (such as Bahrain with 88% of its population online in 2011).

In result, a Marxism would probably be more criticized for the ideologies in modern day, as the dynamics of information and structures have completely changed within time, almost in a sense making some of their beliefs obsolete. 

social media passiveness, - echo chambers

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2016/11/20/what-happened-social-media-being-conversation-platform-instead-echo-chamber

What happened to social media being a conversation platform instead of an echo chamber?

The article describes social media to currently be that "Curated and personalised news feeds are driving us into holes we might not be able to dig ourselves out of", meaning, we’re becoming more and more self-absorbed with those that share our own views. The article presents other influences on this, including Facebook where in 2013 the 'unfollow' feature was introduced. It gave users the ability to quietly unsubscribe from a friend’s feed without their friend knowing – hiding your friend's right wing views and pictures of their cats from your feed, for example – but to anyone else you're still friends.

• nearly one-third of social media users (31%) say they have changed their settings in order to see fewer posts from someone in their feed because of something related to politics
• while 27% have blocked or unfriended someone for that reason
• taken together, this amounts to 39% of social media users – and 60% of them indicate that they took this step because someone was posting political content that they found offensive.

As lastly stated by the article: "Did social media contribute to putting Trump into the White House or voting us out of the EU? Yes, but it isn't social media's fault; it's ours for not challenging the rhetoric and abandoning the debate." Which basically comments on how sometimes the audience in social media is passive and lets a dominating opinion that one would agree with, control their core beliefs, and this belief simply spreads with a snowball effect.

new zealand media merger and clickbait

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/new-zealand-media-merger-risks-growth-of-glib-click-bait-coverage-say-editors

New Zealand media merger risks growth of 'glib, click-bait' coverage, say editors

The article discusses how the merging of two media companies, 'Farifax Media' and 'NZME', would be a threat to democracy in a country like New Zealand, where already  it is suffering a dearth of serious content, as commented by former editors of the two companies. Three of the editors, Suzanne Chetwin, former Dominion chief Richard Long and ex-New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis, criticise the trend towards “click-bait stories” at a time when television has “all but abandoned current affairs and our public discourse is increasingly glib”. As a result, the merger was sold as an attempt by both companies to stem revenue losses and drastic staff and budget cuts, particularly to rural and regional newsrooms.

• The merger would see one organisation controlling nearly 90% of the country’s print media market (and associated websites), the greatest level of concentration in the OECD and one that is exceeded only by China

News institutions have now as a result taken an unethical approach to news consumption, where they have no disregard for the quality of news they're presenting but instead putting up with 'clickbait' titles, purposely trying to grab users' attention in order to sustain revenue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38064854

Trump wages war on 'dishonest' media 'but will now meet NY Times'

The article discuses how president elect Donald Trump is being put in a worse image than he already is by the New York Times, where he accused the news company of giving him "unfair" media coverage. Throughout his campaign to consult this issue, Mr Trump accused the media of dishonesty, sometimes targeting individual journalists at his rallies and even denying some outlets accreditation to his events.

He feuded with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who later alleged that he had offered her gifts, including hotel stays, in an attempt to influence coverage. In short, this just emphasizes the extent to how much power the media has.

As said before, the media has a huge hegemonic influence on how the audience views a certain figure or event, and this is most affecting people in politics or in an important 'hard news' field like Donald Trump. The fact that Donald Trump is trying to bribe his way into making his image positive says enough about the influence the media has.

Obama is worried about fake news

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/20/barack-obama-facebook-fake-news-problem

Obama is worried about fake news on social media – and we should be too

The article discusses how Obama states that we live "In an age where there’s so much active misinformation, and it’s packaged very well...", introducing influences such as Facebook, television, or in other words, the media to have been the embodiment of misinformation by presenting rumours and wrong information to people. Simply, he states that “everything is true and nothing is true” as a way of saying that information on the Internet is hard to distinct between genuine and true, against lies and false.

The fact that a significant figure such as Barack Obama has commented and shed light into this topic, surely the outcome will be that audiences will now be more skeptic, but as a result may also damage their reliance and trust as a whole in the sense that news institutions will now feel less confident in the information they present.

marxism and pluralism: alain de botton

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

1.) Alain de Botton's statement, explaining how new and digital media, and technology, has had a huge influence on news is without a doubt something to agree with. He raises questions like: How come disaster stories are often so uplifting? What makes the love lives of celebrities so interesting? Why do we enjoy politicians being brought down? Why are upheavals in far off lands often so… boring? In short, he is trying to insinuate the passiveness the audience in modern society are subject to by the media, where they're sort of being fed.

2.) Hegemonic views and Marxism give news a sense of a dominant ideology being fed towards their passive audiences, where they've only seen and have been 'forcefully' given information to be consumed, and to not be questioned. As a result, they're blindsighted by a more real and honest approach, such as other views from UGC, where users share their perspective of the situation, and instead where the media may not always show this perspective to cover up the story for specific reasons.

3.) Alain's 'pathology' in which news institutions are sort of the only source to some people's news consumption, and as a result are only being fed to one side of an event, is somewhat true. However, as stated with the use of technology earlier, audiences are now in more control of what type and how they consume news on a much more vast range of levels with the use of technology and the world wide web. 

4.) http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/so-brand-victim-fake-news-what/1416180

"Last week, the proliferation of fake news on social media ignited a debate over its influence on the election. And two global brands, Pepsi and New Balance, got caught in the online vitriol when top company executives were misquoted in fabricated articles that went viral, and consumers called for boycotts of their products."

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/03/youtube-upgrades-its-comments-system-to-give-creators-more-control/

"YouTube upgrades its comments system to give creators more control. YouTube today is rolling out an upgrade to its comments system, with the goal of putting creators more in control of which comments get featured in the feed, as well as the ability to better interact with their viewers and fans."

marxism, pluralism and hegemony

NDM: Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

1.) In summary, Ian Thompson, an elderly man, was beaten on the leg with a baton by police during  a protest while being suspected to be one of the protesters, while the end result being his death, and while he was innocent, minding his own business, which has caused a lot of controversy regarding the topic of police brutality. 

The preferred hegemonic view of this incident would be to blandly defend the police force as they're thought to protect citizens that do no wrong, and vice versa to criminals. However, any sane person would agree that Thompson was a victim of unnecessary police brutality, and clearly seen from the UGC video Thompson was not apart of the protest and was simply minding his business, to which then the police officer unprofessionally couldn't compose himself with. The new and digital media as a result then challenges this cover up that the media would have bought to defend the police force's image, while UGC clearly says otherwise, presenting objective evidence.

2.) The author, Nick Lacey, explores whether Web 2.0 has really democratised our access to the media, and switched the power from producers to audiences, or whether it has simply become absorbed into the values of 'old media'. In short, Lacey believes that hegemonic values can be challenged by the new and digital media, where social networking apps to spread UGC, therefore we are not this passive audience that simply is subject to being fed news, and that media is no longer 'gatekeepers' anymore.

3.) I think any rational user on the Internet would look one step further, therefore challenge any situation that is happening based on the objective information they see, and this happens to be UGC that seems to be the catalyst to these challenges. Of course too, the media is much less like the 'old media' now, where there is a constant switch between the black and white side of news, and is very hard to give a definitive judgement purely based on what information you're being presented with. As a result, consumers can turn to other alternative news consumption, for example, social networking apps such as Twitter to share your opinions as well as acknowledge other people's opinions.

4.) The hegemonic values of political events, especially concerning presidential candidates have taken their influence and their effect to the point other countries feel as if they're being affected as a result too. Obviously, people would challenge the dominant ideology between their opinion on who should've rightfully been the president of United States, and whether the outcome was the right judgement or not, based on their subjective opinions. This is the same case of Brexit, where people have accused the voters of the winning opposition to have been 'racist'.

newspapers are social media

http://www.wsj.com/articles/newspapers-are-social-media-1477436218

"Newspapers Are Social Media"

The article explains how social media deliberately takes advantage of their crowd or 'loyal subscribers' by putting them in what is known as "The Content Trap". The writer of the article presents and explains steps in how they carry out this scheme, making consumers as a result value content so much that they will be willing to pay for it. It works something like this: Step 1: Produce great journalism. Step 2: Become a trusted news source (e.g., by winning acclaim such as Pulitzers). Step 3: Use that reputation to get subscribers. Step 4: Offer the readers up to advertisers. Step 5: Market the weekend edition to nonsubscribers. And, finally, Step 6: Use the virtuous circle (readers beget advertisers beget more advertisers) to charge high ad prices. 

• Guardian's losses hit £69m but it gains more than 50,000 paying members
• $500,000 to $1 million made are: Brentwood Home Page, Front Porch Forum, Noozhawk, San Angelo LIVE, Technical.ly, The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, VTDigger

Seeing that the majority of users have adblock on, news institutions simply cannot sustain themselves at the moment without any revenue, and as a result the news online news industry is going downhill, as it did with print media.

spend more time consuming media on phone than computers

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/brits-now-spend-more-time-9227627

"Brits now spend more time consuming media on their mobile phones than on computers"

The article states how British people, including adults, consume news more on their mobile phones than the expected desktop computers. Apparently, "mobile devices have overtaken computers as the primary method of consuming digital media in Britain for the first time." As a result, there are objective predictions made based on current statistics, predicting that mobile will have a 29.5% share of total media time spent per day - just a single percentage point behind TV. Comments made, ""In fact, small proportions of digital and mobile time are actually taken up by TV-like viewing, with a plethora of on-demand and streaming options being keenly embraced by UK consumers."; "...data speeds are getting faster and people are becoming more efficient on apps - which means less time spent using them."; "...next year, more than half of all media time in the UK will be spent with digital devices."

• mobile will have a 29.5% share of total media time spent per day - just a single percentage point behind TV.
• adults in the UK will spend an average of 2 hours and 29 minutes per day on their mobile phone or tablet in 2016, compared to 2 hours and 16 minutes on their desktop or laptop.

Acknowledging the situation as a media student, it is no surprise that there is more consumption on mobile phones than on computers simply due to the fact of new and digital media pioneering new methods of news consumption.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/brits-now-spend-more-time-9227627

NDM: News Values

NDM: News Values

1. ) Conflict - World Wars. A war that escalated from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and catalysed by nationalism, pending from country to country. There is a surprise from the discursive politics involved. 

Progress - President Obama January 20,2009. A triumph and achievement in the eyes of a black community, seeing that he was the first black presidential candidate in modern day after the circumstances and events their name has gotten through.

Disaster - 1931 China floods that have an accumulated death toll of around 1 million to 4 million deaths - a very devastating destruction as it is regarded as top in the deadliest natural disasters since 1900. 

Consequence - 2016 Presidential candidate winner Donald Trump. The black and white choice made by America has left one side being affected, while the other side benefiting.

Prominence - Death of Osama bin Laden. America identified him to be the mastermind and power behind terrorist attacks regarding 9/11, and his death simply served as a redemption in some ways.

Novelty - 

3.) One story the factsheet presents:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/
apr/20/british-servicewoman-lisa-headkilled-
afghanistan?INTCMP=SRCH
The story presents the death of a "British" servicewoman who died in Afghanistan, and is more significant because there is someone British mentioned, as opposed to anyone else that would be referred to as just "a person". 

4.) The formal definition of a gatekeeper is that "Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication." Or in simpler terms, gatekeepers are essentially the 'keepers' to what information is to be published and mediated depending on perhaps their importance and people's general interests in order to make headline views.

5.) Ways of bias in news include:

• Only one side of the story is given
• 'Cherry picks' good parts to make something seem interesting and vice versa
• Using subjective values instead of objective
• Unchallenged assumptions
• Lack of context
• Headlines and stories do not match

6.) Twitter for example, is a haven of UGC that influences more subjective values in news being presented as all users have a right to voice their opinions or mediate one by using the app's special features, example, re-tweeting. WikiLeaks also have a similar scheme in the sense that there is some confidential information being leaked, and isn't something that is always being presented in the media. 

7.) Speculations of a "secret meeting" has been bought to view regarding presidential elections of 2016 by WikiLeaks. Essentially creating more controversy, it adds more fuel to the ongoing events, therefore creating more headline views and circulating the situation more.

8.) 

What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source?

It states how UGC can benefit the presentation of news by bring objective evidence to the table. 

What does it say about how news is being produced?

News being produced is now at an objective level and is without bias as there are evidence from eye-witnesses sharing their point of the view.

What role does the audience have in this process?

The audience are allowed to give a fair judgement based on what they see from different views of a story.

Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?

As a result of UGC, essentially everyone is a 'journalist' or some sort, and therefore there is almost no distinction between the consumers and journalists as they're all one sort.

9.) Galtung & Ruge's new values is being affected by digital media technology as the world wide web or Internet due to information being leaked and passed at an unavoidable rate, and as once put by a journalist "Trying to take information out of the Internet is like trying to take piss out of a pool." The judgement in which people stand by is also extended, as there are more accurate assumptions to be made based on objective values.

10.) 

• Negativity - Negativity is now being more widespread, for example, the freedom of speech is demonstrated through the Internet, where people can anonymously express their opinions about something.
• Unambiguity - As we know, the media doesn't always present definitive and viable information to the public, therefore there is always something missing or being misrepresented.
• Predictability - As social networking apps such as Twitter and Facebook spread information and rumors about something significant circulating and aways popping up at your feed, it makes users acknowledge the situation and what is happening.
• Balance - Audiences are now able to view more perspectives of a story.
• Continuity - Regarded as news as the story circulates around the Internet on all social apps, online news headlines, etc
• Elite nations and people - Affairs regarding politics etc are information that is also being presented to the public

Stop media bans

"Stop Media Bans: A Joint Statement By News Organizations"

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/stop-media-bans-a-joint-statement-by-news-organizations-1622916

The article expresses their frustration over media bans, claiming "As citizens of a free nation and as journalists, we are keenly aware that an independent media is among the pillars of a vibrant democracy. For India to progress, we must move forward in the direction of more democracy, not less. Bans on news organisations are a big, dangerous step backward. Attempts to muzzle the free press must be resisted-we owe it to our fellow citizens." And this states their moral reasoning behind why they decided to take action.

• Media bans are more common in 3rd world countries, where the laws can be breached much more easily 
• Media bans simply cause a chain of problems, from arising protests as a result to start with

Media bans are simply a violation of freedom of speech, and it essentially strips people of voicing their opinions whether for reasons of confidential information being spread and stopped by the government, or simply because their views were unpopular, and as a result were shammed by their peers and the media. End-line being, organisations have every right to take action against media bans.

Can social media call the election

https://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-facebook-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-president-republican-democrat/

"Can social media call the election?"

The article discusses the raging topic in USA at the very moment - which presidential candidate will be elected, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? The article then proceeds to comment on how the media also has a huge influence on the two answers, where social network posts from the famous Twitter has a contribution to this. The California Institute of Technology unveiled a website Monday called Tweeting the Election that breaks down tweets by geography and the political background of the person tweeting. As a result of all empirical evidence being gathered, these numbers may give us an earlier breakdown of how the election might pan out. Clinton also used social media to her advantage, launching a Spanish-language Twitter feed and website, using the global Internet to show their support for her.

• 120 Twitter accounts in America
• America has Twitter's majority of users, having 3x the users of Brazil who ranks 2nd most country using Twitter

I would answer the article's question by agreeing, and that yes, social media does in fact have a significant influence in how the election will end with, however these results would also have to be analysed at a deep and discursive level to give an unbiased outcome. Social media's will also give an anonymous voice to those who particularly don't want to make their decisions public, and by doing so anonymously on the Internet, they will not be subject to discrimination. 

citizen journalism, UGC, digital Renaissance

Citizen journalism and UGC (user-generated content)

...2.) examples

• divergence and surveillance to real objective evidence
• consumers having an influence in news presentation
• 26th December 2004 Tsunami
• London Bombings July 5th 2005
• Late November 2008 Mumbai bombings
• Benefits to institutions : see the real and unbiased side that the media may not always show, and UGC enables this

3.) A 'citizen journalist' is a person that generates objective sources for news, or as the article states they're known as 'accidental' and 'grassroots' journalists. However they do not present it; the media do, and this may have a negative effect in the sense that what is presented may be twisted and untruthful, purely for reasons such as making headline hits. These citizen journalists are then responsible for how the news pans out, seeing that they're the ones holding concrete evidence from video, audio, etc.

4.) The first examples of news being generated were only a year after the rise of technology in 1991, and this says something about the impact it has on news on a universal level. A reported riot clash in 1992 where "There were six days of riots, 53 people died, and around 4000 people were injured."

5.) As with online news, there are these formats that it is presented in:

• Glanced at headlines
• Read story
• Video clips
• Live video
• TV news programme 
• Live radio
• Podcast
• Live news page
• Read blog

6.) As a media student to say, one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and UGC is that there is a clear distinction of how consumers can make out the information presented. For example, UGC may be shot with a bad camera, and this has an effect in certain situations such as identifying an object (license plates, etc) that is hard to see. On the other hand, if it was professionally recorded, then there would be such problems. However, professionally shot footage may still be subject to bias, in the sense that only footage for their support but not of their opposition.

7.) The formal definition of a gatekeeper is that "Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication."

8.) Gatekeepers are being changed as a result now due to the constant change in news dynamics from consumers themselves having a strong influence on insitutions.

9.) The primary concerns for journalists from the rise of UGC are:

• Jobs for journalism are being declined in the competitive industry
• Irrelevant/obsolete news having to be presented

10.) What impact is new/digital media having on:

• news stories : news can now be shared, consumed, and presented in different formats for people's convenience, and is sometimes free. Also in correlation to the rise of new digital media, there is also a rise in UGC, therefore news being presented is also influenced by consumers themselves as they're the people that supply information and evidence.
• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news) : Similar to news stories, UGC being submitted to companies may be obsolete and irrelevant, and is more influenced by people's trivial interests rather than the grand picture of world affairs for example.
• the role of professionals in news : As stated before with news stories, there is sort of a bias influence in the sense that consumers are the ones supplying information.

Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance

...2.) 

• Positive aspects of new technology : Internet convenience - free
• Internet access and right to information
• Negative aspects of new technology : Too much information being presented, whether they confidential regarding greater risks i.e. politic related
• Bauldrillard : defined "hyperreality" as "the generation by models of a real without origin or reality;" hyperreality is a representation, a sign, without an original referent.

3.) Instagram, also owned by Facebook, has a unique leading social network that is used to share pictures, and this is a digital renaissance in the sense that there has been no other more successful picture sharing network like Instagram itself. 
Twitter also has a unique usability that makes it a digital renaissance. Users can for example retweet to highlight something that interests them, and this creates a ciruclation on any issues that makes them feel like it is worth being acknolwedged. 
And finally there is Periscope, a live streaming app that is able to present information in real time without any preventions like censorship.

4.) Social networks such as the live streaming Periscope and Facebook LIVE apps have sort of pioneered UGC being streamed without consent and without censorship, and purely displays what there is without any restrictions, e.g. news companies refining information that they want/don't want to present due to several legal reasons i.e. censorship. 

5.) 'Digital renaissance' can be linked to our case study on news in the sense that there is a pivotal point and a new pioneering in the new digital media that impacts the news industry, whether it is causing a decline or a benefit

NDM story index

#1&#2 "What does an Internet feminist look like"
#3 "The impact of Google"
#4"Are mobiles changing how we shop?"
#5"Reality television shows such as Big Brother might be scripted"
#6"Facebook reunites Syrian refugee and co-worker"
#7"The Sunday Sport bans ads despite censorship claim"
#8"Thieves use social network to track down Kim K and finesse her"
#9"Social media making private breakups into a celebrity spat" 
#10"World media needs to know freedom of press is being curbed in Pakistan"
#11"Nigeria's youth use social media to report FGM: Activists"
#12&13"Ethiopia bans social media as suspected to be giving out information to terrorists"
#14"Newspapers and media in general should or should not cover statements made by presidential candidates"
#15"Were newspaper publishers wrong to go digital?"
#16"India's newspapers banned in Kashmir city due to protests"
#17"Can social media call the election?"
#18"Stop media bans"