NEWSPAPERS: The effect of online technology

Newspapers in decline

·         Institutions in competition with one another

o   To ensure they have enough people consuming their products

o   So they can make money from advertising to safeguard their survival

·         Becoming more difficult to compete with rise of e-media

·         Over last decade = UK’s daily newspapers, lost 2.25 million readers.

·         Last 10 years advertising revenues have fallen – 20%

·         To stay profitable:

o   Cut staff

o   Close offices

o   Getting rid of titles

Why is the newspaper industry in crisis?

·         Die to the internet

·         Last few years – revolution in how industries deal with news and how audiences access it

·         Internet increases → dominance on media landscape, readers’ attention/loyalties DIVIDED

·         According to SULL (Blogger for Financial Times) 5 reasons why newspaper in deeper crisis

·         Ignoring sings of change

·         Dismissing unconventional competitors

·         Experimenting too narrowly

·         Giving up on promising experts to quickly

·         Embarking on a crash course

·         The newspaper industry is finding itself in a transitional period – calling into nature the production and reception of news

·         In future – news will be accessed via broadcast or e-media

·         Most institutions have been slow to embrace web but now embrace it to target specific audiences

·         But proving harder to make profits than print media

·         Too many free sites – readers not prepared to pay

·         Have to rely on advertising to generate income

                                                                                                                   

Impact of Online Technology on News

Traditional paper based

·         Not free

·         Easily destroyed

·         Usually target a specific audience base

·         Costly to produce

·         Costly to distribute

·         Cannot be updated immediately and regularly

·         not interactive

·         Cannot allow audience immediate feedback/ citizen journalism

·         Offers in-depth analysis and comment but is limited by space.

Online news

·         Mostly free content

·         Can be accessed anywhere

·         Content remains even

·         Cheap to distribute

·         offer countless news stories and archive stories

·         Can be interactive

·         Varied options for expansion of topic matter.

Audience gratifications of The Guardian website

·         Long-running chat boards

·         Network of weblogs

·         Leaving comments on articles

o   Can make an audience feel powerful by creating the idea that they are challenging the news institution’s values

·         Readers can access articles online

·         Varied selection of categories

·         Images

·         Podcast

·         Access to paper-based content

·         Dating sites/ personals

Should News be Free

·         James Murdoch of NewsCorp – critical of free online news

o   states that the BBC and its “expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision,” he also said the scope of the BBC’s activities and ambitions was “chilling” and that news on the web provided by the BBC made it “incredibly difficult” for private news organisations to ask people to pay for their news.  “It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.”

·         NewsCorp are driven by the need to make money whereas the BBC, a Public Service Broadcaster is less governed by the economic imperative

·         News Corporation has said it will start changing online customers for news content across all its websites in a bid to recoup and generate money from subscription

Audience Power

·         In some ways audiences are more active in the way they consume news.

·         example, online communities have access to information and are not restricted by the legal rules that apply to news institutions

·         For example of this active participation is when the Twitterverse (the new name for the world of ‘Twitter’) along with Wikileaks took up the cause for The Guardian against a company who had legally ‘gagged’ the newspaper from revealing their illegal actions on the Ivory Coast

Media News | "iPad mini: Apple launches new smaller tablet"

• Prices starting at $329
• A key competitor with Amazon's Kindle and Google's Android tablets
• A way to move muscle in on the market in smaller, cheaper tablets – one dominated for now by Amazon and Google.
• "Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they have failed miserably," - Phil Schiller (Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide marketing)
• "The technology inside is equal to, if not better to, the iPad 2 in every way." - Schiller
• The move is a crucial part of Apple's plan to beat back the charge on to its home turf of consumer electronics hardware by Amazon and Google, 
• A research group is forecasting that sales of smaller tablets will double this year.

This shows how Apple are focused on dominating the technology market, not just in one aspect but in several - computers (macs), mobile phones (iPhone), music (iPod and iTunes), tablet computing (iPad). They try to find a way to reach as wide a audience as possible - this makes it difficult for other companies to compete.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/23/ipad-mini-apple-tablet-google-amazon

Media News | "Tablet Boom Leaves Intel Out in the Cold"

·         Intel, the world's largest computer chip-maker, has announced a plunge in profits

·         They had a 14% fall in profit to $2.97bn (£1.8bn)

·         This is mainly a result of its failure to break into the tablet market.

·         The shift away from PCs toward tablets is a threat to Intel because most tablets do not use Intel processors but cheaper chips similar to the ones found in smartphones.

·         New software is a radical departure from previous Windows versions in terms of how people are expected to use it to control their PCs.

·         Intel wants to get its chips into tablets. The launch of Windows 8, Microsoft's new operating system, on October 26 gives it a chance to do so since the software is designed both for PCs and tablets.

This shows the decline of the usage of traditional computers, and the increase of people using tablets - such as iPads – or their mobile phones. This is reinforced by the introduction of 4G, and the developing 5G, which may see the end of using the broadband internet in computers - as form of internet will probably be much faster.

http://news.sky.com/story/998755/tablet-boom-leaves-intel-out-in-the-cold

Learner Responce | Essay

WWW: A very well structured and fluent essay, incourporating a range of examples, theories and media terminology.

EBI: More neeed on the benefits to audiences/users

Write a section on UGC, giving examples of how this empowers the masses.

UGC - user generated content - has had a major impact on new and digital media; it has also contributed to the media revolution. Blogging websites and even more prominently, YouTube - has given audiences a chance to create their own material. Since the first video was posted on YouTube in 2005, the site is viewed more than a billion times a day; therefore this in an effective way of reaching a vast audience. For example, this has increased the amount of "citizen journalists" - these are everyday people who happen to witness an event and capture it via video, image or text. These people are them able to share it online where it may receive attention. This was the cast with Rodney King incident where a serious case of police brutality was caught on camera. Consequently, this grabbed the attention of news institutions who broadcasted it and made people more aware of the issue. This empowers the masses as it gives them a change to have their voices heard and has paved a way for news to be told by everyday citizens - from their perspective - rather than from official institutions. This has therefore brought about positive change - especially for the public.

Notes | The Rise and Rise of UGC

The Rise and Rise of UGC

·         Big institutions used to create and broadcast news to a passive a receptive audience

·         New technology means audiences are no longer passive

·         Audiences become users and users become publishers

o   Old division between institution and audience eroded

·         Key to change = video phones, growth of internet, user dominated sites

·         “Citizen Journalist”

·         1991 – Police caught a guy called Rodney King and beat him up, it was filmed by an onlooker

o   Racism issues and caused civil unrest

o   Started LA riots

o   (video recording by onlookers much more common)

§  Footage easier to upload to internet

·         UGC; plays role in aspects of media

o   Participation in news orgs

§  Message boards

§  Chat rooms

§  Q&A

§  Polls

§  Blogs with comments

·         Social media sites – based around UGC

o   Bebo

o   MySpace

o   Youtube

o   Facebook

·         People turn to UGC to access news

o   Wikipedia News

o   Google News

o   YouTube

·         Asian Tsunami (December 26^th 2004) – Turning point for UGC

o   Earlier footage – provided by citizens/”accidental journalists”

o   Later – social networking sites provided witness accounts and acted as a forum for people to share their experiences

·         London Bombings (July 5^th 2005)

o   Footage from mobile phones uncompromising

o   First hand view

·         People have desires to tell their own stories and have their own moment of fame

o   May be the cause of the popularity of Facebook, etc

·         However, also has more negative outcomes:

o   Package of writngs, videos, photos from Seung Hui Cho – Virginia Tech massacre

o   Provided evidence and showed the account from his point of view

·         Twitter and Flickr came to forefront during Mumbai Bombings in India (late November 2008)

o   Bombs went off through city = worlds media got up to date with events through reports on Twitter and Flickr

§  But seen as controversial

·         As they were broadcasting their tweets, people may have been putting their lives at risk

·         Also on Twitter: Hudson River Plane Crash (January 15^th 2009

o   Dramatic picture of plane half sinking in the river with passengers crowded of wing waiting to be rescued

§  Janis Krun tweeted:

§  “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on a ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

·         Therefore it was this citizen journalist – empowered by social networking sites – that first broke this story.

Gatekeepers

·         They still fulfil their old function of decided what is and isn’t news and what will and won’t be broadcast

·         You can send as much UGC to major news organisations as you want, but there will be no guarantee that it will be aired.

·         The way around gatekeepers is with independent media on the web

o   Blogosphere

§  Opportunity for niche views and for it to reach a wide audience

·         The change in the landscape of the news means that groups who had little access before may gain a voice through citizen journalism

Professionals

·         It’s likely that in the future there will be fewer permanent trained staff at news organisations

Homework | The Rise and Rise of UGC

A citizen journalist is an ordinary person – who isn’t an actual journalist – that provides an account of an event that they’ve witnessed through video, photos text, etc.

The first examples of news that was generated by ‘ordinary people’ was the Rodney King incident – where this man got brutally beaten up by a member of the police and an onlooker caught it on camera.

The formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations are:

·         Message boards

·         Chat rooms

·         Q&A

·         Polls

·         Blogs with comments

The main differences between professionally shot footage and UGC footage, taken first hand is that, professionally show footage is usually shot by a media institution – for example news – therefore they look for the best, most clear and eventful shots they can get. However, first hand footage is usually shot by an onlooker who films what they can see in the moment – this may mean it’s not as clear and is only from one perspective – professionally shot footage would aim to get various different shots from various viewpoints.

A gatekeeper is a barrier that moderates what can or can’t be shown/ broadcasted on media platforms to audiences.

The role of a gatekeeper has changed because they are unable to moderate material that’s on the web. This could be done by blogging. Also, it gives a chance to groups that had little access to self-representation before to have a voice.

One of the primary concerns that’s held by journalists over the rise of UGC is that it’s likely in the future that there will be less trained staff at news organisations that will leave a smaller amount of core staff who will manage and process UGC from citizen journalists.

Media News | Teenager Hacks Google (Again)

• A teenager by the name Pinkie Pie hacked Google's browser - Chrome - for the second time
• They won $60,000
• Google offered money if anyone could find security problems with its products
• Google fixed it 10 hours after the bug was found
• This competition took place on Tuesday at a conference called Hack in the Box in Malaysia
• Facebook also has a program offering at least $500 to spot holes in its systems

This shows that there are always risks with the internet concerning security or bugs and I think that for the internet to continue to grow - it will need to minimise it's threats as much as possible.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/teenager-wins-60k-hacking-google-105141052.html

Media News | Facebook hits 1 billion users a month

Facebook is used by 1 billion/1 in 7 people a month
Reached this milestone just 2 years and 3 months since they reached the half a billion mark
It's recorded
1.13 trillion Likes
140.3 billion friend connections
219bn shared photos 
...since it launched in February 2004

More than 300m photos are uploaded every day and 62.6m songs played.

"Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life,"

A welcome distraction from their share collapse, which launched at $38 a share in May only to drop steadily to $21 on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg tumbled down the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans as his personal fortune fell by $8.1bn.

Facebook also used the 1 billion user milestone on Thursday to launch a digital video ad to promote its own advertising tools - "The Things that Connect Us"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/04/facebook-hits-billion-users-a-month

Notes | The Virtual Revolution

The Virtual Revolution

·         Tim Burners Lee created the internet - he was English

·         The Well  -  1985

o   Created in San Francisco by Stuart Brand

·         Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft

·         Mark Zuckerburg – founder of Facebook

·         Shawn Fanning – founder of Napster

o   Sharing music illegally

o   Changed music industry

o   It was shut down in 2001

·         Youtube – founded by Chad Hurley

o   First video was posted in 2005

o   Viewed more than 1 billion times a day

·         Huffington Past – Founded by Arianna Huffington

o   An aggregation site

o   Beginning of a “hybrid future”

·         Jimmy Wales – Founder of Wikipedia

·         There are 14 million articles on Wikipedia

o   They’re free to access

o   65 billion people use it a month

·         Ordinary people can author and edit content

o   Challenges authority – people power

§  Libertarianism/ counter culturalism

§  But how accurate is it?

·         Al Gore

o   Internet is an “empowering tool”

o   Its “exciting and revolutionary”

·         Stephen Fry

o   It has “unbelievable power”

·         2 billion people are now online worldwide

·          “Digital Divide”

o   Digital haves/digital have not’s

·         Quarter of the planet uses web

o   35 million people will log on a day

·         1 billion pounds a week are spent on the internet

·         5 million people uses internet dating website a week

·         40% of men use porn

·         Email created in 1965

·         Internet Explorer dominated 90% of the internet market

·         Blogging allows people to self-express

·         130 million blogs created in 2002

·         18 million people read blogs

·         No controlling authority

·         Allows people to be free

·         Threatens to subvert society

·         Web – Easier to produce and share

·         The internet revolution could be compared to the industrial revolution

·         The internet mirrors a hierarchy in our world

o   A counter revolution will inevitably follow

o   Colonised by new elites

o   No one can stop it