NDM News case study: Audience and Institution

How has news changed in the last 20 years?

What are the benefits for audiences and institutions from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry?

-Mobile apps 

-Accessible 
- Broader audience (youth)
- Alternative ideology 
- Comments 
- Tweets (live updates, better informed, instant news)
- Getting their voices heard - DEMOCRACY
- Advertising 
- Lost revenues 
- Google dominance 

What are the downsides for audiences and institutions as a result of new and digital media in news?

- Free news - (decline of the industry, job loses, newspaper closures)

- Are mobile apps being used? - dumbing us down? 'Andrew Kean'

- Global Village - 'Mcluen'

Audience and Institution

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

• The majority of adults in the UK (95%) say they follow the news.

• Television is by far the most-used platform for news, with 75% of UK adults saying they use TV as a source of news; this figure has seen a small decrease since 2013 (78%).

• There has been growth in the number of those who use any internet or apps for news, with over four in ten (41%) doing this so this year, compared to just under a third last year (32%).

• This is particularly evident in the 16-34 age group,where use of internet or apps for news has increased from 44% in 2013 to 60% in 2014. This is particularly evident in the 16-34 age group,

• over a quarter (28%) of those who consume news in the UK named BBC One, compared to over one-third (34%) in 2013.

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.

BBC News

News has become 24 hours a day; immediate; available on new platforms; mobile. And now the latest powerful tool to change news - social media. For BBC News, social media currently has three key, highly valuable roles in our journalism:

• news gathering - it helps us gather more, and sometimes better, material; we can find a wider ranges of voices, ideas and eyewitnesses quickly

• audience engagement - how we listen to and talk to our audiences, and allowing us to speak to different audiences - and

• a platform for our content - it's a way of us getting our journalism out there, in short form or as a tool to take people to our journalism on the website, TV or radio. It allows us to engage different and younger audiences.

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

The Huffington Post became one of the most popular news sites online largely by rewriting newspaper articles. This isn't the inevitable result of technology. Traditionally, the companies that invested in music and film also controlled their distribution – EMI, for example, owned recording studios, pressing plants, and the infrastructure that delivered CDs to stores. Piracy was always a nuisance, but never a serious threat. The same was true of other media businesses: the easiest place to get a newspaper story was from a newspaper. The internet changed all this, not because it enables the fast transmission of digital data but because the regulations that enable technology companies to evade responsibility for their business models have created a broken market.

• The Pirate Bay website made money by illegally offering major-label albums, even as music sales declined to less than half of what they were 10 years ago.
•  YouTube used clips from shows such as NBC's Saturday Night Live to build a business that Google bought for $1.65bn.#

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

Due to the changes in new and digital media, it was inevitable to state that audiences has benefited the most on the news industry, however so have institutions in some aspects. Audiences has benefited the most due to the changes in new and digital media as its more accessible due to applications on mobiles and news that is now easier to access in terms of online newspapers or social media such as twitter. However, this is then a downfall for institutions as due to the changes in how news is now consumed it causes a decline of the industry, causing people to lose their jobs as well as newspaper closures. 

'There has been growth in the number of those who use any internet or apps for news, with over four in ten (41%) doing this so this year, compared to just under a third last year (32%) ; this statistic shows how audiences have tuned into news channels due to the accessibility on their mobile phones. these statistics also explain what audiences are more likely to consume these applications; such as the youth which makes them broader. Also due to social media becoming more advanced than it was before, it has also caused the audiences to have an alternative ideology as they can share their comments and thoughts; which therefore gives them more of a say as they are getting their voices heard. Also due to social media, it also allows audiences to receive live updates which therefore mean that they are better informed due to the instant updates they receive from social media such as twitter.

However; even though it advantages the audience it is disadvantaging the institutions at the same time. This is because due to the free news audiences are now available to, it leads to the decline of the industry as there are many job losses due to this as well as newspaper closures. Also, even though statistics state that more people are now using mobile apps, the question is ‘are they really being used’ for news or is it just for social media such as Instagram or Facebook; as these are the institutions the youth are more likely to tune into on their mobile phones then news apps; this therefore could be applied through Andrew Kean’s theory us ‘being dumbed down.'

In conclusion, both audiences and institutions benefit from the improvements in new and digital media on the news; however they also have their disadvantages. In addition, it is also significant to realise the impact of new and digital media as it has improved so much, therefore more audiences now have access to many institutions and make the most of what’s available to them.