NEWS 22

Newspapers are still warhorses. But their owners are riding them to the grave

Summary:

The News Chronicle published its last issue on 17 October 1960. To James Cameron it was “the biggest journalistic tragedy for many years … the most meaningful collapse the newspaper business has seen this generation”. The Chronicle had a fine radical tradition and loyal readers served by gifted writers, of whom Cameron was one. Its circulation wasn’t what it had been – neither, come to that, was its radicalism – but it was still selling more than 1.1m copies a day. If it couldn’t survive, Cameron wondered, then what newspaper could, “outside the great chain-stores of the trade?”

Facts:

• The News Chronicle published its last issue on 17 October 1960
• the Daily Sketch first subsumed the Daily Graphic and was itself swallowed up by the Daily Mail in 1971
• The News Chronicle, for example, was born out of the marriage in 1930 between the Daily Chronicle and the Daily News, which itself had absorbed three other newspapers
• the News Chronicle’s final circulation of 1.1m is as many as the Independent, the Guardian, the Times and the Telegraph manage to sell in total today.

As publishers lose control, are newspaper websites a dead parrot?

Summary:

A truth is dawning on media owners (or in many cases it has dawned, but they don’t like to talk about it). Publishing is over. Obviously this isn’t true in its purest sense; publishing is actually flourishing, just not for publishers. As Facebook last week extended the reach of its instant articles to anyone, as Google invests in making news articles load lightning fast, as virtual reality can be produced by a £200 kit, it is fair to say we have more opportunity today to put out remarkable works of fact and fiction to the world than ever before.However, defining decisions about formats and revenue are dictated at platform level, Facebook and others, or at carrier level, or even, in the case of Apple’s stance against the FBI, at device level.

Facts:

• The mobile advertising market is already effectively owned by Facebook
• China, which is a hostile media market owing to censorship, announce that it would effectively ban any non-Chinese owned media from operating inside the country. India, in a very different way, asserted its own right to choose a separate path for its communications future when it ruled out Facebook’s Free Basics
• Given the disorienting speed of change and a dozen announcements a week that potentially upend your business model, maybe publishing is not in fact dead, but like the proverbial Monty Python parrot, lying on the floor of its cage, eyes screwed tightly shut

MEST3 NDM/Identity Index Page

1) Reading the riots

2) Post-colonialism: Destiny Ekaragwa film analysis

3) Post-colonialism: theory and clip task

4) Feminism: post-feminism article and No More Page 3 research

5) Feminism: Feminist theory and Beyonce video analysis

6) Feminism: waves and feminism and online activism

7) Identity and Film - Media Factsheet task

8) Collective identity and the media

NEWS 21

The Independent: a newspaper killed by the internet

SUMMARY:

In the end it was the internet which killed the Independent newspaper and not Rupert Murdoch. Hit by a price war launched by the News UK owner in the 1990s, the Indy was a casualty of an industrial revolution which has changed the economics of the newspaper business for ever.After almost 30 years of losing money, it was the cost of publishing a newspaper for so few daily readers – just 40,718 once free or discounted copies are stripped out – that had simply become unsustainable in an age where so much information is free online. In doing so, Lebedev and the management team had looked to the spin put on the BBC’s decision to close its BBC3 television channel and put its content online only. Simply put, this arguments says that as the future is online, we will be too. The problem for the Independent is that it was relatively late to the internet, only taking it seriously with its website relaunch in 2008, and a succession of owners have never invested enough in web content. With 2.8m daily unique browsers, according to December’s audited 

FACTS:

•  Just 40,718 once free or discounted copies are stripped out

• With 2.8m daily unique browsers, according to December’s audited circulation figures, its online figures have never really threatened its old rivals, lagging behind rivals ranging from the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Mirror.

• Back in March 1990, sales of the then four-year old Indy had reached an all-time high of 423,000, eclipsing the Murdoch-owned Times.

Bolt Report: News Corp refuses to confirm reports show has been dropped

SUMMARY:

News Corp has refused to confirm reports that Andrew Bolt’s Sunday morning TV program, which it finances to the tune of $2m a year, will not be broadcast on Ten this year.Guardian Australia understands the decision on the future of the the Bolt Report has been delayed ahead of a News Corp board meeting next month.When Lachlan Murdoch was chairman at Ten he arranged for News to pay for the now defunct Meet the Press and the Bolt Report, which were proving too expensive for the ailing network.Sources said Ten was charging News about $2m a year for using its facilities to produce and broadcast the one-hour weekly program.The program has never enjoyed high ratings or attracted lucrative advertising revenue. It is consistently beaten in the ratings by Insiders on the ABC.

FACTS:

• Sources said Ten was charging News about $2m a year for using its facilities to produce and broadcast the one-hour weekly program.

• The program has never enjoyed high ratings or attracted lucrative advertising revenue. It is consistently beaten in the ratings by Insiders on the ABC.

Identities and Film: blog task

1) Complete the Twenty Statements Test yourself. This means answering the question ‘Who am I?’ 20 times with 20 different answers. What do they say about your identity? Write the 20 answers in full on your blog.

• I am Dhruvina
• I am a female
• I am 18 years old
• I go to school
• I work part tine
• I have a iphone
• I live with my parents
• I have two sisters
• I have one brother
• I use instagram
• I use twitter
• I use youtube
• I have dark brown hair
• I have dark brown eyes
• I am Indian
• I am British
• I was born in Ealing Hospital
• I live in Southall
• I study A level Sociology 
• I live in a semi detached house

2) Classify your answers into the categories listed  on the Factsheet: Social groups, ideological beliefs, interests etc.

Interests:

• I work part time
• I use instagram
• I use twitter
• I use youtube

Social groups:

• I live with my parents
• I have two sisters
• I have one brother

Education:

• I go to school
• I study A level Sociology and A level Media

3) Go back to your favourite film (as identified in the lesson). What does this choice of film say about your identity? Are there any identities within the film (e.g. certain characters) that particularly resonated with your values and beliefs?

My favourite film is Bad Neighbours as I enjoy teenage life and fun

I enjoy watching Zac Efron.

4) Watch the trailers for the five films highlighted as examples of gay/lesbian representation in mainstream film. How are LGBT identities constructed in the trailers and how are audiences encouraged to respond to these representations?

Media and collective identity

1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

Who are you? 
Who we are, think we are, and want to be seen to be differ and are largely impacted by the media  around us.

I think, therefore I am: 

Class, religion and gender served as predetermined roles which decided out our lives.

From citizen to consumer
Bernays proposed ideas of  originating the notions for the consumer boom 

The rise of the individual:
At the end of the 20th century pride towards people for being themselves; empowerment through individualism. 

Branding and lifestyle
Image of consumers formed through 'style over substance'.

Who will we be? 
Self-identity is malleable with the internet developments 

2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity

-Kinder - its chocolate It reflect my identity because its nice
-Nike- nike as it provides good quality and good comfort.

3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?

I agree that modern media is all about style as people are more likely to purchase  branded items. People are more into the style and what makes them more 'attractive', they are more likely to go for style over substance.

4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.

Media saturation for Baudrillard refers to: we live in a world, which is 'media saturated', a world in which we are bombarded by media and advertising messages through multi-channel TV, globalised electronic and cable networks, a profusion of radio stations, newspapers and street billboards. 

Baudrillard argues that the concerns of this are thoughtful. The 'codes' generated by the agencies of meaning become our rules for organising our lives. So influential are these codes that according to Baudrillard that we lose the ability to distinguish between reality (for example, the real practical values of a commodity) and its image.

5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?

I think my presence on social media is a reflection of who I am due to the pictures I like on social media and the pictures I post online, 

6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?

I disagree with the fact that companies should be able to sell products based on social media and online search terms as its repetitive.

Identities: Feminist theory and blog task

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

This music video reinforces Butler's theory of gender roles being a performance as she is portraying the social construction of what society expects of her, also we see Beyonce fixing a car, which is typically a 'mans' job - this shows how gender role are a 'performance'. She is doing manly jobs in a feminist manner, which shows the gender roles being challenged as she is showing what its like to control a man. 

2) Would McRobbie view Beyonce as an empowering role model for women?

McRobbie  may not view Beyonce he may also be dis empowering women as she is self objectifying her self through sexualising her whole entirety, to something of less value and importance. she is making herself look sexualised due to her clothing and the way she is dancing, she is therefore reinforcing the idea of being looked at.

3) What are your OWN views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey)?

In my opinion, I think that Beyonce reinforces the traditional 'male gaze'. This is due to the fact that she is wearing a tight, figure-hugging, 'sexy' outfit, which males gaze upon and stare at her body. she is wearing makeup to reinforce her beauty as well as wearing short clothing to reveal her body.

NEWS20

Google Parent Pushes Apple Off Top Slot

Summary:

Google's parent firm is set to overtake Apple as the world's most valuable company by market value after its latest revenues smashed expectations. Alphabet's share price rose almost 5% in after-hours trading following the release of its fourth quarter and annual results which, if repeated when the markets reopen for trading on Tuesday, should easily take it to the top of the corporate pile. The rise would put Alphabet's value at $549bn (£382bn) compared to Apple's market capitalisation of about $534bn (£371bn).

FACTS:

• Profits for the three months to the end of December came in at $4.9bn - a rise of 5% on the same period last year.
• That was despite its raft of experiments, or 'moonshots', collectively racking up operating losses of $1.2bn in the quarter.

WhatsApp Passes One Billion Users Milestone

SUMMARY:

Messaging application WhatsApp is being used by one billion people, the company behind it has said. The California-based firm announced the milestone just six years after it was founded by ex-Yahoo! employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum. The app's popularity has stemmed from its allowing groups of people to stay in touch simultaneously without having to enter contact details. As well as text messages, users can also share photos, videos and other media. It also offers a similar secure messaging service to the BlackBerry and has become more popular as the Canadian phone maker has seen its handsets fall in popularity compared to those made by other smart phone makers.

FACTS:

• WhatsApp is being used by one billion people
• More than half of its subscribers have been added in the last 21 months, according to Forbes.
• WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in February 2014 for $19bn (£12bn)