NDM Baseline assessment: Learner response

1) Look over your essay, read it back in full and examine any feedback given. Read the A 
grade exemplar essay from a past A* student. What does the A* essay do well that you need to improve on?

• This A* student writes an appropriate amount for the question
• They use key words taken from the question
• They use specific, detailed examples

2) Read the Examiner's Report from this exam for this exam as outlined above and write three bullet points that summarise the key comments that apply to your essay.

• "Almost all candidates focused on the question."
•  "Higher level answers evaluated the extent of empowerment and also discussed some of the downsides for audiences and the ways in which audiences had not been empowered." 

3) Type up your feedback in full 
27=C
WWW: A solid essay that stays focused on the question. You also cover both sides of the argument.
EBI: You need detailed, specific examples for each paragraph - loads you could use e.g trump, brexit, 2017 election, viral campaigns, #blm etc.

4) Write a new, detailed paragraph to add to your essay that addresses one of the LRs/EBIs specified in your feedback. This may be the other side of the argument (the idea that audiences are not empowered) or perhaps a new or improved example from the wider media. Make sure this is an extremely well-developed paragraph of several hundred words, encompassing media issues, debates, examples and theories wherever possible.

Looking further into institution, if we explore the idea of Parento's law, it suggests audiences having little power. Parento's law refers to the notion that big conglomerates have all the power in the media. For example, google is a prime example; It provides almost everything on the internet. This Marxist view suggests the audience is being controlled by more powerful groups in institution. Similarly, another concept is the 'global village', this refers to the world being viewed as a community in which distance and isolation have been dramatically reduced by electronic media. Although this is a good thing, we can argue it simply reinforces dominant ideologies and westernises the information we receive. Again, this links to the idea of audiences being controlled by the more powerful groups in society.

Apple blocking ads that follow users around web is 'sabotage' (4)

Apple blocking ads that follow users around web is 'sabotage'

New iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra will stop ads following Safari users, prompting open letter claiming Apple is destroying internet’s economic model
For the second time in as many years, internet advertisers are facing unprecedented disruption to their business model thanks to a new feature in a forthcoming Apple software update.  iOS 11, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for mobile devices, will hit users’ phones and tablets on Tuesday. It will include a new default feature for the Safari web browser dubbed “intelligent tracking prevention”, which prevents certain websites from tracking users around the net, in effect blocking those annoying ads that follow you everywhere you visit. The tracking prevention system will also arrive on Apple’s computers 25 September, as part of the High Sierra update to macOS. 

• Safari is used by 14.9% of all internet users, according to data from StatCounter.
• Tracking of users around the internet has become crucial to the inner workings of many advertising networks. 
• Six major advertising consortia have already written an open letter to Apple expressing their “deep concern” over the way the change is implemented
• “Apple’s Safari move breaks those standards and replaces them with an amorphous set of shifting rules that will hurt the user experience and sabotage the economic model for the internet.”

I feel that Apple has taken a really bold, independent decision here that is solely intended to improve the experience that their users have.

Tinder data issue (3)

I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets
Getting your data out of Tinder is really hard – but it shouldn't be

This article looks into the popular dating app, Tinder and their mass data storing of their users. A woman, With the help of privacy activist Paul-Olivier Dehaye from personaldata.io and human rights lawyer Ravi Naik, emailed Tinder requesting her personal data and got back more than she bargained for.It discusses how we can actually access all this data but typically most users don't realise it. The issue the writer discusses is how this data is harder to retrieve than it should be (as seen in the sub article above).

• 50 million people are users of tinder.
• Tinder’s privacy policy clearly states your data may be used to deliver “targeted advertising”
• “You are lured into giving away all this information,” says Luke Stark, a digital technology sociologist at Dartmouth University.

Personally, I am not worried about this. These companies do not have enough time to individually pick through people's search histories and even if they did, most people's search history contains nothing incriminating. However. the very obvious targeted advertisements can be annoying.

NDM: The changing face of news media

Blog task 1: News institutions research

Research the major players in terms of UK news providers and make notes in a detailed blog post. List companies, publications/channels/programmes, owners, statistics and anything else you find relevant.

BBC 

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster with its headquarters at Broadcasting House in London. The BBC is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. The BBC has 5 main channels:

• BBC News
• BBC One
• BBC Two 
• BBC Three 
• BBC Four

Sky
Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting and BSkyB) is a telecommunications company which serves the United Kingdom. Sky provides television and broadband internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster with 11 million customers.

ITV
Independent Television, a British television network:

Blog task 2: The impact of Google

Read this article looking at the impact Google has had on the traditional newspaper business.

1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?

Google provides users with a vast amount of information available at the touch of their fingertips. This makes newspapers redundant as they are not as quickly accessible and free like the internet's information is. 

2) Find a statistic from the article that illustrates the decline of traditional news media.

' More than $40 billion, or about 60 percent of the ad revenue the industry generated at its peak in 2000, according to figures from the Newspaper Association of America '

3) Looking at the graph featured in the article, what period has seen the steepest decline in newspaper advertising revenue? 

2007 had the biggest decline at $25 billion

4) Do you personally think Google is to blame for newspapers closing and journalists losing their jobs? Why?

Personally, I feel that the advancement of technology was inevitable. The golden days of newspaper was bound to happen eventually. Although they caused the downfall of newspapers, they did not intentionally -cause it.

5) Read the comments below the article. Pick one comment you agree with and one you disagree with and explain your response to the comments in detail.

'Obviously, Google is not to blame. I don’t think it’s about blame. I think the Internet is incredibly poorly designed. Rather than being free, everything on it should cost something in order to compensate creators. We have a proven system for doing this through organizations like ASCAP and BMI. The principal of royalties for profiting from the content of others is well established. Google came along, and, at least in the case of Youtube, knowingly robbed content creators for years in order to build up the business. The ideal system would be one in which every click resulted in a nano-charge on your phone bill, maybe 1/1000 of a cent for a news story, for example. Sites like Google that link to other sites could also pay in very tiny increments.'

This comment by Phil Hood brings up the interesting idea of charging users for the information they can access on the interest. I don't particularly agree with his outlook but I agree with his thoughts on google is not entirely at fault for the downfall of newspaper.

NDM case study: How has news changed?

1) Read this Ofcom 2016 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom document.

• The Sun and the Daily Mail are the most-read UK-wide newspapers. 
• Three in ten (29%) now use a mobile for news
• 19% have used only TV for news

• One in twenty (6%) use all four main platforms for news
• Those aged 65+ are more likely than those aged 16-24 to use TV, newspapers and radio for news consumption, while the opposite is true for the internet/ apps. 

2) What are the most popular platforms for audiences to access news and how has this changed in recent years?

TV is the most-used platform for news, with 69% of adults using it for the news. However this is continuing to decrease. In 2014 75% of adults used their TV to watch news.

3) How do different age demographics access news in the UK?

There are huge differences in each age group. Those categorised as 65+ are more likely to be using newspapers and the radio for their news compared to those aged 16-24. This younger group tend to use the internet for their news.

4) What percentage of 16-24 year olds use the internet to access their news?

63% for 16-34 year olds access the news via the internet.

5) Does socio-economic status change attitudes to news? If so, how?

As you can see, socio-economic status has a huge impact on peoples attitudes to news. It appears that the higher ranking you have, the more likely you are to watch television to get your news.

6) How many different sources of news are used on average? How does differ between different groups?

We can see that there are around 4 main sources of news that are used. They differ between each group depending on age, race, socio-economic status etc.

7) How has news consumption through television changed in recent years?
It is clear that the average consumption of television has drastically decreased. This is mainly due to the huge advancements made in technology. People no longer need to turn on a large device and wait to watch something; now, they can access everything at the touch of their fingertips.

8) How much has newspaper circulation declined since 2010? Why do you think this is?
going downwards from 9.2 on January 2010 to December 2016 to 6.0 for national daily titles and 5.4 for national Sunday titles. Again, this is mainly due to the rise in internet users.

9) Which are the most popular newspapers and websites in the UK? What do you know about those newspapers' political viewpoints?

• The Daily Mail is a very popular, conservative British newspaper. 
• Similarly, The Times is another right-wing paper
• The Guardian is a more left-wing newspaper.

10) How does online news consumption differ for age, gender and socio-economic status?

• 17% use search engines 
• 15% use newspaper sites/apps
• 23% of all adults for news
• 20% use social media sites
• adults between the ages of 16-24 consume media digitally 

11) What percentage of people use social media to access news? How does this differ by age and socio-economic status?

12) What percentage of users only use social media sites for their news?

13) What are the most popular online sites for news?
The top three most popular sites for online news consumption are Breaking News, Local News and UK News.

14) What percentage of 16-24 year olds access news mostly from social media?

94% of users use social media to keep track of the news.

15) How do audiences find stories online? Do you follow links or go to the homepage of the news provider?

Most internet users already use apps for social interaction and whilst doing this, they receive news within those apps.

Ted Cruz's Twitter Scandal (2)

Ted Cruz likes pronographic tweet

Texas senator Ted Cruz has been asked to explain himself after his official account “liked” a pornographic tweet. Although liking a Twitter post does not necessarily share it, the tweet became available to view on Cruz’s verified profile, leading to series of awkward screenshots. The Texas senator went on to add “there are a number of people on the team that have access to the account and it appears that someone inadvertently hit the like button”. When asked if Cruz himself had liked the tweet, he said said: “It was a staffing issue, and it was inadvertent, it was a mistake, it was not a deliberate action.” The mishap was particularly awkward due to Cruz’s support of conservative family values and his involvement in a court case in Texas about banning the use of sex toys.

• The timing of the incident, on the anniversary of September 11, made the incident even more commented on
• Cruz has been a frequent subject of mockery on social media and repeatedly named in a conspiracy theory that he is the Zodiac killer, which was also referenced in relation to the Twitter like.
• The liking of the pornographic post helped resurface a 2016 tweet from the TV producer Craig Mazin, in which he said he shared a room with Cruz and his beliefs about genital stimulation were rather different to those expressed in the state argument.

I feel that this incident was easily avoidable. Things like this are easily avoidable but will still happen. This is a prime example of the instant effect of accidental content on the internet. Once it is out there - it is irrevocable. As the article mentions, young children follow his account and parents are trusting of that considering the account is run by a verified US Senator. This makes me feel that there should be a lot more effort put into Cruz's social media to avoid ridiculous tweets like these being shared.