Amrit's MEST3 Exam Blog

Cross-media ownership: Xenophon bloc likely to support scrapping diversity rules https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/31/cross-media-ownership-xenophon-bloc-likely-to-support-scrapping-rules Summary: "Coalition wants to dump regulations that prevent moguls such as Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes owning TV, newspaper and radio assets in the same market" Xenophon Senate bloc’s support media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch or Kerry Stokes to own television, radio and newspaper assets in the same market. Dumping the media regulation called the "75% reach rule and the two-out-of-three rule." Labor is supportive of scrapping the reach rule but Australia already has one of the most concentrated media markets. “The real power now is with the web, with social media, with Facebook, and Google,” Griff said. “I think we’ve got great diversity now.” "Nine’s chief executive, Hugh Marks, warned in the company’s submission: “Changing any ownership rules befor...

Ofcom dismisses every complaint of bias against Jeremy Corbyn about UK broadcasters http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/jeremy-corbyn-bias-ofcom-complaint-bbc-channel-4-sky-news-labour-party-a7368796.html Summary: Ofcom received many reports regarding the coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s as he became Labour leader. His supporters have claimed that the BBC and Channel 4 are bias against him and are meant to remain unbias. Ms Kuenssberg was accused against being bias against Corbyn after questioning him with a standard technique employed by journalists - 35,000 people signed a petition to have her sacked. The campaigning website 38 Degrees eventually removed the petition due to misogynist comments. Corbyn himself claimed the BBC was bias during a Vice news documentary saying “There is not one story on any election anywhere in the UK that the BBC will not spin into a problem for me." and  “It is obsessive beyond belief. They are obsessed with trying to damage ...

The New Day The New Day was a brand new newspaper launched by institution Trinity Mirror earlier this year and folded after just two months. Complete the following tasks on your blog: 1) Read the feature: 'A New Day for British journalism' on page 6 of Media Magazine 57 (our  Media Magazine archive is here ). 2) What was the New Day trying to achieve? They were trying to achieve a new market of readers, those who didn't typically buy newspapers in the first place. Alison Phillips, the papers editor, claimed that news paper sales have not declined because " they have fallen out of love with newspapers as a format, but because what is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs." They decided to come up with a paper that met these needs being a cheap, to the point news paper.  Aimed at a 35 to 55 audience who wanted a more modern approach to the news with a ruthless edit, balanced analyses and opinions without the political line (much like ...

BBC iPlayer users will have to use personal logins from early 2017 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-iplayer-personal-logins-to-help-licence-fee-2017-a7332231.html  Summary: BBC aiming the move of personal logins to make its services more personalised and localised The pervious BBC ID users will have to add a postcode to their infromaation to access the more personalised content. The tv TV licencing authorities will have access to the personal information but BBC says this won't be used to enforce the change. The article also refers to the need to having to confirm your tv liecence in order to view iplayer Key statistics: around seven million BBC ID accounts currently exist My opinion: I feel like the BBC is just jumping onto the back of the trend of having aimed content. This would most likely have the same implication as targeted news as on other websites, the important news may been left behind if we don't seem to show an interest in that par...

Why do we still accept that governments collect and snoop on our data? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/30/government-data-collection-citizens-acceptance-global-rights-privacy-free-speech  Summary: The article brings forth an argument against mass surveillance through using our internet data as individuals. Global rights, such as privacy and free speech, ae threatened by this and it is time to challenge it in European courts.  A British court found that British intelligence agencies " acted unlawfully by concealing bulk spying programs from the public for over a decade." Thus, creating implications across the globe and not just in Europe. An example would be the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), who NSA swaps private data of citizens with,  The lawsuit challenges the government’s  mass surveillance  of internet traffic as well as that gathered by NSA's  bulk spying  programs. e.g. past claims hav...

1) Go to the  Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students .  2) Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). 3) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this? He references the Boston Globe published story on John Geoghan, a pedophile who had been employed by the catholic church since the 1960's and abused 100's of boys in his care.  He references this story because of the sheer impact it had on such a large audience, that even their parent company 'the new york times' references the investigation. Moreover, they managed boost the growth on organisations set up to counteract abuse by priests eg. SNAP which grew by 3 times, as well as informing us that i...

Spotify UK revenues surge to almost £190m as mobile subscriptions take off https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/14/spotify-uk-revenues-surge-to-almost-190m-as-mobile-subscriptions-take-off My summary: "World’s biggest music streaming service saw total UK revenues rise by 18% from £159m to £187.2m last year". A huge increase in the consumption of spotify making them vast amounts of money!  The company explains this as “This increase can be attributed to the transition from desktop to mobile as today the majority of new users signing up for Spotify are mobile,” A increase due to subscription increase despite the decrease in ad revenue. Key statistics: Revenues at Spotify’s UK business grew to almost £190m last year as subscription income soared by over 40% the world’s biggest music streaming service with an $8.5bn (£6.9bn)  UK revenues rise by 18% from £159m to £187.2m last year.  44% surge in subscription revenues from £119m to £171m. Subscriptio...

Donald Trump as president 'would be a threat to press freedom' https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/17/donald-trump-as-president-would-be-a-threat-to-press-freedom My summary: The Committee to Protect Journalists says that if Trump is to win the presidency it would represent a threat to press freedom claiming he is a "threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ’s ability to advocate for press freedom around the world” “mocked a disabled New York Times journalist and called an ABC News reporter a ‘sleaze’ in a press conference”. He is also said to have stated “open up our libel laws so when [newspapers] write purposely negative stories… we can sue them and make lots of money”. Some even claiming “Without the unending, one-sided assault of the news media, Trump would be beating Hillary Clinton by 15 points”. My opinion: This shows how the newspaper can impact politics and democracy directly, by revealing the hard truths needed for the public...

Based on the handout you've read and the links provided, a nswer these questions on your blog with  detailed ,  in-depth paragraphs . Remember, critical autonomy means forming  your own opinions  on these issues. 1 ) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online? Why? It can easier be seen that Murdoch's perspective is easily influenced by his own self-interest in regards to his need to maintain profitability and a large market share - which is obviously threatened by BBC providing not only competition but also free content which audiences would see as a benefit, why would they pay for content that can be for free elsewhere? However, it is much more complex than that, just because the BBC is providing free news doesn't mean they will a) have the same content or b) style or perspective, the BBC is bound by various rules and regulations such as having to be factual an...

TV advertising exceeds £5bn for first time http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/02/23/tv-advertising-exceeds-5bn-for-first-time/ Summary: Television advertising surpassed the £5bn mark for the first time in history. Online businesses are the second largest TV advertising category, in terms of social media Facebook spends a fortune on business adverting. A vast majority of major firms spend a high percentage on TV advertising with the likes of Google, Netfliex etc. Many advertisers, interestingly, seem to be coming back to TV advertising. Lindsey Clay, "Online businesses in particular recognise the impact TV advertising has and have significantly increased their investment recently. This is something we expect to continue in 2016." Key statistics: Revenues from TV advertising rose 7.4pc to £5.27bn last year, (6th consecutive growth) Online business advertising category with investment of more than £500m, up 14pc on 2014 Facebook spends £10.8m on-scree...

I'm with you on the digital revolution, it's the lack of journalism  I can't face im-with-you-on-the-digital-revolution-its-the-lack-of-journalism-i-cant-face Summary:  A small US state community of New Hampshire newspaper ceased publication after 90 years, creates worries about the implications of a redcution in the numbers of news gatherers (i.e journalists). The closing down came about due to the increased production costs, despite trying to sell that paper off, no one seemed to want to buy it. Laconia, had two local news papers so people still have the free Laconia Daily Sun. The collumist, Arlinghaus, of New Hampshire Union Leader wrote an article with many interesting points. He made the following statements;  “No one gets their news from Twitter” “even the people who think they do.” this was based on the assumption that "Someone (else) read or produced the report — gathered the news — that we repost or tweet or link to." Therefore its a platf...

Exploring how new/digital technology has impacted on traditional media industries is a critical part of the overall exam topic. We need to learn statistics and examples that illustrate the decline in print media alongside looking at how audiences have changed the way they access and interact with news. Your  Ofcom research blog task  is a major part of this but now we need to consider whether print newspapers have any kind of future - and if so, who will pay for it? The future of newspapers Read  this article from the Economist on the future of newspapers . On your blog, write a paragraph summarising the argument the article makes. Then answer the following questions: But in the rich world newspapers are now an endangered species. The business of selling words to readers and selling readers to advertisers, which has sustained their role in society, is falling apart irculation has been falling in America, western Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Ze...