Amrit's MEST3 Exam Blog

Tens of thousands sign petition urging Parliament to recall 'most extreme spying powers ever' http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/investigatory-powers-bill-act-petition-snoopers-charter-spying-surveillance-privacy-a7438791.html Summary: " The bill forces internet companies to keep records of every website all of their customers go to, among other things"  " The new law forces  internet companies to keep a full browsing history of all of their users and give it up to a huge range of government agencies if they are asked ."  also allowing people to spy into messages and hack phones to do so.  Key statistics: it had been  signed by 45,000 people .  10,000 signatures, the Government must respond to it.  100,000 signatures, it will be considered for a debate in Parliament My opinion: That sounds like a scary amount of power the government can have and makes privacy seem like a matter of the past especially if th...

Reddit CEO admits he edited Trump supporters' comments on social network http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/reddit-donald-trump-steve-huffman-spez-pizzagate-trolls-hillary-clinton-a7436406.html Summary: " 'I shouldn’t play such games, and it’s all fixed now,' Steve Huffman told the Donald Trump supporting community"  Reddit boss admits to deleting comments from a Donald Trump-supporting community on his site. " "fuck u/spez", he changed the name to those of the managers of the subreddit – essentially meaning that any criticism was altered so that it lookde like it was being made towards the subreddit's own moderators."  He said it so he could "   "troll the trolls"."  However the false news story on Hillary Clinton and campaign chairman John Podesta committed acts of child abuse in a pizza restaurant in Washington, DC was promoted by many people across the internet, including those on ...

1)  Institution: the impact of Google on the newspaper industry  : http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/new-and-digital-media-news-case-study_19.html  2)  Ofcom report: how news consumption has changed : http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ndm-case-study-how-has-news-changed.html  3)  The future of newspapers: Build The Wall analysis http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ndm-decline-of-newspaper-industry.html  4)  The decline of newspapers: the effect of online technology : http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/newspapers-effect-of-online-technology.html  5)  The future of journalism: John Oliver and Clay Shirky : http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ndm-news-future-of-journalism_30.html  6)  The decline of newspapers: Media Magazine case studies : http://amritbmest3exam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-decline-in-newspapers-mm-case.html  7) ...

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News? I agree with the fact that more and more low brow news is emerging on some platforms but not all of them, some newspapers such as the guardian and the economist take much more serious political and economic stories and place them in the forefront of their work sometimes not even mentioning mediocre news stories that places such as the sun and twitter posts may pick up on.  I do however nearly completely agree with his perspective that there is so much information that many people don't know what to make of it, what to do with it.  2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News? Dumbbed down news is made to appeal to the mass and mindlessly drip them with alterior motive information disguised as pointless news, its just used to entertain the mass. This maintains the status quo as the mass aren't empowered and the powerful remain the ones i...

1. Read this short  Guardian review  about the film. 2. Read this  Time Out review  of the film. 3. Read the  Into Film Festival guide  to 'Gone Too Far' that contains some general info and a few questions ('Discussion points') for you to think about and answer on your blog. 4. Read the  Into Film Festival review writing competition  details, especially the  Top Tips PDF . 5. Carry out some additional research if necessary - the  IMDB website  about the film is a good place to start - and then write your own  original  300 word review of the film. Post up the review on your blog, then copy it out by hand onto the competition entry form which you'll receive in your lesson.  “Gone too Far” is a comedy by British writer Destiny Ekaragha who adapted the movie from her popular play. Changing her script for the play into a movie. The movie follows the story of British Born Yemi whose Nigeran Born brother comes back from a...

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view. The new and digital media (NDM) has allowed for a variety of critics to analyse the effects such as Marxist  and pluralist on the typical producer and consumer. Some argue that NDM especially  the internet has allowed for a more empowered audience and producer yet others argue that it has instead enchained and restricted audiences even more than before.  exemplar paragraph:  A Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “information revolution” has done little to benefit audiences or to subvert the established power structures in society. Far from being a “great leveller” (Krotoski, 2012) as many have claimed, it has merely helped to reinforce the status quo by promoting dominant ideologies. The most popular news website in the UK by a considerable margin is the ‘Mail Online’, which receiv...

Instagram is changing from photo-sharing app to shopping catalogue in your pocket  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/instagram-is-changing-from-photo-sharing-app-to-shopping-catalogue-in-your-pocket-a7422821.html Summary: " It seems Instagram has been quietly transforming from a photo-sharing app to a shopping catalogue in your pocket with a novel take on advertising"  This month 20 of the US based retail brands trailed a new feature allowing them to tag items and offer users more information and providing a link to the official websites. This is perceived as a great move for producers who express the move as providng them with " “The possibilities for selling our products are endless,”. However this can have a negative effect for Instagram and its audience interaction.  Amie Kewley, a fashion blogger  says   “I knew it wouldn't be long before this sort of thing was introduced, I feel like social media pl...

Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook will fix 'fake news' problem but will not verify stories itself http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-fake-news-mark-zuckerberg-plan-to-fix-outline-post-verify-stories-fact-checking-a7428011.html  Summary: " Facebook's CEO says the social network is taking measures to prevent the spread of misinformation but he and his colleagues do not want to be 'arbiters of truth'"  Action which was necessary due to the fears regarding the results of the US election being somewhat due to the fake news circulating facebook.  They aim to do this by making it easier for users to report fake stories, waring them it may be false and working closely with 'fact cheaking' organisations is a tactic announced by Mr Zuckerberg. This issue of misinformation has been around for a long time and especially due to the fact that facebook try to connect audiences with news stories that would be m...

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony are some of the most challenging theories we'll learn - but also extremely relevant to the case study we're working on. These theories go to the heart of whether the media elite or the audience have the power in a 21st century digital world. There are compelling arguments to both sides and recent world events only add fuel to this debate. Complete the tasks below to reinforce the work you've done in the lesson. Bonus reading: Hegemony and the Hunger Games I've got some slightly off-topic reading to get you started. There is a reference to  hegemony  in a Guardian article about the last Hunger Games film that could also be linked to feminism (therefore relevant to many of your critical investigations). Read  the article on the Hunger Games  and at least 15 comments below the line. How does this link to what we've learned about  hegemony ? Main task Read the Media Magazine article  ‘Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?' . Go to...

Twitter announces more tools for dealing with abuse http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37987058 Summary: There is now a new feature that allows individuals to mute certain key words and phrases on twitter. This "mute" button would also allow for individuals to leave conversations in which they are included. However they did admit this wont be a stop to the overall abusive conduct on the platform. The vice-president McSweeney highlights the issue of tackling the abuse in real time as it has become a "growing trend" on not only the platform but the internet as a whole. Due to this they are aiming to try to make the process faster and more transparent. This safety threat isn't only harmful to its users but also the company as a whole as abuse would lead to users leaving the site leading to slow growth of the company. Opinion: Its true this isn't an issue to only twitter but the whole of the internet the audience almost control the decisions and act...

September - October Week 1: Weekly New/Digital Media (1)   :  Facebook and Twitter join coalition to improve social media newsgathering              Weekly New/Digital Media (2)   :  Instagram unveils tool to allow users to filter abusive comments Week 2: Weekly New/Digital Media (3)   :  WhatsApp threatened with legal action over Facebook data sharing deal              Weekly New/Digital Media (4)   :  Request shows and rehabilitation: How prison radio changes the lives of inmates Week 3: Weekly New/Digital Media (5)   :  Daily Mail publisher turns to price rise to counter advertising slump              Weekly New/Digital Media (6)   :  Are mobiles changing how we shop? Week 4: Weekly New/Digital Media (7)   :  Pixel is a direct challenge to Apple – and a referendum on Google        ...

Mark Zuckerberg rejects 'crazy idea' Facebook influenced US election result http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/11/mark-zuckerberg-rejects-crazy-idea-facebook-influenced-us-electi/ Summary: "mark Zuckerberg has rejected widespread claims that Facebook influenced the US election by allowing fake and incendiary news stories to thrive on the social network." He said it was only a very small amount of content and says that americans just cant understand the reason that Trump won so are finding something to blame.  Individuals accuse facebook of being a 'filter bubble' having too much fake news. He says that individuals ignored the content that would highlight the reasons because they simply just choose to ignore the stuff that they didnt agree with .  my opinion: The article explores 2 sides of the argument against social media; its false / we ignore what we dont want to see. i have to say i agree with mark a lot, we do often find s...

Galtung and Ruge  (1981) defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decided that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not.  The following list is adapted from their work: Immediacy:  has it happened recently? Familiarity:  is it culturally close to us in Britain? Amplitude:  is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people? Frequency:  does the event happen fairly regularly? Unambiguity:  is it clear and definite? Predictability: did we expect it to happen? Surprise:  is it a rare or unexpected event? Continuity:  has this story already been defined as news? Elite nations and people:  which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people? Negativity:  is it bad news? Balance:  the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death. C...