New and Digital Media #14

Brit Awards was most tweeted about television show in UK

ITV show notched up 4.17m Twitter comments with One Direction's Harry Styles getting 155,000 retweets

This year's Brits has set the record as the most tweeted about television show in the UK, while the TV audience for the music awards event slumped to its lowest level since 2006.The ITV show notched up 4.17m tweets – easily beating previous record holder last year's Comic Relief, which drew 1.5m  as the decision to allow fans to vote via Twitter for the first time proved a social media publicity master-stroke. This shows how inviting a social media and allowing audiences to become more involved, there becomes a word-of-mouth awareness of the show which would influence people who normally don't watch it to view it. 

There were 2m tweets about the first awards Twitter vote, for the best British video, with One Direction's Harry Styles the king of retweets notching up 155,000 for a post thanking fans for voting. Unsurprisingly, One Direction took home the award for best British video.There were about 2.17m tweets about the show itself, which alone is enough to make the Brit Awards 2014 the most tweeted about UK TV programme. Last year's event generated 1.5m tweets.
"The live, public and conversational nature of Twitter also makes it the perfect accompaniment to TV," said Twitter in a blogpost the show based on statistics from analytics firm SecondSync. "Fans come together on the world's biggest sofa and share TV moments like the Brits with fans across the globe".

The show set  new tweets-per-minute record for a UK TV show of 78,000, with Beyonce proving to be the most talked about performer of the night on Twitter.There was less to cheer about on the live TV front with ITV's coverage, hosted by James Corden for the fourth year in a row, slumping to its lowest level since 2006.
The show attracted an average of 4.6 million viewers between 8pm and 10.15pm, an 18.4% share of all viewing in the time slot, well down on last year's 6.5 million. This shows how celebrity enforcement can influence a mass-audience significantly and due to the fact of there being internet available such as social-netowrking sites. It encourages fans to interact more allowing user-generate-comments. When tweets are read aloud in the show it encourages more people to tweet more about the show itself, as a result of them being the most talked about show on twitter.  

New and Digital media #13

The new social entrepreneurs: young and improving the world

Solving social problems rather than getting rich is the priority for tomorrow's ambitious entrepreneurs
New horizons: social change is the primary driver for many young people. Photograph: Alamy

Technology has levelled the playing field, opening up remarkable opportunities for young people. According to a Populus survey, more than a quarter of 16- to 25-year-olds want to set up their own business, and 14% are in the process of doing so, compared with 8% only a year ago.

But there is something else at play here, another trend emerging. For many of these new digital entrepreneurs, the primary objective is to improve the world rather than their own bank balance. They are looking for radical solutions to social problems rather than creating a product or service that will make them a stash of cash.

That doesn't mean their aims are any less ambitious. Take 22-year-old Aaron Jones, whose goal is universal access to education. He has set up the multi-award winning Fikay, a lifestyle brand all about successful living and giving. It produces fashion accessories using recycled cement bags, employs co-operatives and members of fair-trade organisations and, for every purchase made, Fikay donates to educational building projects in south east Asia.

Fikay has already helped to build one school in Cambodia with plans for many more to follow. "Why," says Aaron, "do some children have the right to an education while others don't? Fikay is my adventure and mission to change this."

A new generation of digital makers is heavily emerging, but more exciting is the fact that a lot of young people are using their digital skills to tackle social challenges such as education, healthcare, human rights and social isolation. Currently new social technology entrepreneurs are about action instead of talk, as there are offers by apps for good. which provides support for young people who want to design apps that will improve their world. Such as the person who invented Flappy bird which went viral worldwide. The digital technology is the most powerful technology up to date, and the future will consists of people tackling complex social challenges. 

Q2: Why are media products that represent outsiders, such as vampire films, so popular? You may also refer to other media products to support your answer. To begin with, with both The Twilight and Let the right one in outsiders don't fit in with these type of people and if someone who doesn't feel fit in feels excluded. This is due to Let the right one in being a foreign film us as British English viewers don't have the understanding of the specific language they are speaking in this very fact enables us to feel excluded and drives us to concentrate on the subtitles itself. There are diverse stereotypes for people that don't fit in one of which the theorist perkins spoke about justifying how these stereotypes are infact a positive outlook. This creates an audience appeal and hence why vampire films are possibly so popular. This also ties in the fact that famous actors such as Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson who are huge artists in the film industry feature in these type of films encourage the audience to watch the films. In addition, as the Twilight was book based it already has a huge fan base which creating word-of-mouth entices more people to watch the film. The outsider character in the vampire genre has been so much so popular in recent years, so due to this producers remake them due to there being a less of a risk than something completely new. Producers capitalise on an already popular and profitable genres and representations. This links to Marxist ideas of exploiting audience for profit. 

Other media products that tie in nicely with these 2 media films are firstly DR. Who from the BBC which has been running successfully for nearly more than 10 years this creates a sense of escapism for the audience which is from Users and Gratification theory Kats and blumer's. Moreover, there is a sense of personal identity where these type of fans or audience's see themselves related on the screen. Another media product is Spiderman which has a weak yet powerful appeal to the audience as it's: unknown, mysterious, different and cool. Which is why these type of films encourage younger to older broader audience's to watch these types of films which make media products that are represented as outsiders even more popular. Outsider characters can sometimes offer more alternative representations of men, women or youth. The media is guilty of stereotyping many groups, so audiences enjoy media products that offer alternative representations. However they can also reinforce stereotypes and demonise particular groups by focusing so much on

problems, defining groups negatively by their social problems.

1) How many of the examiner's points did you manage to cover in your answers?


For the first question, I analysed both of the media products, I understood the concept in the perspective on the narrative enigma. Moreover, I included forms which are the media language, narrative, representations a bit of institution, audience and values. 
2) How many examples did you provide in your answers that did not come from classwork and What will you do between now and the exam in June to ensure you have a wide variety of examples to refer to in questions two and three?
I used various of answers that didn't come from classwork as it was either films I viewed at home or my own knowledge I used with least usage of classwork answers. Between now and the exam in June I want to ensure to research A2 key terminology so I get used to the fact that I need to use this consistently. And remain up to date with with all of the theories, I will therefore make notes and posters at home so I'm aware of the representation theories, audience theories etc. Moreover, I want to do past papers and look at the mark scheme afterwards so I am able to understand how to answer these type of style questions. Therefore, doing so I'll be able to link with a variety of wider context when referring it to other media products. 

For the second question, I evaluated it using media issues and theories. However, I didn't manage to provide enough debates to provide a solid evaluation. I did support my answer with 1 media product, (Harry Potter) however to get higher marks I should have added a range of examples from other relevant media products. 
For the third question it was my weakest as I didn't support the answers and use a range of examples from other relevant media products. 

New and Digital Media #12

10 years time: Social media and the future of fundraising




In 10 years' time social media will have been around for 30 or so years. Online communities began in the mid-90s and blogging a little later. Accessing sites like Facebook and Myspace in the office was frowned upon in those early days and most IT policies had strict restrictions forbidding what were then deemed non-work-related activities. People tended to hide behind avatars and nicknames on social media rather than being themselves.

Since that time, only a few short years ago, the growth both in usage and functionality has been extraordinary.

Social media is now far more firmly embedded in daily life with people far more likely to post using their real name and personal profile. Today it is individuals rather than brands that are playing a strong role in building influence and many charities actively encourage their staff to engage onTwitter and Facebook as they've realised the potential.This erosion of boundaries between professional and personal has implications for how teams will be managed and structured, particularly those teams that communicate externally with service users and supporters. Everyone's a spokesperson now, so give them the tools to be a good one!

this shows the online impact in the coming years, how charities will have to find the flexibility and nimbleness to use the tools that are available, get better at sharing the video contents which would raise a very high awareness. As people in a decade will definitely be more immune to using technology. The 'service delivery' charities today have been using technology such as Skype to deliver services online. In a decade this will grow very higher and will have a huge effect as charities will be able to reach more people, regionally and nationally. Social media is very useful for raising awareness. Especially as the fact that the social networking site are typically noisy and in a sense crowded. 

News Values

How has the new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge's news values? How would you update them for 2014.

Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter or elsewhere on-line. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken by the time the paper is published so different angles might be required. 

Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain is fairly important as when people watch the news today and something happens near our area it can affect us as this is the country where it affects us.  Perhaps for 2014 it's vital that if it's to make news it's something big that's happened in our country. Such as a bombing, otherwise other people won't pick up the newspaper and read it. Therefore using big images will attract the mass audience to pick up and read the newspaper.

Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people is relevant today as if many people have been impacted it would attract the audience. But in order for the audience to pick it up it's important that the newspaper have the latest news such as showing big close-ups of the latest event and having there correspondent there to witness the huge event. This would entice the audience to pick up and read the newspaper. 

Frequency: did the event happen fairly quickly this is fairly vital as if the news happens very quickly the first who are usually aware of this event is sites such as social networking. Therefore, it's important for newspapers to respond very quickly and interview 'citizen journalists' who have witnessed the scene. As viewers would be interested in knowing and hearing what the person who witnessed it stated.

Unambiguity: is it clear and definite, if its not clear and definite people will be immune to becoming very annoyed. They'll feel like they can't trust the newspaper at all as they encountered false information. Therefore they'd be more tempted to see what happens on websites such as: BBC News. Therefore the newspapers should make sure that whatever there journalists research and publish, it's accurate and valid information for the audience base- otherwise this can result into a loss of an audience. The newspaper is already not doing well anyway so they can't afford for this to take place.

Predictability: did we expect it to happen, if an event is going on that the public are aware about such as the wedding of Kate Middleton & Prince Harry. The newspapers may not be able to keep updated information of the wedding therefore audience's would turn to the TV. However, the newspapers can keep closure on the event and perhaps print out the paper as soon as possible.

Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected, newspapers can have big close-ups and point of view shot on stories that are unexpected such as being on Page1. This would entice the audience to read it more so and encourage them to purchase the newspaper daily. 

Continuity: has this story already been defined as news, this may have been the case in a sense of urgency due to variety of social networking sites. Therefore, newspapers can define the news in a very different way. Perhaps if an ongoing news story has been made very popular, newspapers can show case it in a different perspective to get the audience engaged.

Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people? The newspapers should in general focus on Well known people mainly newspapers, such as common and well-known celebrities. This would encourage a mass-audience to read the newspapers in depth and continue being regular audience for newspapers who focus on this.

Negativity: is it bad news? if this news has been portrayed negatively it would affect a lot of people so newspapers should include this inside the pages. Instead of the front page.

Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

What audience pleasures or gratifications does on-line news content offer?
So many online wonder-workers passing through! Yet so little evidence of stickability or momentum as the Mail and the Guardian shoot past theTelegraph's once-commanding lead in the uniques league. You can see why Gallagher didn't fancy the supposed top role for himself: think manager of Crystal Palace in a dodgy season. You can also see, in perception at least, how downgrading the whole newspaper side of the equation might work. If the Barclays want a digital-first operation, this, demonstratively, signals its arrival – at a stroke.

Has the Telegraph made a good or bad decision in sacking editor Tony Gallagher? 

The telegraph have made a bad decision in sacking the editor tony gallagher because the Newspaper editors are like football club managers: they come and, often rather abruptly, they go. But as the newspoaers are making exemplary profits, performing solidly against any competition and holding its digital place in the unique browser league. That would be like giving Arsène Wenger the chop on a wet Tuesday afternoon, a weird, unpredictable lurch. But Tony Gallagher at the Daily Telegraph assuredly knows how it feels now. However it will end up being a bad idea simply because tony already knew alot about the telegraph newspaper and has already done so much in order to make the newspaper a high success therefore without him the newspaper may lose sales.

Summarise the story in 50 words 

Summarising

Sacking Tony Gallagher, the Telegraph  have signalled its intention to put the internet first. Which in the 21st century is very useful as everyone is revolved around the internet, and look at that usually as a source of there news information. Moreover,  as journalists are very expensive therefore this is why they must've turned to him as being sacked. The two Telegraphs are expected to make £60m between them in the latest financial year. Profits up, not down. Daily print sales – 2.35% lower between December 2012 and 2013 – represent the best result for any full-service paper in Fleet Street.

1) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news on-line?

To a certain extent, I disagree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news on-line. Because firstly they are not the only news source providers as there are millions of other websites that the news websites provide. From sources such as Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and The Independent. People are able to stream this sites for free and able to gain the latest news information. 

2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a pay-wall?

To a certain extent it was right in his perspective for Murdoch to put his news behind a paywall. As usually papers such as the metro: are free for the public to use especially when they're commuting to and from work. Moreover, as the internet is evolving heavily this is inspiring people to gain news from a different source. However, as newspapers are finding it difficult to make revenue and profit, this was a right decision to make. Because the loyal consumers to the times and the sun would be willing to pay for it. As the journalist are paid a high amount of money therefore there is really good news on the newspaper which is encouraging them to read it. 

However, the disadvantage is that as the newspapers industry especially the sun are evolving there news purely around the entertainment industry people are becoming more and more frustrated due to the fact they are not learning and reading about more important and in depth news such as the economics and health issues. People are arguing that they won't pay just to read about Michelle Obama's latest purse and dress. If the news provide vital and in depth information therefore it will be useful for them to be behind a pay-wall as people will be more willing to pay for the news.