Mest 3 Exam Blog

1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case.  What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this?  The traditional hegemonic view of the police in a case like this would be that they are doing their job; their duty is to control the street. The news will have positively display and portray the police due to the pressures from the government.  How did new and digital media create a different story? It provides a different element to the story as the news story would not be covered up by the influence of the police.  What does the police officer's subsequent acquittal suggest about the power of new and digital media? It suggests that the developments of new and digital gives the general public a chance to expose the corrupted police officers. The police would essentially escape without punishments but the new and digital media and the rise of citizen journalism has allowed more evidence in depth.  2) What does the author ar...

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.  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. 1) Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values a...

25 / 11 / 2017 - New Uber boss "knew about hack for months"  Within this article, it talks about the hack of Uber of how the passengers and the drivers of Uber's details were leaked for almost over 2 months. Dara Khosrowshahi is the new boss of the Uber company. He was told about the hack when he first became in charge in September and now has exposed the hack in order to let the general public know the problem. Almost 57 million passengers and driver's details of Uber were leaked for almost over 2 months.  The Softbank company were informed that the investment is close to £7.5 billion.  Uber revealed that 50 million passnger's details were revealed and 7 million driver's details were also revealed for almost over 2 months.  They secretly paid 100,000 to the hackers to delete the data and information that they had hacked.  Essentially, due to the secret about the hacking, Uber could be fined. The NCSC UK gave advices to the uber users of what to ...

25 / 11 / 2017 - UK drone users to sit safety tests under new law  Within this article, it talks about the new law that is set which impacts the changes that the UK drone users must abide by. The Government in the UK are set to make this "new law" where drone users in the UK may have to safety awareness tests under legislation planned by the government. The government are looking set to band drone users from flying near airports or flying above 400 ft.  The police department will be given the power and right to seize and ground drones that are in for criminal activity purposes.  There has been 81 incidents involving drones and aircrafts this year - up from 71 in 2016 and 29 in 2015. Essentially, the problem is increasing over the years.  In July, a drone directly went past a wing of a large passenger jet which put 130 lives at risk in Gatwick Airport in the UK.  Brian Sturtton had stated that "these purposals are a step towards the safe integration...

Answer the following questions on your blog: 1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News? I agree with Alain de Botton's views on the news as he argues that the audiences are bombarded by masses of news and stories which almost makes them feel overwhelming. An example could be the recent shocking news about Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulting and harassing females in the Hollywood industry; this story was eventually exposed by the female victims and it overwhelmed the readers as they eventually got flooded with so many different stories on the same topic.  2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News? Alain de Botton argues that the news is controlled by the ruling class; they control and maintain the news which leads to the general audiences being passive and believing whatever is presented to them. This links to hegemony as the news is dominated by the ruling class and they are the ones that choose what ne...

19 / 11 / 17 - Germany bans children's smartwatches  In this article, it explores how in Germany, the smartwatches aimed at children has been banned. A German regulator has banned the sale of smartwatches aimed at children as it describes them as spy watches. Previously, it has banned an internet - connected doll called, My Friend Cayla, for similar reasons. Telecoms regulator the federal network agency urged parents to destroy such watches that are aimed at children. It was essentially banned for lack of privacy which is a huge concern for kids as it has GPS tracking on it.  Such smartwatches in Germany were aimed atr kids at the ages of 5 to 12 which is concerning because the Norwegian Consumer Council reported that some children's watches included such things like Gator and GPS which had flaws such as transmitting and storing data without encryption. This would essentially mean that using basic hacking techniques, strangers could track children. 

19 / 11 / 17 - Apple delays launch of smart speaker  In this article, it talks about the delay of the new technology that Apple are creating. The HomePod smart speaker was said to be releasing this December but electronics have stated that there will be a delay until 2018 due to the reason that the speaker needed more developments. The delay was said that the HomePod will go on the shop shelves in the US, UK and Austraillia in early 2018.  In a statement, Apple said that the wireless speaker needed "a little more time its ready for our customers". This would mean that Apple would miss a holiday season where many people would be looking into buying technologies, electronics and gadgets. In the UK, it is expected to cost around 350 pounds as shown in the picture above. Essentially, it was produced and designed to compete with other smart speakers such as Amazon echo. 

Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance 1) Read the article from Media Magazine: Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance (Dec 2009). Use our  Media Magazine archive , click on MM30 and go to page 59. 2) Create a new blogpost called ' Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance'   and make notes from the article under the following headings:  examples: Alexander Graham Bell launched the telephone in 1876. This creation was not simply a revolution in communication systems but it also sewed the seeds of a more wide-ranging transformation about the way in which society thought about it self and culture. The first television sets became commercially available in the 30s and 40s, audiences embraced the new medium, inviting it into their homes to occupy pride of plac e in the sitting room: displacing the fire place as the focal point of domestic living. The Internet came about in the 1990's where it had many restrictions for the users.  Innovative f...

11 / 11 / 2017 - YouTube to restrict "disturbing" children video's, if flagged  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41942306 In this article, it talks about the disturbing videos which includes sexual or any violence scenes that is aimed at children which negatively impacts them. A writer called "James Bridle" posted a blog about how YouTube is still being bombarded with bizarre and inappropriate videos aimed at little vulnerable children. YouTube deny it as they say describe their team as "parents who are commited to improving our app and getting this right". But however, many critics claimed that YouTube is not doing enough to stop the indecent videos posted to lure in kids. The use of many famous cartoon characters like Peppa Pig which many children are familiar with, video-producers now use those characters in violent and inappropriate videos to negatively impact the children. James Bridle went on further within the blogpost by giving ex...

12 / 11 / 2017 - Apple fixes Iphone letter "i" bug  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41942310 In this recent article, it talks about the issues that the new update for the iphones that has occurred for some people. Problems such as pressing the letter "i", it automatically turns into "A" with a question as the picture shows it above. The version 11.1 had issues with Siri too. The letter bug was highlighted on Twitter when people tried to type "I got the new iphone" but instead came out like "A ? got the new iphone".  Essentially, Apple have now fixed the letter bug issue with the new update 11.1 and now the letter "i" is working fine. 

Citizen journalism and UGC (user-generated content) 1) Read the article from Media Magazine: The Rise and Rise of UGC (Dec 2009). Use our  Media Magazine archive , click on MM30 and go to page 55. Examples:  A story about Rodney King who was an African-American. After a high speed chase, the police officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his aprtment window with a camera and the home-video footage made prime-time news and became an international media sensation, and a focus for complaints about police racism towards African-Americans. Four officers were charged with assault and use of excessive force but in 1992 they were acquitted of the charges.  On December 26th 2004, an Asian Tsunami was another turning point for UGC. The footages of the event was mainly from the public citizens who recorded on their smartphones and cameras which can be referred to as "citizen journalism". Due to the tour...

05 / 11 / 17 - Twitter criticised for "erasing" bisexual photos   In this article, it talks about how the huge social media platform "Twitter" is being criticised for failing to show any photos under the bisexual hashtag. When "lesbian" or "gay" is searched up, it shows photos but when typing "bisexual", nothing shows up. Twitter has yet to comment on the incident.  It could be due to the fact that Bisexual people "have been hypersexualised and associated with porn and promiscuity", says Kate Harrad of campaign group bisexual index. There are many other users who are frustrated and billigerent about this issue. One user talks about her being bi-sexual and the fact that there is no content for "bi-sexual" on Twitter leads to her saying "my life isn't offensive". 

05 / 11 / 17 - Social media giants have "moral duty" to tackle child abuse  Within this article, it explores the dangers aiming towards the younger children online which is rapidly increasing. Many of the paedophillic behaviour occurs within games where mostly the children use it. The older people go on those games to target the vulnerable unsuspected children.  "Tech companies need to do more to combat the exponential growth in child sexual exploitation online" - Home Secretary Amber Rudd. She is going to meet the counterparts in the US government to dicuss the issue. She will also attend a roundtable discussion joined by big companies including Google, Facebook and Microsoft. The Home secretary have clarified that the work has to be more faster and quicker to act upon the problems of the vulnerability and the dangers that these children are in online.  There are more than 400 arrests for indecent images of children offences in the UK.  Some 500 c...

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 grade essay do well that you need to improve on? They focused on the question very well  Theories were used Showed both of the argument very well  No repetition  Clear terminologies  2) Read the  Examiners' Report  for this exam as outlined above and write three bullet points that summarise the key comments that apply to your essay. Focus on the question more Use more media theories and terminologies  Using case study  No repetition  3) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential) Occasionally focused on the question but you are far too quick to wander off point! You repeat same point too much and don't support your ideas with clear terminology and media theory. Your English ex...

One of the key aspects of our case study is considering the impact new and digital media is having on journalism and the vital role news plays in society. John Oliver on journalism British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. Last year, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news. Clay Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good Clay Shirky is a professor at New York University and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. He's a vital media theorist for our case study on News and he makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - presenting an alternative to  David Simon's Build The Wall argument  that you have already studied and posted to your blog. Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky pres...