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.