NDM News Story 28: The Independent’s blog site hit by ransomware attack

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/09/independent-blog-site-ransomware-hackers-viruses



The Independent's blog site has been exposed to hackers who target visitors who come to the site and demands ransoms. As a precaution, the website has taken down all advertisements and all third party advertising suppliers are currently being investigated. There is a theory that it may have been an advert that may have included malware however, there is no evidence to support this. If this theory was true, the malware would only affect those who do not have the most up to date flash software. There have been several other instances where adverts have been used for hackers to hack into websites. An example of this was in October, Mail Online were briefly exposed to adverts that linked to malware.

• The malware threat was first highlighted on a blog run by internet security firm Trend Micro
• people visiting affected pages on Independent Blogs since 21 November could have been exposed to the malware.
• ESI said that visitors to the legacy site amounted to less than 0.2% of those who visited the Independent during the whole month of November.
• fewer than 5,000 people a day are likely to have visited the site

Having such things happen to a well known institution may cause audiences to lose trust in The Independent and rely on other news providers. However, it can also be interpreted that if The Independent can be viable to malware, like stated in the article, other news providers could have similar issues, this means that the only thing that institutions such as The Independent should be more wary of situations such as this and only accept trustworthy, third party ad suppliers.

NDM News Story 27: BuzzFeed editor-in-chief: fair to call Donald Trump a 'mendacious racist'

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/09/buzzfeed-editor-in-chief-donald-trump




Buzzfeed journalists have been told that it is ok for them to call Donald Trump a 'mendacious racist' as id does not conflict with Buzzfeed's rules of avoiding political partisanship on social media. Such rage from a variety of institutions have come about from Trump's aggressive, non factual comments and remarks, as well as actively showing is anti- muslim perspectives. Media in the US and in foreign countries continuously report on Trumps controversial statements, keeping in the public eye. Journalists from the Huffington Post even go to the extent of saying that news about Trump belongs in the same section as news about the Kardashian family and The Bachelorette, completely degrading his position in society.

• Trump has denied he is a racist, telling Fox News last month that he was “probably the least racist person on earth”
•  Trump has managed to build a lead despite spending just £217,000 on broadcast advertising, the lowest figure among the leading candidates -  Jeb Bush has spent more than £28m but has failed to make a significant impact on the race
•  “If Trump’s words and actions are racist, we’ll call them racist. If they’re sexist, we’ll call them sexist. We won’t shrink from the truth or be distracted by the showmanship.”

Buzzfeed's desire to include such descriptions of Trump is considered very respectable to a certain degree as it shows that they are an institution that do not want to sugar-coat anything, and convey their true perspectives to the audience. This makes the company reputed and trusted, which highly attracts a larger audience.

NDM: The key concepts of audience and institution

1) What was the relationship between audience and institution in the pre-digital age?

In the pre-digital age, the relationship between audiences and institutions were, in some sense, a lot simpler than what it is now. There was a one way flow of media where the economically powerful institutions, distribute packaged media products to carefully defined audience members. This accentuates the strong dominance that institutions held in comparison to the audience, who had not much opportunity for democracy in terms of media production and conveyed ideologies.

2) The article gives a lot of examples of major media institutions. Choose three examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them.

ITV - There is a great value in appealing larger masses of audiences as this is an institution that relies on advertisements.

Sky One - Exclusive content is very necessary as this institution depends on subscription fees, meaning that they must be able to attract audiences who are willing to have a long term commitment.

The Mail Online - Including controversial and scandalous images and headlines would be very beneficial for this institution as they generate income from the length of time that a reader spends on the website. This means that there content must be very attractive and shocking.


3) The article ends with a section on the digital age. Summarise this section in 50 words.

As the digital age has only just begun to thrive, there is much room for improvements. Now, institutions are still dependant on audiences’ preferences and many traditional media forms may be slow to respond to this change. Due to this, technology companies such as Google and Yahoo are striving.

4) How do YOU see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media institutions hold sway?

In the future, I think that the audiences' power may become almost equal to that of the institution's and may even become more successful when producing media as the ideologies conveyed are very alternative yet revealing and fascinating for other audiences. Despite this, there are still possibilities that this could not happen as institutions have great support from the elite, who aid them economically in order for them to produce top quality productions. Audiences would be unable to get such backing however, if they do receive such support, this is where they will cross the boundary from being part of the 'audience' category to becoming part of an institution.

NDM News Stories 25: Taylor Swift reappears on Spotify, but her music is credited to Lostprophets

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/07/taylor-swift-spotify-lostprophets

Despite Taylor Swift refusing to put her music on spotify, her song, I Knew you Were Trouble from her 2012 album was seen briefly on Spotify. However, the song was copyrighted to paedophile former rock star, Ian Watkins and his band, Lostprophets. The song was available on Spotify for 3 days, before it was taken down again when the Guardian questioned Spotify about this matter. The song also became available on Taylor Swift's Spotify page which, after she took her music off Spotify, only consisted of her voice featured on film soundtracks and other compilations. A spokeswoman for Spotify stated that it was very weird, the situation, and the song was taken down as soon as they were notified about it.

• I Knew You Were Trouble had been live on Spotify for three days, with, according to the company’s public play count, 39,681,189 plays, 
•  The vast majority of the 39m plays will have come from that legitimate version.
• The “single’s” artwork was a screenshot of Canadian cartoon Scaredy Squirrel with the Lostprophets logo superimposed.
•  the Lostprophets-attributed version of Swift’s song has been floating around on the internet for over a month. It was uploaded to YouTube in October by user Jared Brown
• Jared Brown has uploaded similar mislabeled tracks to his channel, such as a recording of Ice Ice Baby attributed to Eminem.

I think this portrays Spotify in a negative light as Taylor Swift has clearly stated that she didnt want her music on streaming sites such as spotify meaning that the institution should take greater care of what is put on spotify and who put it on the site. Even if Taylor Swift did want her music on Spotify, it is considerably irresponsible of Spotify to not notice this error and have to be informed about this from a 3rd party.

NDM News Story 26: Tim Cook defends Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case, says it's not a 'hump'

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/10/tim-cook-defends-apple-iphone-smart-battery-case-hump




The new apple smart battery case is explained by chief executive, Tim Cooke, explains the reason for the hump on the back of the case is due to users not needing to use the battery charger all the time. Tim Cooke further explains that the charger should only be used occasionally and not all the time. The charger isn't necessary if you are the type of person who charges their phone everyday but it would be very useful for overnight trips. The case has been described hideous due to its unsightly hump however, it is easier to take off and put on in comparison to the case being thick all over. Consumers also question the reason for apple creating a portable battery when the company has still not created a longer living battery, which would be a more valued than the smart case.

• iPhone 6S has a smaller battery than the last one 
• To get the iPhone 6S into Apple’s Smart Battery Case users have to bend the top part of the case to slide the phone in, the longevity of which has yet to be proven.

I feel that Apple is doing the most beneficial thing to help gain profit as the case would probably be a considerable amount of money, when thinking of other apple products; by simply increasing the battery life, the price of iPhones would not significantly increase. Despite there being possibilities, that consumers will see through some of Apple's marketing schemes, this is highly unlikely  to be a significant factor that would drive their customer base away and will continue to attract new customers to the great brand name

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

1) Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?

Respected news brands may be good news for Twitter as it may mean that Twitter would be attracting more affluent audiences who have a much higher chance of purchasing any services that Twitter might have to offer. With Twitter greatly struggling recently, if they choose to release subscription based services, these affluent audiences would be highly likely to purchase these while increasing Twitter's revenue. Furthermore, audiences would be able to have a greater understanding of what is going on in the world around them, while using a service that they find rather enjoyable.

2) Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?

Twitter can be considered to greatly support well respected news brands as it is branded as an easy to use interface that allows audiences to view a summarized account of the news, instantly, which is incredibly convenient for society with such busy lives. If audiences went to the direct website of the news brand, it may not show the most important news stories first and even if they do, many of the less important news is completely hidden away. With Twitter, as all the stories can be massively summarized, as well as providing a link to the original news stories, consumers feel more inclined to access the news as it is quicker, more accessible and can be tailored to their specific tastes and preferences.

3) The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?

Ultimately, the report suggests that both old media and new media, despite having different means of distributing their information and stories, have similar goals to enhance the news through knowledge, opinion, community and gossip. Through these different forms of enhancements, the audience have a variety of reasons why they would like to access the news. I strongly agree with this concept as both new and old media are different methods of distributing the news but both ways of distributing is from the same news institution. The competition lies in the variety of news institutions as each news brand aim to make their news more popular and more widely read.

4) On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this? 

Example tweets that journalists use to illustrate 'gossip' or 'banter' are often comedic, sarcastic and have no importance globally or even nationally.

The Independent @Independent • Feb 17 Sewer blocked by large Pooh ind.pn/1fa460H

Daily Mail Celebrity @DailyMailCeleb • Feb 12 Do these pants make Kim Kardashian’s bum look big?

Excellent: a University has spent £20,000 building a mock pub for students to investigate why people get drunk

Caitlin Moran @caitlinmoran • Jan 11 The most amazing thing about the story of President Hollande having an affair is that he apparently only has one pair of shoes.

5) Do you think the increasing amount of 'gossip' or 'banter' is harming the reputation of news and journalists?

To some extent, it can be considered that these large amounts or 'gossip' and 'banter' are harming these reputable news brands and journalists as these so-called news stories have no relevance to anyone. There are great expectation held on news brands to give educated, and informative news however, with the large amounts of tabloid-esque news stories being distributed by broadsheet news brands, audiences may begin to question the validity of their serious news stories which may lead audiences to lose their trust on such news brands and choose a more reliable news brand. Despite possibly harming the reputation, these 'gossip' news stories included may broaden the audience of the particular news brand, allowing them to target less educated audiences who care hugely about celebrity news and comedic gossip.

6) What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?

The report greatly focuses on trust and says a build up of audience trust is what causes Twitter and news brands to thrive. As audiences feel that trust is very valuable, they insist for their trusted news brands to be verified by twitter. By doing this, it avoids other accounts impersonating these well respected brands and can also assure new followers and audiences that this news brand is not something to be wary about and there news that they publish will be assured to be legitimate.

7) Finally, do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

I think, without a doubt, digital media developments such as Twitter have had a great negative impact on traditional newspapers. Audiences are now reliant on the convenience and accessibility of news as everything is converged on single devices or single apps. Despite many people having a larger preference towards digital media when accessing their news, their is still a proportion of the public that is part of the digital divide meaning they do not have access to such digital advancements and contrastingly, are reliant on traditional newspapers. Ad news and awareness should be something that everyone is entitled to, I think it is very important that newspapers should be continued to be printed and distributed to those that are part of the digital divide. I think that although many people are completely swept away by the efficiency of new and digital media, many people, every now and again, would enjoy accessing traditional newspapers therefore, newspapers should not be completely discontinued, but should be distributed in smaller amounts.

Globalisation and the media: wider issues

1) Why was Google Glass controversial?

The Google Glass was significantly viewed as a controversial item as people thought it would be an introduction to the future dystopian world, similarly to the matrix which depicts a population that is somewhat alienated from each other due to technology. Google Glass seemed to be a starting point, in some people's opinion, for an impending fate of the world. Google Glass would possibly dissolve all conversations as people would no longer be able to tell whether people are actually listening to each other or concentrating on what can be seen through the Google Glass. Furthermore, with people being able to video and pick up images of what they are seeing, there are possibilities of Google using these images for the company's personal gain, without permission from the consumer. As reported, The Glass can record all sound and has installed facial recognition software, which will be able to pick out any one from the crowd that the user of Google Glass sees. This is highly exploiting privacy therefore, causing great controversy.

2) What are the positive elements to Globalisation that the article highlights?

Positives that arise from using the Google Glass is that information is much more accessible than what we once thought it was. Without wasting time by taking out devices, and turning them on, The Glass would be able to instantly search things making the speed we access information, much quicker. Furthermore, the Glass has converged a variety of function such as a sound recorder and camera in a small wearable device, which further accentuates its accessibility and convenience.

3) What are potential negatives to Globalisation?

Potential negatives of globalisation is that other countries may attempt to create replicas of products that are significantly successful while gaining a profit. Also, people will become less receptive of each other and focus more on their somewhat hyperreality online rather than their actual reality, causing separation from society. Globalisation allows for worldwide content to be easily accessed, creating more variety for audiences which would possibly ultimately lead to 

4) What is a techno-panic? How does it link to moral panics?

Techno-panic is very similar to moral panics as it refers to societies concerns due to a new change, however, techno-panic, directly refers to the fact that these concerns arise from the development in new and digital technology.

5) What is your opinion on the privacy debate and major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data?

Personally, I believe that unless you have some knowledge or involvement with things associated with illegality, I do not have an strong opinions against major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data. The largest gain that I believe these corporations have is the ability to target audiences better as well as find information on what sort of products, audiences are interested in. However, despite my personal beliefs being indifferent towards major corporations' means of accessing information, I fully understand privacy should be something that we are entitled to and should not be used purely for monetary gains.

NDM Story 24: Mail Online US almost doubles advertising growth

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/25/mail-online-us-almost-doubles-advertising-revenues

The Mail Online is beginning to have a massive impact on the US, with having roughly a 60% increse in revenue within the last 8 weeks which is almost double the rate seen over the last year. Now, the online newspaper have about 40% of their total audience being american despite being a UK news service. mail Online is also beginning to hire more american staff as 40 of the newly 100 staff, were US citizens.Mail Online now employs a total global staff of 720, including 410 editorial staff. Of those, 200 are based in the US, 130 of them are editorial.

• Mail Online derives 40% of its 212 million monthly unique users from US readers, more than view it in its home market in the UK
• The US site experienced 38% year-on-year revenue growth making about £18m in advertising for the period.
• Mail Online US has seen advertising revenue surge by 64%.
• Mail Online missed its 2015 target of £80m, it made £73m in the year to the end of September, as year-on-year growth slowed from 41% to 18%
• Mail Online derived about 66% of its £73m in total revenues from the UK in the year to the end of September, with 25% coming from the US and 9% the rest of the world.

I think this is a massive advancement for the mail online as it proves the effects of globalisation. It may also influence the news institution to maybe consider including some american news. There are also possibilities of the website becoming one of the most popular news sites in other countries as well as america

NDM News: Globalisation

1) Is our news influenced by American cultural imperialism? What examples can you think of?

American cultural imperialism has had a massive influence on the world as it can be considered that many countries have been drowned in american culture, that they begin to adopt it as their own. Therefore, current affairs occurring in America has great significance worldwide. Our news has become greatly influenced by American cultural imperialism as all important news in America is broadcasted in the UK. This is because our culture has become so similar to american culture that we feel a sense of familiarity in america. Also, america is one of the few countries that has the primary spoken languages ti be English, further emphasizing the close relationship between UK and America. A major example would be the presidential elections being widely broadcasted in the UK, which is understandable as a new president is a huge change in how America is run. However, smaller news stories such as minor hurricanes that have barely negatively affected citizens, gets reported often in the UK, which shows that even the smallest of news stories that happen in America, holds great importance in the UK as well.


2) Has the increased globalisation of news improved the audience experience? How? Why?

Increased globalisation has greatly improved the audience's experiences with the news as it allows the audience to gain a worldwide understanding as we are able to easily access information and news from different countries from the comfort of our own home. However it may be considered that globalisation has not improved audiences' experiences as the news is more americanised than globalised meaning that much of the news is heavily concentrated on important and unimportant news from America. This means that we may be unaware of more pressing news in other countries with less political and economical power like America.

3) Has globalisation benefited or damaged major news institutions? How? Why?

Globalisation has benefited many major news industries as these news industries have gained a lot more global power whicj makes their news stories widely read over the world. Advancements in new and digital media has greatly helped to further benefit news institutions to make their news more accessible. However, globalisation also damages many news institutions as smaller, local news institutions would greatly lose their audience as manny if the audience would have preferred to consume news from globally popular news institutions.

NDM Story 23:YouTube tipped to strike licensing deals for TV shows and films

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/03/youtube-licensing-deals-tv-shows-films

New service, You Tube Red, is now planning to sign deals with Hollywood studios and television firms to make TV and Films, a paying subscription service. Although this decision is still in the early stages, You Tube Red hopes to make many films and TV shows exclusive to You Tube Red rather than only gaining licensing rights. As well as this, many You Tube artists are also choosing to make exclusive content for You Tube Red that only subscribers would be able to access. This feature opened in October for the US and will expand globally in 2016. Along with You Tube, Apple is hoping to release their own streaming sites in the near future which would be another contender for You Tube Red.

• The online video service is keen for its $9.99-a-month service to compete more directly with rivals such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu
• It’s based on people paying $12.99 for a monthly subscription within the app – YouTube has added $3 to the cost of YouTube Red to account for Apple’s 30% cut of in-app purchases.
• YouTube is the 12th top-grossing iPhone app in Apple’s US App Store, jostling with Hulu and dating app Tinder on the outskirts of the top 10.
• PewDiePie, The Fine Brothers and Lilly Singh are among the YouTubers making new shows that will only be available to YouTube Red’s paying subscribers

You Tube Red's initial attraction was the extra content from beloved You Tube stars however with the decision to include exclusive content of films and TV shows is a positive improvement and will act as a bigger incentive for audience members to sign up to You Tube Red. However, the internet is limitless and many people may be able to find loopholes and other ways to access this restricted content but I believe that this will be very minimal and not affect You Tube Red greatly. 

NDM Story 22: The&Partnership launches talent agency for YouTube stars

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/02/thepartnership-social-talent-agency-youtube-stars-maddie-bruce

Media Group, The&Partnership, have decided to launch an agency that supports future You Tube and social media stars. Already representing massive You Tubers such as Zoella, Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg, the agency is believed to be the first in the UK to be an agency that focuses on promoting social media stars. The agency aims to sign up and coming talent with a lot of potential to become future stars. An example of a success story with the agency is video blogger, Maddie Bruce, who, after being overloaded with requests to promote products, decided to sign with The&Partnership. With the help from the agency, she can now focus on the material that she wants to show to audiences with the agency making educated decisions as to what she should be promoting in her videos.

• The&Partnership, owning an almost 50% stake, wants to muscle in on the market dominated by players such as the established giant Gleam Futures, which represents big name YouTubers such as Zoella, Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg. 
• Bruce, for example, decided to quit her studies in criminology to make a career out of video blogging and social media influencing when she hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. She currently has 135,000.
• Halpern Prince, who founded her PR agency in 1993 and sold a 50.1% stake to Hornby’s group in 2013, says she is keenly aware of the duty of care to young talent.
• Keith Weed, Unilever’s global marketing officer who handles an annual marketing budget of €7.2bn (about £5bn), says: “They’ve got a great line-up of up-and-coming talent who offer real engagement potential.

YouTube is a new and up coming form of digital media where anyone can voice out their opinions, ideologies and interests, with many vloggers having huge fan bases. Creating agency that helps successful You Tube artists with the commercial side of the profession would be very helpful and with the outstanding number of wannabe vloggers, this kind of company can potentially make a lot of profit and eventually become a well known entertainment agency in the future.

NDM News Story 21: Google accused of spying on students in FTC privacy complaint

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/02/google-eff-ftc-privacy-chromebook-gmail-spying-students

Google has recently been accused by US privacy campaigner the Electronic Frontier Foundation and has filed a complaint against them with US regulator the Federal Trade Commission. According the the EFF, Google constantly monitors any actions of students using the internet;every site, search, result and video. They supposedly did this without any permission from students or parents, therefore creating quite a stir, especially due to Google publicly promising that they would not do this without permission. However, a spokesperson from Google confidently claimed that their services provide a safe a secure interface for students to use. Due to conflicting statements, the FTC will be called to do a thorough investigation of the case and whether Google is invading people's privacy or not.

• Google provides a suite of tools for schools and higher education that mirror those available to businesses and consumers, allowing them to offload some of the IT infrastructure to a paid-for cloud-based service.
• Google’s Chromebooks have found success in education where they can be bought for significantly lower cost than most other computers.
• Google is understood to be in the process of disabling some of the features the form part of the EFF’s complaint, including Google’s Chrome Sync for Chromebooks that records browsing behaviour.

As Google is an extremely affluent company, a small issue such as this would not greatly affect the company, however, it would lead consumers to question the reliability of Google and possibly may lead them to change to different browsing websites and other providers.  

NDM News Story 20: A dating site for Disney fans? It's a whole new world …

 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/03/a-dating-site-for-disney-fans-its-a-whole-new-world-

With the endless number of fans who desire a romance that is seen in the widely watched Disney films, Dave Tavres, a great fan of Disney films, is releasing a dating app called Mouse Mingle, which allows users the opportunity to find their perfect partner, similarly to Disney movies. The website gives users the chance to post pictures and information, rate users and answer Disney related questions. It is a free app for users however, a price would need to be paid in order to send private messages. Tarves first came up with the idea in 2011 while he was working in Disneyland, California, wanting there to be a way in which Disney fans can find each other. Despite the dating site only applying to a niche fan base, it is not expected as a failing website as there are many other site with a niche audience such as dating sites dedicated to Doctor Who, vegetarianism, farming etc.

• $12.55 (£8) a month to send private messages.
• Members state their favourite Disney films, songs, characters, heroes and heroines, princes and princesses in their profiles.

I think that by creating this dating website, this is another way to increase the revenue for Disney. Despite the website not being directly affiliated with the Disney franchise, successful relationships formed through this website will create a powerful memories and which will induce couples to visit Disney regularly as it was the reason for them coming together. There are possibilities that this website will not do as well as expected as Disney's audience is significantly young children and there may not be enough adults who would prefer to use a disney dating site over another more conventional dating site, resulting in Mouse Mingle only raking in small profits.