Section B practice

New and digital media offers media institutions different ways of reaching audiences. Consider how and why media institutions are using these techniques (48 marks)

New and digital media media is rapidly gaining great prominence in society and has made it easier for audiences to consume the media in a quick and convenient way. However, it is also largely benefitting the institutions by helping reach wider audiences.

With the decline of newspapers, news institutions take full advantage of the ability to create on line sites to publish their news stories. As audiences greatly value the convenience of accessing anything, convergence in phone technology helps the news institutions gain more audience through their online news. Furthermore, news institutions also release apps for audiences to personalise the news that they receive. Although news going online is a very beneficial advancement for news institutions which is also supported by Rupert Murdoch who stated "the world is changing and news has to adapt", this is considered to be very harmful to those who are part of the digital divide as they would not have any access to a necessity of knowing current affairs.

The Sun has also been reaching out to audiences through their website which has recently removed his paywall from the website and allowed people to view the sun’s stories for free. As the audiences greatly believe in the ideology of things being free, this move for the Sun was very useful as more people decided to access the news through their website. The decline in print industry is another reason why he moved the sun online without a paywall. The reason behind why the institution was doing this was simply because less people read papers, the decline of newspaper circulation and newspaper revenue has rose because there is just so much more available online.

Another way institutions have been reaching audiences is through social media such as Twitter. Twitter was launched in and ever since it has changed the way people get access to the news. Twitter has made institutions much more accessible and have allowed them to be connected to their audience. Audiences are able to get information from news institutions much quicker. News breaks on twitter much immediately than it once used to. Audiences re able to see this information much quicker. 60% of people said that Twitter gave them the opportunity to engage with newspaper brands that they would normally not read in print format. It brings them closer to audiences, the immediacy and the accessibility (Galtung & Ruge’s News values) makes it much easier for them than it once was. Twitter makes them feel much more connected. Institutions are able to reach their audience by interacting with their audience, audiences are able to favourite, get notifications and share straight from their mobile phone. It allows audiences to get instant news compared to before and makes them want to go to their website to find out more and get more information.

NDM News Story 63: UK ad market booms but newspapers lose £155m in print advertising

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/26/uk-ad-market-booms-but-newspapers-lose-155m-in-print-advertising


The newspaper industry is proving to increasingly becoming closer to extinction. Advertising in newspapers are decreasing rather rapidly across all newspapers, whether it be the local news paper or a tabloid newspaper. However, in contrast to the decrease in revenue for the print industry, TV advertising has done relatively well as the revenues have increased  a lot. 

• more than £150m in print ads disappeared 
• total UK ad market grew at 7.5% to £20.1bn last year
• National newspaper brands reported an 11% fall in ad spend to £1.2bn in 2015
• print advertising fell by 9.6% to £435m last year.
• tabloid titles, which endured a 16.2% decline in print advertising to £565.4m.
• £155.4m in print advertising disappear between 2014 and 2015.
• 6.2% fall in total ad spend to £1.17bn,
• solid year for TV advertising, which rose by 7.3% to £5.2bn, with the nascent video-on-demand ad market rising 21% to £175m.

This trend does not seem like a shock to many people as new and digital media has offered audiences with quicker, more convenient and even more personalised news for the readers. Due to this, audience members, especially the younger generation is becoming less prone to accessing the news in paper form, which may ultimately make newspapers become a displaced media.

NDM News Story 62: Facebook, Google campuses at risk of being flooded due to sea level rise

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/22/silicon-valley-sea-level-rise-google-facebook-flood-risk


Facebook and Google faces issues of their Silicon Valley campuses being flooded by the risks of the sea level rising. Facebook is disadvataged even more as they are located closer to the sea where roads are already becoming flooded. Google, located in Mountain view is a slightly better position. With these risks, the companies are planning a retreat, however, the havent given musch further details into this matter or what their next steps would be.

• Facebook’s new 430,000 sq ft campus appears most at risk
•  the offices are designed to house 2,800 staff.
• Even with a small increase, the sea comes into the 101 highway by the Googleplex
• Nearly $100bn in commercial and residential property around the Bay Area is at risk from sea level rises and severe storms
• an estimated $21bn in new developments 

This issue will cause great disruption to the upkeep of the companies and may result in many bad consequences. However with the advancements in technology and the several other campuses that facebook and google own, there shouldnt be that much of an issue for the users.

NDM News Story 61: Facebook is going to start showing you pieces people actually read

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/22/facebook-algorithm-change-pieces-people-actually-read


Facebook is planning to use new methods of showing the users content that they are genuinely interested in. Normally, they deal with a lot of data that helps them understand what content that they normally broadcast to each individual user however, they will now start to think about the time that is spent on each type of article which will signal what sort of stories that users find interesting and appealing. They ignore click bait articles from their research as users tend to only spend a mere few seconds on such articles.

•  News Feed filled with 30,000 word New Yorker epics.
• In January this year, Upworthy laid off 14 of its 97 employees and pivoted towards video content.
• The company’s video traffic had grown 33 times in the previous 11 months

This is a very effective method for choosing news articles that the public would be interested in and can be considered to empower the audience as they are subjected to information that they believe will benefit their interests. However, this can also be considered to be disempowering as it may divert the users from the truly important news that is happening in society, therefore, dumbing us down.

NDM News Story 60: New York Times to invest $50m on global digital expansion

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/14/new-york-times-to-invest-50m-on-global-digital-expansion



The New York Times have discovered that in order to become an indispensable source of news, they need to open up the audiences internationally and expand digitally. They already believe that they have become a great national news source but the next step towards their growth is becoming an international source of news. There would be a team that is focused on international digital growth and they hope they would be able to attract more readers and advertisers alike.

• The UK  is estimated to be the publisher’s third biggest market accounting for 2.5% of all traffic.
• NYT Global, which will be responsible for spearheading a three-year $50m digital growth strategy.
• aim was to double total digital revenues to about $800m by 2020 and that it was setting even more ambitious targets for international growth.
• Last year, the NYT broke through the 1 million digital subscriber mark. The publisher launched its digital paywall in 2011.

More and more newspapers are realising the importance that digital advancements have on the success of their companies and notice that in order to avoid bankruptcy like kodak and Blockbusters, institutions who did not develop to keep up with the changing societies, institutions must find new ways of increasing the popularity of their institution as well as follow the popular trends to help them reach this goal.  

NDM News Story 59: Google claims YouTube ads are more effective than TV

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/20/google-youtube-ads-tv


Matt Brittin, Google’s top-ranking European executive, is set to unveil a report analysing ad campaigns across eight countries which proves the effectiveness of You Tube's advertising strategies. Google has, on several occasions, openly discussed that TV adverts are not as useful as You Tubes adverts and have been encouraging advertisers to invest more in You Tube. There are comments against You Tube, claiming that the majority of You Tube's videos are low value, user generated content, meaning that their demographics are not useful enough for the advertisers to attract the customers that they want.

• they should be spending a quarter of their TV ad budget on YouTube instead if they wanted to reach 16- to 24-year-olds.
• YouTube only really accounts for 10.3% of time spent by 16- to 24-year-olds consuming video.
• YouTube accounts for just 1.4% of the time that demographic spends actually viewing video advertising.

The advertising industry is gaining a lot of focus from society as with people having the "things should be free" ideology, advertising seems to be the most prominent method of gaining revenue. You Tube as a form of new and digital media, is posing a threat to the traditional television as big brand, Google, is voicing out their opinions of how You Tube is a much more effective platform for advertisers.

NDM News Story 58: Criminals hide child abuse images behind legal porn sites

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/21/criminals-hide-child-abuse-images-behind-legal-porn-sites



Adult pornography is content that many people access all over the world, which can be found on legal, easily accessible porn sites. However, Paedophiles are increasingly hiding child abuse images on legal porn sites, which means that a normal citizen may accidentally stumble across such images and accused wrongfully. Also, by hiding child abuse images online, it makes it more difficult for the police to prove the innocence or guilt of the accused.

• The IWF uncovered 743 such websites in 2015, compared with 353 in 2013. Langford said they were using a new technique where only legal content was displayed if the site was accessed directly through a browser but illegal child abuse images were shown if a specific pathway of links was used.
• Last year, the IWF found that 21% of the webpages containing illegal images
• The IWF said 68,092 reports of suspect online content were positively identified as containing illegal child sexual abuse imagery in 2015 and taken down.
• This was a 417% increase in confirmed reports since 2013 and a 118% increase over the previous year
• 69% of victims were assessed to be aged 10 or younger, with 1,788 of those believed to be two or under.

This article explores the negative affects of the advancements of new technology. This new technology has been proven to be very harmful as everyone who uses porn sites are under the risk of coming across child abuse images unintentionally. The technology is so advanced and peoples knowledge on how to use the internet for the wrong reasons is rapidly increasing and can be very damaging for today's society.

NDM News Story 57: The best TV apps for children from BBC iPlayer Kids to YouTube Kids and Sky Kids

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/15/best-tv-apps-for-kids-bbc-iplayer-youtube-sky


It can be considered that educational and entertaining apps for children can be calmer and more convenient way for parents to provide their children with some clean and calm fun. The article explores the benefits of the various child-friendly apps that allow a form of enjoyment for the children,ranging from the free applications to the subscription based applications. 

• Amazon Prime Video - Android / iOS (part of £79-a-year Prime membership)
• Netflix - Android / iOS (£5.99 - £8.99 a month)
• DisneyLife - Android / iOS (£9.99 a month)
• Hopster - Android / iOS (£3.99 a month)
• PlayKids - Android / iOS (£2.99 a month)

New and digital media is having a massive impact on the world and has reached very young children as well. The power that new and digital media have on the world is seen as these young children no longer turn to toys as their first choice of entertainment. Other enjoyments that young children have such as music and books are also being easily replaced by the content that websites and apps offer. It is understandable as parents would no longer need to buy an extensive range of toys and books to entertain their children and a single tablet can keep children interested for hours.

ignite presentation

MEST3 mock exam - Learner Response

1) WWW: Good focus on the question. Effective use of research/quotation
EBI: Missed opportunities to include examples- write a short paragraph wherever they're missing.

Citizen journalism can be considered to have a massively positive impact on society as the Guardian's Paul Lewis stated that it gives information "a new layer of accountability." Citizen journalism and user generated content proved to be greatly necessary for one of the biggest news story in 2011, the Arab Spring. As countries such as Lybia, Egypt and Syria were revolting against a heavy dictatorship, foreign reporters were not granted permission to report on the situation. The UGC  were what audiences relied on in order to get information on the countries. This example showed how important it was to 'witness, record and share' (Paul Lewis) to get insight on certain news. Furthermore, citizen journalism allows for unmediated content meaning that there is no particular agenda included and audiences can gain access to raw information.For example, the UGC of the death of Eric Garner being killed by a police officer, although disturbing, is completely unaltered and revealed to the public of how the police was guilty of the death of an unarmed man.

Overall: 61/80  B

Citizen journalism can be considered to have a massively positive impact on society as the Guardian's Paul Lewis stated that it gives information "a new layer of accountability." Citizen journalism and user generated content proved to be greatly necessary for one of the biggest news story in 2011, the Arab Spring. As countries such as Lybia, Egypt and Syria were revolting against a heavy dictatorship, foreign reporters were not granted permission to report on the situation. The UGC  were what audiences relied on in order to get information on the countries. This example showed how important it was to 'witness, record and share' (Paul Lewis) to get insight on certain news. Furthermore, citizen journalism allows for unmediated content meaning that there is no particular agenda included and audiences can gain access to raw information.For example, the UGC of the death of Eric Garner being killed by a police officer, although disturbing, is completely unaltered and revealed to the public of how the police was guilty of the death of an unarmed man.

2) Question 1:  7/8
Identification developed via montage celebrating universality of marriage
Fast editing
Appeal to a range of audiences through use of different nationalities / ages etc.
Direct address of the “Who are you?” questioning
Use of text on screen to provide a very contemporary scene

Question 2: 9/12
Didn't use any of the suggested points

Question 3: 5/12
Key to advertising/marketing revenue

3) Question 7: 40/48
Global nature of e-Media
Information and democracy


4) Question 1:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
the notion that one text creates a desire to own a product, while the other encourages self-realisation.

Question 2:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
identification with celebrity
response to lifestyle activities and celebration of choices
modification of audience behaviour
online identity and manipulation
pros and cons of social networks

Question 3:
My answer was one of the weaker answers
Next time I would include:
advertising/marketing revenue for producers
the growth of the e-Media economy and the impact of this upon traditional media producers
the illusion of empowerment offered by new media technologies and platforms
direct audience feedback and how producers used these to their own ends
demographic targeting
cross media promotion.

Question 7:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
government control of web based technologies
repressive regimes and emergent democracies
folk devils such as terrorism and paedophilia.


5) Question 3:

It is vital for media producers to adopt a positive attitude to new and digits media as it allows for developments and growth for the products. In the first product, Google's Nexus, new and digital media has allowed for a widely effective method for advertising the product. The advert allows for cross media promotion by making the famous brand that most consumers are familiar with, Google, to be very prominent. Furthermore, the visual aspects of the advert allows for consumers to relate with the brand through weddings which is where great gatherings occur and makes the consumers see the illusion of empowerment that the new phone gives you. 

With the second product, it focuses on promoting religion which is often thought to be traditional. This new way of promoting religion can be greatly effective as it would be easier to target the appropriate demographic which can be done by specifically broadcasting the advert on certain channels. Also, it allows for the scale of the audience they reach to greatly increase as adverts that are broadcasted on tv can reach wider audiences in contrast to by word of mouth. 

As well as the effectiveness of advertisement, new and digital media allows for the audience to give direct feedback on the product which allows the producers to use this information to develop their products in relation to the consumers wishes. 

NDM News Story 56: The Times drops online rolling news for four editions a day

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/30/times-rolling-editions-website-sunday-times-apps
The Times have decided to stop publishing rolling news stories and have decided to bring back the edition based publishing model. This model has proven to be a very traditional method of releasing news however The Times aims to update and modernize this, once popular model. However, they will still follow breaking news stories at the audience's discretion. This edition is an attempt to make digital growth.

• The power of an edition has endured at the Times for more than 230 years
•  online weekday deadlines of 9am, midday and 5pm. 
• The Times and Sunday Times have digital subscriptions of 172,000 across seven days
• In 2013, it was reported that they had 150,000 subscribers.

This new fusion of traditional and new digital media may be a great plan in order to target the older audience who still prefer the print over digital news. Ny having an edition, customers shown the times' traditional values but would want to modernize news in order to make it easily accessible.

NDM News Story 55: SoundCloud presses Go on its subscription streaming service

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/29/soundcloud-go-subscription-streaming-spotify-apple-music



Popular music streaming website, Soundcloud, plans to take their free service a step further and include a special subscription service, which allows customers to store tracks on their devices for offline listening. Labels will be able to decide whether to make their music available on SoundCloud’s free service, its subscription tier or both. Spotify’s past unwillingness to allow such a choice led to its infamous dispute with Taylor Swift, who removed all her music from Spotify as a result. Although this subscription will only be available in the US, it was revealed that it will soon reach several other countries globally once striking the right deal.

• long-planned subscription service, but for now the $9.99-a-month service will only be available in the US.
• company hopes a mammoth catalogue of more than 125m tracks
•  175 million subscribers
• SoundCloud Go, which will be more expensive on iOS devices at $12.99 a month to factor in Apple’s 30% share of in-app purchases
• SoundCloud’s revenues grew by 54% to €17.4m, but its losses increased by 69% to €39.1m.
• SoundCloud has raised £111m in funding since 2009, including a £24.5m round of debt financing in early 2016.

With people  willing to pay a certain amount of money to gain exclusive content, this subscription service seems to be a likely success. With streaming services and illegal downloading being easily available and accessible,  it gives a new way for artists to earn revenue for their music.

NDM News Story 54: North Korea announces blocks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-announces-blocks-on-facebook-twitter-and-youtube



North Korea has recently stated that they will be blocking several sites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube in order to lessen the amount of outside information that can be found out though such sites. Although it was revealed that the block would only be for a certain period of time, the time in which these websites would stopped being banned has not been revealed. A very limited number of North Koreans have access to the internet but this block will stop the limited number of foreigners residing in North Korea to convey the conditions and situation that this closed off country is in.

• The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was published this week at the country’s main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving internet users in Pyongyang.
• gambling and “sex and adult websites” have been blocked
• more than 2 million North Koreans now use mobile phones, 
• North Korea decided in 2013 to allow foreigners in the country to use 3G on their mobile phones

This ban on many popular sites shows how much freedom that those who have access to the internet, have. however, as the main purpose of blocking the sites was to stop foreigners reporting to the outside world of North Korea's developments, it shows how much an impact the internet has on politics and country's affairs.