Globalisation & News

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

To some extent news has been influenced by American cultural imperialism. This is seen by Sky News' 24 hour channel. CNN were the first news corporation to have featured a 24 hour news channel and this was later copied by Sky News, as they presented a news channel which pretty much had the same layout as CNN news. Another influence seen by American cultural imperialism is award shows such as the Oscar's in contrast to the Brits, famous award show: Oscar's made news worldwide, things such as the Oscar selfie also made worldwide news and was even seen as breaking news on British News. 

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

The increase of globalisation has helped improve news for audiences. The media plays a vital role in helping us experience worldwide news. We are able to view live events such as riots in Ukraine and even sporting events. The Olympics would be a great example for this. The whole world being able to watch a global sporting event is a great thing for audiences and institutions. Increasing globalisation allowed many British TV institutions to broadcast this sporting event. We are also able to see natural disasters happen live due to the globalisation of news and this has vastly improved the audience experience. 

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

Globalisation has both benefited and damaged major news institutions. The benefits of globalisation of major news institutions is that they are able to get news from anywhere. The increase of local journalists in worldwide countries allows major news institutions to get a greater variety of news, this could include natural disasters, or even wars that are currently going on in different countries. The fact that news corporations can get this news as soon as possible, it gives them a major benefit. Even though this is a benefit for major news institutions, this is also very damaging to the local news institutions. Local Gazette paper's for small towns are not able to compete with the quality of news that major institutions are conveying, thus portraying how there is not much time left for the small companies and with the increase of major news institutions, they will be closing down soon.     

Examiners Report

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

In my first question, I did well enough and covered quite a few of the examiners points in my answer which helped me get 6/8 and the report may help me improve this mark by one or two in the exam, in the remaining questions, I did not use as many, the 3rd question was a real weak point and I used music examples rather than actual movie ones.

2) How many examples did you provide in your answers that did not come from classwork?

I believe that I gave a range of examples in the first question from the actual text, it was near enough the same for the second but I failed to convey the importance of an 'Outsider', and in the third question I referred to Beyonces album and The Sun's paywall decision which didn't really relate to the movie industry.

3) 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?

To ensure I have a variety of examples to refer to for June, I will read through my blog and look at my new and digital media stories then categorise them into an order that shows which of them relate to the Movie industry, Music and other, this could help me in the final exam as I will have a range of answers for the question that comes up.

New & Digital Media: Week 13 / Week 8 IN&DM

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-manager-david-moyes-3254599 Moyes vs Giggs revealed on Twitter

On Sunday afternoon English team Liverpool turned the tables and actually beat champions Manchester United, who haven't really been having the best of seasons after the resignation of Club Legend Alex Ferguson, and many have been calling for the resignation or sacking of new manager David Moyes, this feeling for the calls was heightened when the news that club veteran Ryan Giggs had a bust up prior to a meeting after the Liverpool game, the news was broken online by TalkSport and it showed how Moyes was now losing trust, and for such a big team to have this revealed on a social networking site would be damaging.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen says he is 'considering' bringing app back

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/flappy-bird-come-back-creator-3232207

Flappy Bird owner Dong Ngeyen made news a few months ago after revealing he had decided to remove his notoriously popular game 'Flappy Bird' off the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, he believed that all the hype surrounding his game was unhealthy, after the news was broken that a boy stabbed his own brother was broken, Ngeyen thought it was time up for the game which was generating a profit of $50,000 per day. Ngeyen now wants to bring the game back but believes that by deleting it he has sent a message out that people should be taking a break, the app if put back onto App Stores will have a message throughout the game saying take a break and disallow those who have been playing for too long as Nyegen believed that the game was only designed to be played for a few minutes not hours.

Learning Response: Mock Exam

Mock Exam: C - 16

Q3

Official and unofficial websites have been said to have contributed to a films box office success, as seen in the trailer. Both movies endorsed their websites at the end of each trailer. The audience therefore saw a link to a websites and we saw how Eclipses site feature the trailer, link to community links and an online store, this was also the same as Let the Right one in which also featured all and an online store, this online store would help contribute to the films box office success. After the DVD is released, we will also see the DVD available for sale on the website. Many other films also use official websites to help generate films box office success. Films such as Dark Knight, ill Manors and Skyfall have all used  official websites to help contribute to their films box office, unofficial websites such as IMDB and Rotten tomatoes also do help contribute to a films box office but unofficially, as there is phone apps and websites for IMDB, audience members are able to see movies and see lists and reviews people have put up about the movie, the trailer on the website allows them to see what it is about and lets them understand the narrative of the movie, it usually also has the official link to the website allowing users to see the official site too and see online stores and other features. On the other hand there is also films such as Star Trek which have already got a fan base, this separates them from other audiences and movie institutions as fan bases such as the Star Trek one will always go to the cinema to watch the movie and see what the difference is, another example of this is James Bond, every few years they have a new actor who plays the 007 agent, yet we still see people going cinema and watching the new part of the movie. Official websites do usually help new movies as it allows them to promote movies thus generating a profit but movies with fan bases also have official websites but do not have to rely on these as much as new movies might have to. Unofficial websites such as forums also help generate a box office profit, but this can also be seen as a negative thing too, this happened with Johnny Depp's Lone Ranger, the movie had huge expectations and the money it took to make it also galvanised audiences, however the movie got a lot of negative reaction, people were tweeting about how bad it was and movie forums also suggested that they wouldn't recommend watching this movie thus degrading profits for movie institutions.  

New & Digital Media: Week 12 / Week 7 IN&DM

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/world/oscar-pistorius-vomits-in-court-during-graphic-testimony-1.1721682 - Pistorius vomits during autopsy report.

The high profile Oscar Pistorius trial has been one many have been keeping close attention to, Pistorius being one of South Africa's most decorated athletes and the only Paralympic to ever run in the Olympics, 2012 was a great year for Pistorius, winning gold in London but the worst came in the following year when Pistorius jailed for murdering his wife Reeva Steenkamp, and now we are witnessing South Africa's first ever broadcasted trial. We'd gotten to day 6 when state called upon Prof.Saayman for the autopsy report and for the first time all broadcast of the trial was halted, and the Judge ruled for the court order given by state to stop all recordings of the autopsy, to which we saw the media lawyers trying also in court to fight for this to be atleast recorded via audio but the judge remained to her word and demanded that nothing may be reported live, thus stopping people from posting live updates on twitter and blogs but they were allowed to summarise after Saayman had finished. In my opinion, in the era we are in where everything is broadcasted on any social networking site or any platform, I think it would have been interesting to hear the autopsy report giving audiences worldwide a wider verdict personally on Pistorius guilty or not.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/apple-refuses-unlock-dead-womans-3214436

Apple refuses to unlock dead woman's iPad, despite grieving sons' pleas

The giant institution of Apple have come into some scrutiny due to not unlocking a dead woman's ipad. With the will of the woman being divided between her two sons, they decided to keep the ipad between each other and realised there mother hadn't given them the password, they then factory reseted it and after this didn't work, they went to Apple who said they need a letter from there Mother, they said she was dead so Apple said they needed to see the death certificate, when the two boys went with the death certificate, Apple then said they need a court order in favour of them to actually unlock the ipad, to which we saw comments about the young men being ridiculed for not just going to a normal phone unlocking shop. In my opinion, Apple should have unlocked the ipad after the death certificate and will was shown, surely it must have been awkward for the shop assistant to refuse to unlock a ipad even after seeing a death certificate.  

News Values

How has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?

How would you update them for 2014?

Galtung and Ruge defined a set of values to explain how journalists & editors decide which certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy. The original research was taken in 1965 but their work is still debated as newsworthy. 

Immediacy -  Has it happened recently ? Is it new ? 

New and digital media has changed immediacy vastly, before the rise of new and digital media, news was broken to audiences via Broadcast or those without a TV would usually have to wait till the following morning, where they would read the news in the papers, however since the rise of new and digital media, news apps, social networking sites and news sites on the internet have resulted into the public receiving their news much much 
faster, thus improving immediacy.  

Familiarity - Does it mean something to us where we live ? Can we relate to it ? 

New and Digital media has helped bring cultural news to audiences easier, even though much of this news may not relate to us, news apps such as Sky News & BBC News both give an area for World news, this news may not be in relation to us but it gives audiences cultural and world wide news, an example of this is the Oscar Pistorious murder trial, it has no relation to us and does not mean something to us where we live, but the South African blade runner is well known and with the trial being televised and us getting live updates on Twitter, we are able to get news like this much quicker. 

Amplitude - Is it a big event ? Does it involve many people ? 

The growth of new and digital media has helped us view major events much much easier, for example the Boston bombings and the Woolwich racist murder of soldier Lee Rigby, has shown how new and digital media has helped audiences view such tragic events, citizen journalism have let the audience see the full events rather than just seeing the impact. 

Frequency - Is it something that happened fairly quickly ?

In the same way Amplitude has been affected by the growth of new and digital media, frequency has too, citizen journalism provides photographs of events, and just putting in photographs with a caption portrays the event, and as seen by the Metro, pictures provide the story and it also saves time. 

Unambiguity -  Is it clear ? Are the results/effects obvious ? 

Newspapers usually ignore stories if they think they're boring, however the growth of new and digital media has shown that even these so called 'boring' stories do have a place on the internet, news websites or apps usually have categories that include 'boring' stories, the growth of new and digital media has helped some stories come out and even go viral. 

Predictability - Is it predictable ? Do we expect it to happen ?

If we know what is going to happen, we usually do not care, but Elections and cup finals or even football matches are seen as predictable yet interesting, and newspapers such as The Sun have used this to help promote there institution, The Sun used promotions in their newspaper for there new Goals App, this promoted there newspaper and the growth of New and Digital media was promoted through institutions such as The Sun.

Surprise - Is it rare or an unexpected event ? 

Audiences like surprises, even unpleasant ones. This is also something that has been affected by the growth of new and digital media and also citizen journalism, the murder of Lee Rigby was recorded on a phone and sent into ITV, this footage shocked the nation, no one expects such a thing to happen in there country, and especially one where the police force is so exuberant, this was a rare and unexpected event and with the video being sent in to ITV, we began to see shocks throughout the audience and the video beginning to go viral.  

Continuity - Has it already been defined as news ? Is it a running story ? 

Newspapers always try to look for new angles on ongoing news stories, these usually feature stories about a civil war in a country or some wrong doing in one country, this has been seen in Ukraine, the civil unrest regarding Ukraine and Crimea due to Russia has been an ongoing news story, one we have seen vastly on the news. Due to civil unrest in the country new and digital media has affected this news value due to the way videos have been sent in to news institutions such as BBC which allows newspapers and sites to find new angles regarding certain news stories. 

Elite nations or people - Has the event happened in a country that is important to the audience ? Does it concern well-known people ? 

The growth of new and digital media has been seen to affect elite nations or people, an example of this was seen at the previous Oscar's we just saw a few days ago, and presenter of The Elle Show, Elle tried breaking a record of the most retweeted picture and did so by taking a selfie with elite actors. The social networking site Twitter allowed people to retweet the picture and view the picture both nationally and worldwide. 

Personalisation - Is it a personal or human interest story ? 

Inspirational stories have been affected majorly by the growth of new and digital media, inspirational stories usually show personal and human interest, and we have seen many of these videos throughout new and digital apps such as YouTube and even social networking sites. YouTube allows people to see inspirational stories and even identify and be inspired by these stories. 

Negativity - Is it bad news ? 

Negativity is one that seen positively by news corporations. Negativity helps improve ratings and more people are interested in bad news than they are in good, it always seems to get more press and attention than good news does, and new and digital media does affect negativity, we usually see stuff about news trending on Twitter and this spreads news much much more vastly than word of mouth. It also shows different views of the story no matter how negative and these views are also shown on news channels and shows.

Exclusivity - Are we the only only newspaper that has this story ? 

The growth of new and digital media has gotten rid of  exclusivity, nowadays we hardly see exclusivity unless someone is reporting something through a newspaper, this used to happen quite a lot a few years ago and the biggest newspapers such as The Sun would usually be the first to get the dirt but since the growth of new and digital media, and since Tom Daley's confession of being bisexual via twitter and YouTube, breaking news is broken usually on social networking sites. 

Visual Impact - Is this a really strong image ? 

Visual impact has also been impacted majorly by social networking sites and citizen journalism. The photographs sent in usually are the ones newspapers lead with, when a story has strength via its images. However again new and digital media has impacted visual impact too. Images which are sent in are usually shown on news websites or social networking sites before a newspaper.

Balance - Is it being used to counterbalance other stories ? 

News stories can usually be placed in broadsheets to counterbalance a heavy weight of foreign news and happy human interest stories sometimes appear in tabloids to balance out the bad and good news. This may be one of the news values that hasn't changed much. Balance is used more for newspapers and broadcast, if we see a bad story that has been running for 2 days, corporations will usually find a happy news story to show that there is not all doom and gloom in the world and this will usually be an inspirational story found either on YouTube or sent in. 

New & Digital Media: Week 11 / Week 6 IN&DM

David Cameron gives Russa an ultimatum. UK prime minister, David Cameron used the social networking site of Twitter to tell the public of what would happen if Russia continues there stance in Crimea, he tagged in Barack Obama who like a normal country leader had a press conference to speak about his views of Russia's actions yet Cameron choose to hide behind a screen and abnormally tweet rather than use the normal way of a press conference, Cameron was then horrendously abused on Twitter, with one user saying; "We can't even run the jubliee line without delays, how the f*ck is Cameron going to deal with Russia"

#FreeSuarez - http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/03/arsenal-fan-sets-up-petition-to-demand-liverpool-release-luis-suarez-and-pay-gunners-4-5m-4394076/

Liverpool and Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry made clear recently that Liverpools controversial striker Luis Suarez did in fact have a £40M release clause and that they didn't sell because contracts don't mean much in the UK, Arsenal fans didn't take this lightly and decided to post up an e-petition, this petition stated that Liverpool must hand over Suarez for free, publicly apologise then pay £4.5M in compensation, otherwise they take Liverpool to court, disregarding the fact that only Suarez could take them to court for breach of contract, and if he'd have ever said he publicly  wants to join The Gunners, this petition also comes very soon after one about not allowing Tom Clevery to go to Brazil for the World Cup, getting almost 1M signatures