NDM: News Values

1) Come up with a news story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:

• Conflict

Donald Trump groping remarks reveal 'pattern of sexual assault', says Kaine- (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/09/donald-trump-groping-remarks-sexual-assault-tim-kaine-debate)

Donald Trump’s taped remarks about groping women and using his fame for sex are reflective of “a pattern of sexual assault”, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, said Sunday.

Jill Harth speaks out about alleged groping by Donald Trump

 

Read more

“It’s not just words,” Kaine said in an interview with CNN, adding that Trump must explain to American voters in Sunday night’s presidential debate “why he thought that was acceptable behavior”.

A number of women, including Jill Harth, who spoke to the Guardian in July, have alleged that Trump groped them or behaved in an inappropriate manner.

• Progress

Andy Murray: Number one ranking 'may be start' of more success for Briton- (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/37882468)

A British tennis player as world number one is an idea as ludicrous to recent memory as anything else in that giddy list, but with Andy Murray, we should no longer be surprised.To a nation systematically unable to produce tennis champions despite finances and facilities at the elite level to embarrass others as well as itself, Murray is the gift that keeps giving.

• Disaster

Syria- (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26116868) 

More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State. 

• Consequence

Lower benefits cap comes into force- (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37873922)

A cut in the benefits cap - a limit on the income working age households can receive in certain benefits - has now come into force.The cap has been reduced from £26,000 a year to £20,000 a year in the UK - except in Greater London where the limit is £23,000 a year.

• Prominence 

'I want to explore surrogacy': Kim Kardashian reveals she's looking into alternative ways to have a third child with Kanye West after suffering health problems while pregnant- (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3912532/Kim-Kardashian-wants-explore-surrogacy-husband-Kanye-West-suffering-health-problems-pregnant-North-Saint.html)

She has vowed to not have any more children after suffering serious health problems during her previous pregnancies. But Kim Kardashian West does not want this to stop her from expanding her brood, as she reveals she is planning to look into alternative methods.

Talking on next week's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, the reality star, 36, admitted to her sisters that she wants to 'explore surrogacy' after she and husband Kanye West, 39, both expressed desire for a third child.

• Novelty

‘I’LL TAKE CARE OF HER..I’M A FRIEND’ 

Chilling moment sex predator leads victim to horror attack before returning to club after savage assault- (

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2130084/chilling-moment-sex-predator-leads-victim-to-horror-attack-before-returning-to-club-after-savage-assault/)

Now footage reveals how Tiso was caught on camera collecting his coat from the club as his victim was escorted from the venue by concerned staff.The Brazil native was later captured walking the 24-year-old woman, who had taken an ecstasy tablet and was under the influence of alcohol, down Montague Lane in the city.The pervert was then seen grappling with the young woman. At one stage, she fell before the rapist casually picked her up.

2) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? 

The article talks about asylum seekers pose a threat to the community and sets up ideas of conflict. It creates fear of the outsider and immigrants.

3) What is gatekeeping?

Gatekeeping is the process of filtering information prior to dissemination. This process is usually done via the editor, but the gatekeeping process could be seen to be more than simply an editor choosing one story over another, it could also refer to how journalist select certain lines of questioning, or use some words over others to describe people and event. In general, gatekeeping is about opening or closing the channels of communication and, in the case of news, it is a way for news institution to control the ‘flow’ of information passed on to the audience.

4) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?

• Bias through selection and omission
• Bias through placement
• Bias by headline
• Bias by photos, captions, and camera angles
• Bias through use of names and titles
• Bias by choice of words

5) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published? 

Some critics argue that the rise of e-media and the developments in 

technology are challenging the way media institutions ‘gatekeep’ 

news. How far this is true is debateable, whilst some bloggers have 

high-profiles on the internet, many are regarded as unreliable sources 

of news. 

Many mainstream media outlets criticise the ‘unprofessional’ 

practices of bloggers.

6) Give an example of a news story from the last 12 months that was reported as a result of online technology - Twitter, Wikileaks or similar.

For example, blogger Ana Marie Cox released exit poll results during the Obama presidential election campaign, something mainstream press would not do as they argue it could affect the outcome. Cox argued her blogs only affect voter turnout “to the extent people believe them”.

7) Complete the task on the last page of the Factsheet regarding Sky News and Twitter:

• What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source?

That it is an efficient source of news as it provides Sky with instant news.

• What does it say about how news is being produced?

That audiences are now providing evidence for news companies for their stories, not journalists.

• What role does the audience have in this process?

They provide evidence for new companies, such as Sky, and almost take the role of a journalists.

• Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?

Because some information that audiences might be invalid and also it proposes a threat to journalists.

Final tasks

Choose SIX of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how each one has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

Predictability: social media is unpredictable, through trending and having a wide audience to receive this info, in other words having a large database.An example of this is the London Riots which shows how quickly things can spread and become important in society.

Elite nations/people: the influence of celebrities in particular causes many people to follow what these people do, like etc on a daily bases with the help of social media such as Snapchat, Instagram, they are able to post about their social lives and keep followers updated. 

Amplitude: News stories about protests or riots for the most part make a great deal of media attention and are generally discussed along these lines reporting these stories is probably going to request to the audiences as it is always a attention-grabbing topic.

Frequency: some stories from a particular category are always in the news as they createattention from audiences since individuals are interested with this kind of content. For instance,rape or murder cases are always big news stories when they happen as they are viewed as harsh and wrong create a similar reaction each time yet stay well known.

Familiarity: this doesn't matter that much because news from all over the globe is posted on social media. This means that all audiences will view different news stories

Amplitude: if the news story isn't significant and its posted on social media, then it won't go viral. This means that the news story will only have a small viewing.

NDM News: Citizen journalism and hyper-reality

Examples

• High-speed chase by police to catch Rodney King, an African-American who was eventually surrounded, tasered and beat with clubs all filmed by onlooker from apartment window. Made prime time news internationally, it was a focus for complaints about police racism towards African Americans. RESULT : 4 COPS WERE CHARGED WITH ASSAULT AND USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE BUT WERE LATER ACQUITTED OF CHARGES SPARKING HUGE CIVIL UNREST . 
• London Bombings - July 2005
•  Asian Tsunami - 26th December 2004
• Mumbai, India: Bombings - late November 2008
• Hudson River Plane Crash - 15th January 2009
• Seung-Hui Cho - Undergraduate 23-year-old who regularly sent photos, written pieces and videos to NBC news

As a result, of these first-hand accounts the reaction they got had everyone springing into action and looking into what had just broken. 

Theories 

• Crowd Sourcing - Eventually leaving the media unmediated

Benefits to institutions 

• They are buying into the world of UGC - Buying up social networking sites.  e.g) News Corp brought Myspace. 

Benefits to audience 

• First-hand accounts
• Less censored
• No longer passive receivers of news
• Can access the news from wherever they are

Wider issues and debates 

• The riots that followed the acquittal, killed and injured many was it really necessary to prove a point?
• Would the four police officers even have been charged in the first place, if it wasn't for onlooker George Holliday grabbing his video camera? - " King's beating would be just another hidden incident with no consequences" - Sara Mills (Article writer)

SHEP

1. Social: Greater accessibility - Shareable through the internet on sites such as Twitter, Myspace, YouTube and Facebook
2. Historical: Audience were passive receivers of news in the past, with news being only produced by big news conglomerates. Now... we are creators and receivers
3. Economical: Big organisations are suffering with the rise of UGC, Less profit for large organisations. e.g. Nobody is buying printed newspapers anymore. News companies have needed to become more inventive with the way in which they make their profit. e.g. advertising.
4. Political: What is going to happen to the media if eventually it is a unmediated world? How are we going to know what to believe and what not to believe?

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
The term citizen journalist refers to regular people like you and me who over the years have had greater access to filming capabilities through our phones and other devices which has allowed us to play an active role in the creation of news. We can rapidly collect and distribute footage we collect via the internet for all to see which then gets shared and can end up becoming a viral news story, just the story of Rodney King. 

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
The case of Rodney King, that was captured and shared by an ordinary person in a matter of minutes and before long went viral with all the major news conglomerates in a wide variety of countries broadcasting the news about Rodney King and the police brutality towards him.

3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram

4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?First hand UGC, is different from professionally shot footage because it is unedited in the moment witness accounts; the video quality is likely to be quite low in comparison to that of professionally shot footage as first hand UGC is typically shot off of people's camera phones whereas professional shots are done with high quality cameras and a complete camera crew. 
5) What is a gatekeeper?
The people who decide what is and what isn't the news. They decide what should and should not be broadcast. We can send in as much UGC as we want but it is the gatekeepers decision as to what gets onto the daily news bulletins. 

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
With the rise of UGC, the role of a gatekeeper has changed from being the people who filter what is and what is not news. To the people who just manage the UGC content that they get sent day to day and deciding what parts of it if any at all can be used in their news bulletins. 

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
Journalists primary concern is losing their jobs, with the rise of UGC it is a concern that there will be fewer and fewer permanent trained staff at news organisations; leaving less and less people to deal with the rise of UGC and managing all the content.that people send in. 

Another concern would be that without moderation sites could be overrun by bigots and fools. By those who shout the loudest and have little else to do but make posts. The fear of being dominated by defamatory, racist and other hate fuelled content raises questions about unmoderated content.


8)What impact is new/digital media having on:

• news stories

NDM will mean that news stories are probably going to have a lot more UGC content within in them. As a opposed to the company using content that their own journalists have collected and editied.  However, the increased use of UGC does leave the question will these first-hand accounts still be run through gatekeepers and censored. Because if not it could lead to more hard-hitting news being shown to what is already a desensitised audience as a result of what they are shown in the news. 

• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)

UGC, will impact the news agenda I think quite a lot, this is because rather than journalists sending through urgent emails that should be broken straight away it will be citizen journalists replacing this. If journalists send it in it still has to run by the gatekeepers which sometimes can result in certain news conglomerates being last to break the news that they were originally the first to obtain. However, with citizen journalism it likely to be broadcast straight away. However, as I mentioned it could lead to more hard hitting and unmediated potentially low-brow news.

• the role of professionals in news

The role of professionals has already changed dramatically and stands to change further in my opinion. Professional journalists in permanant roles will be reducing in numbers but of who is left they will no longer be in the position of sitting by a computer and writing the articles for the print issue or surfing the net and keeping and eye on a number of sources for the news to break. Instead they will simply be there to manage the UGC that gets sent into news conglomerates by citizen journalists. They will be deciding what is what and what is good to broadcast. But soon I think even that will be no longer eventually I think the media will end up unmediated, but if and when this happens what are we supposed to believe?

Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance

Examples

• Graham Bell launched telephone in 1876 - Revolution in communication systems and sewed the seeds of a more wide ranging transformation about the way in which society thought about itself and culture.
• Substitution of face to face interaction interaction with a hyper real experience mediated by technology
• Skype dinner parties 
• Eadweard Muybridge's experiments with stereoscopic images in the 1870's - developed into a staple venue for romantic courtships in the 20th century
• Cinema,television, music videos and computer games all invite the audiences to suspend disbelief and inhabit of a paperless fantasy world.
• BAUER's Kerrang! - Successful brand that exists in a post digital age across multiple platforms (website, TV and radio station)   
• Bebo, Facebook and MySpace embody postmodern culture
• September 11th - Terrorist attacks on America in 2001  

Theories 

• Jean Baudrillard - Simulacrum and Simulacra
• Frankfurt School theorists like Theodore Adorno: Viewed the gramophone record and cinema as a means of distracting the working class from their disadvantaged social positions.  
• Mark Zuckerburg  - Bullying
• Albert Bandura - The Bobo Doll Experiment 

Positive aspects of new technology (or 'digital renaissance' 

• The way in which technologies are embedded into our lives reinforces traditional structures of society and culture
• Interactivity
• Prejudice no longer matters
• Re birth in the way that we think about society and culture in the developed world from the proliferation of creative digital hardware to social networking
• More innovation and social interaction

Negative aspects of new technology on audiences and society 

• Impossible to take a moral stance on media technologies
• Body image issues
• The use of telephones/television and the internet are all symptomatic of societies decay

Wider issues and debates 

Is the advancements in the digital world a positive impact on today's society or a negative impact?

Have the advancements in technology come to fast? Are we struggling to keep up with the developments?  

What do these advancements that keep coming in technology mean for society in terms of work? (Print media industry - Journalists lost/loosing jobs with the takeover of User Generated Content) 

1) The article was written in 2009. Offer three examples of more recent social networking sites or uses of technology that support the idea of a 'digital renaissance'.

Instagram - Providing live videos and the ability to create stories in a matter of minutes that can be shared with thousands of people at the click of a button. 

Skype - The ability to have a live video stream going and share one moment or experience with millions of family and friends - Skype dinner parties

Facebook - Live streaming service

2) How do live streaming services such as Periscope or Facebook Live fit into the idea of a 'digital renaissance'? Are these a force for good or simply a further blurring of reality?
Live streaming services like Periscope and Facebook fit into the idea of the digital renaissance as these services are an advancement in technology. Users of the services can easily record their surroundings or something they are doing in the moment and share it with millions of people within a matter of minutes with a few simple clicks. These types of live streaming services are a force for good because they encourage better audience interaction and discussion of views and values etc. However, these services are a further blurring from reality because some people begin to hide behind the camera and deceive others from what is the truth (Reality); they live every second of their lives behind the lens of a camera. 

3) How can we link the 'digital renaissance' to our case study on news? Is citizen journalism a further example of hyper-reality or is it actually making news more accurate and closer to real life?

I think that the digital renaissance can be linked to our case study on news because it allows us to see how the advancements in technology over the years has changed the way in which we consume and distribute news and how our views of the media and other things have changed because of the way in which technology has changed. I feel like citizen journalism is both a further example of hyper reality and also making news more accurate and closer to real life. Citizen journalism provides us with first hand accounts of uncensored news which is real life and it could be more accurate because it is shared in the moment with thousands of people. However, citizen journalism could also be an example of hyper reality because is what we are fed through citizen journalism an imitation of real world processes or is it an actual representation of someone or something. 

Week 8- 

How a robot could be grandma’s new carer

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/06/robot-could-be-grandmas-new-care-assistant

MiRo is a robotic dog. There is an early model close to where we are sitting. Its head sits above a torso without arms or legs, and its cartoonish eyes stare out below alert ears embedded with speakers. 

Conran’s company describes it as a biomimetic companion robot, and says it will eventually work with facial recognition technology to make life easier for its owner – to prompt them to take medicine, or to remind them of visitors’ names, or to question them if it thinks they’re in trouble. 

Conran tells me to think of it as a cross between a pet and Radio 4’s John Humphrys. Dr Toshiharu Mukai of Meijo University has been developing a robot capable of lifting patients out of beds and into wheelchairs. It’s called Robear, is designed to look like an approachable white bear, and could, if successful, do a job that would normally involve several care workers. 

In Grantham, a prototype care robot was recently introduced to a sheltered housing centre. Part of an EU-funded project dedicated to investigating the ways technology can improve the day-to-day lives of elderly people, the robot is designed in part to – much like Conran’s MiRo – combat loneliness, and to offer reminders for tasks such as taking medicine.

Fears grow for children addicted to online games

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/06/fears-children-addicted-online-games

Medical and addiction experts, charities and parents are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of time children are spending playing online games as figures show that UK spending on titles such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto will top £3bn this year.

Dr Aric Sigman, a freelance lecturer in child health, said he had heard from a number of doctor’s surgeries that parents were asking for sleeping pills for their children. “Whether you call it an addiction or not, this is an enormous and growing problem,” he said.

The charity Action for Children says that a quarter of parents rank their children’s screen time, and how to control it, as their greatest challenge – bigger than the traditional issues of homework or healthy eating.

Week 7-

Do parents overshare pictures of their children on social media

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/05/do-parents-overshare-pictures-of-their-children-on-social-media

In a piece for the Guardian’s Weekend magazine on Saturday, schoolchildren in east London told Paula Cocozza that they had concerns about consent, their reputation, and parental invasions of privacy. 

Even small things could prove divisive, one of the youngsters saying: “One day my hair was all raggedy, sticking up all over the place, and my auntie put it on Facebook. I was so embarrassed I cried.”

Excessive sharing about your children has long incited disapproval, but recently the disapproval has begun to acquire a proto-legal tinge. In March, French police warned parents against posting photos of their children on social media; according to social media analyst Eric Delcroix, the children could soon be able to sue them for posting inappropriate pictures, under the country’s privacy laws. 

The treasurer of the UK’s Human Rights Lawyers Association, Leanne Targett-Parker, echoes the idea that it is only a matter of time before children mount legal challenges against oversharing parents. “You can’t imagine it not being something that starts to develop within the next five to 10 years,” she says. “I can’t see how there can’t be attempts at suing people for putting up posts that they’re unhappy with.”

Politics has gone wrong. Is digital technology to blame?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/31/politics-digital-technology-brexit-donald-trump

Digital technologies may have transformed the world around us over the last 25 years: how we shop, how we find love, where we look for news, whom we count as our friends, what we do with our time – all of this and more has been turned upside down. But if you took someone from the early 1990s and transported them into the political world of 2016, it would seem strangely familiar.

Digital technologies make it far easier than it has ever been to find out what people want – their likes and dislikes – without having to go through the cumbersome business of getting them to vote. You may find that a terrifying prospect. Or you may find it a liberating one. That’s another way in which this is an open question: making politics impossible sounds like something to regret, but if politics has become a barrier in the way of getting things done, could it be something to celebrate?

NDM News: The future of journalism

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

Accountability journalism is a classic example of the iron core of journalism and in particular the investigative journalism category, where three reporters are dispatched for a long period on a story that may or may not pan out.  Newspapers’ ability to produce accountability journalism is shrinking. He argues that we’ll have to obtain a journalistic ecosystem to get anything like the accountability journalism we’ve been used to out of the current media landscape. He talks about the movie 'spotlight' and  how it is based on a group of journalists investigating cases of child sexual assault, including the involvement of the church. Without professional journalism cases like this would not have been found out due to the immense cover-up initiated by powerful people.

2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

He states that advertisers were not only overcharged, they were undeserved. Not only did they have to deliver more money to the newspapers than they would have wanted, they didn’t even get to say: “And don’t report on my industry, please.” 

3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

Online, people are only consuming things that they want to or are relevant to something that they have previously read/watched.Consumers rather than producers are the ones bundling the content together.
For newspapers, all the content would be bundled together and couldn't be changed to suit each readers needs as it is printed, so many would read everything, however people would still have the ability to pick and choose what they read but it is a lot more difficult.

4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

Had the internet been widespread in 1992, it could be said that the limiting effects created by the catholic church and associates. The people could hid their actions all they want but with the internet it is much easier to share the content, it continues to be shared and shared until it reaches a point where the corrupt people cannot control the response.

5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?

Shirky suggests that the paywalls are restrictions, even though the public need accountability journalism they still aren't going to pay for it especially since there's a lot of republication and reuse of paid content on free sites. 

6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?

A social good is something that benefits the largest number of people. Journalism can be seen as a social good as the exposure of certain cases such as the the Church sexual abuse scandal would be benefiting to everyone.

7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?

He says that We need a class of institutions or models, whether they’re endowments or crowdsourced or what have you — we need a model that produces five percent of accountability journalism. and that you can only replace newspaper with newspapers themselves. He thinks that a bad thing is going to happen  and people aren't taking it seriously. there is going to be a decline in accountability journalism which means corruption will be rife.

8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?

I think that it is important to an extent that brand such as The New York Times or The Guardian to remain in business simply because they're one of the only companies that are able to hold powerful people accountable for their wrongdoings. Unless online companies find a  way to pay for quality investigations, it is vital that the previous brands stay in business.

The decline in newspapers: MM case studies

The New Day 

1) What was the New Day trying to achieve?

The New Day was launched to tap into a new market, not specifically to pinch readers from other newspapers. 

Alison Phillips, the paper’s Editor, said:

There are many people who aren’t currently buying a newspaper, not because they have fallen out of love with newspapers as a format, but because what is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs. This paper has been created as a result of customer insight and is the first newspaper designed for people’s modern lifestyles.

2) List the key statistics on the first page: how many people buy newspapers in the UK? How has this declined in the last year?

About six million people buy a newspaper in Britain every day. Over a million people have stopped buying a newspaper in the past two years

3) What audience were the New Day trying to attract?

The newspaper was targeted at women and men aged 35 to 55, people who want a more modern approach to news. They wanted it to be a ruthless edit of the day, with balanced analysis, opinion and comment, but no political line.

4) Why do you think the New Day failed so spectacularly? There are several possible reasons listed in the article but do develop your own opinion here as well.

Much of the content would seem to be aimed at twenty-somethings, or parents with young children. The majority of the articles seemed to target young women particularly, and the lack of space given to topics such as sport, coupled with the fact that sport was not positioned in its customary space on the back pages, meant that sports fans were not especially well catered for. 

I personally think that the New Day failed since newspapers are already in decline, audiences weren't going to be particularly intrigued and since they didn't stick to their initial aims they failed.

The Guardian

1) How many unique digital browsers used the Guardian website in June 2016? 

120 million monthly unique browsers and a June 2016 daily average of almost 9 million unique browsers, only about one third of whom are from the UK. 

2)What are The Guardian's latest print sales figures? How does this compare to the Telegraph? 

The print circulation of the Guardian was only 161,000 whereas The Daily Telegraph was 472,000.

3)In terms of finances, how much did the Guardian lose in 2015? 

£70 million.

4)What has been The Guardian's strategy for reversing this decline?

Cutbacks of 20% and shelving of plans for the Midland Goods Shed, a former train depot near GMG’s offices in King’s Cross, which it had planned to use as a public area for community gatherings and events.

5)What global event did The Guardian's digital coverage win awards for?

The Guardian’s reporting on the Paris attacks won praise not only from readers but from the Society of Editors. At their Press Awards for 2015, the Guardian was winner of the Website of the Year.

6)In your opinion, will the global website strategy be enough to save The Guardian?

The Guardian prides itself on providing online news content for free, and has so far resisted any temptation to install a ‘paywall.’ However, it does offer subscription services for those who want to download/read the print format online, and it offers a membership programme, which whilst offering some exclusive content and discounted access to events, is effectively a way of sponsoring the Guardian to remain editorially independent.