NDM News: News on the Tweet

• Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?

Respected news brands are good for Twitter as they have become reliable and trustworthy as a source platform, becoming more known their platform widens as people become more aware and engage with the brands. As they engage with the brand through Twitter we see the site gain revenue and the brand, more attention and awareness. 

• Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?

Twitter is good for brands due to audience being able to easily access these brands online creating a relationship between audience and brand as they become more connected to their audience and also more influential to them. 

• 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?

The evidence used, in favour, of the theory was that old and new media  work well together due to Twitter serves as a platform for the traditional newspaper brands. This would be true as social media sites have allowed their audiences  to use an array of brands for news but also being able to benefit from new forms lf media and new tech. 

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

The examples used fro 'gossip' or 'bantar'  were headlines whivh had puns and full of sarcasm showing how carefree and comical the articles were since they held comical references and less serious than what you would not typically be able to view. 

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

IThe increasing amount of these articles with these continues themes may seem to make some news websites, which are acclaimed and high brow, using these 'gossip' type headlines would devalue their reputation and seem more low brow. Audiences which would read such high brow news websites/papers and seeing the articles of the newspapers may view them inappropriate and don't find them comical, which would also add to the lessening the journalists and newspapers rep. 

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

The report says thats half of Twitter users and 2/3 of news brands insist news on twitter is certified and verified by respected brands to build a proper platform of trust. Journalists tweeting honest views engage with audiences which builds interactions between the two as audience will also feel a personal relationship with the journalists . 

• Do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

I think Twitter has had positive impacts on traditional newspapers as social networks have allowed platforms for audiences to be able to interact with eachother but also with the newspapers and be given these notifications for when there is news. The negative impacts of new and digital media is that now many audiences arent going to traditional means to read news but rather going online or phones leading to less more people reading newspapers, which is why the idea of 'print dying' is more inevitable as times changes and technology grows. 

• Finally, how can we link this report to the vital current debate regarding fake news and Facebook? Do traditional news brands need protecting to ensure there are sources we can trust?

The report can be linked to fake news due to how it shows that it is necessary for audiences to be able to trust sources and suggests that there should be a form of relationship between the audience and journalists in terms of interaction and Facebook is unable to give that. I think that traditional brands such as news should make their mark as something valuable and reliable to audiences and rather than giving instant access mak them engaging so they dont loose audiences all to

NDM 23

Russia-linked Twitter accounts 'tried to divide UK' after terrorist attacks- The Guardian

In this article, University researchers find at least fake 47 social media accounts, linked to Russia, that posted at least 475 messages, reposted more than 153,000 times. They were used to influence and interfere with public debate in the aftermath of four terrorist attacks in the UK this year. 

• Of the 47 accounts, eight were especially active, posting at least 475 tweets about the four attacks, which were reposted more than 153,000 times.

• There were multiple instances of them “@ing” Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League, and Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip.

• Team, led by Prof Martin Innes, who directs the CSRI, concluded the use of Russian-linked social media to engineer social division in the UK, including through Twitter

The account used were to ramp up the debates and discord admits times when terrorist attacks happened in the UK. These account were aimed at "thought communities" which aligned with their identities even going far enough to "@ing" Tommy Robninson and Nigel Farage. The report went on to say:

• “Terrorist violence is fundamentally designed to ‘terrorise, mobilise and polarise’ its audiences, so if social media platforms are being ‘weaponised’ by third parties to amplify these effects, then they need to be required to urgently do something to mitigate this.

This shows how social media and the growth in technology is already a hub for mis information between audiences and where social media is being 'weaponize' to spread their specific ideologies. How powerful enough people are to hide and leading to teams of people to try and stop them from continuing false accusations and false news on social media which if caught on can spark a thread of gullible people to believe in it.

NDM 22

Twitter under fire after suspending Egyptian journalist Wael Abbas- The Guardian 

The article talks about the account of a known journalist and blogger who aslo won awards for documenting human rights was shut down/suspended  by Twitter

Wael Abbes stated on his Twitter that Twitter sent him an email that:

•  "my account is suspended for an allotted time, which they did not specify, and for reasons they did not specify too”.

Abbes is the blogger-in-cheif in the website 'Misr Digit@l' and posted mainly on acts against the people of Egypt on his account which some has described as being a few of account with this content. 

Wanting Twitter to outrun the suspension was Sherif Azer who described his account as:

• "a live archive to the events of the revolution and till today one of few accounts still documenting human rights abuses in Egypt”

with other notable people wanting the overturn of his account such as Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.

This article goes to show the power held by these organisations who, though seem to have right-wing ideals, still are able to inhibit those who have dissimilar ideals towards them. Wael's YouTube account was also suspended after posting  videos depicting police brutality in Egypt. He went to win several honours, including the Knight international journalism award, for his documenting of human rights abuses.

A Pluralist perspective would see this as the elitist organisation using their power to determine what they deem right and appropriate on their guidelines. 

NDM 21

Google to hire thousands of moderators after outcry over YouTube abuse videos

The article is about YouTube facing problems in their search engines which were bringing up inappropriate child abuse videos and other violent and offensive content on YouTube.

• YouTube’s owner announced on Monday-total workforce to more than 10,000 people responsible for reviewing content that could violate its policies.

• “Human reviewers remain essential to both removing content and training machine learning systems because human judgment is critical to making contextualised decisions on content,”- YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki

• YouTube has also repeatedly sparked outrage for its role in perpetuating misinformation and harassing videos in the wake of mass shootings and other national tragedies.

Youtube last month faced scrutiny from their users and gained reports for allowing violent and abuse videos past the Kids filter, hich is supposed to block any content that is not appropriate to young users. According to New York Times, Parents found that YouTube was allowing children the ability to view videos with known characters in violent or lewd scenarios, along with nursery rhymes mixed with disturbing imagery.
Now, YouTube is using machine learning technology to help human moderators find and shut down hundreds of accounts and hundreds of thousands of comments, according to Wojcicki aimed to stop this behaviour. 

This article shows that though large organisations such as YouTube are able to allow this to pass them, a concern but also shows that in terms (for) the moral good they have chosen to not allow this content to hive into something bigger by using tech to fight this. However, the problem still stands that Youtube allowed this past their coded algorithms and weren't able to decipher the problem till audiences themselves started noticing. 

Consumption and Production - homework essay

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

Points- 

• Marxism, Pluralism + Hegemony 
• Citizen Journalism + USG
• News Values 
• Paywalls + decline of newspaper industry = Google and Facebook
• Hyper reality + Alain de Botton
• Ofcom + new consumption in the UK (social media etc.)

======================================================

: 

Technology has been creating new ways and abilities for information to travel around such as news and journalism. These abilities through production being created audience are able to consume it changing the audiences capabilities but changes in society which have  led to "Technological blossoming of the culture of freedom, individual innovation and entrepreneurialism" (Castells, 199). The audience have being given more power from when listening to radio was the only from of information, to now, where being able to view news has improved greatly due to the power of the internet, User Generated Content and the decline in the print medium. However, the  power in the audience through the changing platforms is there to an extent as we can argue that beliefs in pluralism, Marxism and hegemony can both reinforce these ideas but also disregard the statement made. 

Firstly, the establishment of the internet has given news institutions the means to broaden the platforms they are on which allow them to make their news accessible. Most of the apps created have news, of some sought, to offer their users example would be Facebook and Snapchat- the reason for he convergence in phones and apps is due to the news industry realising the importance and advantages of technology amongst  younger demographics and the opportunity to circulate news to everyone on established platforms in these apps than on their website which are less likely to be accessed. 
Six in ten (59%) UK adults aged 16-24 say they use the internet or apps for news, compared to just under a quarter (23%) of those aged 55+(Ofcom). Thus, the growth of online and news made specifically for audiences on apps like Facbook would suggest audiences have a more power in their consumption- they choose what news they want to read and when. Also, thsi will show the effect of digital media and how those 

The establishment of the internet had become the beginning of of allowing audiences potential to submit their opinions and ideologies online. There have been the advancements of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have given their users the ability to post and share their opinions on topics they deem interesting for people to view, like/dislike and share their opinion. User generated sites such as Youtube also allow it;s audiences, who use it, to produce their own content that maybe viewed by others but also partake in the actual producing of their content. Another form of USG would be a feature of Facebook called Facebook live where users are able to livestream themselves to all their followers who watch them live. The ability of livestream on Facebook has been used a lot for news coverage on situations such as Police brutality, the Telegraph ran a story about a livestream of a black woman filming her husband who had been shot by a police man brought upon "ethical and legal question".  This use of UGC for users and used by news shows how audience have the ability to produce, livestream, and consume, many liked and shared video bringing up the on going debate on police brutality, their own content being used and viable for prime time news; allowing people to focus on police brutality against African-Americans, who were often targeted.

Due to this development of new and digital media, has enabled us the platform to form interpersonal relationships(Katz and Blumler) amongst each other but also allowed opinions to be created which is a pluralist idea as audiences being able to form own opinions is a freedom that was because of the development of news and digital media being established. 

To continue, the power between audience and institutions, in a Pluralist perspective, would lie to the audience and the idea would be in fact they are greatly powerful in their consumption and production made. Unlike Marxism, pluralist belief wold state that society is dominated by an array of varying social classes and cultures. This  will reinforce the idea that audiences have more power in production and consumption. Highly evident in Krotoski's statement noted that the "information revolution" was a "paradigm shift-on par with the printing press.", which goes on to say the idea of the rapid change in the growth has moved consumption and production of power from institution to audience. Gurevitch has said also that the audience is able to “conform, accommodate or reject” and the information being consumed by audiences, which shows the power held by the audience and large institutions gate keeping and mediating has little effects on audiences. 

Moreover, from recent events such as the ability of social media from petitions about the Libyan slave auctions to be written by people does hold the pluralist ideal of power amongst audiences to challenge institutions (governments) on treatments about human trafficking also suggesting that dominant hegemonic ideologies are being challenged, which is an indication of the audience’s new found power within the development of digital media. However, a Marxist  perspective would state that though awareness on matters are being made there is never any real difference or friction put upon corrupt governments from petitions or sharing and liking a post reinforcing the idea that social media does have it's disadvantages on making audiences believe their power is real but represents the idea audience power is but an illusion to make audiences believe they do something but in fact no real effect is made against the institutions. 

To conclude, Marxist and Pluralist views argue the extent of freedom giving to audience is at an extent. However we are still able to see that development of new and digital media has been able to empower audiences due to platforms such as social media offering a greater influence to allow audiences to express their views and opinions with freedom.