NDM 33

Pope Francis compares fake news to snake in Garden of Eden- The Guardian



Pope Francis stated that fake news is an evil comparing it to the devious snake in the Garden of Eden and wants to call upon journalists to seek the Japanese. This was stated in his annual social communications message, Francis said fake news played on stereotypes and prejudices, and praised those who make effort to make social media users aware of false reports.

• “The strategy of this skilled ‘Father of Lies’ is precisely mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments,”- Pope Francis 

• “sins of the media: disinformation, slander and defamation”.-What he considers one-sided reporting

With the stark analogy of fake news as snakes, I think Francis has a point about news being built on stereotypes and prejudices to create the certain image of a group of people like people in Syria or refugees reinforcing Said's theory of Orientalism as the west is presented superior to the east. 

Also, with it obvious that some news change certain stores to fit with their own ideologies that 'fake news' would be a thing as it is hard to be believe what is real and what isn't linkign to Baudrillard's theory of simulation as perception of news is skewed and somewhat 'fake' because of the continuous allegations at news of their fake stories being made.

NDM 32

GERMAN COURT RULES FACEBOOK'S USE OF PERSONAL DATA "ILLEGAL"- The Independant

The German Consumer Organisations states that Facebook's sites default setting s in breach of consumer law.

• “Facebook hides default settings that are not privacy-friendly in its privacy centre and does not provide sufficient information about it when users register,” -Heiko Duenkel, litigation policy officer at the vzvb

• “We are working hard to ensure that our guidelines are clear and easy to understand, and that the services offered by Facebook are in full accordance with the law,” -Facebook

• “The judges ruled that all five of the default settings on Facebook that vzvb complained about are invalid,” 

A concern that was made by the consumer rights group was, in the Facebook app for phones, there was the specific problem with a pre-activated service which revealed the user's location to a person they would be chatting to. Also, in the privacy settings, the ticks in which allowed search engines to link to the user's timeline were already ticked, allowing anyone to easily find the user's profile. 

The problems, also included, tapping into information users on it's other apps such as Whatsapp and Instagram- as well as having information on it tracks sites used by the user. 

For me, this shows how much power big corporations have over their users where they are able to track personal information; location, internet access etc., and with this ability it must be that they would have mush more scrutiny information which they haven't told us as they would reveal what they can.

This would also be why many politician or political parties use Facebook as a means to targeted gain information on their audiences .

NDM News index*

1) Institution: the impact of Google on the newspaper industry
2) Ofcom report: how news consumption has changed
3) Baseline assessment: learner response
4) The future of newspapers: Build The Wall analysis
5) The decline of newspapers: the effect of online technology
6) The decline of newspapers: Media Magazine case studies
7) The future of journalism: John Oliver and Clay Shirky
8) Citizen journalism and hyper-reality
9) Galtung & Ruge: News Values
10) Marxism & Pluralism: MM article ('Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony')
11) Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the News
12) NDM News: full Section B essay on blog ('consumption and production')
13) Globalisation: MM article and Factsheet questions
14) Globalisation and fake news: articles and questions
15) News on the Tweet: Newsworks report
16) A case study in news and social media - Factsheet questions
17) Blog essay feedback and learner response

NDM 31

'People just don't carry cash nowadays': how Britons are adapting to cashless - The Guardian 

The article talks of cash and how as it becomes  less prominent in the UK, a range of businesses, charities and cash-dependent social groups are figuring out ways to adapt to this new changes coming from it.

• "The transaction costs for credit cards are the worst: it’s 2.5%, but even debit cards aren’t free and would mean that we would lose all profit..."

• "There are buskers who set up PayPal accounts and have QR codes (a contactless payment method scanned by smartphones using a downloadable app) but that’s all a bit hi-tech for me."

• "I’ve been a street performer for 40 years and although our artistic community has been discussing the impact of the “cashless society” for the last five years"

• "We are considering moving to a system that needs an internet connection for card payments. "

I think with this information where the article talks of different people in jobs where they have decided on to make their payment method cashless finding it more of a necessity as the times are changing as more people are coming into shops with credit/debit cards.

This same statement was being made with each person; "people aren't just carrying money these days", which for me reflects the decline in newspapers. The reason because as the society changes so does different mediums or in this case money.

NDM 30

Fake news sharing in US is a rightwing thing, says study- The Guardian

The article states how findings through the University of Oxford, that shows findings of  Trump supporters consume largest volume of ‘junk news’ on Facebook and Twitter

• “On Twitter, a network of Trump supporters consumes the largest volume of junk news, and junk news is the largest proportion of news links they share,” - Researcher

• Research involved monitoring a core group of around 13,500 politically-active US Twitter users, and a separate group of 48,000 public Facebook pages, to find the external websites that they were sharing.

• “The two main political parties, Democrats and Republicans, prefer different sources of political news, with limited overlap,”

The study came from the university's “computational propaganda project” looking a the most significant sources of “junk news” shared in the three months leading up to Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address this January, and find out who was sharing them and why.

•  “extreme hard right pages –distinct from Republican pages – share more junk news than all the other audiences put together.”

• “The Trump Support group consumes the highest volume of junk news sources on Twitter, and spreads more junk news sources, than all the other groups put together. This pattern is repeated on Facebook, where the Hard Conservatives group consumed the highest proportion of junk news.”

They people people who Users who shared similar collections of links were grouped together depending on what they were discussing: on Twitter, some identified cohorts included “Conservative Media”, “Trump Supporters” and  on Facebook, those audience groups included “Hard Conservative”, “Women’s Rights” and “Military/Guns”.

The study revealed how the two main parties consumed different sources of news and shows how easily some are swayed on news which is not resourceful and back up by evidence. 

NDM Story Index

• NDM 1 (19/09/17)- TV broadcasters 'failing to represent society' says Ofcom report

• NDM 2 (19/0917)-  Ban Social media trolls from voting, election watchdog suggest

• NDM 3 (26/09/17)- I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets

• NDM 4 (26/09/17)-  Apple blocking ads that follow users around web is 'sabotage', says industry

• NDM 5 (2/10/17)- Toys R Us is banking on futuristic tech to save its business after bankruptcy

• NDM 6 (2/10/17)- Facebook and Google promote politicized fake news about Las Vegas shooter

• NDM 7 (9/10/17)- Trump digital director says Facebook helped win the White House

• NDM 8 (9/10/17)- SKY TO STOP BROADCASTING FOX NEWS IN UK AFTER 15 YEARS

• NDM 9 (16/10/17)- There is a 'devastating' security flaw in Wi-Fi, and you're likely at risk

• NDM 10 (16/10/17)- Snapchat is American teens' favorite social media app — and Facebook can't be happy about that

• NDM 11 (17/10/17)- WhatsApp faces EU over sharing user data with Facebook

• NDM 12 (18/10/17)- Advetising our future

• NDM 13 (5/11/17)- M&S Christmas ad uses Paddington Bear to target family audience

• NDM 14 (6/11/17)- Science Explains Why The Printed Word Is Still More Powerful Than Digital

• NDM 15 (14/11/17)- British MP calls on Twitter to release Russian 'troll factory' tweets

• NDM 16 (14/11/17)- Thirty countries use 'armies of opinion shapers' to manipulate democracy – report

• NDM 17 (21/11/17)- SKY Views: Social media helps good journalism

• NDM 18 (21/11/17)- Rupert Murdoch says his newspapers are struggling in digital age

• NDM 19 (26/11/17)- NET NEUTRALITY REPEAL ALLOWS INTERNET TO ONLY CONSIST OF GOVERNMENT-SANCTIONED SITES

• NDM 20 (26/11/17)- Police accused of trial by social media after tweeting about super car crash

• NDM 21 (18/11/17)- Google to hire thousands of moderators after outcry over YouTube abuse videos

• NDM 22 (18/11/17)- Twitter under fire after suspending Egyptian journalist Wael Abbas

• NDM 23 (26/11/17)- Russia-linked Twitter accounts 'tried to divide UK' after terrorist attacks

• NDM 24 (26/01/17)- Who will be hit hardest by net neutrality ? Marginalised America

• NDM 25 (2/01/18)- Pro-Putin social media campaign hijacked by critics

• NDM 26 (2/01/18)- Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency

• NDM 27 (15/01/18)- The Guardian newspaper adopts tabloid format

• NDM 28 (15/01/18)- Welcome to new era of global digital censorship

NDM 29

Just one in four Britons trust news on social media, finds survey

The article is on the problems facing social media outlets and how they rose and fell as people have become weary about news they read online rather than what people think which is that everyone finds social media news more trustworthy than journalists or newspapers. 

• Only 24% of the UK population trust the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram when looking for news and information, a survey has found

• 13-point increase in support for traditional media, to 61% – the highest level since 2012

•  53% of people polled said they worried about being exposed to it[Fake news] on social media

•  The fear of fake news may explain why 42% said they only skimmed headlines on social media but did not click on the content and also the increase in support for traditional media

This article highlights how maybe we have all become more mislead in what we believe as people. Where people might think we are all putting less scrutiny on what we read/see news it is the opposite where people have become more adamant on not believing what they read and being careful with others making sure what they post on social media is true and not false. This may highlight the problem with hoe news is maybe promoted on social media sites as Twitter when the death of Bin Laden was tweeted by someone was able to stem far enough that people believed the tweet before officials from the White house were able to. This information could have been false but because of the ability to share so quickly and people's inability to check what is defined as 'fake news' it was easy to share the information and make it believable to some because of this. 

January assessment: Learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

34= B

WWW-

• Plenty to credit here: you're engaged with the question in depth and clearly show strong critical autonomy. I love the new neutrality example and you've used fair number of theories +examples.

EBI- 

• Learn to spell theorists names! And check English in places.
• Topic sentences: significant area for development. They need to be clear, correct and show sharp focus on the question. 
• Unfinished! A conclusion would be helpful but use this as a good lesson timing.

2) Which level you think YOU are currently working at for each one. Explain WHY and, for any that are not Level 4, what you are going to do to improve in that area. 

Level 3: I am working at a level 3 because this essay contained good critical autonomy and a good understanding of but also keeping relevance to the question. However, to achieve a level 4 I will need to include more range of media debate and issues that are relevant to the question. 

3) Look at the Examiners' Report for this particular paper. Read page 10 - Section B New/digital media. How many of the good points or higher level answer examples did you include in your essay? What were they? What could you have added to improve your mark?

I achieved points of the answer examples like the impact of new and digital media has had on enabling audien to participate and the concept of democracy itself and the ability to talk of other issues from other countries as examples. However, I could have included debates on the power and control of media organisations and the obstacles to equal participation and democracy in the UK and globally, . 

4) Identify things you can take from these essays to improve your own responses in future.

• Relevant examples in current day society that can be applied
• Link to news industry as a whole rather than general points
• Quotes and theorists viewpoints to support arguments
• Current affairs, up to date research and case studies
• Statistics

5) Write ONE new paragraph for your January assessment essay. Ideally, this should be a section you did not cover in your original essay. This paragraph needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme. Minimum 300 words.

Furthering paragraph on UGC:

The use of citizen journalism has been used positively in the news and an example to how the evolving of the news aided by of new and digital media has enabled a democratic society because of this. The use of UGC has changed the views of traditional media with it being presented on television. Such things as citizen journalism allowed users on social media or the internet as a whole the ability to partake in the news telling much like news industries. This may reflect the pluralist idea for audiences to hold power because they are able to produce content, showing audience involvement,which even the news industry themselves show for 'realism' reinforcing the idea of a democratic space in the internet because of the ability to produce their own content. The Rodeny King case where an unarmed Black man was a victim to police brutality, the footage of it was filmed on a bystander's phone and used as evidence for the case for convicting the police officer. The footage being filmed by someone not of a traditional media such as news anchors and using a mobile phone to capture the moment highlights that new digital media such as development of technology show a democratic effect on news and the public to see this as a way to be involved in the news. However, the disadvantages of UGC is shown in the fact that unlike news outlets, UGC doesn't go through keeping which may be used to find inaccuracies or bias' in the media which would lead to poor media and a bad name for the news channel themselves showing that the internet can't be a democratic space with the ability to change and shape certain images of subjects. Another disadvantage to a form of UGC is in social media a democratisation of people's thoughts leading social networks having a larger dominance over audiences in news. The way news has worked on social media has been done so certain algorithms have tailored the way audiences can see news due to the fact that when a certain news feed is linked they are shown the same story but from different sources highlighting the fact that audiences would only be shown things which cater to their own viewpoint and not from different perspectives from other sources. Because of this inability to be shown different things, which is an example of hypodermic-needle as elitie news conglomerates ar able to feed their ideologies on audiences, is an undemocratic, and as 24% of people in the UK trust social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram when looking for information (The Guardian), this would be a form of changing ideologies of audience and the idea of "dumbing" down audiences, all not in line with what is expected to be a democracy for the people.

NDM 28

Welcome to new era of global digital censorship

"It’s dangerous to ask tech companies to decide what’s legitimate free speech."

The article talks of laws being made to enable a more free and safe space on the internet, regulators in countries are creating laws to enable this.

• France has proposed banning so-called fake news during the country’s future elections

• Germany, new hate speech rules impose fines of up to €50 million on social media companies that don’t delete harmful content within 24 hours of being notified.

• Freedom of speech advocates warn of an Orwellian digital dystopia where government apparatchiks dictate what we can read and write on the web.

• Social media companies removed 59 percent of suspected hate speech across Europe last May compared with just 28 percent in December 2016, according to a recent EU-wide study.

The European Commission issued their biannual report talking of how Facebook, Google and Twitter are handling the hate speech lurking in social media’s darker parts and through this if they seem to be not doing enough will lead to EU policymakers complaining of companies not doing enough to tackle the problems and probably threaten them with regulations. 

US lawmakers are also following the same route in tackling extremists and terrorists online- prior to this had already targeted Big Tech last year for allowing Russian-backed content to be widely shared online during the 2016 U.S. election. Facebook's executive stated to "fixing" the internet as a New Year's resolution, though some sought of help had created a 59% crackdown on such tasteless posts. This shows an example of monitersation, the ability for institutions to censor and picking out specific things they deem unacceptable. 

NDM 27

The Guardian newspaper adopts tabloid format

The article talks of the loss of the Guardian revenue as well as it's transformation of it's newspaper as a whole but why it may effect them as well.

• The reformatting is part of a drive to cut costs at the paper, which last year made a loss of £38m.

• "The main reason we did it is because it saves millions of pounds to print a tabloid like this.

• "We're on track to lose less than £25m this year and we intend to break even next year which would be the first time since the 1980s that the paper has broken even."
• "The Guardian's journalism itself will remain what it always has been: thoughtful, independent and challenging."

The change of the newspaper may not be significant to the whole of the newspaper but many who read it found the change "different". Some commented on Twitter about how "easy to turn the pages and it doesn’t blow away" and some commented that the new design made the paper look like the Independent. 

The Guardian's editor commented how printing their new newspaper like this would save them more money to print off than before, they changed with: digital "reversioning of the brand, with the website showing a similar aesthetic as the new-look paper".

A particular comment which struck me was a person stating that they "thought the left-leaning paper had not stuck to its moral compass": "Ironic that the new Guardian logo is too far right".

This thought links to the view of de Button as he states that news has lost it's "seriousness" as more people and news brands are looking to 'clickbate' or 'soft news' to attract readers but also what the readers have become used to. With this the comment about how the change of the Guardian, a newspaper which prides itself with hard hitting or "challenging" news, changing it's typeface and overall look would change what they produce as content.

I think, this wouldn't though many newspapers have gone down such a route but since thr Guardian have continued and followed through with their type of news that they wouldn't be doing quizzes like Buzzfeed soon.

NDM 26

Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency

This article is about people people's inability to differentiate between what is real and what isn't in terms of news. With Trump shouting 'fake news' and such it is hard for general american public to do just that, believe just that. 
Trump has made it an effort to make others see new outlets as false attacking news outlets and journalists as "failing" and "fake news.", repeatedly calling reporters "the enemy of the people".

• Trump-era phenomenon in their lives as the president and the media he denigrates as "fake news" fight to be seen as the more credible source.
• Widely shared falsehoods have snagged the attention of world leaders such as Pope Francis and former President Barack Obama.
• The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that "fake news" leaves Americans deeply confused about current events.

I think this links to Baudrillard's theory of hyper- reality and living in a simulation where everything inst real and even the things on the news are staged.  The article even states when a North Carolina man was convinced himself from a article that a Washington pizza store was concealing a child prostitution ring; "all from widely shared falsehood". 

• About 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to a Pew Research Center report last month. 
• Two-thirds of Americans get at least some of their news from social media

This quote reflects with the 23% of 15-23 year olds not looking into the sources of new stories and believing them as soon as they see it shared or on their feed. For this really reinforces that we live in an age of "simulation" due to the public themselves being unable to know what is considered 'real news' rather everyone is very sceptical but also believe what they read.

Last year, National Geographic were caught faking 'shark attacks' for their shark attack week and when confronted about it stated that the amount of "glamorisation" of the topic added to the other stories made the overall show better. Though questions, Are we substituting realism for likes?

NDM 25

Pro-Putin social media campaign hijacked by critics

A hashtag created by Pro-Putin supporters on Twitter trended but the actual hashtag itself ha seen taken by those who criticise Vladimir Putin and the whole of the Russian political system. 

• "has been used almost 7,000 times on Twitter in the same period."

• "The hashtag has been among the top trending topics on Russian social media since 14 January, and has been used almost 7,000 "

• "Russian-backed accounts have previously been accused of manipulating conversations on social media and running disinformation campaigns."

• Mr Putin needs 300,000 signatures from across the country to secure his place on the ballot for the election on 18 March.

The hashtag praised Putin with it being used 7,000 times n Twitter, they have been linked to be created for the purpose to also to coincide with efforts to collect signatures in support of Mr Putin's campaign for re-election. They also, included pictures of people going to vote/ sign the petition for Putin to be apart of the elections in Russia. 

However, these were also done by Russian bots rather than people and as it has happened before with data given to Facebook and 2012s Russian involvement in the US elections there is no doubt that Russian parties have used Twitter as a gateway to targeting their audiences. 

This reinforces the idea  that new and digital media in some form does reinforce dominant hegemonic views, but that there now more opportunities for the audience to challenge them through social media platforms such as Twitter and come in contact with alternative views, which is what critcs of Putin were doing by counterign the "positive" views of Putin: 

 --A critic wrote: "Russia needs roads, education, medicine, to fight against corruption, gasification, free higher education, alternation of power, parliamentary regime, freedom of enterprise and free media. This is what Russia needs and not Putin. 

NDM 24

Who will be hit hardest by net neutrality? Marginalised America

The article is about the difficulties people will have after the FCC took away a more free and open internet, by repelling Net Neutrality. Highlighting how this, firstly, 

•  69 million people in the United States living without home-based internet services.
• Affordability of broadband creates and exacerbates gaps in financial and educational opportunities
• the FCC eliminated the rules that prevent internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from blocking, slowing down, or prioritising one website or service over another. 
• Without net neutrality, the economic and opportunity divide will widen for all

I think with this repealing of a free and open internet and letting "greedy corporations" the ability to have power over what their costumers consume, in terms of internet, is a some what violation of rights. Having the ability to actually "blocking, slowing down, or prioritising one website or service over another" is institutions having a higher power of others enabling them to sell their internet at high prices but also allow them to promote their own ideologies or political ads and such on what they sell.