-Emily Bell states that it has "slipped suddenly and conclusively into a world where it no longer owns the means of production, or controls the routes to distribution" this shows that the news industry hasn't adapted to the changes of the times as more people seek news digitally rather than physically through print/newspapers.
2) How do news stories become prominent on social media?
- Rather than gatekeepers in newsrooms, computerised algorithms are created to dictate what is deemed more important and popular to people and in fact what we see on social media sites. They get this information by viewing what people search and popularity of it and that is given importance filtering out others.
3) What is EdgeRank and how does it work?
-EdgeRank is an algorithm created by Facebook which decides which stories to appear for each user on the site. It works by hiding certain stories which people are not intrested in so if the story doesn't get a high score on popularity then it won't be viewed by people on Facebook.
4) Why was the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri (after the shooting of Michael Brown) an interesting example of how Facebook's news algorithm works?
-Facebook's algorithms proved that it had "too much" of a filtering process to the stories that it found the Ice Bucket challenge more interesting that the stories of Ferguson and the story later stared appearing only after all the discussions and reports were made.
5) How did the news of Osama Bin Laden's death break?
- It was done by one person with the job of an adviser called Keith Urbahn tweeting that Bin Laden had been killed and because of his 1000 followers the tweet began to spread and because of its gained popular interest from users it because more believable the more people shared it online.
6) How does news spread on Twitter?
- As Twitter relays news in reverse chronological oreder, meaning old tweets get pushed to the bottom and news ones at the top, it allows it to be up to date and time relevant for stories that appear on the site.
7) What is YOUR opinion on editorial control at tech giants like Facebook and Twitter? Are they neutral or should they play an active role (such as blocking and deleting ISIS beheading videos)?
Tech Giants like Facebook and Twitter are at a higher platform to be able to dictate what their audience are able to view and with revelations on news that "everyone" uses Twitter, i think allowing videos such as ISIS will show their own moral stand on the situation. I think because of this access to power and importance to peoples lives they should take a stand against such content and rather leave it to news broadcasters to reveal such information (though that can lead to bias and fake information) it would be disastrous for sites such as Twitter where numerous ages are at play using the site to let explicit videos to get on the site. However, videos such as that may bring to question if the site themselves put it on their or they have little ability to verify who users are and the content they spread. Also, A Black Mirror episode called 'The National Anthem' revealed though explicit content it seen as morally wrong audience themselves will share and await the problems which would happen because of them sharing the video, evident when people sat at their TVs in hopes the Prime minister would do what the "terror group" wanted.
So, it could be that both parties are to be blames, as are audiences morally aligned to know what is right to share and what isn't or are the social media sites the ones to do that when they can also alter what people see and view and if they themselves are unable tackle in their content from their users.
8) Spend some time exploring First Look Media. Is this a realistic future for quality journalism?
-I think the site takes on a more different and "edgy" look to their website for news, which reinforces the idea which Murdoch states of "news changing" with society. Like The Guardian did with their website and actual newspapers making it more gossip magazine look rather than tabloid which many people had opinions about the change saying it's political ideas will change more far-left. However, I do think that the First Look Media does have a more futuristic look on their website but still holding onto typical conventions of have key large quotes from the article but this is a underlying feature as the whole site loks starkly different to what new websites are keeping with
9) Read the About page for First Look Media. What are they trying to achieve and do you think they will be successful?
- They define themselves as "A bold, independent spirit" which would be higlifhting their status as being more "different" and less "conventional" to other news sites. The bold quote they highlights at the top states “Our nation is stronger when we protect the rights of individuals to speak their minds, associate with whomever they please and criticize their government and others in power.”, this would be the page stating they intend to make their news based on the idea of "freedom of speech" ("to speak their minds, associate with whomever they please and criticise their government and others in power") for the masses rather than speaking with focusing on one particular ideological view which most news pages do (far-right, leftist etc.).
I think this is successful to an extent as it is inevitable that we would be seeing layouts like FLM, even the Guardian changed their look with a more 'modern' page layout, as traditional media and layouts and may be conservative views are dying out this news age of young people (millennials, gen z) would lead to less conventional news as many people are aware of corruption of the government via news digitally and on print. However because FLM want people to able to "speak their mind" without critic is quite toxic in the sense that, are we supposed to allow any one to speak their mind even if collectively many would say it was wrong? People who speak negatively about bringing in refugees from other countries, those who would say the violent Police action against predominately Black people on the streets is justified ("Blue Lives Matter", FOX) or for it to be right for government officials to be able to target audiences on any platform with one click for their own political gain? (America, Russia etc.).
FLM will have to decide which "side" they are a part of politically because if everyone s freely able to voice out their opinions and make articles that could lead to a lot of imbalance of audience and revenue they will be able to get.
So, the idea of having a freedom in what you say is biased as you cant speak so freely if your speech involves dehumanisation of someones's life and ,with that idea in mind, FLM could be creating problems and limiting their success.
10) Finally, take a good look at The Intercept. Explain how The Intercept started and list three interesting stories on there from the last 12 months.
The Intercept's was created after Edward Snowden with information of mass survelliance in 2013 leading to a group of journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill to found their own media outlet to be able to like Snowden bring revelations through journalism to reveal such things significantly from the government.
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