The decline in newspapers: MM case studies

What was the New Day trying to achieve?

The aim of New Day was to try to target and gain readership for newspapers from people that normally didn't read newspapers. They had hoped to create a modernised idea and approach to news which didn't focus on the political aspect of all news like most other newspapers.

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

• Over a million people have stopped buying a newspaper in the past two years
• What is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs
• Six million people buy a newspaper in Britain every day.

What audience were the New Day trying to attract?

The New Day hoped to attract a middle aged both male and female audience aged about 30-55. This suggest that their target demographic was the modernised populace that chose not to use newspapers as an information outlet.

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.

I personally that the New Day's failure was due to the fact that the company did not realise that the industry was dying quite rapidly due to the increase in new digital media. This meant that instead of actually adapting their existing product they were deciding on creating yet another product that was similar to their dying platforms with little changes.

The Guardian

List the key statistics on page 10: How many unique digital browsers used the Guardian website in June 2016? What are The Guardian's latest print sales figures? How does this compare to the Telegraph? In terms of finances, how much did the Guardian lose in 2015? 

• The February 2016 statistics record the Guardian as having nearly 9 million ‘average daily browsers’
• The print circulation of the Guardian was only 161,000.
• Way behind the Daily Telegraph (472,000)
• In the course of 2015, the Guardian reportedly lost ‘around £70 million
• This led to cutbacks of 20%

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

In order to tackle the decline in their industry, the Guardian chose to taken on the strategy of developing 24 hour coverage for major world news events. This was developed by making the Guardian interconnected across the globe as it's different branches would take over different stories at different times in order to target the changing audiences for their outlet due to time zones.

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

The Guardian's digital coverage won awards at the 2015 Press Awards for their reporting on the Charlie Hebdo Paris attacks.

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

I personally think that it will be, this is due to the fact that they are able to accurately identify the best way to adapt their outlet and focus more on the expansion of the digital media aspects. However, at the same time, they are giving this expansion an extra boost by expanding the range of their readership by targeting a greater populace for their news.

26/10/16 - Newspaper websites suffer post-Olympic dip as print sales hold steady

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/20/newspaper-website-print-sales

The article talks the figures of visitors of major newspaper websites in September after the Olympics, all of the UK's national newspaper websites saw a dramatic decline in its figures.

• Best digital performer was the Sun, daily average browser numbers dropped by only 1.52% to 2.9 million
• Mail Online saw a drop of 3.2% to 14.7 million
• The Guardian dipped by 4.65% to 7.9 million
• The Mirror dropped by 6.65% to 4.9 million
• Telegraph.co.uk reported an 8.79% decline to 4.3 million
• Independent.co.uk, dropped by 11% to 3.2 million
• Express.co.uk dropped by 9.48% to 1.49 million
• Dailystar.co.uk fell by 26.3% to 710,127, the greatest percentage drop out of them all

It's interesting to note how inconsistent this entire set of data actually is. The fact that some hard news platforms had major declines as big as those which provide soft news makes me to believe that the type news is not the reason for this great decline. One of the reason for this could be the fact that websites such as the Sun, Mail Online, Guardian and Mirror actually invest a lot more in their digital counterparts compared to websites such as Dailystar or Express. This lack of investment in digital media could be the reason as well as other factors which could be the reason why users are more likely to get their news from other sources rather than Dailystar or Express.

26/10/16 - Greenslade - Local newspaper content too full of listicles and clickbait - lecturer

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/26/local-newspaper-content-too-full-of-listicles-and-clickbait-lecturer

The article focuses on the greater increase in newspapers and journalism being reduced to "click bait" articles with little to no content. These clickbait consist of having a title which exaggerates the lack of content in the article and also by sort of baiting the reader into picking up the newspaper to find out out more only for the article to be anti-climatic. These articles essentially mean that the journalists and content going into the articles aren't going to be as detailed as regular print articles which actually aim to present news to audiences. 

Personally, I think this is another case of print institutions unable to understand the way digital media works, I honestly believe that the use of clickbait and "listicles" in print platform is due their greater increase and also popularity in online media platforms. This has encouraged print platforms to adopt this method in their articles, but what they don't understand is that this new layout and method only sometimes works online with the majority of intellectual users attempting to stay away from such articles. I believe this has resulted in many readers put off from their preferred newspapers and thus resulting in a greater decline in profits and readership. It also means that the few people that do end up staying with said newspapers, tend to not want intellectual or hard news which in turn dumbs down society.

NDM News: The future of journalism

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

Clay Shirky argues that accountability journalism is one of the most fundamental parts of journalism going as far as to refer to it as the "iron core of journalism" he talks about how accountability journalism has been able to hold the powerful to account for the citizens and powerless when they could not. Shirky believes that accountability journalism is a public good with his main example and focus being the 2002 Catholic Church scandal where the Boston Globe exposed the Church for sexually abusive behaviour towards children.

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.)?

Clay Shirky talks about how the relationship between newspapers and advertisers was not as good at the time, as advertisers were over charged for a service that was frankly not as useful or effective to them in terms of marketing and targeting their demographics. This was especially distressing for advertisers because at the time there were not many different platforms that they could advertise on and as such there was a lack of migration to other services. He mentions that websites such as Craigslist having replaced major revenue generators for newspapers as it was used as a huge source of people listing their job requirements and personal ads online instantly with no fees.

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?

Clay Shirky suggests that people are consuming and reading news in many different ways, one of the biggest way he describes is that audiences are not reading news by paper but by other members of the audiences. This suggest that audiences are much more likely to use social media compared to traditional print platforms, which ultimately could lead to a decrease in newspaper readership.

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?

Clay Shirky suggests that shareable and social media has a huge power as it allows for greater inter connectivity of people and allows the news and media to have a higher global reach as it would travel a lot faster. He suggest that if the internet had been as widespread in 1992, it would have meant that society would be reusing and sharing the news stories about the Catholic Church scandal a lot quicker which could have led to the individuals in the church as well as the church itself stopping the criminal activities.

Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?

Shirky argues against pay walls due to the fact that he believes journalism to be a "public good" he believes that without using paywalls it can be easily accessed by anyone but by creating these paywalls, this beneficial service would be heavily restricted to people and would then in turn have a huge negative impact on society as a whole.

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

Journalism is seen as a social good as it essentially benefits a large number of people in society in the best possible way in the form of providing news and information but also by holding to account the corrupt and powerful when the powerless citizens cannot. This is evident through the 2002 Catholic Church scandal as well as the Watergate scandal where the Washington Post was able to expose Richard Nixon and led to his impeachment.

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?

Clay Shirky talks about the utter importance of accountability journalism and how this has an overall positive impact on society, he talks about how there are different methods we can replace and keep this idea of accountability journalism alive through methods such as crowdfunding even if it is a small percentage of journalism, as long as it is still alive. However he talks about how this will not stop the decline in journalism and newspapers and could mean that accountability journalism will decline a lot more faster.

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 believe that these brands need to stay in business and provide news as they are important factors to society remaining open minded and away from ignorance which means that society will continue to grow as a whole. The access of free news and information means that society will be easily educated but also it means that people in society will be a lot more aware of what is going on in their worlds. Furthermore it is also important because of investigative journalism, which means that journalists will still be around to hold the corrupt and powerful governments to account if they do not have the best interest of society and the population in mind.

19/10/16 - Media Greenslade It's a great time to be a journalist, says Channel 4's Jon Snow

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/19/its-a-great-time-to-be-a-journalist-says-channel-4s-jon-snow

Channel 4 News's most notable and famous anchor Jon Snow talks about how the current times are the most exciting but also the most terrifying times to be a journalist. He talks about how the exciting part of journalism is due to the fact that there are a huge amount of news stories being broken and reported about constantly with more and more new young and enthusiastic journalists joining the field every day. However, it's also terrifying due to the increase in areas of conflict such as the Middle East which has created a lot more threats for journalists trying to cover these areas.

One of the main influences that he talks about is Aleppo, and the young journalists behind the news platform who are a lot more multi skilled and use the new digital media to their advantage in new ways every day, such as blogs and films. This he believes has lead to an increase in use of citizen journalism and social media rather than traditional media platforms such as newspapers who says to no longer be the "bastions of truth" that they once were.

• Channel 4's Facebook page has received 1.3bn hits since the beginning of the year
•  Syria that has been “the most hit element of what we provide online”

Personally, I think it is absolutely refreshing to hear something positive about the engagement and enthusiasm of young people in the field of journalism, especially from an acclaimed and accomplished journalist the likes of Jon Snow. It's very interesting to see someone who has been in the media industry for several decades agree that the younger generation are evolving the way media works and the way audiences consume the platforms through social media which also then in turn induces citizen journalism.

19/10/16 - Greenslade - Back to the future: were newspaper publishers wrong to go digital?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/19/back-to-the-future-were-newspaper-publishers-wrong-to-go-digital

The article focuses on the an a brand new perspective of the print platform industry, with everyone constantly talking about how the print platform is falling behind due to new and digital media. The article instead says that although the print media has been focusing catching up with new and digital media, it has done so too quickly and quite possibly has had a negative impact on the way it perceives new and digital media resulting in the institutions not utilising the new media to its fullest of potential.

• Chyi and Tenenboim studied the online readership of 51 leading US regional newspapers and compared 2011 online readerships with those in 2015.
• They discovered that more than half of them had lost online readers in the course of the four years
• They still reached many more readers than the digital content “in home markets”
• US newspaper industry digital advertising revenue increased from $3bn to only $3.5bn from 2010 to 2014
• Print revenues plunged from $22.8bn to $16.4 bn over the same period, they still represented 82% of total newspaper revenue

Personally, I agree with the article to some extent in the sense that I do agree that institutions do not yet fully understand or realise the power of new and digital media which is exactly this ignorance that is making the lag behind and not use the new technologies to its fullest potential. However, I do not agree that the print institutions were too quick or hasty in jumping right into the digital media industry, this is because I believe the institutions which had large amounts of money to worry about had to logically calculate the risk and logistics behind delving into the new industry. It's the combination of both these aspects which has meant they are unable to keep up with new and digital media.

Newspapers: the effect of online technology

Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online? Why?

Personally, I do not agree with James Murdoch and he's views on how the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online. This is purely because I believe that news is information, and this day and age, information or knowledge should be made abundantly free and easily accessible for all people. This in turn has greater socio-economic impacts in a positive way on society and people. For James Murdoch to say that free news is a threat to private industries is hypocritical as his whole livelihood depends on the functioning of NewsCorp and if NewsCorp is not making money he will be out of business and probably out of money too. I think this hypocrisy is overtly clear as it shows me that all he cares about is himself and not the bigger picture of society and freedom of information.

Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sunday Times) behind a paywall?

It was clear to Rupert Murdoch that the print platform was rapidly dying with the introduction of new and digital media. By putting his news content behind a paywall, he was essentially able to force his audience base online to pay a subscription fee for the news content. This was done as a way to make sure that his news is never provided for free and is always creating some kind of monetary income. Before 2010, the Times and Sunday Times had little to zero subscribers and digital customers but after the pay wall this increased to 140,000 digital customers in 2013 after only 3 years. In a way I personally understand the reasoning behind Rupert Murdoch's decisions to create a pay wall and charge his customers for the news provided, he understood the fact that if he didn't try out new strategies then his business will surely fail, which is something that new and digital media forces all businesses to do.

Why do you think the Evening Standard has bucked the trend and increased circulation and profit in the last two years?

The Evening Standard is shown as an anomaly and does not fit the trend due to the fact that it had a huge increase in circulation. The Standard decided to expand its circulation which obviously meant that there was going to be a positive change in circulation but also it would mean that there is a better chance of a profit. However, what this indicator fails to show is that expanding circulation might not be the best idea for long term sustainability as it does not show the fact that the Standard 83,000 readers five percent of its total audience.

Is there any hope for the newspaper industry or will it eventually die out? Provide a detailed response to this question explaining and justifying your opinion.

I personally think that the newspaper industry is dying out. The physical print platform is something that people in society just don't use anymore due to the increase in new and digital media. Digital media provides ease of accessibility, free news, and a huge amount of freedom of choice to the audience. It also enables audiences to eventually create their own opinions due to the fact that many news outlets online aren't as heavily mediated compared to newspapers. However, I still think social media as a news outlet is not possible, since I believe that social media is a news distributor but it does not create news, which is the job of journalists. I also believe that newspapers industries have the ability to evolve and therefore expand their businesses. Society is always going to be changing in one way or another, this is undisputed, and as a result of this industries and institutions should be fluid and flexible in their operations that they are able to adapt and incorporate new strategies in order to turn a profit.

12/10/16 - Streets without shops: how apps are transforming our local neighbourhoods

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/07/streets-without-shops-apps-changing-neighbourhoods-gentrification

The article talks about gentrificaiton which is a very common and controversial topic in urban planning. However, the article talks about how new innovative technologies and applications could be a huge impacting reason for an increase in gentrification. Apps such as UberEats and AirBnB add to gentrification as a whole due to the fact that UberEats doesn't allow for low quality food delivery, which in turn affects local business that have to be shut down. Local and independant businesses are largely affected by these applications as there is no longer a need for people to go to shops or even rent out a hotel. This greatly affects the market and property values as people and businesses with lower income are forced to be displaced.

• Uber now has a branch of service called Uber Eats which competes with Deliveroo for food delivery
• Areas such as East London in London and West Village in New York are considered to be gentrified
• Gentrification is a process of renovation of deprived urban neighbourhoods by means of increasing richer residents, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses.

Personally, I do agree with the article in the sense that in a technologically advanced London today, there is literally no longer a need for common local knowledge. People are a lot more likely to just search for the nearest place to go and eat, rather than knowing which restaurants in their area are good and which aren't. In a way, I feel like this greatly affects communities in a negative way, as there is a social aspect of locality involved, with apps like Deliveroo and UberEats getting rid of these small independent business, that community aspect of it dies out.

12/10/16 - I'm with you on the digital revolution, it's the lack of journalism I can't face

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/11/im-with-you-on-the-digital-revolution-its-the-lack-of-journalism-i-cant-face

The article talks about Charlie Arlinghaus, a columnist with the New Hampshire Union Leader who argues that users of social media such as Twitter aren't gatherer of news. He argues that although many people do get their stories from people sharing links, the actual reporting of the news still has to be done by a journalist which is then put online. Essentially, it's looking at the perspective that to the audience, they're getting their news from Twitter but really Twitter is the distributor.

• A newspaper serving a small community in the US state of New Hampshire ceased publication after 90 years.
• The Citizen was a paid-for title based in Laconia
• It was shut down due to a rise in publication and production costs. Its publishers attempted to sell it but it was not bought therefore shut down.
• It was one of two local daily papers, so people will still able to use the freely distributed Laconia Daily Sun

Personally, I agree with both Greenslade and Arlinghaus, due to the fact that social media users do not find or create news, but rather react to it. This also means that the decline in newspapers goes to show that journalists are losing their jobs. Journalists are one of the biggest sources of investigative journalism and essentially have the power to hold governments to account should they be acting against the interests of the people. This means that a fall in numbers of journalists and news gatherers will mean a direct hit for democracy. 

Build The Wall analysis

• Section 1 - It begins by stating, quite bluntly, that the news industry is rapidly dying but the only solution to the problem is to forcibly monetise the news content.
• Section 2 - Publishers and institutions must deal with the fact that they are losing money and that they need to use a paywall behind their content in order to uphold high quality journalism
• Section 3 - By creating paywalls, you will definitely lose readers but the first few waves of subscriptions would result in a direct investment of better content and expansion of the institution
• Section 4 - It talks about how it is too late for the industry to make any changes but could still do something about it through different ideas and scenarios where the industry is surviving.

David Simon's overall argument is that the newspaper industry is rapidly declining. What's worse is that despite it rapidly declining, the people in a position of power are doing little to nothing to stop it. He is adamant that by monetising the internet and creating paywalls, the industry will eventually be saved, in the first few years it will see a decline in readership and a loss in profit, but turning profit will take time and dedication. Slowly but surely, there will be a profit, as the demand for the news institution is still obviously there, so people will be willing to pay a certain amount of money just to get their high quality journalism. He also argues that it is unfair of the people in power to sit around and do nothing as every day people are losing their jobs and livelihoods due to the laziness of those sitting comfortable on large piles of money.

AC Grayling's article has quite a lot of different references to the state of journalism and how new and digital media has had an impact on it. It discusses how citizen journalism has rapidly expanded and skyrocketed through the use of blogging and social media. I feel the article is very neutral in it's perspective as it touches on both negatives and positive impacts of new and digital media. Negatives such as users on social media having too much anonymity in their expressions and freedom of speech giving them over confidence to have ignorant views. It also focuses on the positives and Grayling is adamant that these positives outweigh the negatives which audiences and users of the internet essentially must accept them and move on.

Personally, I think it is absolutely vital that news institutions and platforms learn to ADAPT rather than force money out of their readership. They must learn that the people no longer have a need or desire to use physical print copies but rather digital versions which are easier to obtain. In history when news papers were made, the town crier didn't start charging extra money to everyone listening to him for his services. It simply doesn't make sense. Institutions must give the people what they want and embrace these new technologies in order to survive. Journalism used to be about writing for and about the people with every intention of the news being about the good of society, but now it seems like who can make the most money in the easiest way possible, which can be argued is another factor why print media is rapidly dying.

NDM: The decline of the newspaper industry

The article discusses the ever growing evidence that the print platform is dying quite rapidly. Like many other people, it pushes forward the idea that new and digital media is the cause for this, due to the fact that one of the main reasons why print platform isn't as appealing is that advertisers are less likely to use them for advertising. Also the fact that many people in today's age use the internet and technology to get their news, this is especially evident as young people aged between 15 and 24 spend almost 30% less time reading newspapers once they start using the internet.

Do you agree with its view that it is ‘a cause for concern, but not for panic’?
I definitely agree that although it is definitely a cause for concern, it is not something that should be panicked about. After all, news itself will never die, but the way it is presented to it's audience and consumed by them will definitely change. Institutions are already adapting and evolving by embracing these new technologies to reach out to a bigger target demographic.

The article is 10 years old - an eternity in digital media terms. Have the writer's predictions come to pass? Use statistics from your Ofcom research to support or challenge the writer's argument.
Although the article is a decade old, it creates very valid predictions. I definitely agree that the predictions will come to pass as the statics show that print platform is dying. This is especially evident as the use of newspapers for access to news has dropped from 40% in 2014 to 31% in 2015 according to the Ofcom report into news consumption (2015). However, many people forget that these billion dollar companies aren't just going to admit defeat, and roll over to die. They have the means and the wealth to evolve and adapt the way their business work to stay within the industry for a really long time.

The Economist suggests that high-quality journalism in the future will be backed by non-profit organisations rather than profit-seeking media corporations. Is there any evidence for this? How is the Guardian funded? What do major stories from the last year such as the Panama Papers suggest about how investigative journalism is conducted in the digital age?
This is a prediction that is very interesting because in the past few years we do see evidence for it to some extent in the form of First Look Media a "charity organisation" that acquired and focused heavily on backing journalism. This company is owned and founded by the founder of eBay. Another example is the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, acquiring the Washington Post for $250 million. The Guardian is a non-profit news outlet that acquires the majority of it's funding from other parties such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. 

Investigative journalism has also evolved rapidly with the introduction and expansion of technology in the form of smart phones. This new digital media alongside of social media has allowed citizen journalism to become a lot more prominent but also the fact that as the internet is a platform for free speech with anonymity, anyone can leak private files and expose those in power in the case of the Panama Papers. Other organisations such as WikiLeaks are major players in this form of investigative journalism and use the internet as a way to publicly hold corruption to account.

05/10/16 - Twitter pays £1.24m in UK tax as revenues increase by 30.5%

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/03/twitter-uk-tax-revenues-staff-shares-2015-results

Twitter has reported a rise in UK revenues of 30.5% to £76m in 2015. According to estimates from analysts, that it made £135.7m in Britain. Twitter UK made a £3.36m pre-tax profit last year, up from £3.29m in 2014. 

• On average, each staff member cost almost £108,000.
• The pay of the company’s top UK directors is not revealed in the UK accounts.
• Twitter is one of a number of large companies that is legally diverting revenues and locating it's activities in Ireland

It's interesting to note the ever increasing revenue and wealth of social media companies such as Twitter. From the perspective of digital media, they have greatly affected society as well as traditional news platforms that have had to shut down due to their ad revenues being taken online. The decline in traditional platforms such as print media can be justified greatly by the increase in revenue through social media platforms such as Twitter where institutions and publishers are more likely to advertise products as there are more users active on such platforms rather than traditional print platforms.

05/10/16 - Ad-blockers: are publishers tempted to feed the hand that bites them?

https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/oct/04/adblock-plus-publishers-tempted-feed-hand-bites

The article talks about how recently the company Eyeo which is responsible for softwares such as Adblock Plus are working with publishers to come up with ways for them to create whitelisted adverts on their own websites in order to maintain online advert revenue. This caused a great amount of backlash within the industry as many see this as the company creating a gate/barrier and is now charging companies a percentage of revenue to use the gate/barrier. The new platform, which launched in beta last month, lets publishers and bloggers choose from a marketplace of pre-whitelisted ads, allowing them to drag and drop these on to their sites.

• 90% of the companies on the whitelist don’t pay a dime
• "However, only about 8%–10% of our users choose to block them all"
• Adblock Plus says it has over 1,000 publishers on board

Personally, I think this is a very interesting strategy that the company is going through with. Since the decline in traditional media platforms, the industry's institutions have used the online platform as a way to boost and maintain revenues through advertisement. However, the online platform gives the users freedom in allowing them to block any adverts. This strategy allows publishers to reach a valuable, tech savvy audience who have previously put themselves out of reach and therefore increases their revenues through advertisements.

NDM case study

NDM case study: How has news changed?

What are the most popular platforms for audiences to access news and how has this changed in recent years?

News is accessed mostly by audiences on the television, through internet or apps, the traditional print media such as newspapers and even radio. In recent years, there has been a significant decline in the way news is accessed by audiences in the sense that traditional media is no longer favoured by the populace. Audiences are a lot more likely to use digital media as a way to access news and information.

How do different age demographics access news in the UK?

According to the Ofcom report, almost 86% of people aged 55+ access news through television. However, the almost 59% of the younger generation access their news and information through new and digital media such as the internet or news applications. Traditional platforms such as print media aren't as popular with younger people as they are only used by about 21% of them whilst almost 44% of people aged 55+ use them.

Does socio-economic status change attitudes to news? If so, how?

Socio-economic status has a huge impact on the attitudes and the way news is consumed by different people in different social classes. For example, people in the AB socio-economic group are more likely than those in the DE socio-economic
group to consume news on any of the four main platform. Television is used by 71% people in the AB socio-economic but 67% by those in the DE group. The internet is largely used by the AB group at 50% whilst only 29% of the DE group uses it.

How many different sources of news are used on average? How does differ between different groups?
On average, 3.5 different sources are used out of the 4 main platforms in 2015. However in 2014, this was at 3.8 which suggest that audiences are consuming less news this year than the last.

How has news consumption through television changed in recent years?
In recent years, the consumption of news through television has decreased since 2013. BARB figures show that each adult watched 108 hours of national and international news on
television in 2014. However this has been a decrease of seven hours since 2013 (when the average number of hours was 115).

How much has news consumption through newspapers declined since 2005?
In the past ten years the reach and consumption of newspapers has declined considerably from 72.4% of all adults reading newspapers in 2005 to 45.4% in 2015. A total decrease of 27%.

How does newspaper reach differ by age group?
Newspaper reach differs greatly by age group as 29.3% of 15-24s are newspaper readers compared to 67.9% of over-65s.

Which are the most popular newspapers and websites in the UK? What do you know about those newspapers' political viewpoints?
In the UK, the most popular newspapers are The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Metro and The Times. Their viewpoints and political standings vary from left to right wing.

How does online news consumption differ for age, gender and socio-economic status?

Online news consumption varies quite considerably in terms of age, gender and socio-economic group. The Ofcom report states that 59% 16-24 year olds in the UK  use the internet or apps for news while only 23% of those aged 55+ use them. Also, 53% of those in the ABC1 socio-economic group use online sources for news, compared to the C2DE socio-economic group, only 32% of them use online sources for news.

What percentage of people use social media to access news? How does this differ by age and socio-economic status?
From the Ofcom report 43% of respondents use social media sites in order to access the news. In terms of age, 61% of 16-24s who use the digital media for news say they use social media sites compared to 26% of those aged 55+. In terms of a socio-economic standppint, people in the DE(52%) group are more likely to use digital media than those in AB (40%) to use social media sites for news.

What percentage of users only use social media sites for their news?

Only 10% of users use only social media sites for their news.

What are the most popular online sites for news?
The Sun is the most popular online site for news in the UK, with around 5.2 million users. The Daily Mail comes second with 3.5 million users.

What percentage of 16-24 year olds access news mostly from social media?

About 61% of 16-24s access their news from social media sites.

How do audiences find stories online? Do you follow links or go to the homepage of the news provider?

Many social media websites offer the sharing of news articles and links between users. Websites such as Facebook or Twitter have trending topics based on current affairs and news. Other websites such as the BBC have applications which update and alert audiences of breaking news or current affairs through headlines on their main website.

New/digital media: audience and institution

What are the benefits for audiences from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry?
Audiences have greatly benefited from the changes that new and digital media has had on the news industry. This is has essentially created a huge freedom of choice amongst audiences in the sense that they can now choose what type of news that they want, when they want it. Each individual can appropriately cater and control the way and what type of news they consume depending on their own personal interests or needs.

What are the benefits for institutions from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry?

Institutions have also benefited from the changes that new and digital media has had on the news industry. With the advancement in technology in new and digital media, audiences are a lot more interconnected and news institutions can now send information and updates almost instantaneously such as the BBC which has an app for users to get alerts on their mobiles. This means that institutions can always be engaging with their audiences.

What are the downsides for audiences as a result of new and digital media in news?
As a result of new and digital media in news, audiences also are affected by the negative impacts. An few examples of this might be that new and digital media news is a lot more citizen journalism and therefore is not as accurate or consistent as traditional news which are proofread and thoroughly fact checked. 

What are the downsides for institutions as a result of new and digital media in news?
Institutions have also been affected by the negative impacts of new and digital media in news. Many institutions which are owned by the same person, for example, Rupert Murdoch no longer have as much as influence on their audiences as they used to. This is because the variety of news sources has increased and audiences are more likely to criticise and question news institutions and make their own conclusions based on their own perspectives.

Who has benefited most from the changes new and digital media have had on the news industry - audiences or institutions?

I personally think that audiences have benefited a lot more from the changes that new and digital media has had on the news industry. This is because it has allowed the audiences to be a lot more flexible in what they choose to consume, but also in the sense that it has allowed a greater ease of access and increased the sharing of information amongst everyone. This, in theory, should show that there is less prejudice and ignorance amongst society, however current affairs show that this is not the case. Therefore, one could argue that allowing the audiences to have too much freedom could also be bad thing as those with the most amount of prejudice and ignorance are more likely to speak out louder than those that aren't as prejudiced, due to freedom of speech.