29/03/17 - Internet firms must do more to tackle online extremism, says No 10

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/24/internet-firms-must-do-more-to-tackle-online-extremism-no-10

The article focuses on how the Prime Minister's spokesperson has stated that social media or online firms such as Facebook and Google are not doing enough when it comes to removing harmful content from their websites. Due to the recent London Terror attack, this debate has been re sparked and 10 Downing Street has stated that the government has always in the past urged this companies that they could do more and work better when it comes to harmful content or even when society's concerns are raised. After a recent hearing with Google, Facebook and Twitter, Yvette Cooper, the committee’s chair, offered a assessment of their record tackling extremist material which showed that their commitment to removing such content was lacking.

• Downing Street has called for social media companies to do more to expunge extremist material from the internet.
• The prime minister’s spokesman said firms such as Facebook and Google “can and must do more” to remove inflammatory material from the web and that it was up to them to respond to public concern.
• The London terror attack has reignited concern about the easy availability of material promoting violent extremism online, although No 10 said on Friday it was making a general point and that it was not not necessarily saying online material was a factor in the radicalisation of Khalid Masood
• Yvette Cooper said YouTube’s enforcement of its community standards was “a joke” and that Twitter and Facebook were too slow to deal with hate-filled content

Personally, I believe that the government in some way or form is more than welcome to criticise the use of social media and large organisations but more specifically how they tackle harmful content. I definitely agree that companies such as Facebook and Google do not do enough when it comes to removing harmful content or taking care of content that is being reported. I think this is something that should be dealt by the companies specifically and not the government as a whole, as that can lead to issues of piracy and government censorship.

29/03/17 - Singapore teen blogger who criticised government wins asylum in US

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/25/singapore-teen-blogger-who-criticised-government-wins-asylum-in-us

This article is about how a teenage blogger from Singapore whose online posts criticising his government landed in him jail has been granted asylum to remain in the United States. Amos Yee, aged 18, left Singapore with the intention of seeking asylum in the US after being jailed for several weeks in 2015 and 2016. He was accused of attacking the views of Muslims and Christians; Yee is an atheist. However, many of his blog and social media posts have criticised Singapore’s leaders. He created controversy in 2015 as the city-state was mourning the death of its first prime minister and he posted an offensive video about prime minister Lee Kuan Yew just after his death. In addition, Yee said in a phone interview from jail this month that he feared returning to Singapore. But he said he would continue to speak out and had already planned a line of T-shirts and started writing a book about his experiences. “I have an infinite amount of ideas of what to do,” he said.

• Amos Yee, 18, had been detained by federal immigration authorities since December when he wase taken into custody at Chicago’s O’Hare International airport.
• He was accused of hurting the religious feelings of Muslims and Christians; Yee is an atheist. However, many of his blog and social media posts criticized Singapore’s leaders
• Such open criticism of political leaders is discouraged in Singapore. The case, which raised questions about free speech and censorship, has been closely watched abroad.
• Yee said in a phone interview from jail this month that he feared returning to Singapore. 
• “Singapore excels at creating a pressure cooker environment for dissidents and free thinkers who dare challenge the political, economic and social diktats from the ruling People’s Action Party. It’s clear the Singapore government saw Amos Yee as the proverbial nail sticking up that had to be hammered down.”

Personally, I think this is a great case of just how new digital media can be a worrying platform for a rise in either rightwing opinions or "shock" value content that is used purely for the purpose of creating anger/shock in order to gain hits or views to their website. I think this is also a great example of how unfiltered the internet is as these kinds of views can be extremely harmful to society as a whole due to a severe lack of gatekeeping on the internet.

MEST3 Independent case study: Research

Media magazine

MM 38

• Now with modern technology even people in rural communities have access to mobile phones and internet.
• Social networking can allow communication between disenfranchised people all across the world. It can be a vehicle for free dialogue and contribute towards positive changes in societies.
• Social media played its part in bringing about this revolution. This was what was so powerful in the Arab spring. Social media provided a vehicle to quickly amplify public sentiment.
• Recently we have seen evidence of this. The so-called Arab Spring owes some of its success to people’s innovative use of social media.
• In just over a few months and after years of silence people were voicing their total dissatisfaction with their governments. People used social media to unite and to demand change.
• Social media is being used to keep their dialogue moving. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter give such immediate communication. They are examples of powerful social media, dynamic media working in real-time, affording interaction around the world.
• One 17-year-old from Suffolk was banned from using social networking sites for 12 months and was ordered to observe a three month overnight curfew for using Facebook to encourage people to riot.

MM 45

• All media products are constructed with great care in terms of the way messages are communicated to the audience.
• The first stage in creating propaganda is usually to create a scapegoat – an identifiable enemy of some kind, often an individual or a sub-group within the culture.
• Once the enemy has been pinpointed, assertions can be made to create simplified representations of the group.
• The assertions should reinforce the enemy status of the person/group; and through careful selection of information, including facts that support the position and selectively omitting anything that may contradict it, a negative view can be communicated and reinforced by repetition.
• Name-calling, the use of false connections and bad logic can be made to create negative associations all of which can successfully demonise the chosen group – especially if, within all this, the audience’s fear and existing prejudices can be heightened.
• This is often achieved by appealing to emotions and making it appear that everyone agrees with the idea being communicated.
• Propaganda is defined as ‘information of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicise a particular political cause or point of view’.

MM59

• A filter bubble is a result of a personalised search in which a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see, based on information about the user (such as location, past click behaviour and search history).
• It was estimated that 78% of Trump’s statements were lies (Pomerantsev, 2016).
• Galtung and Ruge’s (1965) classic work on the ideology underpinning the selection of news stories showed how the production of news is influenced by news values, such as ‘ethnocentricity’, whereby ‘home’ news (either regional or national) takes priority over international stories.
• Since the early 1970s, newspaper circulation in the UK has been in decline as alternative sources of news have appeared – firstly 24-hour news channels, and latterly the internet.
• In Galtung and Ruge’s terms, Facebook is now acting as a ‘gatekeeper’ for news. So who edits Facebook news? Answer: nobody.
• Fake stories, whether propaganda or satire, can appear in the newsfeed amongst genuine stories.
• It is not social media alone that potentially guides us towards consuming fake news. Since 2009 Google has tailored our search enquiries based on our search histories. Its algorithm predicts which sources of information we’re most likely to be interested in, so we might miss out on material that challenges our existing worldview.
• We create our own filter bubbles on social media by choosing who to friend and follow. We are, in effect, placing ourselves in a silo where we might only have access to worldviews similar to our own.
• Fabricated Facebook news stories aren’t the only reason for Trump’s victory in the US election. For example, his campaign spent $90m on Facebook advertising, and the director of its digital strategy claims that this won the election.
• When lies are taken to be truth, we become victims of propaganda; and when opinion leaders then state that the fact their claims were false didn’t matter, it would appear that we are living in a ‘post-truth’ age.
• If the truth isn’t important then we cannot hold politicians to account and democracy is a complete sham.
• Did Trump become President because of lies? It might be comforting to believe so; and if we, as media experts, believe in the power of the media to influence, then it is reasonable to assume that lies promoted on social media platforms played some part in his electoral success.
• However did 60m Americans really vote for him because of what they read on the internet? Probably not. It is much more likely that many millions suffering economically did not so much vote for Trump, as vote against the ‘status quo’, represented by Clinton.

Factsheet

FACTSHEET 104

• In addition, digital media has allowed audiences to have a more proactive relationship with institutions and they can be seen to be much more active than in the past. Audiences can be seen to have more of an impact on production and can even be part of the production process themselves. Some see this as a positive move that reduces the amount of power held by institutions.
• Social networking has become increasingly important as a method of communication, in some cases overtaking media institutions in its ability to get stories out quickly to a large audience. Twitter increasingly is the story as well as the distribution method.
• Some critics argue that information can be lost in the ‘cacophony’ of the multiple voices now available. Lies can travel as quickly as the truth and sometimes it is not easy for audiences to know the difference. Recently, in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile revelations, false information regarding the identity of another abuser was passed on via the internet with journalists and politician’s wives (amongst others) using Twitter to spread unsubstantiated gossip.
• More and more programmes feature the reading of texts and emails sent in by audience members and Twitter feeds are often integrated into programmes.
• Even though those that comment on-line or who take part in Twitter debates can be seen to be diluting the total power once held by institutions, it has been noted that not all members of the audience participate and power is collecting around certain special interest groups or communities (Mumsnet, 4Chan, Reddit etc.).
• In addition, on-line discussions often veer towards aggression and have often been identified as including sexism, racism and homophobia in the discourse of debate (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/ gender.blogging). This can be off-putting for many people and limit the debate rather than extend it.

Books

The Newspapers Handbook – Richard Keeble, 2001

Powerful information: Reporting national and local government, John Turner – Page 147

• “Politics is about power and information is power.”
• “Journalists are part of the information business and are crucial in a political process which involves the exercise of this potent force.”
• “People with power, whether they be Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants or chief executives of local councils, have a vested interest, not only in protecting their own power, but also in obscuring the extent of their authority in the first place.”
• “The journalist occupies a pivotal position between those who make and implement important decisions and those who are often forced to comply with such decisions.”
• “Any democratic system depends on people being well informed and educated about politics by a media which gives a full and accurate account of news, encompassing a wide and varied range of political opinions.”
• “The media in general have a large and growing significance on politics.”
• Page 148 – “Agenda-setting and primary definers: here the media are accused less of telling people what to believe, than in providing a more pervasive influence on what people think about and how they make judgements about different issues”
• “Reinforcement and hegemony: here the media are not so much creating attitudes but are involved in strengthening and reinforcing existing beliefs and prejudices. This can be linked to the notion of hegemony whereby consent is sought for those ways of making sense of the world which fit with the perspective of those in power.”
• “Independent effects: there is a growing view that the media have a more direct and independent effect on beliefs and behaviour. New media technologies have as much of an influence on attitudes and behaviour as the uses to which they are put.”
• “Newton (1986) has pointed to a paradox in the media’s impact on political awareness.”
• “Whereas political information is delivered faster to more people, nevertheless the mass tabloids contain only a little political content and what they report is personalised, trivialised, sensationalised and biased.”
• “Consequently, a large proportion of the public is provided with restricted news and knowledge of current affairs.”
• “This contradiction has been discussed by Seymour-Ure (1974) in his distinction of levels of readership between a mass public who mainly read gossip columns and sports pages and are therefore more readily influenced by biased news.”

Online - Up to minute

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/04/cambridge-analytica-democracy-digital-age

• Cambridge Analytica, its parent company SCL, and its relationship to the Leave campaign raise questions that cannot be ignored – questions that are vital to the integrity of our democracy and what it means to be a citizen in the digital age. Was the referendum free, fair and legally fought? Were voters covertly manipulated without their consent? And, crucially, what role exactly does Robert Mercer – Donald Trump’s biggest donor and close associate of Steve Bannon – have in all this?
• The Observer revealed that the billionaire hedge-fund owner, and a money man behind Donald Trump, was a key figure operating behind the scenes in Brexit. Andy Wigmore of Leave.EU told us that Mercer is a personal friend of Nigel Farage and that it was he who made the introduction between Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica. He said: “They were happy to help. Because Nigel is a good friend of the Mercers. And Mercer introduced them to us.”
• Is it the case that our elections will increasingly be decided by the whims of billionaires, operating in the shadows, behind the scenes, using their fortunes to decide our fate?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/25/national-park-service-trump-twitter-campaign-spreads

• It started when the National Park Service’s Twitter account retweeted pictures comparing the crowds for Donald Trump’s inauguration and that of Barack Obama in 2009.
• This, and another retweet about policy changes on the White House website meant the National Park Service was promptly reprimanded and banned from tweeting
• Telling all bureaus to immediately cease use of government Twitter accounts until further notice is something of an overreaction

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/09/twitter-loses-advertising-revenue-rise-users-shares

• Investors take fright as company reveals $457m loss for 2016 and concedes its financial growth is lagging its popularity
• Shares in Twitter have slumped after the tech company suffered a decline in advertising income, despite a rise in user numbers as Donald Trump’s high-profile tweeting helped to advertise the platform’s influence.
• Jack Dorsey, chief executive and co-founder, hailed the growing “impact and influence” of Twitter, saying the US president had “boosted the power” of the service.
• The San Francisco-based company reported annual revenues up 14% on last year to $2.5bn (£2bn). Monthly active users climbed from 317 million to 319 million in the final quarter of last year.
• The tech company is still making sizeable losses, falling $457m into the red during 2016 despite cutting 9% of its workforce, or about 350 people. Its shares fell by more than 11% to $16.54 in early trading on Wall Street after the disappointing set of figures were revealed.
• Twitter has now racked up losses of almost $2.8bn since it floated on the stock market three years ago – at $26 a share – and the latest figures deal a blow to the company’s plan to turn a profit by the end of 2017.
• One figure that will give cause for concern among investors is a fall in advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, down to $638m from $641m in the same period of last year. This was largely because of a slump in revenues in the US, which wiped out gains in Twitter’s international markets.
• The company had reported an increase in advertising revenue in the first three quarters of the year, before the trend reversed in the final three months. This was largely down to a 5% slump in revenues in the US to $440m, a fall that wiped out a 12% rise to $277m in its international markets.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/feb/06/super-bowl-ad-prompts-trump-supporters-to-boycott-budweiser

• Advert depicting immigrants inventing the American beer brand leads to boycott calls – and mockery of them – on social media
• This year, during the first Super Bowl of Donald Trump’s presidency, the US brewery Anheuser-Busch used its slot to send a pro-immigration message to the nation.
• The advert, Born the Hard Way, portrays a fictionalised version of the journey of Adolphus Busch to the US, where he would go on to help create Budweiser beer with fellow immigrant Eberhard Anheuser.
• Trump supporters on social media were furious when the advert was launched before the game, vowing not to drink the beer again.
• Trump supporters have recently targeted Kelloggs with the #DumpKelloggs hashtag after the cereal company, along with around 800 other firms, pulled advertising from the Breitbart website.
• Budweiser was not alone in taking the opportunity to troll Trump during the Super Bowl, with Airbnb, Audi and Coca-Cola all airing adverts that promoted equality, diversity and tolerance.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/15/trump-post-factual-presidency-both-victor-and-victim

• The evidence from last week’s hostile press conference is clear: no traditional ‘facts’ can damage a world leader who embodies conspiracy theory
• When attacked – by anyone from Meryl Streep to the CIA – the commander-in-chief of democratic righteousness will kick right back. He’ll say that she’s a lousy actor and Hillary hack. He’ll snarl about intelligence “Nazis”. And he’ll carry on tweeting incessantly.
• So the strategy is clear enough already. Journalism’s twisted titans are supposedly out to get the Donald, out to distort and malign him as though the election had never been. 
• Random effusions via Twitter still get newsdesks shifting after midnight. Rationed access to Trump still gets maximum replay (because it remains a scarce commodity). And “dishonest big media” are still in a bind.
• One chunk of public opinion has already decided that “Giving Donald a chance, even though we didn’t vote for him” is today’s pragmatism. Another chunk is out on the streets. 
• Observe, too, the way in which, in digital times, one decision to post the whole thing on the net frees other papers to offer links to it. A single click of a decision covers all. There’s no need for everyone to publish: digitally, one is enough. Is that freedom to be righteous and practical, or a freedom to duck for cover? A very post-Leveson situation.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2017/jan/12/debate-double-can-we-trust-our-media-and-is-press-freedom-threatened

• London Press Club to stage panel discussions about the coverage of Donald Trump and Brexit plus the threat posed by section 40
• They will consider the media’s role in its coverage of both Donald Trump’s election campaign and in ther lead-up to the European referendum and its aftermath.
• They are bound to touch on all kinds of related subjects, such as mainstream media’s relationship with social media. Can the traditional press compete with, and possibly counter, Twitter? What can be done about fake news? Do newspapers create populism or respond to it?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/10/buzzfeed-publishes-donald-trump-russia-documents-ethics-questions

• BuzzFeed’s decision to publish an intelligence report filled with salacious and unsubstantiated claims about Donald Trump’s purported behaviour in Russia has triggered a political storm and debate over media ethics.
• The news website posted the unredacted documents on Tuesday, just 10 days before Trump’s inauguration, with a warning that the contents contained errors and were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”.
• The documents, reportedly compiled by a British former intelligence agent, alleged that the Kremlin was “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years.
• Other media outlets including the Guardian had obtained and reviewed the documents in recent weeks but declined to publish because there was no way to independently verify them.
• The stakes rose on Tuesday when CNN reported that America’s intelligence chiefs had given Trump and Barack Obama a two-page summary of the reports last week. CNN and the Guardian also reported that Senator John McCain had delivered a copy to the FBI director, James Comey, last month, but withheld the documents’ most eye-opening details, citing lack of corroboration.
•  “Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government,”
• Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief, followed up a few hours later with a statement that defended publication as an act of journalistic transparency in a hyper-partisan era.
• “Publishing this document was not an easy or simple call, and people of good will may disagree with our choice. But publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017.” Smith amplified the warning in BuzzFeed’s original story by saying there was “serious reason to doubt the allegations”.
• “Even Donald Trump deserves journalistic fairness,” tweeted David Corn, Mother Jones’s Washington bureau chief who reported in October on the existence – but not the contents – of memos from a “former western intelligence officer”.
• “Not how journalism works: Here’s a thing that might or might not be true, without supporting evidence; decide for yourself if it’s legit,” tweeted Brad Heath, an investigative reporter for USA Today.
• “The documents are unverified and yet this is a document which is being discussed across media circles and across security circles. If it is being briefed to the president-elect then it’s better to be able to see what he’s being briefed.”
• Roy Greenslade, who teaches journalistic ethics at City University’s school of journalism and writes a column for the Guardian, said the publication of the documents was an error.
• “I’m all for disclosure, but news outlets must act responsibly and should also beware of doing anything that undermines their credibility,” he said. “On both counts, Buzzfeed’s decision to publish the material was an error. It is disingenuous to publish the document on the grounds that ‘Americans can make up their own minds’. Adopting that criterion would allow for the publication of anything irrespective of its authenticity.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/20/barack-obama-facebook-fake-news-problem

• “In an age where there’s so much active misinformation, and it’s packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television, where some overzealousness on the part of a US official is equated with constant and severe repression elsewhere, if everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect,” [Obama] told reporters in Berlin on Thursday. “If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.”
• “Facebook would have to hire thousands of human beings who are trained to make editorial judgments and could step in and edit news feeds,”
• In the meantime, it’s as if Mark Zuckerberg is using some different version of Facebook unafflicted by hoax stories and misinformation. “The rest of us know too well the corrosive power of fake news.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/german-spy-chief-russian-hackers-could-disrupt-elections-bruno-kahl-cyber-attacks

• The head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has warned that next year’s general election could be targeted by Russian hackers intent on spreading misinformation and undermining the democratic process.
• Bruno Kahl, president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, said Russia may have been behind attempts during the US presidential campaign to interfere with the vote.
• “We have evidence that cyber-attacks are taking place that have no purpose other than to elicit political uncertainty,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung in his first interview since he was appointed five months ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/can-donald-trump-save-twitter

• The president-elect’s musings are reported as news almost every day, but will the attention help make Twitter great again?
• “It’s like owning your own newspaper – without the losses.” That’s how Donald Trump described the San Francisco-headquartered social media tool in November 2012.
• His prolific and opinionated 140-character outpourings (“tremendous!”, “very unfair!”, “crooked”, “nice”) are amplified by traditional media, reporting on his ad hominem attacks and diplomatic gaffes.
• For Twitter, it’s been a marketer’s dream: barely a day goes by without TV channels, newspapers and websites name-checking the social media platform in stories about what @real Donald Trump is posting.
• Trump hasn’t held a traditional press conference since July 2016, opting instead for combining controlled settings of interviews with Twitter, which he views as a way of “fighting back” against stories he considers to be inaccurate or bad.
• “This is his way of controlling the news cycle. He’s brilliant at that,” said analyst Leigh Drogen, founder and CEO of Estimize.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/08/meryl-streep-golden-globes-speech-donald-trump

• Meryl Streep delivered an emotional speech at the Golden Globes in which she criticized Donald Trump for imitating a disabled reporter while campaigning to be president, saying it “gives permission” to others to do the same.
• The US president-elect drew widespread opprobrium in November when he derided the New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski – who had disputed Trumps’s claim he saw “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrate the 9/11 attacks – while flailing and twisting his arms. Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joint movement.
• Trump responded to Streep’s speech by describing her as “a Hillary lover”, adding that he was not surprised that he had come under attack from “liberal movie people”. 
• He told the New York Times that he denied mocking Kovaleski. “I was never mocking anyone. I was calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story”, he said. “People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter’s disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing.”

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

• Are digital technologies making politics impossible?
• It’s hard to live through the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, of Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Corbyn, without feeling that something has gone wrong with our democracy.
• We fixate on people and personalities, looking for someone to blame for our mutual incomprehension - “It’s her fault!” “It’s his fault!” – when this only makes the divisions worse. But what if it’s not the people that are the problem? What if it’s the machines through which we increasingly communicate that are causing things to fall apart?
• 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?
• A genuinely digital currency – on the blockchain model of Bitcoin – could entirely alter the power of the state. Full blown cyber-warfare – with algorithms not human beings fighting it out – might do the same.
• Perhaps instead of being left behind by the transformative power of the digital revolution, politics is about to catch up. In that case, all bets are off. Technologies that have the potential to spell the end of analogue politics do not spell the end of politics altogether. What seems impossible for the current generation of politicians may be a sign of what the next generation will have at its disposal.
•  There’s no doubt that digital technologies are changing human behaviour, and not always for the better. The hopes from the dawn of the digital age of a new era of democratic empowerment remain unfulfilled. Intolerance appears to be on the rise. Governments have proved more adept at using this technology to keep an eye on us than we have been at keeping an eye on them.

22/03/17 - YouTube changes restrictions on gay-themed content following outcry

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/21/youtube-changes-restrictions-gay-lgbtq-themed-content-tegan-sarah

The article talks about the recent scandal with the services of YouTube when it comes to the restriction policies that they have set in terms of non-explicit videos featuring LGBTQ themes. Tegan and Sara who are Canadian LGBTQ musicians were among those who complained about the policy. YouTube restricted their videos just because they were openly gay even though their content of the videos was not at all explicit or sexual in anyway shape or form.

• YouTube had been criticised for having non-explicit videos featuring LGBTQ themes classed as restricted 
• The “restricted” designation lets parents, schools and libraries filter out content that isn’t appropriate for users under 18.dd 
• Turning on the restriction makes videos inaccessible. YouTube calls it “an optional feature used by a very small subset of users”.
• In general, though, it includes “sexually explicit language or excessive profanity”, and violent or disturbing content, according to YouTube’s policies.
• YouTube says it also uses “community flagging”, which means users can flag videos for possible restrictions or removal.

Personally, I think it is a bit of a dilemma. In a rapidly expanding society where new and digital media is constantly at a rise. YouTube is a service that receives thousands of videos on a daily basis, so it can be justifiable for them to make a small mistake of categorisation of some videos. At the end of the day, I think it is important that they own up to their mistakes and come up with solutions that will greatly affect their structure in the long term and also incite greater discussion. I also feel that it was definitely wrong of them, but we should not be so quick to judge and assume that the company had bad intentions in mind.

22/03/17 - Far-right millionaire: I'll use social media network to back Scottish independence

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/20/jim-dowson-back-scottish-independence-patriotic-news-agency-far-right

The article focuses on Jim Dowson a millionaire with far right views that hopes to use social media in order to promote Scottish Independence. Most notably however, the article talks specifically about how Mr Dowson plans to use the same methods that he believes were crucial in the election of Donald Trump and also for Brexit. He plans to set up a “News Agency” from bases in Hungary and Serbia in order to promote Scottish Separatism. Mr Dowson is notably known for his work as a former financial backer of the British National party and former member of Britain First.

• Plans to use his international social media network, which backed Donald Trump, to support Scottish independence.
• Dowson’s social media group pumped out pro-Trump “news” during the latter stages of the US presidential campaign
• Claims his networks have a global reach of 50 million online viewers, 17 million of whom live in Britain.
• "I have been a fanatical defender of the union, but I am a pragmatist, and England is finished"

Personally, I think it is shocking that something like this is being allowed to happen. It was more than apparent that one of the biggest reasons that caused so much chaos during Donald Trump’s election and Brexit was the fact that there so many uncertainties being generated from fake news. Mr Dowson plans to employ this exact same tactic and is openly admitting to it yet nothing is going to be done to stop him. Furthermore, it is also clear that his intentions are not at all in the best interest of the public and Scottish people as a whole as he plans to further his own personal agenda by setting up bases in other countries where the British law might be more difficult to enforce. This should be more than enough evidence to show that Mr Dowson only cares about enforcing his own right wing agenda rather than actually promoting a future that will be good for all Scottish future generations.

Section A Exam prep

Evaluate how the two trailers use the narrative technique of enigma to encourage the target audience to watch the films. (8 marks) 

Both media products effectively use the narrative technique of enigma to encourage the target audience to watch the films. The use of enigma as a narrative technique is essentially used to create a sense of curiosity and mystery amongst audiences. This curiosity or mystery to the narrative urges audiences to watch the films as it is within human nature to understand and know things which goes hand in hand with wanting to know the rest of the film's narrative. This is especially evident in both media products through the use of the editing, as there are many quick fast cuts in the trailers which not only speed up the pace of the trailers but also show really small quick glimpses of scenes which leave the audiences in suspense and wanting to know more. This sense of mystery is immediate in the Twilight trailer as the first dialogue is questioning the motive of another character, this leaves audiences wanting to know more as they too question the motives of said character

Furthermore, there is a sense of binary opposition clearly present in both media products. This is evident through the tension between Werewolves and Vampires in the "Twilight" film trailer. This is also evident in the trailer for "Let The Right One In", as it is clear that there is binary opposition present between the vampire girl and the village. This idea of creating opposition and tension is a classic method of creating suspense but also leaving questions and mystery as to who will come out on top of the opposition. This makes audiences eager to want to watch the films as they would want to know who wins and who loses as a resolution of a problem is always crucial.

Finally, the film trailers also have a variety of action codes embedded into them to represent urgency. This is evident through the use of shots specifically showing people hitting things, or getting ready to fight by taking their hoods off. This is also evident in the second trailer through the use of the shots of the hospital bed on fire, or even the shots of the girl killing people. These help to create a greater sense of urgency and importance of the action in the narrative which in a way gives a rush of adrenaline to the audiences and therefore greatly makes them want to watch the films.

Why are media products that represent outsiders, such as vampire films, so popular? You may also refer to other media products to support your answer. (12 marks) 

There are many reasons as to why media products that represent outsiders, such as vampire films are extremely popular. This is evident as watching media products with characters from outsider groups makes audience feel interested in certain aspects of their lifestyle. In the case of, "Gone Too Far" it can be said that the film takes stereotypes about the Nigerian lifestyle and subverts them in a way to create humour. These characteristics that are normally might be seen as foreign or "exotic" as stated by Alvarado. This is especially evident from Yemi's mother that wears traditional West African attire including humourous sandles which add to her character. To extend onto the theory stated by Alvarado, the minorities in this film are shown to be as humourous and therefore serve only as entertainment for audiences that aren't minorities. However it can be argued that by adding humour to these stereotypes it not only humanises minorities that are so often labelled as outsiders, but also makes audiences empathise with them greatly as they are not shown as outsiders.

Furthermore, most media products that focus on vampire films deal with the supernatural, and it can be argued that this adds to the popularity of these types of films as people want to know more about aspects of life that can't be explained. This is especially evident as audiences enjoy watching products with outsiders as the main focus since they want a glimpse into their life and want to be able to personally identify with them to some extent. Furthermore, when it comes to films with outsiders, they tend to have more characters with personalities that are a lot more three dimensional. This is especially evident in the Blade Trilogy where vampire hunter is half vampire and half human. He is constantly having to deal with making a chose and is hunted by both humans and vampires. It's this self conflict and binary opposition within the character themselves that makes these types of media products a lot more appealing.

Do you think that official and unofficial websites contribute to a film's box office success? You should refer to other media products to support your answer. (12 marks) 

Both official and unofficial websites contribute to a film's box office success to some extent in their own ways. Through the use of official websites and official social media, a film's marketing creates different links of synergy. These links of synergy further boost profits and urges people to buy brands or items that are linked with the film, this might include posters/t-shirts/toys or any type of branded merchandising. This essentially creates a greater sense of inclusiveness for people that follow these official websites as they are able to get their hands on exclusive products that are only around through limited offers and limited promotions. Not only does it give a sense of inclusion to audiences, it also increases the chances that people will share these links to their friends and families across social media and therefore increasing views and profits for their brands. This idea of synergy was especially evident for the marketing of the Ill Manors brand, the website for the film was home to the TAG London campaign that encourage user generated content that included the target audience. Further synergy was evident as Ben Drew created links between the film's website and his own personal music's website as it was apparent that many people who would watch that film would be his loyal fans from his music work.

Unofficial branding and marketing is also crucial when it comes to a film's box office success. These websites and marketing essentially create a sense of "buzz" and greater encourage many other audiences to see the films and therefore contribute greatly to the film's box office. Many audience members that have been looking forward to a release of a specific film may choose to create blog entries or write about their personal views and opinions as to what they are hoping to see in the film. This is also seen especially after the release of a film as many content creators choose to take to the internet to share their thoughts after they have seen a film, this is evident in the form of YouTuber Jeremy Jahns who has almost a million subscribers and is always reviewing movies as soon as they are out. A lot of the times, what he has to say has a great effect on whether or not a million of his subscribers will go to see a film.

MEST3 Independent case study: New/Digital Media

Case study research tasks

The basics

Your chosen industry:

The impacts of social media and new digital media on democracy and elections. Greater focus on the US Presidential election of 2016. Trump.

Your chosen case study (i.e. text/institution etc.):

Social media and political engagement. Fake news, Facebook, Russian hacking

Have you received approval for this case study from your teacher? 

Yes

Audience

How has new and digital media changed the audience experience in your chosen industry?
New digital media has changed the audience experience in a way that people are more likely to share emotional related narratives. A lot of articles and stories related to elections are created with the intention of having many narratives linked to them. This essentially aims to unlock the emotion of the audience, that makes the articles and stories a lot more relatable and therefore much more likely to be shared amongst peers. This also leads to a greater spread of targetted demographics and in some cases, creates a sense of an echo chamber which only resonates within specific demographic groups that only begins to escalate to the point where its the only narrative left to consume.

Has new and digital media changed the way the audience consume your chosen product?
New and digital media has essentially changed the way audiences consume in quite a few different ways. When it comes to politics, new digital media has been remarkably good at forming a bridge to get people into real world politics. However, it also poses a real challenge. It has allowed audiences to greatly interact with their local politicans in a much more personal level. A tweet to your local consistency's politican can be seen directly on their phone's screen, and essentially makes sure that audiences are a lot more up to date and linked with their local context's politics.

Has the size of the audience changed as a result of new and digital media?
I genuinely think the size of the audience has increased exponentially since the introduction of new digital media. With the use of social media in politics, it has quickly become a topic that is relevant and fast paced. It is arguably now a topic in society that many people need to be updated on every day otherwise they would be left behind. It has also led to a lot of young people getting interested in politics as they are the most adept when it comes to new digital media and therefore are much more likely to take part in a politics that is online and modern.

What are the positive changes new and digital media have brought to the audience of your case study? (E.g. greater choice, easier access etc.)
It's now a lot more easier to access news that is directly related to specific political topics. This ease of access provides more information to audiences and also gets them more invovled. New and digital media in politics has also made young people a lot more invested in the current affairs, as the world of politics is evolving to accomodate the use of technology and new digital media therefore young people who are more adept with the technology are far more likely to get involved with politics which therefore breaks down the negative stigma around politics.

What are the negative changes new and digital media have had on your chosen audience? (E.g. quality of product etc.)
I think some of the negative changes that new and digital media have had on the political audience is the huge amount of fake news that is being presented online. The internet and social media are essentially a completely different virtual world with little to no editorial control and this can lead to a lot of issues where articles are made that sensationalise stories or even are made with the sole purpose to spread false information and make people question their ideologies. There can also be a negative change to democracy with the creation of echo chambers.

What about audience pleasures - have these changed as a result of new and digital media?
Audiences can find a lot more identification with the political world of new and digital media, especially with stories that focus a lot more on local contextual level narratives that essentially help to make politics personal and relatable to each person.

What is the target audience for your chosen case study? Write a demographic/psychographic profile.
In terms of demographics, the target audience will probably be in the older generations that are in jobs that are not as skilled, might be in the manufacturing or service industry with greater focus on the manual labour. They would be hit a lot more harder by hardship and cuts from previous governments and would feel fed up. Due to their age, it's possible that they would be a lot more susceptible to the likes of fake news.

In terms of psychographics, I believe the target audience for my case study would be Resigned. This is due to the fact that they tend to seek survival and hold rigid, authoritarian values. They also tend to be a lot more interested in the past and hold traditional values whilst typically being older people.

Institution

How has new and digital media had an impact on ownership or control in your chosen industry?
In the case of Donald Trump its interest to note that a lot of what is said about him is sourced through his own tweets which are personally written by him. In a way, it is interesting that Trump essentially controls the media narrative created about him in one way or another. By doing so, he can eliminate speculations that media narratives can create and get straight to the point with one single narrative that he himself creates.

What impact has new and digital media had on ownership in your chosen case study?
I think that it has definitely allowed for a greater amount of institutions to control the way that social media is consumed by audiences by using computerised algorithms to specifically target certain demographics and therefore make the spread of their agenda incredibly efficient.

How has new and digital media changed the way institutions produce texts?
Institutions have to focus a lot more on the creation of simple narratives and distribute them on a variety of platforms which will ensure a widespread reach. In the case of Donald Trump, in a rapidly expanding digital age, there is huge influx of overwhelming data, where in these circumstances people tend to turn to the narratives that are the most loud, offensive or most emotive. So instituions focus entirely on creating local based contextualised stories which help to make politics a lot more relatable.

How has new and digital media changed the way institutions distribute their product?
Social and new digital media has been changed quite a lot in terms of how its distributed, especially by using computerised algorithms to specifically target certain demographics and therefore make the spread of their agenda incredibly efficient.

How might new and digital media threaten your chosen industry?
One of the most prominent threats to the chosen industry is the introduction of fake news and its place in the political world. During the US Election many sites were being made with the sole purpose of spreading misinformation to make people doubt their ideologies in order to sway their votes to right wing ideologies.

How has new and digital media changed the way your chosen industry is regulated?
It's greatly affected regulations especially when it comes to fake news, as instituions have to work a lot more harder now more than ever, as through the rise of fake news, many people no longer agree with the ideologies of President Trump. This is due to the fact that there was no regulation to fake news prior to its rise, and so institutions are having to work hard to come up with new ways to add a type of editorial control to the internet.

UGC

What examples of user-generated content can you find in your case study?
https://www.wayin.com/blog/powershop-trump-meme-generator-personalized-ugc/


To coincide with last year’s US presidential election, and to capitalize on the vast coverage surrounding Donald Trump, Powershop New Zealand gave its followers the power to control the ‘Trump’ conversation with its unique meme generator campaign to drive personalized UGC.

How has UGC changed things for audiences or institutions in your chosen case study?
UGC has essentially changed things quite a lot for audiences in my chosen case study. It allows people to get involved with politics and current affairs on a much more personal level. Through the ability to share their UGC submissions on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtags, people can easily create a conversation or buzz going when it comes to a political narrative or story. This makes the politics of the US election a lot more relatable and makes the audiences feel as if they are greater part of the process compared to before the introduction of new digital media. 

Institutions are also able to then to capitalize on vast coverage and the conversation relating to the US election which can lead to a greater amount of website visitors and therefore greater income from ad revenue. It allows their audiences to get involved and gives them a certain power to the content being created.

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

What would be a Marxist perspective of the impact of new and digital media on your chosen case study?
A marxist view of the impact of new and digital media in my chosen industry would be that by modernising politics, it means that it is easier for people to inject others with their own views. The change/confusion in regulations means that it may be easier for people to be explicit with these actions and are less likely to be challenged. Furthermore, it also means that those in power are able to keep their power by brainwashing those without.

How would a pluralist view the impact of new and digital media in your chosen industry?
A pluralistic view of the impact of new and digital media in my chosen industry would be that by modernising politics, social media essentially allows for a greater control that is given to the audiences. It also allows for a greater level of democracy as it essentially allows for a lot more discussion to be created around politics.

Are there any examples of hegemony in your chosen industry or case study?
An example of hegemony in social media and politics would be the increasing use of memes to dillute the seriousness of issues. This essentially helps those in power to maintain their control over those without power by making serious matters laughable as people in society begin to slowly not care about such topics.

Globalisation

How has globalisation impacted on your chosen industry or case study?
Globalisation has essentially resulted in a greater spread of democracy through the rapid expansion of technology which has led to a greater ease of access to information through the internet and social media. It has led to countries and cultures being a lot more closely connected and linked with each other.

In your opinion, has globalisation had a positive or negative impact on your chosen industry and case study? Why?
I think through globalisation and the greater ease of access to information through the internet and social media, has led to a lot of democracy being spread across the globe. It has also led to a rise in liberalism in radicalised dictatorships which has led to protests and political reform. With the case of the Arab spring, young people used their mobile devices and digital websites to spread information about protests until it lead to the downfall of dictatorships.

Can you find examples of cultural imperialism in your case study or industry? (The 'Americanisation' of the world)
I think Western democracy, especally the US election has been sensationalised across the world and this "americanisation" is sought after by other countries around the globe to some extent. It is shown to be overly dramatic and filled with action or intensity which is in stark contrast to the general stigma around politics.

Social media

How has your industry or case study used social media to promote its products?
Especially with the US Election, there has been a huge influx when it comes to using social media. Politicans and people have essentially been sharing articles and stories when it comes to real world politics. A recent popular method of using social media to promote politics is the use of humourous memes. These aim to humanise serious topics and make them laughable, which in a way polarizies politics and essentially dumbs down major serious issues to laughable matters that are no longer taken seriously. In the case of Trump, the use of memes, essentially boosted the conversation around his presidential campaign and in a way helped to get him the presidency.

Provide examples of how your case study has used social media and explain the impact this would have on audiences.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/09/donald-trump-calls-meryl-streep-over-rated-golden-globes-twitter

Actress Meryl Streep used her Golden Globes acceptance speech as an opportunity and platform to condone the actions of Donald Trump especially when he mocked a disabled reporter. Trump then went ahead to write about Meryl Streep on his twitter account calling her "over-rated". This essentially goes to show the President in a very negative light and affects the way audiences perceive politics as a whole.

Is social media an opportunity or a threat to your industry and case study?
I think that new and digital media, especially social media is both an opportunity and a threat to politics. It has gotten a lot of people engaged and social media has been remarkably good at forming a bridge to get people into real world politics. People are essentially more likely to vote if they get involved in politics online. However, it creates new problems as these problems are making politics a lot more polarised, unpredictable and difficult to control. In many ways, Donald Trump is the perfect politcian for a digital age as there is huge influx of overwhelming data, where in these circumstances people tend to turn to the narratives that are the most loud, offensive or most emotive.

Statistics

What statistics can you find to illustrate the impact new and digital media has had on your industry or case study? For example, in news, the UK newspaper industry sold more than 12m copies a day in 2001 but in 2014 it was below 7m.

http://www.journalism.org/2017/04/04/most-say-tensions-between-trump-administration-and-news-media-hinder-access-to-political-news/

“Fake news” was a factor within the 2016 Presidential Election. This poll shows that 83% believe that the relationship between President Trump and the media is unhealthy. Furthermore, 73% believe that this relationship is clouding the view of important political news.

Looking at these statistics, what impact has new/digital media had on institutions in your chosen industry?
A lot of institutions have to work a lot more harder now more than ever, as through the rise of fake news, many people no longer agree with the ideologies of President Trump. This is due to the fact that there was no regulation to fake news prior to its rise, and so institutions are having to work hard to come up with new ways to add a type of editorial control to the internet.

What has the impact been for audiences? These may be positive and negative.
Audiences could essentialy be getting the content they want, but whether it is completely accurate and or even in their best interests is arguable. 

Theories

What media theories can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media theories and explain how they are relevant to your case study. Note: these can be ANY of the theories we have learned over the whole of Year 12 and 13.
Pluralism and Marxism - Fight between who is in power and whether audiences are passive or active. Theres an argument for both sides with relevant evidence. Online activism and "clicktivism" are relatively new.

Two-Step Flow Model – The internet's social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram have a huge amount of elites and celebrities that essentially act as the opinion leaders for a vast audience.

Issues/debates

What media issues and debates can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media issues/debates and explain how they are relevant to your case study.

• Fake news - The online world has little to no editorial control, and during the US Election many sites were being made with the sole purpose of spreading misinformation to make people doubt their ideologies
• Russian hacking - The Russians have been accused of hacking online American websites to influence the campaigns and results in order to make sure that Trump is elected as president due to his lack of experience which makes him easy to manipulate for their own agenda
• Cambridge Analytica - This was a company that used specific algorithms and targeted demographics on social media to promote campaigns but concerns has been raised as it helped Trumps campaign in unfair methods

Wider examples and secondary texts

What other texts or institutions are also relevant to your case study? What would be good secondary texts or examples to use to support the findings of your independent case study?

• Online voting
• Cambridge Analytica
• Use of targeted campaigning online with algorithms
• Psychological targeting of campagins on specific demographics and psychographics

15/03/17 - Fake news inquiry to review social networks' complaints procedures

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/08/fake-news-inquiry-social-networks-complaints-policy-facebook

The article talks about how social media platforms and giants such as Google, Facebook are set to be questioned by the CMS committee as part of an ongoing inquiry and review launched by the BBC. It is suggested by the committee that many of the complaints and reports sent by users are not dealt with properly. Out of 100 images or posts flagged on Facebook, only about 18 of them get removed or even dealt with. This raises concerns amongst people that the social media platforms do not have enough regulations in place to counter fake news.

• Damian Collins, chair of the culture, media and sport (CMS) committee, said Facebook’s failure to remove all the images reported, as part of a BBC investigation this week, was “disturbing” and suggested its complaints systems were inadequate.
• “If you place a press ad, the editor is responsible for the content. The newspaper accepts responsibility for the content it prints. Why shouldn’t these rules apply to social media as well? Facebook is the principal paid-for tool for political communication.”
• “Facebook was in breach of its own community policy,” he said of its decision to remove just 18 of 100 images flagged by a BBC reporter.
• Google and Facebook are expected to be questioned by Collins and the CMS committee as part of its inquiry into fake news this spring.

I personally think this is a very dangerous stage when it comes to the fake news war. It is no doubt that the digital media has been a direct killer of the press and traditional platforms. This entire scenario has nothing to do with fake news at all, traditional platform institution owners are going to try to seize this opportunity to regulate digital media as much as they can in order to further own agenda of boosting their own profits and hopefully creating some kind of boom back into traditional platforms.

15/03/17 - Swedish kids to learn computer coding and how to spot fake news in primary school

https://www.thelocal.se/20170313/swedish-kids-to-learn-computer-coding-and-how-to-spot-fake-news-in-primary-school

The article talks about how the Swedish education minister plans to work on changes to the curriculum for children. These changes will focus on getting kids to be able to use the basics of technology at a much younger age including having greater autonomy when it comes to differentiating fake news. They are taught the importance of using sources in their work which will greatly help to understand the values of reliable news sources. The curriculum will also have programming aspects that will be taught.

• The plan is for kids to be exposed to the nuts and bolts of technology at an earlier age, according to education minister Gustav Fridolin.
• The changes to the curriculum will apply from July 2018 at the latest
• Along with programming, the moves to improve digital competence will also include teaching kids how to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources
• A multitude of sources is a reality of the modern digital age, the education minister added, so it is important to prepare kids to identify trustworthy outlets
• A recent survey by pollsters Ipsos showed that eight out of ten Swedes think so-called fake news is having an impact on their perception of basic facts

Personally, I think its great that children are being taught these valuable skills at a much younger age. It means that by learning about these technologies and skills at a younger age, they are able to develop intellectually a lot quicker than previous generations. It will open up possibilities for greater schools of thoughts and discussions in the future. It also helps to greatly break down ignorant views and ideologies as children at a younger age would have better judgement and critical thinking.

Collective identity and the media

Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

• Who are you - We as people construct an image or an identity that we use to communicate with other people in society.
• I think, therefore I am - Our image or identity is impacted highly on constructions predetermined in terms of; class, religion, gender.
• From citizen to consumer - This idea of creating an image of ourselves was due to the fact that people start focusing more on consumerism rather than as citizens of society.
• The rise of the individual - People soon began defining themselves as individuals, and so wanted to express their "difference"
• Branding and lifestyle - The rise of lifestyle marketing and the importance of brands and the idea of applying brands to personalities or people.
• Who will we be? - Through the internet and particularly the possibilities afforded by the creation of different personalities, we have more control over our public image now than ever before.

List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.

• Converse - A conventional teenage style that is very laid back and chilled out. I feel like this reflects my personality
• Pull and Bear - Sort of stylish, hipster and laid back clothing that is also a reflection of my personality
• Uniqlo - A stark contrast of a style for, it is a bit more smart/casual with cardigans and jumpers rather than jeans and hoodies
• Blizzard - Gaming brand, I have grown up laying their games
• Canon - I enjoy taking photos and making videos, for that I use a lot of Canon equipment

Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?
I definitely agree with the view that the modern media is all about "style over substance". Many people in society now a days constantly think about the latest brand or the latest materialistic item that will make them feel as if they are popular or part of something. This is something that is inherently a part of humans, the want to be a part of something and we desperately try to fill that need through material wealth.

Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.
Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' talks about how we currently live in a society that's 'media-saturated.' This means that whatever image the media creates dominate and also distort the way in which we view events and the world as a whole. This is referred to as hyper-reality in that an alternate reality/realm is being created rather than actually being reported on.

Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?
I believe that my presence on social media is an accurate reflection of who I am as a person. I tend to not care about what other people think of me as I am quite confident in myself as a person so I am not as self conscious as most people would normally be on social media.

What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?
Personally, I am a bit on the fence when it comes to "data mining". Although I do believe it makes life a lot easier for search engines as well as me when I want to be searching for specific things, however I do believe that it causes some issues personally not in terms of privacy but in terms of my online experience. For example, ordering take out for someone in another city will result in you getting more and more targeted adverts for that specific city rather than where you live which can get annoying.