10/05/17 - Free software to reveal how Facebook election posts are targeted

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/free-software-reveal-facebook-election-posts-targeted-chrome-extension

The article talks about how a Google Chrome extension has been made which aims to show audiences, especially those intending to vote in the next General Election, the different narrative agendas in new articles or websites. This is done after the increase in fake news or social media sites being used by different campaigns to promote specific propaganda. It will allow voters to track how the main parties insert political messages into their Facebook feeds calibrated to appeal on the basis of personal information they have already made public online.

• A tool exposing how voters are targeted with tailored propaganda on Facebook has been launched in response to what is likely to be the most extensive social media campaign in general election history.
• The free software, called Who Targets Me?, can be added to a Google Chrome browser and will allow voters to track how the main parties insert political messages into their Facebook feeds calibrated to appeal on the basis of personal information they have already made public online.
• It aims to show who campaigns are targeting, how much the parties are spending and will shed light on whether targeted adverts are crossing the boundary into “fake news”. 
• The Conservatives have rehired Craig Elder and Tom Edmonds, the digital consultants who worked on the 2015 election battle, in which the party spent £1.2m spent on digital campaigning, against Labour’s £160,000. 
• This time, Labour is understood to be ready to spend around £1m.
• “For the good of our democracy, it’s time to throw some light on this dark and unregulated area of campaign spending,” said Sam Jeffers, who has helped to devise the software, which is available as a browser extension.

Personally, I think this is fantastic, it will essentially show how voters are being targetted by online news. This means that audiences will be able to see how they are being influenced in a way. With traditional platforms, editorial content allows influence and particular agendas a lot more obvious but due to the fact that digital media doesn't have this mediation, it makes a lot more easier for fake news to affect audiences. This method of allowing audiences to see how they are being targetted gives the power to the audiences but also making online news free from specific mediation of corporate powers.

10/05/17 - Facebook Live: Zuckerberg adds 3,000 moderators in wake of murders

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/facebook-live-zuckerberg-adds-3000-moderators-murders

The article talks about how Facebook has pledged to increase the amount of content reviewers it has by hiring more moderators. This is an action that comes after a lot of violent and inappropriate content has been shown using Facebook Live which has brought the social media site under a lot of heavy criticism over the past month or so. The social media site has received a lot of negative criticism after it was unable to respond with immediacy to take down offensive or violent content on its Facebook Live feature, with videos of killing staying up for more than 24 hours.

• Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to add 3,000 more content reviewers and invest in tools to help remove objectionable content more quickly
• Over the last few months, footage of shootings, murders, rapes and assaults has been streamed on Facebook.
• Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said: “Keeping people safe is our top priority. We won’t stop until we get it right.”
• Facebook has been criticised for its lack of expediency over the removing of objectionable content.
• Two videos of a Thai man killing his 11-month-old daughter in April were available for 24 hours before being removed, and were viewed over 370,000 times
• In March, a 15-year-old girl from Chicago was sexually assaulted by five or six men or boys, which was broadcast live to Facebook with at least 40 people watching.

Personally, I think it is a good first step towards greater content control of explicit content on Facebook. I believe that greater filtering and content control of explicit content will be good for the social media. Furthermore, an increase in staff members for moderation will mean a much more quicker response from Facebook staff when it comes to reporting. This will then in turn encourage people to report explicit content that breaks the site's rules or even laws, and therefore make a better and safer environment for users.

03/05/17 - Google and Facebook bring in one-fifth of global ad revenue

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/02/google-and-facebook-bring-in-one-fifth-of-global-ad-revenue

The article talks about how Google and Facebook attracted one-fifth of global advertising spending last year, nearly double the figure of five years ago. Combined with Alphabet and Facebook, other digital platforms such as Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon,Twitter generated $132.8bn of internet ad revenues in 2016, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all internet ad spend, and nearly one-quarter of total ad spending.

• Google and Facebook attracted one-fifth of global advertising spending last year, nearly double the figure of five years ago, research shows.
• Twitter is the fastest-growing media owner, increasing ad revenue by 734% between 2012 and 2016.
• Internet-only media companies are grabbing the biggest slices of the online advertising market, while traditional news publishers have fallen far behind and been forced to make cutbacks.
• Google, owned by parent company Alphabet, is by far the biggest media owner in the world and attracted $79.4bn (£61.5bn) in ad revenues in 2016, three times more than the second-largest, Facebook, which pulled in $26.9bn, according to Zenith. The previous year, Alphabet took $67.4bn of ad revenues and Facebook $17.1bn.
• Together, the two companies accounted for nearly 20% of global advertising spending last year, up from 16.3% in 2015 and 10.6% in 2012.

Personally, it is interesting to see Marxism's theory and Pareto's law in action with the top elites controlling the populace. I also think this is a crucial part of the media industry where we will finally see the end of traditional platforms such as television and print. It's been in decline for a long time but has never been finally stopped, so it would be interesting to see how society changes to accommodate the fact that we are so technologically reliant.

03/05/17 - Social media firms must face heavy fines over extremist content – MPs

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/01/social-media-firms-should-be-fined-for-extremist-content-say-mps-google-youtube-facebook

The article talks about the fact that social media firms will be forced to face heavy fines from governments after a report found that a lot of extremist content is not being removed. In Germany, the report points out that they are considering putting up fines of up to 50 million euros on social media companies that are slow to remove illegal content. Some of the material included antisemitic, hate-crime attacks on MPs that had been the subject of a previous committee report. Material encouraging child abuse and sexual images of children was also not removed, despite being reported on by journalists.

• An inquiry by the Commons home affairs committee condemns technology companies for failing to tackle hate speech
• Social media companies are putting profit before safety and should face fines of tens of millions of pounds for failing to remove extremist and hate crime material promptly from their websites
• The inquiry, launched last year following the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox by a far-right gunman, concludes that social media multinationals are more concerned with commercial risks than public protection.
• “One of the world’s largest companies has profited from hatred and has allowed itself to be a platform from which extremists have generated revenue.”
• During its investigation, the committee found instances of terror recruitment videos for banned jihadi and neo-Nazi groups remaining accessible online even after MPs had complained about them.

Personally, I think this is the right way to add a certain aspect of gatekeeping back to the internet. Although, I belive in the freedom of the internet, I do believe that there are some content that are down right immoral and unethical which should not be shared as it can be argued that some of that content is shared purely because of the freedom to be able to. However, I do not agree with extremely restrictive monitoring which would prevent the freedom of the internet, yet I do think some level of content monitoring which takes down outright unethical and extremist content. I also believe that charging companies with heavy heavy fines is exactly what will get their attentions.

26/04/17 - Facebook admits: governments exploited us to spread propaganda

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/facebook-report-government-propaganda

The article focuses on the fact that recently Facebook has admitted to the possibilities of governments using their platform and other social media in order to spread propaganda. The social media giant admitted that they had been exploited and using algorithms to track similar patterns used in the US election, they found over 30,000 French accounts before the French presidential election.

• Company will step up security to clamp down on ‘information operations’
• Facebook suspended 30,000 accounts in France before presidential election
• In a white paper authored by the company’s security team and published on Thursday, the company detailed well-funded and subtle techniques used by nations and other organizations to spread misleading information and falsehoods for geopolitical goals. 
• In its effort to clamp down on information operations, Facebook suspended 30,000 accounts in France before the presidential election.
• The company also explained how it monitored “several situations” that fit the pattern of information operations during the US presidential election.
• At the same time, a separate set of malicious actors created fake Facebook accounts to falsely amplify narratives and themes related to topics exposed in the stolen data.

Personally, this is a huge story. It singlehandedly affirms everyones suspicions that the social media platforms which have little to no editorial control had been used by governments as a way to push specific agendas or propagandas, especially those of the right wing ideologies. This essentially goes to prove the reasons why there had been a sudden surge in right wing propaganda being used over the internet with more and more right wing politicians being elected.

26/04/17 - FaceApp apologises for 'racist' filter that lightens users' skintone

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/faceapp-apologises-for-racist-filter-which-lightens-users-skintone

The article talks about a recent app called FaceApp which uses filters and face recognition software/algorithms to alter an image or camera feed of a person. The app allows users to apply different filters such as the gender swap or the old filter. However, there is one filter called the "hot" filter that when applied made the user's skin appear lighter than that of their natural tone. This sparked some controversy as it implied that the creators believe people with lighter skins to be more attractive than those of darker skin.

• The creator of an app which changes your selfies using artificial intelligence has apologised because its “hot” filter automatically lightened people’s skin.
• Yaroslav Goncharov, the creator and CEO of FaceApp, apologised for the feature, which he said was a side-effect of the “neural network”.
• This is by no means the first time an app which changes people’s faces have been criticised for racial insensitivity.

Personally, I think this is over-sensitization. It can easily be argued that such pre-defined filters would have different aspects of traits to them which could be misinterpreted, although it is perceived as racism, it is most likely just an honest mistake. I do not believe that the creator had any immoral intentions as he intended to make the app for entertainment purposes. I believe we live in a society where every small detail is seen as offensive and needs to be fixed, which could be a result of too much information.

Ignite presentation notes

Ladan

• Focus on Twitter
• US General election, politicians use Twitter
• News agenda, audience discussion
• Interconnected world
• Social media movements #BlackLivesMatter
• Citizen journalism, UGC

Abayomi

• Napster 1999
• Streaming, delivering music without download
• Majority of Spotify users are 18-29 year olds
• "Access rather than own"
• Use of social media marketing appeals to milenial audiences
• 50 million songs streamed in 2015

Amrit

• Instagram bought by Facebook
• 8% of 65+ mostly youth on Instagram
• Cyberbullying is possible
• Huge influence of user generated content
• Mass audience is encouraged to partake in consumerism
• Americanisation, consumerism
• Objectification of men and women

Callum

• New Activision, Vivendi 2007
• Activision - Blizzard, 2008
• User generated content not prominent
• Game market is expected to grow
• Black Ops 3 was advertised on Snapchat
• Marwick (2008) technopanic

Katie

• Traditional distribution has changed for documentaries
• Binge watching culture
• YouTube is damaging to the documentary genre
• Social media is used consistently, identification
• Docu-dramas appeal to a larger audience
• Added depth to documentaries which makes it relatable and sensationalises the topic

Harkiran

• Lionsgate was originally Cineplex
• Hunger Games was produced and distributed by Lionsgate
• Cinema audience is older generation
• Move to online, on demand services
• 2014 had a 5.1% decrease of cinema goers
• On demand offers a modern distribution model

Khadijah

• Audiences for Netflix are mostly mainstreamers
• It wasn't launched in the UK until later
• Very branded presence
• Creating original content
• Focusing on current issues and debates
• Promotion through social media

John

• Apple Music is available in more than 100 countries
• Unsigned artists can sell their work to iTunes
• Streaming has created a boost in the music industry after years of decline
• On demand music rose to 76%
• The global music industry has grown