NDM 45

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/16/buzzfeed-public-chat-messaging-app-viber

BuzzFeed launches its own 'public chat' channel in messaging app Viber

• Online news site BuzzFeed’s initial growth may have been fuelled by social networks Facebook and Twitter
• BuzzFeed has launched a “public chat” channel within the app

• WeChat and Viber may soon be joined by another high-profile messaging app as a partner for BuzzFeed.

Online news site BuzzFeed’s initial growth may have been fuelled by social networks Facebook and Twitter, but its next frontier is likely to be messaging apps like its latest partner, Viber. BuzzFeed has launched a “public chat” channel within the app, which is owned by Japanese internet giant Rakuten, and which has more than 209 million monthly active users. WeChat and Viber may soon be joined by another high-profile messaging app as a partner for BuzzFeed. In November, it was named as one of the media companies in talks with photo and video messaging app Snapchat about serving stories to a new section of its app called Discover.

NDM 43

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/15/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-charlie-hebdo
Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook censorship despite Charlie Hebdo support

• Paris attack was to support freedom of expression but sees ‘tricky calculus’ in countries where that’s restricted
• It wasn’t just a terrorist attack about just trying to do some damage and make people afraid and hurt people. 
• This was specifically about people’s freedom of expression and ability to say what they want,” said Zuckerberg.

In this article it outlines that mark zuckerburg has recently commended the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris due to freedom of speech issues yet his won website actively censors content to its liking. The promise of new and digital media being an egalitarian and unbiased platform is being diminished by many large incumbent firms such as Facebook that were present at its dawn and are slowly but surely becoming big powers in influencing the content and opinion online as highlighted by the above article.

This article expresses clear marxism and porteo’s law in action as the firms move from the 80% to the 20% and start to impose and enforce what they believe is right and true and do not allow the people to create their own opinion as they recognise they have a large influence in constructing other opinions.

NDM 42

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/dec/05/the-sun-speak-more-people-russell-brand

Does the Sun really speak to more people than Russell Brand?

• The Sun sells 1.9m newspapers a day, according to the latest ABC figures from November.
• This is considerably more than the 48,000 copies Brand’s latest book, Revolution, had sold up to 22 November, according to Nielsen.
• He has 8.6 million Twitter followers
• 1.2 million more Facebook followers.

The Sun has stepped up its attacks on Russell Brand in recent days but in many ways the comedian is now much more influential than the paper. The Sun newspaper has run two front pages this week attacking comedian and political activist Russell Brand, but is it really controlling the public debate any more?
 

I think this paper’s reach on the majority of the world’s favourite social media sites. He has 8.6 million Twitter followers, which is 13 times more than the Sun. He also has 1.2 million more Facebook followers.

NDM 41

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/31/spain-newspaper-google-tax
Spain moves to protect domestic media with new 'Google tax'

• Failure to pay up can lead to a fine of up to €600,000.
• The “Google tax” isn’t the only component of Spain’s law
• That requirement doesn’t require copyright holders to go through a judge before demanding links be removed

Spain moves to protect domestic media with new 'Google tax':content aggregates such as Google News, in an effort to protect its print media industry." The "Google Tax" means that whenever an online service posts a link to a news article. That service is required to pay a fee to the organisation representing Spanish newspapers. Failure to pay could mean a fee of up to €600,000.

I think this is just another form of censorship. Because who would risk €600,000 to post a news article

NDM 40

http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2009/sep/18/oxford-social-media-convention-2009-journalism-blogs
How social networking is changing journalism

• Impact of social media was overestimated in the short term and underestimated in long term
• 8% of the Daily Telegraph web traffic comes from social media. 
• social media has developed in the financial sphere

A conference in Oxford explores the interaction between the internet and the news industry. Richard Sambrook, the director of the BBC Global News Division, said that the "impact of social media was overestimated in the short term and underestimated in long term". He said mainstream media are adopting social media especially with blogging and twitter, but nobody discusses the effects on the long term. Sambrook thinks that organisations don't own the news any more. "There is a transformation for the journalist from being the gatekeeper of information to sharing it in a public space", he added that citizen journalism, therefore, is something that has to be taken in account.

I agree with Sambrook with the short/long term. I think that platforms such as Twitter and blogging are being used more than ever and it's providing more and more opportunities for citizen journalism. It can be argued that this will be the cause for less journalism, but Sambrook was optimistic in the fact that "Journalism will stay". He thinks that journalism adds to what is essentially just information: "Journalism needs discipline, analysis, explanation and context, he pointed out, and therefore for him it is still a profession. The value that gets added with journalism is judgement, analysis and explanation - and that makes the difference."

NDM 39

http://uk.pcmag.com/opinion/39192/opinion/windows-10-ambitious-but-realistic
Windows 10: Ambitious But Realistic

• The operating system is still in progress
• Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year for users of Windows 7, Windows 8
• Microsoft would continue to provide updates "for the supported lifetime of the device,

As Microsoft unveiled the details of Windows 10 on Wednesday, I heard company executives explaining how it will work on a wide range of devices from desktops and laptops to tablets and phone, from an 84-inch conference room device called Surface Hub to an augmented reality headset called HoloLens. The sheer number of different kinds of devices that are meant to run this operating system and work with it seamlessly seems a huge undertaking.

I think the release of windows 10 is going to be very successful, current 95% of the PC industry is dominated by Microsoft 4% Macintosh and the rest other OS systems like Linux etc.. Having this big update in the fashion of holding a keynote to build the hype just like its predecessor Apple does

questions

1. How did the language and selection of images in the coverage create a particular representation of young people?
Negative representation of the youth and teenagers in particular due to the incorporated Mise-en-scene being a recall to that of action films and unlined reality which may have over exaggerated the riots to create an even more inaccurate representation of young people

2. Why does David Buckingham mention Owen Jones and his work Chavs: the demonisation of the working class? 

The survey discovered that 40% of articles that included/mentioned young people primarily focused on violence and not their positive achievements. Also, 71% of the overall articles presented them in a negative manner.

3. What is the typical representation of young people – and teenage boys in particular? What did the 2005 IPSOS/MORI survey find?

How can Stanley Cohen’s work on Moral Panic be linked to the coverage of the riots?The theory of moral panic can be applied as the coverage of the riots constructed an overall consensus of fear and panic for young people whist it was occurring which undoubtedly has stayed with many individuals.

4. What elements of the media and popular culture were blamed for the riots?

Majority of the media culture is to blame because of rap artists, violent video-games and reality T.V.

5. How was social media blamed for the riots? What was interesting about the discussion of social media when compared to the Arab Spring in 2011?

Majority of the media culture is to blame because of rap artists, violent video-games and reality T.V.

6. The riots generated a huge amount of comment and opinion - both in mainstream and social media. How can the two-step flow theory be linked to the coverage of the riots? 

Alternatively, how might media scholars like Henry Jenkins view the 'tsunami' of blogs, forums and social media comments? Do you agree that this shows the democratisation of the media?The two step-floe theory can be linked as 'twitter famous' individuals became opinion leaders on which many of their follower relied on their opinion to help construct their own.

7. What were the right-wing responses to the causes of the riots?

The two step-flow theory can be linked as celebrities became opinion leaders on which many of their follower relied on their opinion to create their views.

8.What were the left-wing responses to the causes of the riots?

The Left wing blamed society and its social class and inequality factors

9. What are your OWN views on the main causes of the riots?

The right wing response was negative as they were compared to beasts and dogs that could not be controlled and needed to be put on 'leashes'.

10. How can capitalism be blamed for the riots? What media theory (from our new/digital media unit) can this be linked to?

11. Were people involved in the riots given a voice in the media to explain their participation?

I believe the riots took place due to bias representation of the youth in the media and the cut of funds that kept teenagers busy in long uneventful periods.

12. In the Guardian website's investigation into the causes of the riots, they did interview rioters themselves. Read this Guardian article from their Reading the Riots academic research project - what causes are outlined by those involved in the disturbances?

13. What is your own opinion on the riots? Do you have sympathy with those involved or do you believe strong prison sentences are the right approach to prevent such events happening in future?

NDM Articles

1. 12/09/2014 - iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus have had record breaking sale figures
2. 13/09/2014 - ISIS release video showing execution of British hostage
3. 15/09/2014 - Minecraft sold: Microsoft buys Mojang for $2.5bn
4. 17/09/2014 - Sony Turnaround Effort Falters, Expects $2.15 Billion Yearly Loss
5. 18/09/2014 - iOS 8 causes bandwidth spikes nationwide, despite slow uptake
6. 21/09/2014 - Labour minimum wage promise would see £8 per hour rate by 2020
7. 22/09/2014 - Traffic halted on M25 as 13 'illegal immigrants' flee lorry
8. 22/09/2014 - Microsoft delays Chinese launch on Xbox one consoles
9. 28/09/2014 - Sam Pepper accused of sexual assault
10. 29/09/2014 - Islamic State crisis: Iraq air strikes 'halt IS advance'
11. 03/10/2014 - Celebrity victims of naked photo hack join together to sue Google $100M
12. 06/10/2014 - Microsoft gets $1bn in Android royalties from Samsung

13. 06/10/2014 - Revenge pornography
14. 13/10/2014 - Apple's iPhone-based 'Pay' launches this week
15. 02/01/2012 - Snapchat Hack
16. 16/10/2014 - Netflix price increases hurt subscriber growth
17. 20/10/2014 - Google Search Engine
18. 20/10/2014 - Social Networking sites automatically' hand over Isis terrorists' data
19. 24/10/2014 - Facebook will now let you post anonymously
20. 03/11/2014 - Facebook sets up 'dark web' link to access network via Tor
21. 10/11/2014 - ITV under pressure to axe Dapper Laughs show over misogyny claims
22. 14/11/2014 - Twitter's debt assigned 'junk' status
23. 14/11/2014 - Phone and web data plan under fire for interfering with privacy
24. 17/11/2014 - Google Project Loon
25. 17/11/2014 - YouTube's Subscription Music Service
26. 21/11/2014 - Now e-cigarettes can give you malware
27. 08/12/2014 - UK set to be first country in which more than half of ad spend goes digital
28. 08/12/2014 - French journalism school executive accused of plagiarism
29. 08/12/2014 - YouTubers ads for Oreo banned for not making clear purpose of videos
30. 05/01/2014 - North Korea responds with fury to US sanctions over Sony hack
31. 25/12/2014 - Lizard Squad DDOS Sony Microsoft
32. 05/01/2014 - Apple faces lawsuit over storage space on iPhones and iPads
33. 05/01/2014 - Study claims more than 80% of 'dark net' traffic is to child abuse sites
34. 05/01/2014 - Driverless cars to be tested in UK
35. 05/01/2015 - Microsoft Nokia 215
36. 05/01/2015 - Mark Zuckerberg starts online book club, sells out Amazon
37. 05/01/2015 - Streaming: the future of the music industry, or its nightmare?
38. 05/01/2015 - Superman ‘ecstasy’ pill deaths are result of ‘illogical and punitive drugs policy’

NDM 38

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/05/superman-ecstasy-pill-death-result-uk-illogical-punitive-drugs-policy
Superman ‘ecstasy’ pill deaths are result of ‘illogical and punitive drugs policy’

• Seizure of 400 pills on Sunday night
• A man has been charged and two men have been bailed after arrests made as part of the investigation into the deaths
• Resulting in death of 4 men

The deaths of four men who had taken pills they thought were ecstasy are the result of the government’s “illogical and punitive drug policy”, a former drugs tsar has said. Dr David Nutt, who advised the last government on drugs policy until 2009, said that current policy had targeted the production and sale of MDMA only to see it substituted by a more toxic substance. MDMA is the chemical name for ecstasy, but the pills bearing a Superman emblem that have been linked to four recent deaths – three in Suffolk and one in Telford – are believed to have been made with a high concentration of the chemical PMMA.

NDM 37

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/02/streaming-music-industry-apple-google

Streaming: the future of the music industry, or its nightmare?

• Britons streamed 14.8bn tracks last year. Almost double the 7.5bn of 2013

According to the music business body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Britons streamed 14.8bn tracks last year, almost double the 7.5bn of 2013, as internet connectivity improves and becomes pervasive. 

Learner Response

LR (do this on a blog posting, with the feedback I've given you)...

• Rewrite the conclusion, to include a proper (your own) conclusion, and more extended paragraphs –make sure you give specific, concrete examples of each point you make

The development of new/digital media has made the audience both more powerful in terms of consumption and production, in the current digital era new and digital media has revolutionised the world, along with the internet being the most important medium of the twentieth century. This essay will be covering both sides of the argument.

A Marxist perspective would argue that the information revolution has done little to benefit audiences or to subvert the established power structures in society. Far from being a great leveller (Krotoski, 2012) as many have claimed, it has merely helped to reinforce the status quo by promoting dominant ideologies. The most popular news website in the UK by a considerable margin is the ‘Mail Online’, which receives more than 8 million hits every month and is continuing to expand rapidly – with forecasts that it will make £100 million or more in digital revenues in the next three years. Similar to its tabloid print edition, the website takes a Conservative, right-wing perspective on key issues around gender, sexuality and race and audiences appear to passively accept what the Marxist theorist, Gramsci, called a hegemonic view. When one of their chief columnists, Jan Moir, wrote a homophobic article about the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 there were Twitter and Facebook protests but, ultimately, they did not change the editorial direction of the gatekeepers controlling the newspaper.

Conclusion: On the other hand Marxists also believed in print and analog broadcast models to be dying media, such as those of television and radio. In the past years we've seen a rapid transformation where the media has changed the way we as consumer take in our media via digital platforms. The advancement of technology has led to old media being published online through publication websites, For example: Newspaper articles and magazine are uploaded onto the Suns Website where people how have subscribed can access all the content.

NDM 36

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/mark-zuckerberg-starts-online-book-club-sells-out-amazon-9958091.html
Mark Zuckerberg starts online book club, sells out Amazon

• The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year
• The page has already received over 122,000 likes
• Moises Naim’s The End of Power - was out of stock on Amazon by Sunday night.

The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year, and to participate in literary discussions on his 'A Year of Books' Facebook page.

NDM 35

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864612/microsoft-still-believes-in-feature-phones-launches-29-nokia-215.html
Microsoft still believes in feature phones, launches $29 Nokia 215

• The screen measures 2.4 inches and the camera has a 0.3-megapixel resolution.
• Uses the Series 30+ operating system and has Bing Search and an Opera Mini Browser
• Maximum download speed of only 236.8kbps using Edge
• $29 price tag
• Phone’s stand-by time of up to 29 days

Launching a feature phone at the beginning of 2015 may seem strange, but Microsoft is convinced there is still a market for the Nokia 215 as a second phone and in parts of the world were electricity is scarce and budgets are small. Global mobile phone shipments increased to 459.5 million during the third quarter, including about 140 million feature phones.

I think that the mobile phone market has alot of potential smartphones are increasingly having more problems, battery life, memory, privacy. Whereas pior to smartphones life was so much easier with mobile phones providing you with the essentials you need. Can see people going back to mobile phones because of these problems I myself would like to move back to a mobile phone which has a long battery life, current smartphone only lasts afew hours before the battery drains. Maybe companys need to start investing in ways to tackle the battery problem like other companies are currently doing with wireless charging that can charge 10 times faster than a normal plug. 

NDM 34

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/01/driverless-cars-tested-uk-bristol-coventry-milton-keynes-greenwich
Driverless cars to be tested in UK

• Government funding of £19m will allow three separate trials to take place
• We’re looking to start our first trial with automated shuttles with members of the public in May
• Arup is to lead this project with Jaguar Land Rover and Ford contributing
• The trials in Milton Keynes and Coventry will be run by a consortium named UK Autodrive

Driverless cars are to be tested in all those locations in trials that will put the UK at the forefront of automated vehicle technology. Government funding of £19m will allow three separate trials to take place: one in Bristol, one in Greenwich and one split between Coventry and Milton Keynes. The trials, lasting from 18 to 36 months, will test different aspects of self-driving technology. All will take place away from public roads, though each is aimed at making automated vehicles on Britain’s roads a reality. The trials will use semi-autonomous cars that can drive themselves for periods of the time with a human driver behind the wheel

I dont think driverless cars have been mastered yet, new technology is always arising and in a few years time we will have better technology to test and create driverless cars. Currently Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford and Arup are participating in the trials that will be carried out in the UK over milton Keynes and Coventry 

NDM 33

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/31/dark-web-traffic-child-abuse-sites
Study claims more than 80% of 'dark net' traffic is to child abuse sites

• More than 80% of dark net internet traffic is generated by visits to websites offering child-abuse material
• Sites with paedophile material represent just 2% of the estimated 45,000 hidden services websites online at any one time
• Owen also claimed that drug-related sites like Silk Road and Agora accounted for 24% of hidden service sites but 5% of overall traffic

More than 80% of so-called “dark net” internet traffic is generated by visits to websites offering child-abuse material, according to a study of Tor “hidden services” websites conducted at the University of Portsmouth. Researcher Dr Gareth Owen analysed traffic to sites using Tor’s technology to hide their addresses from search engines over a six-month period, in an attempt to understand what kind of sites were most popular. The study focuses on websites using Tor’s technology to hide themselves, rather than the surfing habits of individual internet users using Tor’s anonymising features. The latter are not spending 84% of their time visiting child-abuse websites.

The 'dark web' a anomalous platform for criminals to buy and sell drugs, upload child pornography, sell their services for a hitman has reports that upto 80% of traffic monitored has come from visiting the child pornography section. Just shows how serious the dark web is and the government needs to invest more money in trying to tackle a way to track users down who use any of the dark webs services.

NDM 32

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/02/apple-lawsuit-storage-space-iphones-ipad-ios8-software-advertised-capacity
Apple faces lawsuit over storage space on iPhones and iPads

• Firm failed to tell consumers that iOS 8 software could take up as much as 23.1% 
• People who bought the law suit are seeking $5m (£3.3m) in damages and a trial by jury
• The defendant fails to disclose to consumers that as much as 23.1% of the advertised storage capacity of the devices will be consumed by iOS 8

Following complaints about the large amount of storage that Apple’s latest software iOS 8 takes up on its iPhones and iPads, the US tech firm is being sued for the alleged misrepresentation of the storage capacity of the devices. The suit is being brought on behalf of two Miami residents, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, who claim to have bought iPhones and iPads in the last year advertised with 16GB of storage but providing less to the user.

Many users are effected by this issues and has damaged apples public image. It is standard practice for consumer electronics manufacturers to advertise the total storage capacity of their devices without disclosing the amount taken up by the pre-loaded software.

NDM 31

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/25/playstation-xbox-down-lizard-squad-hack-christmas
PlayStation and Xbox facing issues after Christmas Day attack

• PSN Service was disrupted for a total of 6 days but only 4 days for Xbox Live
• DDOS - Disrupted Denial of Service sends packets of requests to the main server which then gets confused and crashes leaving users without the ability to access some features.
• Lizard Squad accepted mega uploads offer for 300,000 encrypted vouchers

Lizard Squad began on Wednesday by blasting Xbox Live offline with a DDoS attack that bombarded Microsoft’s servers with the digital equivalent of shrapnel until they ground to a halt. Then it did the same to Sony’s PlayStation Network.

I was personally effected by the actions lizard squad carried out but I do support the message they're trying to get across that big corporations don't invest money back into their services even though users have to subscribe to use the online features. Lizard Squad is known for DDOS attacks, a process that overloads the system until it shuts down. It has attacked several targets in the past including Twitch, EA Games, Destiny and World of Warcraft. This isn't the first cyber-attack that Sony had to face. Last month, Sony was attacked and it resulted to the dissemination of unreleased movies and celebrity personal information over the Internet. 

NDM 30

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/north-korea-fury-us-sanctions-sony
North Korea responds with fury to US sanctions over Sony hack

• US sanctioned 10 North Korean government officials and three organisations
• The US has described the sanctions as only the first part of its response
• It was the first time the US has imposed sanctions on another nation in direct retaliation for hacking an American company
• The cyber-attack on Sony’s computers led to the distribution over the internet of information on employees and unreleased films, as well as embarrassing in-house emails

North Korea has furiously denounced the United States for imposing sanctions in retaliation for the Pyongyang regime’s alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. North Korea’s foreign ministry reiterated that it did not have any role in the breach of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files and accused the US of “groundlessly” stirring up hostility towards Pyongyang. He said the new sanctions would not weaken the country’s 1.2 million-strong military.

I think that North Korea were behind the attacks as they previously praised the hacks on Sony as a 'righteous deed' and described The Interview a comedy about the assassination of the North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un as an 'act of war'. Although the FBI has officially declared North Korea responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures, a number of private security specialists have expressed doubt that the country was involved.