Weekly News Story - week 4

http://mobile.uk.msn.com/device/news/Blog.aspx?cp-documentid=250299320

The guardian news paper is thinking to stop producing their print newspaper.

I think that this is pretty interesting because this news institution is thinking about changing what has made them successful and ultimately where they are today. This is showing how news firms are moving towards the e-media platform, and moving away from the declining print industry. This is once again showing how the print industry is declining but demand for news isn't declining but the way the audience are consuming it are changing and this shows sort of how audiences have a lot of power over institutions. I think that more print firms are going to move this way not right now but in 3-4 years time I think that newspapers with pretty much die out, to much uproar, and it will be all online, however this will require wi-fi underground.

I think I should be getting credits for this work. Even though I don't want them and think they dont have much use, I still think I deserve some. Good day.

The rise and rise of UGC

Rodney King - Beaten and tasered after a high speed chase by police officers.
Six days of riots followed in LA. Sparked interest in racial profiling and attitudes of police towards African Americans.
George Holiday shot it on his video camera.

With improvements in technology citizen journalists are becoming more common. Gives citizens powers to make and break news. Most news organisations now a way to interact with citizen journalists through many different sources for example, a forum website, chatrooms or message boards.

The foundation and building blocks of social networking websites are UGC.

When there are natural disasters happening and the television crews cant get in the often rely on the citizen journalists to provide insights, footage and something to report on. It is often more hard-hitting and emotional than professionally shot news footage because it provides a true insight into the happenings.

Citizen journalists have been useful during disasters such as the Asian Tusnami in 2004 and the July bombings in London 2005.

People have questioned that when citizen journalists are helping to produce news and broadcast dangerous situations are they endangering themselves and are the producers of the news show endangering them further by showing their tweets and footage that they are sending out.

Gate keepers are still there in the mainstream news broadcasting as they decide what makes major news


1)     The term citizen journalist refers to normal civilians of the community that have no background in journalism, contributing to main stream news. This can be through emailing news, or filming footage for example.
2)     One of the first examples of citizen journalism is the Rodney King situation that I have already talked about previously in the article.
3)      News organisations offer potential citizen journalists oppourtunites to provide them with news stories, through things like fourms, website, comments page, blog or twitter.
4)      Obviously there are going to be differences between proffresionaly shot footage and footage from citizen journalists. For example citizen footage is going to be of a lower quality in terms of the picture, but the footage with have a raw feel to it, have edge and potentially carry a better message of how bad a situation is, because of the rawness of the footage.
5)     A gatekeeper is a person or organisation that decides what gets put in or on the mainstream news, in this case. They decide what we see, in what order and almost how we should feel about it, they do this by choosing the words they say carefully and also the mise-en-scene.
6)     The role of gatekeepers has changed because the internet has emerged significantly allowing people to become their own producer and broadcast their own messages without the need of gatekeepers. The internet allows them to reach a wide target audience without the need for gatekeepers.
7)    Journalists feel that there wont be as much demand for them in the future because citizen journalists are producing as interesting pieces that organisations are using as them, the professionals  This wil have a negative effect on the journalism industry and in the end see them run out of business.

Weekly Media Story - Week 3

The k-pop hit has officially gone worldwide! The crazy song and dance have made it to no.1 in numerous countries, including the billboard hot 100 no. 1 spot. It has now cracked the youtube all time top 10 viewed video. Gangum style video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0&safe=active

Me personally I think that it is kind of stupid having a no.1 song in our country that the majority of people cant and dont understand but it is worlwide, and brings a smile to people all the world around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doDLNrezvjc&safe=active

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-LST3-xCdY&safe=active

Big 10 Companies

Top 10 media companies

1) General Eletrics - Produce tons of different media products, for example dvd players, cd players, computers and other things. I looked into it and didnt find out much else about what GE do regarding the media.

2) Apple - Hardware and software manufacturer that specialise in the tech industry. Reccently been announced as the worlds weathliest company. Unlike most tech companies they produce both the software and hardware for their products, they have produced worlwide favourite products such as the macbook, ipod and the phone that has changed the world iPhone.

3) Walt Disney - A company that produces films, television shows and pretty much everything in between. Also have theme parks in Orlando, Paris, Hong Kong and California. Started off by Walt Disney. One of the biggest and well recognised film studios in hollywood. Own the sports channel ESPN, A+E networks and ABC family.

4) Comcast - A cable operator, home internet service provider and has significant holding in television channels such as: E! entertainment television, NBC sports network, The Golf Channel, Style Network, and G4. Recently bought a major stake in media conglomerate NBC universal. Have been given poor results in customer surveys about their service.

5) Amazon - Online store that sells pretty much anything. Available in most countries. Also own the media information company imbd and the film and television streaming service LoveFilm. Not to forget they have also released their own e-book, and tablet.

6) News Corp - Rupret Murdoch's media empire. A media conglomerate, made up of many littler companies which include: fox news, the wall street journal, 20th century fox, the sun, the times, the sunday times, ITV, and bSkyb. Worlds 2nd biggest media company based on revenue in 2011

7) Google - The worlds most visited search engine. They have also expanded into email services, an internet browser, social networking website, phone, and tablet. They also own the worldwide video sensation site, youtube, and also this little bundle of joy that I'm using to complete my homework, blogger.

8) Time Warner Cable - US baseed cable television provider.

9) CBS - A major American commercial broadcaster.

10) Viacom - Produces a vast number of shows and networks, which include: BET networks, MTV networks, Paramount pictures. Has around roughly 170 media networks, reaching more than 600 million subscribers around the world.

Amazon Case Study

Amazon

Who owns the site?

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, who is also the chairman, president and CEO of the company. So its safe to say that he owns the company. 

Do they have any traditional media businesses? 

They do have a modern day media business, that in a couple of years might be seen as traditional. They own the movie, television and game renting and streaming company Lovefilm. Lovefilm is a UK based company which was founded in 2002 and then bought by Amazon fully in 2011. Lovefilm is available on smart televisions, game consoles, and computers. It reaches out to 2million customers. Has become one of the leading dvd rental services in the Uk and Europe through growth and also through acquisitions of companies. Revenue is generated from users paying for subscriptions, and also advertising space.  

Amazon also owns the internet website Imdb, which is the wikipedia for everything media based. It was launched in 1990 and was bought by amazon in 1998. As of August 22nd, IMDb had 2,280,354 films and 4, 780, 533 personalities in their databased. Revenue is raised from advertising . 

What other internet sites do they own?

They own the websites lovefilm and IMDb as preciously stated. They also own the other sites, in the screenshot below. 

What is its revenue? 

Amazon's current revenue is $48.07 billion (US dollars). Which is an increase from the previous year. These financial figures are correct as of the financial year 2011. 

What is its overall worth ?

It depends on what you want to see as the worth of the company, whether its the amount of profit it makes, or the value of its assets. Amazons assets total to $25.27 billion (US dollars). These financial figures are correct as of the 2011 financial year.

Five key facts about the institution. 

• Started out as just an online book store. 
• Sometimes have different prices for the same product 
• Came out with their own video on demand service - amazon unbox
• Have expanded into film production, producing just 1 film. 

Quotes

If you look at our corporate culture, we've always had a customer obsession and we've always been pioneering. - Jeff Bezos

We were hoping to build a small profitable company. And of course, what we've done is made a large, unprofitable company. - Jeff Bezos

Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional business is the suicide of borders and corresponding rise of Amazon. - Marc Andreessen

Corporate Homepage information 

Amazon info-graphic

Media Stories - Week 1

One of the big stories this past week that affects me is one of the biggest dates in the UK gaming society. The FIFA 13 release date. FIFA 13 is released today in the UK but earlier in the week in America. I found an article about the sales figures in America which shows the global reach of the game, the gaming world and modern technology.
http://www.gaming-age.com/2012/09/fifa-soccer-13-sales-up-42-in-north-america/
This is just in North America. Imagine when the sales figures get released in the UK. Now that would be amazing figures.

On a health related note about gaming, do games like FIFA that are football simulation games, have negative earth affect on the users because they aren't outside playing but inside playing the game without getting any exercise.

Gaming is a huge part of the new media age. Release dates for big title games like FIFA often cause a midnight frenzy to get the game first. Play it first. And be first.

Media Story - Week 2

American news station fox news caused an uproar this past week when they showed live on their station a man committing suicide. The channel was covering a high speed chase, the man left the car to try and flee away from police by feet. Not to soon after leaving the car  he pulled out a gun on himself and shot himself in the head. As soon as he shoots himself the news anchor started shouting at his co-workers to get the images off immediately because they are disturbing and could get the network into trouble. The american people are justifiably upset by it. I have provided a link to the video but if you are grossed out by these kind of things then I advise that you dont watch the clip.


http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhU0AE417D34ZH84Bk

Shortly after the anchor of the news show apologised. The video of the apology is below this and an article describing the whole event is also with it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/28/161972855/fox-news-smith-apologizes-after-man-commits-suicide-on-air

Virtual Revolution - Notes

4 part BBC series
Aired in 2010

Sir Tim Berners Lee
- Founder of the world wide web
- Takes no financial credit for founding the internet.
- Took part in the Olympic games opening ceremony.
- Knighted in 2004 by the queen
- Was given an honorary doctorate of science degree from Harvard University.

At any 1 given time there are 2,000,000,000 people online at the same time. About 1/3 of the planet
Some people use the internet to challenge authorises but some governments use it to spy on their people.

Bill Gates: "The internet is how people communicate"
Bill Gates
- Founder of Microsoft, the worlds largest computer software manufacturer.
- Worlds wealthiest person from 1995 - 2009.
- Dropped out of Harvard University.
- One of the main contributors as to where the internet is today.
- Created internet explorer, one of the first internet browsers

Internet creates a digitial divide. The digital haves/have nots.
So the people that dont use the internet are left out whilst the other people who dont have internet are left out.

Al Gore former US vice President described the internet as an "empowering tool" and as "exciting and revolutionary".

1/4 of the planet use the internet regularly.

35 million at any time on the British Isles
£1,000,000,000 a week online in the UK alone.
5Million people join dating websites a month
18 million blogs in the UK
40% of men admit to watching online porn
87% of UK internet users use YouTube
28% of UK internet users have access to super fast broadband ( 8+ MB per minute)
46% have access to speeds between 2MB and 8MB
94% of homes in the UK have broadband penetration at home.

The UK internet economy is expected to grow 10% per annum to £174billion or as much as £228billion.
The UK internet economy is worth £100billion, 7.2% of UK GDP.
1 in 5 UK internet users uses the internet to either sell a good or service and make it a business.