Weekly Media Story 16

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/30/asda-christmas-ad

Asda's Christmas advert received 620 complaints, from angry viewers. The complaints were dismissed by the ASA (advertising standards agency) as it was judged to not reinforce harmful stereotypes  but to represent real life, that women do most of the work in Christmas preparation.
The advert is a success because 8/10 mothers were able to identify with the advert.

When I initially watched the advert I didn't see anything wrong with it. I can see where the people complaining are coming from. You are only shown the female protagonist in the home, not in a position of power, or of authority, and can be seen as an outdated stereotype. The fact that 8/10 mothers were able to identify with the female protagonist says that this isn't an outdated view.

I think that the ASA were correct not to bad this commercial, due mainly to the fact that so many mothers were able to identify with the advert. Does it really matter if its banned though? They aren't going to air it again now that Christmas 2012 is gone, and continuing with this process is only getting it more and more views, whereas leaving it alone would of killed the video after Christmas because it is seasonal advertising. 

Message behind Black Mirror: The National Anthem

I think the message behind this satirical text is that new and digital media can be the driving force behind the loss of common sense and how we truly leave in the information age. Messages spread quickly in the viral community, through social networking websites such as twitter. When it would of taken traditional media institutions at least 24 hours to get the news story out, new and digital media now allows for instant information, its easily accessible and easily shareable from laptops, tablets to smartphones.
The message of the show is to show us how new and digital media could be our destruction, that just because a piece of UGC is used in the wrong way, the prime minster goes along with it. 25 years ago nothing like this could happen becuase there wasnt the capabilites, but now if we dont use common sense when using these services and products, it will destroy us because there are people with bad values and ideologies, who want to do bad for the world, and use the internet for it. They can do these things because on the internet there is a lack of censorship. 

Cover Work

Will the internet end up controlled by big business and politicians?

Some governements around the world are trying to start monitoring and controlling the internet. They use instagram as an example of how free services are trying to monatize their services. 

I think that the internet should be a free open source that isnt controlled by any one or anything as that is the internet in its best form.

Why power has two meanings on the internet

The article is stating that the internet is in the power of a few, just like how it is in the real world. They have the majority of the power, at 80% and the rest has 20% of the power. This is like an oligopoly. 

I agree, the major players in the e-media field, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter do have the majority of internet traffic, and also links on the internet. The majority of internet users have used these online services at least once. 

Lessons the tech world learned in 2012

The article looks at different cases of news in 2012, to show how things have changed drastically in just 1 year. 

The link to the fourth article isnt working properly for me. 

Why US newspaper publishers favour paywalls

11 of the biggest 20 selling newspapers in America are starting to charge for content. Some people think that the newspapers could generate more revenue from advertisers if they didnt have a paywall as their would be more traffic. 

Cover Work

The Daily closes shop: 

The article states that one of the main reasons for the news app getting shut down was because of the pay wall that was mandatory for anyone who wanted to use the app. The content wasn't worthy of the subscription fee, especially as the content that they were charging for was easily available elsewhere for free. The app was described as not unique enough. Also enough wasn't spent on marketing to get the amount of subscriptions needed to make the news app sustainable. 

I think that it if the same information is avaliable elsewhere for free, oppossed to having to pay for it people will tend to go to the free option. So if the quality of the stories isn't up to scratch then people will go elsewhere, and that is what happened with Murdoch's app. I think it is the right decision to close down the app, but there has to be questions asked from within the company about the research gone into this venture.

Print in 2013:

2013 is anticipated as being another tough year for the print platform, due to steep declines in advertising revenue. A 9% decrease in advertising revenue is estimated in 2013 when compared to 2012. There are going to be much needed cuts in both News International and the Guardian as they seek to become/remain profitable. Whilst there are cuts there will also be investments trying to look into new areas of the market which can be exploited. The paywall is likely to remain for the online content for News International, but they will look at trying to start 7 day production of newspapers. One of the only newspapers to have growth recently is the London Evening Standard, which recently went free and is booming. A key to newspapers success with be how they expand into the tablet market, and how they manage to monazite it. 

They fall in advertising revenue is to be expected when it comes to the print platform due to decreased numbers of readership, due to the free and easily accessible online content. I think it is right that there should be cuts, because thats whats needed, but there still needs to be money spent on innovation because thats what is likely to see the print platform survive. Going free is a viable option, because of the success that the London evening standard has had. 

BBC and ITV

Both companies have had to pay damages as well as Lord McAlpine's legal fees due to the false allegations that they said regarding sex abuse claims. Hes also suing some other people and the companys are in trouble. 

They should have to pay him for what they've done wrong and they should also have something else done to them. For example they should have to check their stories or something along those lines. 

Twitter active users pass 200 million

Users have become more active due to major events such as the olympics, the queens jubilee and other things around the world. There are over 500million users, with half not choosing to be active. More than half of the users use it on mobile devices, 80% in the UK have mobile access to twitter. The Uk is the 4th biggest twitter nation, behind America, Japan, and Brazil. 

I think the growth that twitter is experencing is healthy for the social networking market as it poses competition to facebook who almost has a monopoly but it is typical of social networking websites, this boom of growth, the truth will be if the tend contiues and keeps increasing as it is doing now. The fact that less than half of twitter users are active shows that its not really catching on or contiuing to intice consumers to the point of making them to become active and tweet, instead just staying there and remaning passive. 

Weekly Media Story 15

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/15/facebook-announcement-graph-search-mark-zuckerberg

Facebook is launching a new service, a search engine type service to compete with googles dominance in the search engine area. Mark has described it as being the third pillar of the website, it the biggest move since the failed ipo of the company. Its slowly being rolled out, and is in the beta stages, but will be improved on through the years. The usp of this new service is it is supposed to give you the exact answer to your question rather than having to sive through thousands of links to find the exact answer that the user is looking for. Stock rose last week in anticiaption of the search enginge announcement, making this seem like a positive venture for the company.

How Facebook changed the world notes

Weekly Media Story 14

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/08/twitter-uk-subsidiary-meagre-profits

Twitter is based in San Fransico, America but has headquarters all around the world as they have different subsidises. The UK subsidiary posted lower than expected profit levels.


Twitter is expected to float for $11billion. Facebook was expected to be floated at a large sum also and I wonder how that mistake has affected twitters decision to float themselves in the market, and the estimated figure also.

Weekly Media Story 13

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2258369/NBA-news-Sky-Sports-screen-London-Live-rest-2013-season.html

Since the Nba season started there has been no coverage in the UK until Christmas day when ESPN and the NBA agreed a deal that would allow ESPN to resume coverage in the UK. Sky sports has now got a deal to rival ESPN on the basketball provision in the UK. So now both can now broadcast the games legally.  After the UK NBA game, they can now broadcast games which the NBA decides. This game will be the first game in the UK that is viewable in 3D. Sky sports can comfortably say that they dominate the UK sport broadcasting industry with this deal.


For me as a basketball fan, I have waited for more games to come to the UK, and welcome the move with open arms as it brings me more. More games more coverage and brings me closer to the action. I think as a fan it is a positive move because it gives the UK fans much more than we were previously getting from just ESPN. As a media student I wonder other digital broadcasters can compete along with Sky in the bidding for accounts such as this one. Do the regulatory bodies that look into monopolies in media not have anything to say about Skys dominance in sports broadcasting?