A Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “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.

A pluralist would argue that the audience have a lot of power when it comes down to being powerful in terms of consumption and production. Audiences are now entitled to 'conform, accommodate or reject what they want to watch according to Gurevitch. Also, looking at Katz and Blumers theory of users and gratification, the audiences can watch what they want to watch. Meaning if the audiences didn't appreciate what was being shown on television, they can 'reject' and the programme  is most likely to lose their audience and probably go off air.  Looking at the protest that's taking place in Ferguson for the loss of Mike Brown who was unfairly shot by a police officer, many people are now protesting and going against such a powerful institution. Couple years ago, without citizen journalism, a policeman would've probably gotten away with committing such a thing. However, with the advanced technologies and social sites, the audience can now present their views and not necessarily agree with the important, powerful institution.

It is very apparent that lately, with the technological changes that have appeared, the users feel more dominant and feel like they are able to choose what they want to watch and what they don't want to watch. This takes away the power the news and media had as its now the consumer's choice of what they want to produce. This also refers to Katz and Blumer's theory of the audience watching what they want to watch. Also, another thing that has made the consumers so powerful is arguably, citizen journalism. This is the act of when one who isn't a journalist take pictures or videos that can back the news and which is most likely used later.  The decline in newspaper is also causing the audience to have much more power than they had before. The newspaper is in decline as people can now access news online wherever and through whatever means. This has been causing a great decline in news paper.

The higher institutions such as the police force don't have as much power as they once did. Now, whenever the public feel as if powerful institutions are going against what they should do, the public makes protests and such like the tragic story of Mike Brown. He was shot as he was telling the police officer 'I cant breath.' Due to this tragic event, most people around the world are making protests and complaining, this is undermining the police force and such. There are hash tags that relate to him all of twitter.  

China closing in on Silicon Valley as home of internet giants, research shows

China is eroding Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent position as the home of the world’s largest internet businesses, with two companies making the top 10 by digital media revenue and four among the fastest-growing, according to new research.

Chinese internet giants Tencent and Baidu were the only non-US headquartered companies to make the top 10 list of the world’s biggest firms as measured by digital media revenues in a survey published on Monday by research and advisory firm Strategy Analytics.

To be honest, for a company that isn't American to gain so much popularity, its a good thing. I feel like its always american companies and celebrities to have it all, a change is good. 

Sun journalist avoids jail after conviction for handling MP’s phone

A senior Sun journalist has avoided jail after being convicted of handling a Labour MP’s stolen mobile phone to read private texts about the Miliband brothers’ leadership battle.

Nick Parker, the Sun’s chief foreign correspondent, received a three month sentence suspended for 12 months after being found guilty at the Old Bailey on Tuesday of possessing Siobhain McDonagh’s stolen BlackBerry.

To be honest, I think that it was only right that he was convicted as what he did goes against privacy and i feel that it should be dealt with quite severely. 

A pluralist would argue that the audience have a lot of power when it comes down to being powerful in terms of consumption and production. Audiences are now entitled to 'conform, accommodate or reject what they want to watch according to Gurevitch. Also, looking at Katz and Blumers theory of users and gratification, the audiences can watch what they want to watch. Meaning if the audiences didn't appreciate what was being shown on television, they can 'reject' and the programme is most likely to lose their audience and probably go off air.  Looking at the protest that's taking place in Ferguson for the loss of Mike Brown who was unfairly shot by a police officer, many people are now protesting and going against such a powerful institution. Couple years ago, without citizen journalism, a policeman would've probably gotten away with committing such a thing. However, with the advanced technologies and social sites, the audience can now present their views and not necessarily agree with the important, powerful institution.

Yahoo replaces Google as default search engine in US for Firefox



Yahoo has struck a deal to become the default search engine on the Firefox internet browser in the US, replacing Google and its ten year partnership with the company. Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer called the five-year deal with Firefox’s parent company Mozilla “the most significant partnership for Yahoo in five years”.
I was surprised to see this as Google has now been able to bought most of the other websites which probably giving them a great amount of money and wealth. Google was able to buy many other websites and now Yahoo aswell.

Vine shifts from comedy clips to a valid journalistic tool

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/23/vine-comedy-clips-journalistic-tool-alex-Thomson

Vine is a video sharing app that allows a user to film and edit six-second clips, which loop continuously, and post them online. It was founded in June 2012 and was bought by Twitter in October the same year. It now claims 100 million people are watching Vines each month. It was recently found to have become very popular with the public, mainly twitter users.

I think that this shows how Vine is now a news source whereas traditionally we would have a man and a woman giving the news on television. This shows how everything has switched lately and caused changes. This also reinforces the idea of citizen journalism.

Mail Online TV: what would it be like?

The startling reality format, dreamed up for Charlie Brooker’s rage-fuelled spoof tv listings site TvGoHome, asked the terrifying question: what would happen to an isolated group fed only on a diet of the Daily Mail? The answer: public hangings for masturbation, among other things. The TV spin-off also featured a man who started behaving like Fred Basset, until his impersonation of the wry cartoon dog is punished with a brutal stoning on the beach.

Some producers in the US don’t think so, and have approached the online organ with the idea of turning it into a celebrity focused magazine show, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Messaging apps' next threads: encryption, payments, media and ads

Until now, there have been two distinct classes of messaging apps: the big, mainstream ones, and the group focusing specifically on encryption and privacy, including TextSecure, Telegram, Hemlis, Threema, Wickr and others.

 That may be changing, with the biggest signpost being WhatsApp’s recent addition of end-to-end encryption to its Android app with iOS to follow. It’s working with the company behind TextSecure, Open Whisper Systems, which described the partnership as “the largest deployment of end-to-end encrypted communication in history”.

 The aim with this technology is to reassure users that even if the provider of their messaging app wanted to share their messages with intelligence agencies, they wouldn’t be able to. That’s a point Apple has made about its iMessages system too.

I personally think this is a very good idea as Beyond adding in features like voice calls and video chat, four main paths are emerging, although they’re by no means mutually exclusive: privacy, payments, media and ads, with the latter including advertising.

The messaging apps share some simple goals: they want to attract more users, retain the loyalty of the ones they have already, and find ways to make money that don’t conflict with the first two aims.

BBC Panorama documentary deeply irresponsible, says Mazher Mahmood

The BBC pulled the scheduled documentary with minutes to go on Monday night, citing new information from Mahmood’s lawyers delivered just 90 minutes before transmission. Mahmood’s letter denies this, accusing the BBC of issuing “misleading” statements. He also criticised the BBC’s behaviour since Panorama’s allegations were put to him in October, saying that its executives “publicised the fact that their programme will condemn me, called me a ‘crook’ and tweeted mocking messages.”

In my opinion, I think that Mahmood had all the reasons in the world to be accusing the BBC for pledging to broadcast about his career as an investigate journalist. He called the documentary “extremely revealing” and “squarely in the public interest”. I think that his point of view is understandable as he was exposed and no one deserves that. 

Let’s get over the whole 'newspapers are dying' thing

This article focuses on how people  assume digital media companies operate in some magical overhead-free universe with infinitely ascending online advertising rates, and that newspapers are permanently anchored to declining print revenues. So let’s get over the whole “newspapers are dying” thing. They’re certainly moving in lots of creative new directions (and eventually they may ascend out of physical world altogether - holograms, maybe?), but they’re definitely not going gently into that good night.

I personally think that this article has elements of truth. Although there is an evident decline in news papers, this could just mean that there a new creative things that are being thought on. 

Murdoch Pay Wall

I personally think that BBC should be allowed to post free information. Although it makes it hard when it comes down to the market, not everyone is able to pay for what they see online. Many other companies dislike the BBC because they offer free information. In their argument if the BBC is able to provide free news online, then why would anyone go through the extra mile of paying for it? The only reason to why the BBC do it is because they are licensed so they receive money either way.
 Rupert Murdoch has tried to use facilities to make a profit out the information that is posted online by charging people who want to have access to it. I think that his way of trying to make money out of the internet as technology changes is smart but I think that not a lot of people are willing to pay for it . He is trying to use the changes that occur in technology to his advantage but I personally don't think he is achieving. No one is willing to pay for something when they can receive it for free.  I think he needs to realise this competition and try to make profit using different methods.

Facebook Safety Check will help tell friends you're safe during disasters



 This article focuses on the new feature of facebook. From now on if any of your friends from facebook are involved in any natural disasters facebook will inform you if they are safe or not. Safety Check will work on the social network’s mobile and desktop versions, including its Android and iOS apps. “We’ll determine your location by looking at the city you have listed in your profile, your last location if you’ve opted in to the Nearby Friends product, and the city where you are using the internet,” explained Facebook’s Naimo Gleit. This shows that facebook is updating for those who have access to facebook but live in countries that face many natural disasters.

I personally believe that this is a very good way of informing people. For example there was a recent natural disaster that took place in the middle east and it was showed in the news all the family members that were able to escape were trying so hard to find out what happened to their relatives. I think that what facebook should do is try to help people who are not only involved un natural disasters for example the plane that went missing on the plane.

Build the Wall Analysis

Section one focuses on the pay wall to their audience and its targeted to New York times and Washington post.

Section two focuses on it’ll be effective and useful.

Section three focuses on the decline in newspaper and why they have appeared

Section four focuses on the times and post where going to become online basis

This newspaper article focuses on the online paywall and how it’s going to be successful.

 This discusses the effects if The Times and The Post were to move to an online basis. It also talks about the values and qualities of newspaper and how the newspaper will try to attract a bigger audience. It mentions how newspapers don’t take advantage of the internet and this has caused a decline in the newspaper.  Washington post and the times have learnt that if they put a higher price they won’t need to resort into a paywall. This can only become possible if the newspaper reaches a higher selling point and attracts a wider audience.

Comment 1)  Most of the folks writing about the paywall issue are assuming that because only 5-10 percent of the current online readership will sign up for web content, it will be a failure. Actually, the folks behind the paywall effort don't care if anyone signs up for online content. The entire point is to push people into print subscriptions. It could be that some newspapers or groups won't even offer an online-only option. It will just be a free giveaway with print. - See more at: http://www.cjr.org/feature/build_the_wall_1.php?page=all#sthash.wnwwtr7m.dpuf

This commenter talks thinks that this idea of paywall is waste. They argue that thinking that people will be singing up for news is a waste of time. They believe that the people behind pay wall don’t care if anyone actually signs up for they only care is to push people into print subscription.

 Comment 2) Dear Yelvington, Why do you feel the need to "reduce" anything? How about something that has gradations and nuances and some dynamic standing on its own, without being made a sound bite for the ignorant. I guess that's what the Internet is good for. Reduction to simple, monochromatic imagery and phrases. Congrats on rising to this new medium's current level of unedited, unchallenged intellectual mediocrity. #17 Posted by homer bigart, CJR on Sat 18 Jul 2009 at 01:14 PM - See more at: http://www.cjr.org/feature/build_the_wall_1.php?page=all#sthash.wnwwtr7m.dpuf

This commenter argues that there’s no point in reducing something that can stand on its own.  This commenter believes that if anything is going to be reduced it should be something that is of importance . This commenter goes to congratulating for the rise the levels of unedited unchallenged intellectual mediocrity.

Comment 3)  The reason why newspapers are struggling now is not entirely because of a free online product and low online ad revenue. The reason newspapers are hurting is because the car industry went kerplunk. I would guess that NY Times readership has increased since it went online. It's just waiting to find a way to capitalize on that readership. Once someone figures out a way to do that, then problem will take care of its self. Also if NYTIMES and WP start charging we'll all just go to CNN.com. We will be less informed but we will also not have paid for something we believed should be free. - See more at: http://www.cjr.org/feature/build_the_wall_1.php?page=all#sthash.wnwwtr7m.dpuf

This commenter argues that the reasons to why there is a massive decline in newspaper are different to what it is being argued.  They believe that newspaper is hurting is because of the ‘car industry’ went kerplunk.  They believe that NY times has increased readership since it went online and this is a success.

I personally believe that technology is increasing and due to this fact news paper is becoming neglected and decline more and more.  Placing paywall might help journalist get paid for their services as right now not many journalist are making as much as journalist used to make before. I don't believe this is a successful idea as news is exposed everyday on the internet for people so there is no meaning for them to be hiding their news and charging for it as people have different sources to receive news online as well as social interactions sites like twitter. From a personal point of view I would never pay for something that I can receive for free, that is just stupidity. His idea of charging for news is smart but it won't be effective unless the bbc leave the competition