22/05/17 - Snapchat launches general election geofilter to get people to register to vote (75)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/39947864/snapchat-launches-general-election-geofilter-to-get-people-to-register-to-vote

This article is about how Snapchat has launched a new filter to try to get more people to vote in June's general election. The social media firm, which has around 10 million subscribers in the UK, has teamed up with the Electoral Commission to remind users to register before the deadline, which is on Monday 22 May. In addition, it describes the concept of the actual app and describes it as weird to the older audience due to the concept of the app; All you're doing is taking a photo, making it seem a little bit creative and then sending it to your friends and once they've seen it, it will disappear from both phones. The Snapchat filter asks users to find their voice next to a graphic of a ballot box and a pink voting slip. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton released a Snapchat geofilter ahead of last November's US election, which allowed users to change into the candidate. The geofilter appears on all users' apps regardless of age, so teenagers are also reminded they can register before they turn 18. 

• Turnout among 18 to 24-year-olds in recent elections has tended to increase in the last decade, with less than half (43%) casting their vote in 2015, compared with 44% in 2010 and 37% in 2005.
• Almost one-third (30%) of adults under 34 not registered, compared with just four in 100 over-55s.
• More than half (51%) of Snapchat users are aged 18 to 34, according to digital market research firm Verto Analytics.

In my opinion, I believe that this with this specific filters, it will allow young people to feel more apart of the elections and therefore, it will attract more young people and make them feel more apart of the general election.Furthermore,the advertisement through social media can also play a huge factor and can be beneficial for Facebook as their revenue can show an increase. So, the fact that they are going to advertise the voting system on social media means that people who wouldn't usually pay attention to the news and want to vote, can potentially be persuaded by the advertisement and therefore may act upon it and start to vote.

22/05/17 - How many Snapchat clones does it take for Facebook to lose its self-respect? (74)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/10/snapchat-clones-facebook-copies

This article is about Facebook have been trying to copy ideas from Snapchat. Over the past year, Facebook has shown an almost monomaniacal dedication to taking on Snapchat by importing its defining features wholesale into the company’s own apps. Facebook Live has “masks” now (think Snapchat’s Lenses). Instagram has geostickers (like Snapchat’s location-aware stickers.) WhatsApp has “Status” (think Snapchat Stories). Instagram has “Stories” (think … Snapchat stories). The argument that has taken place is that whether or not Facebook have been legally allowed to add these effects to its applications and if not, have Snapchat tried to fine Facebook itself. However, the writer also included that 'even if Mark Zuckerberg isn’t directly commanding the creation of Snapchat clones, it’s clearly something he cares strongly about. In 2012, when Facebook built its first ever clone, Poke, it boasted that the app took only 12 days to create'. Practice makes perfect, clearly, because the app flopped. By 2014, Zuckerberg was spinning that Poke was “more of a joke” than a real app, telling Businessweek that “a few people built it in a hackathon thing … and then just kind of abandoned it.”

• The jokes continued, though. Later in 2014, Facebook released a second clone, Slingshot, which also died on its feet. In between, of course, the company tried a more direct approach, making a $3bn acquisition attempt which Snapchat rebuffed.
• The jokes continued, though. Later in 2014, Facebook released a second clone, Slingshot, which also died on its feet. In between, of course, the company tried a more direct approach, making a $3bn acquisition attempt which Snapchat rebuffed.
• I’ve not heard a more obvious attempt to rewrite corporate history since Microsoft refused to acknowledge the iPod in its attempt to branch out into podcasting (“The term podcast is a combination of pod (Portable On Demand) and broadcast,” it helpfully told Windows Vista users in 2009). The interview spends more time acknowledging AOL instant messenger, a 20-year-old chat program, than it does discussing Snapchat.

In my opinion, I believe that what Facebook have done is very wrong as they have been stealing different ideas from an up-coming rival of theirs. However, I also believe that if Snapchat haven't tried to complain to the government about Facebook stealing ideas, then no one else should be complaining about this. But, this is backsliding even for Facebook. When Instagram cloned Stories, in mid 2016, its chief executive Kevin Systrom did at least acknowledge that the format had been invented by his competitor, but argued that it was bound to become more universal.

22/05/17 - In Europe political attitudes to Facebook are changing (73)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/18/in-europe-political-attitudes-are-changing-to-facebook

This article is about how Facebook had been fined by the European commission for providing misleading information about data-sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp. In addition, Facebook’s main engine is its advertising business, which generates $7.86bn each quarter worldwide, with $1.9bn specifically from Europeans. The reason Facebook is so good at attracting advertising, soaking up 16% of all global digital ad revenue (Google takes 33%) – and is in the process strangling traditional media – is the sheer amount of data it holds and employs to better target ads at users. However, this article also states that Facebook is not alone in this; it is Google’s primary business model too. But it is Facebook that has caused unease in Europe, where it is perceived to be trampling over privacy laws. But this cannot be changed to some extent as these two companies are extremely large to be controlled by someone else. 

• Facebook’s €110m fine by the European commission for providing misleading information about data-sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp is just one of a growing number of regulatory battles the US social media giant is fighting.
• Facebook counts a quarter of the world’s population – 1.94bn accounts – as monthly active users, with 354m in Europe. WhatsApp has 1.2 billion users, while Facebook-owned Instagram has 700m monthly active accounts.
• Already this month the company has been fined in France (€150,0000) and Italy (€3m) over its use of personal data, although these financial penalties are a drop in the ocean for Facebook.

In my opinion, I believe that recently, Facebook have been let off way too easily. For example, Facebook has played a huge factor in fake news and taxes and I believe that if the government and others were to take actions,it would make Facebook think twice and therefore, they would be more cautious. An example is that if Facebook were trying to encourage fake news or weren't doing something about it, everyone would believe that it is Facebook's fault as they haven't taken any action for it. So, if the information commissioner was to report and fine Facebook then it would make them more aware and therefore would like to take more action.

16/05/17 - Inquiry launched into targeting of UK voters through social media (72)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/17/inquiry-launched-into-how-uk-parties-target-voters-through-social-media

This article is about how the information commissioner, of Facebook, has launched an investigation into the way UK political parties target voters through social media with a warning which if they were to send messages based on politics to others which is linked to their own data, could be a way in which they are breaking the law. Labour and the Conservatives are understood to have set aside about £1m each to spend on advertising directly to voters through Facebook. This allows them to target specific messages to groups of voters defined by data collected from their activity on the platform. Denham Elizabeth, the information commisioner said the investigation into the use of data analytics by political campaigners was a “high priority” and was intended “to uphold the rights of individuals and ensure that political campaigners and companies providing services to political parties operate within UK law”. She has assembled a dedicated team including researchers, technologists and lawyers for the inquiry, which will take several months.

• “Digital campaigning techniques help ensure that the public are informed, and will drive up democratic participation across society.” Labour did not respond to a request for comment.
• A Cambridge Analytica spokesman said: “We are in touch with the ICO and we’re happy to help them with their investigation into the entire use of data analytics in politics. Cambridge Analytica had no involvement in last year’s EU referendum.”
• However, in a note of caution, she added: “Our investigation may reveal that some of these allegations are not true and maybe there is the capability of data analytics to micro-target people but it’s actually not happening.”

In my opinion, I believe that this is a positive for both parties (Labour and Conservative  & Facebook) as they could both potentially be able to gain more votes or more users. The advertisement can be beneficial for Facebook as their revenue can show an increase. Furthermore, the fact that they are going to advertise the voting system on social media means that people who wouldn't usually pay attention to the news and want to vote, can potentially be persuaded by the advertisement and therefore may act upon it and start to vote.

16/05/17 - iPlayer catchup service will require user login within weeks, says BBC (71)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/11/iplayer-catchup-service-will-require-user-login-within-weeks-says-bbc-tv-licence-fee-evasion

This article is about how the BBC are going to require users to log in onto BBC iPlayer very soon. Users of BBC iPlayer will need to enter a password to access the online catch-up service within the next few weeks, the broadcaster has announced. In addition, the BBC denied the move was part of a crackdown on TV licence fee evasion, but said email addresses registered to an account may allow it to identify people using the service without paying.Th plans, say the BBC, include tailoring programme suggestions to users based on previous choices and will allow people to start watching a programme on one device before picking up where they left off on their television. And the changes come after rules introduced last year made watching or downloading BBC programmes through the iPlayer illegal without a TV licence.

• The introduction of a login, which was revealed last September, is part of the BBC’s plans to make services “more personal and relevant to you”, according to Andrew Scott, launch director of MyBBC.
• “So we will now use this alongside our existing enforcement techniques to help identify people who are watching licence fee-funded content without a licence.”
• From Thursday iPlayer users will be notified with a message saying they “will soon need to sign in to watch”, encouraging them to do so before the deadline in a few weeks.

In my opinion, I believe that this idea of wanting to make the BBC iPlayer the number one on-demand industry in the world is very ambitious and hard but would be very beneficial. Hall talks about wanting to make it better than Netflix and the only way I would believe that this can only become better is if they show all of the 'blockbuster' movies that are well recognised to the public audience. However, if they were to do this, there can potentially be many downsides towards this. One of them being the cost of it; the cost can increase massively and therefore, instead of making it better it can make it worse because in September 2015 the BBC said that only TV License audiences can view the iPlayer so therefore, there would be addition payments for the iPlayer and these are some of the things which the BBC would need to keep an eye out on if they are trying to make it better and number 1 in the world. Furthermore, the idea about doing the BBC worldwide is a great idea and everyone can have the access of watching British soaps etc in any country.

Section B Essay

Does your case study suggest that new and digital media have had a positive impact by offering audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies?

Developments within new and digital media, have seen both a negative and positive impact by offering audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies. A lot of the times, the audience discover new and dominant ideologies from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Nowadays, the negative effects people may debate on is that we cannot trust the internet because anyone has the freedom to write whatever they wish to and therefore brings up a more recent argument, 'Fake News'.

From a Marxists perspective, many of the users online and a considerable amount of users would say that the internet is corrupt and we would believe anything that would be said. For example, recently there is a lot of talks about Fake News and to some extent it is misleading; We have weekly news articles on how Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg would talk about how they are trying to prevent this from happening but has been going on for ages. To some extent, fake news is true as anyone has the option to write whatever they would like to and all they need is a social media account and they are good to go. Theorists such as Andrew Keen mentions that "webpages and blogs are like million monkeys typing nonsense". This also gets the users thinking on how accurate the internet really is and how it isn't all a big lie. Different bloggers have their own opinions and therefore, user's may be confused on which source they would want to believe and could potentially believe in the wrong one. This brings a negative effect as users are being fed misleading information.

On the other hand, a pluralist may think that new and digital media is offering audiences a positive impact by feeding them diverse rang of values and ideologies from the use of citizen journalists and user-generated content. A lot of the time, people would say that citizen journalists aren't reliable at all considering they have the power to right whatever they want therefore this is the ideology (citizen journalists are all misleading). However, we have a more accurate reading and now believe that actually, citizen journalists are very useful as they can help the government in many different scenarios. For example with the Ian Tomlinson case. This is where a group of police officers had beaten a normal by passer which causes severe injuries which was the lead to his death. However, the police officers said that he was one of the main people who were causing the trouble, little did they know that everything that happened on that day was recorded by another member of public. Therefore, not only does it show a strong case for having citizen journalists, considering it can help out the government etc but it can also highlight the difference between what it right and wrong. So, overall citizen journalists and user-generated content can be shown as a positive as it proves the negative minded people that they shouldn't believe what others think about citizen journalists but to try and find out by themselves. Furthermore, McLuhan's 'global village' is a great concept to understand the terms of globalisation and this concept of unity within the world. However, it can also be argued that due to the rise of globalisation, there is now a lack of local journalism, therefore cultural imperialism takes over and American news for example becomes more important and significant. Due to this lack of journalism, the local news stories published become ones of mere opinion polls and ones to generate interest rather than significance.

In addition to that, Snapchat is another type of institution that has a positive effect on the audience. Snapchat has just recently come to life and many may say that Snapchat is just another useless social media site which is just a way of 'dumbing down' the world. However, recently we have seen an increase of people using it everyday with 158 million people on it. Furthermore, Snapchat has been able to find a brand new way of users communicating to each other which is via images or videos. Twitter has allowed for the creation of many communities, notably “Black Twitter” in which users challenge racial discrimination and discuss social and political issues to raise awareness. Alongside this movements have formed, a prime example of this is the BlackLivesMatter movement which has had a prominent presence on Twitter. Due to the “trending” mechanism on Twitter, more people have come across the values and ideologies of social movements such as BlackLivesMatter. Twitter has enabled audiences to therefore initiate campaigns such as 'Black Lives Matter' and therefore allows audiences to collectively aid positive images of black identity. A more recent case is the 15 year old boy, who was shot by a police officer which was filmed on officers body cameras in Texas. A lot of the time, businesses may use this app as they would believe that it is less time consuming. Therefore, this then leads to the fact of which people on the internet are not to be trusted. 

However, a Marxist would also believe that the term Americanisation from new and digital media.This is shown as a negative because of the fact that the internet shows that everyone is trying to act as an American. British people want to be more American and so forth. This also leads to the fact that the internet is dumbing down its users and hasn't done anything in which it is benefiting the audience. A key example of 'dumbing down' would be the most watched YouTube video, Gangnam Style. Furthermore, another example was when an ISIS member recorded a  beheading video which included graphic torture content which is easily accessible online, which reveals the negative impact of new and digital media, enabling extremists to showcase their ideologies. Although footage is unedited, aiding audiences with 'surveillance' (Blumler + Katz, Uses and Gratifications theory), it can also be argued that it is extremely easy to manipulate footage and an image, evidently proven by 3 British males who posted a picture on Facebook saying they were in Syria. Before new and digital media came to life, people would be more keen on looking at what the latest news is or what the weather forecast may be, but nowadays, the audience are more keen on looking at a childish video with adults dancing like a five year old.

To conclude, new and digital media has had both a negative and positive impact on the audience by giving them beliefs and values. It gives the audience a positive impact as they can possibly be that one person that could tell the whole online universe between what's right and wrong. However, the negative thing is that there are too many people on the internet that prefer to give the users misleading information (Fake News) which is a key debate on how this can be stopped. The question everyone asks themselves is that if this can actually be stopped considering the amount of users there are on the internet.

08/05/17 - Google and Facebook bring in one-fifth of global ad revenue (70)

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

This article is about how Google and Facebook attracted one-fifth of global advertising spending last year, nearly double the figure of five years ago, research shows. Online advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest ad medium, according to data and analysis agency Zenith. 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. Furthermore, digital platforms funded by internet ads dominate the top 30. Aside from Alphabet and Facebook, there are five pure internet media owners in the ranking: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. Between them, the seven digital platforms 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. Many of the companies involved in the boycott discovered their advertising spend was being used to place banner ads over YouTube videos from groups such as Britain First, indirectly funding extremists.

• 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.
• Between them, the seven digital platforms 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.

In my opinion, I believe that online advertising is one of the very most important reasons why companies such as Facebook and Google are doing so well. Considering they are feeding off other companies allows them to see an increase within their revenue. This is another reason why new and digital media is exceeding more than the traditional print advertising because more users have joined the online platform and therefore, have been people to advertise to. This then allows to more users clicking on the different sites and therefore, this is how these big institutions are doing so well nowadays.

08/05/17 - Facebook Live: Zuckerberg adds 3,000 moderators in wake of murders (69)

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

This article is about how Facebook are going to try their best in removing broadcasting of killing and assaults by investing in people and tools to make sure it will be deleted more quickly from Facebook Live. Over the last few months, footage of shooting, murders, rapes and assaults has been streamed on Facebook, including the recent Cleveland attacks. The live broadcasts have then been viewable as recorded videos by the social network's users, often for days before being taken down. In addition, Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, talked about "if we're going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly (by deleting the streaming videos as soon as possible - before causing anymore damage to their users)." He also included that they're "working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action soon - whether that's responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down". Furthermore, another spokesperson from Facebook, called Sheryl Sandberg said that "keeping people sage 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.
• Zuckerberg said: “Over the next year, we’ll be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team around the world – on top of the 4,500 we have today – to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly.
• 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. 

In my opinion, I believe that what Facebook are doing is a great thing as it would be causing their user's less harm and long term damage watching these live-streams. Whether these tools and the extra manpower will be enough to curb the rise of objectionable and extremist content on Facebook remains to be seen. Most Facebook users can simply press a button and immediately begin live broadcasting of whatever is in front of their smartphone’s camera. However, in my opinion, I believe that Facebook, itself, have left this too late as there have already been many different brutal streams which have affected many people. Therefore, my argument is that where were Facebook before all of this had started and why are they only trying to make these sorts of investments now when they already knew that they had problems.

UWL lecture notes

• Mobile witnessing
  7/7 London Bombing
  The Black Lives Matter Movement
• The death of Neda Aghal-Sultan
• Paris Attacks 2015
• Arab Uprising
  Key to symbosis between mainstream media and social media.
• Gaddafi
  Captured by a 'rebel'.
  Beaten to death, taken in a van.
• Ethical Considerations
  Invasion/Intrusion of privacy.
• 'BBC Media Action Campaign'
• Challenges for news reporters - producing content for different platforms
• Gives people a voice.
• Facebook and Buzzfeed investing in digital video content
• Breaking news on social media E.g. Hudson river crash, it was first tweeted
• Twitter hashtags make it easier to keep up with breaking news
• United Airlines, first on social media then news. Citizen journalism can lead to PR disasters
• Social media is useful for media outlets to find out what people think
• Social media has been a way to share what is going on but has led to problems with fake news + own agendas
• Terrorists - Has to have political agenda. Tube planned bombs, had no political agenda so did not refer to as terrorist

MEST3 PPE - Learner Response

1) WWW- Clearly expressed, attempting to incorporate Marxism/Pluralism.
EBI - Focus on the question and answer it. Especially Section A.

2) I did not achieve my target grade for A2 Media as I was two marks below. I my opinion, I needed at least another 10 more marks for both Section A and B to achieve a solid Grade C and almost achieving a Grade B.

3) In question one the points which I had made that were also shown on the mark scheme were the following:

• Use of narrative voice over.
• Use of interviews involving residents in New Era estate.

In question two the points which I had made that were also shown on the mark scheme were the following:

• Repetition of values, meaning that dissenting voices don't often get heard.
• Moderation of feedback by media producers.

In question three the points which I had made that were also shown on the mark scheme were the following:

• Role of the media in our everyday lives.

4) My strongest question in Section A was the first question as I had gained a mark of 5 out of 8. I believe that this was stronger than the other two as I believed that I had answered the question to the level that I was required too but the only thing which I believe that I had lacked in this question was the fact that I didn't use that many examples to back my point. If I did, I believe that I could've gained at least another 2 more marks.

5) My weakest question in Section A was the third question as I had only got a 2 within this question. The reason why I believe that I had gained this mark is because of the fact that I had misinterpreted the question and therefore my answer didn't make any sense to what the question was asking me to do. I believe that this is something which I do very commonly and just need to do more practice on similar questions in order to get it right for the real exam coming up in June.

6) The following shows how many broad areas, suggested by AQA, I answered within my answer of Section B and did so successfully:

• Historical role of media producers.
• Changing demands of audiences.
• Different situations in different mediums and on different platforms.

7)

Q1) In my opinion, I believe that this was the most strongest question that I answered in the whole exam. This was mainly due to the fact that I was enable to talk about many different situations and had mentioned things which were also listed within the mark scheme. Furthermore, I believe that I also showed a good understanding of media concepts.

Q2) I think that I gave some really good examples about this question, for example the Michael Jordan motivational speech but overall, I didn't include that many examples and didn't answer the question properly.

Q3) Considering I had only scored 2 out of 12 within this question, this was the weakest. In my opinion, I did not answer the question well at all and didn't give any good examples with this question. Even though I did give some examples, they didn't link well with the question,

Q6) At first I believe that I had answered the question very well, for example I talked about Marxist and Pluralist but slowly I didn't talk about that many examples and didn't include many theories and therefore, this is why I believe that I had dropped the marks which I did. Therefore, the thing which I could have done differently is that I could write quicker and try to add different examples even if they didn't make a great link to the question or any other texts that I had mentioned previously. 

8) Media Product One was all about motivating others and how they can make themselves better. At the beginning, the main protagonist was shown to be very stressed as he didn't have much. However, in the end, it showed that he was happy. This is linked to Blumer and Katz, uses and gratification on how this specific text is shown as a personal identity. Some audience may see themselves within the text and this could be a good motivational tip on how that audience member can get back up onto their feet and be successful. A similar text related to this is the Michael Jordan motivational speech where he would talk about his failure speech where he would talk about his failure and success. This is another example of personal identity and how failure bought success. Therefore, these two texts are good examples to encourage the audience and make them perform better.

On the other hand, in media product two, there were scenes where the main broadcaster would film himself. This tells the audience that even though they may not be professional, they can still be able to make a video and publish it online and could spread the world across. Especially with the female gender, they may believe that their word in particular may not get across but in the video, we saw three female speakers talking about the issues and no one else. Therefore, the fact we saw female speakers would encourage the female audience as they would get a sight of confidence for their gender.

Furthermore, another example of encouragement is the Tag London campaign which was run by Ill Manors (the movie) with the use of its anti-establishment ideology. The Tag London campaign was were youths had the opportunity to tweet things on social media about how they felt about the government etc. The fact that these people from the general public were allowed to do this and had the opportunity to meet new people and get their word across, allows others to do the same and would encourage others to do the same. This is all done via social media.

Ignite Presentation

Ladan

• America presidency all use Twitter.
• Increasingly influential on news agenda.
• Arab springs was a series of revolution.
• "Black Twitter".
• Citizen Journalisn/UGC.
• Crime takes place on social media.
• Echo chambers.

Abayomi

• Majority users - 13-24 years old.
• Threatens physical performances.
• Social media use to release new products.
• Pluarilsm -> become more active.
• Pareto's Law

Amrit

• Advertising through Instagram.
• Globalisation - Encourages consumerism
• Two-Step flow model.
• Privacy issues
• Political aspects

Sunny

• Reddit - mentioned Trump a lot.
• Issues raised - fake news.
• Future of politics.
• Russian hacking scandals.
• Using analytics to target audiences.

Callum

• Audience  - consumption generally the same.
• Destiny - best selling game by Activision. 
• Controversy - MW2.
• 3rd party developers
• Consumption in general is the same

Katie

• Killing off the documentary genre.
• Marxism- accessibility.
• Netflix vs ITV/BBC
• UGC
• How to distribute content to a larger audience.

Harkiran

• Audience - don't mind spending money for cinema experience.
• Youngsters figures went downhill.
• Quality could be terrible - Internet dependent.
• Largest and most successful
• MGM Produce more

Khadijah

• technological convergence
• shows typically address issues and debates
• Globalisation - expanse in product
• 70% binge watch.
• Profile system makes it more personalised.

John

• Student discount - appealing to the youth
• Mulligan 'the superstar economy'
• 40% of views come from Latin America
• Music industry grew.
• Family Subscribers.

02/05/17 - Social media firms must face heavy fines over extremist content – MPs (68)

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

This article is about how 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, MPs have said. Referring to Google’s failure to prevent paid advertising from reputable companies appearing next to YouTube videos posted by extremists, the committee’s report said: “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.” In addition to this, Facebook recently had major complaints about its recent, disturbing news which had a major effect on many people. Recently, on Facebook live, a man went viral for going around in his vehicle and killing innocent people; the problem with this was that even though that this content shouldn't be allowed to be seen online, Facebook still let the account to publish this live on air without Facebook wanting to remove it. Facebook also told MPs that it is is reviewing how it handles violent videos and other objectionable material after a video of a murder in the United States remained on its service for more than two hours.

• A thorough review is required of the legal framework controlling online hate speech, abuse and extremism to ensure that the law is up to date, the MPs conclude. “What is illegal offline should be illegal – and enforced – online.”
• In Germany, the report points out, the justice ministry has proposed imposing financial penalties of up to €50m on social media companies that are slow to remove illegal content. 
• Material encouraging child abuse and sexual images of children was also not removed, despite being reported on by journalists.

In my opinion, I believe what Facebook did was very wrong and shouldn't have happened. If they are a company which want to succeed, then they have to come up with solutions which will not get them that many complaints. In addition, considering this recent news about the Facebook Live, they need to act quicker and more sensible so that it doesn't effect or scare their audience for the long term. For example, seeing someone shot dead isn't a sight which anyone would like to see and for this reason, for Facebook to allow their users to witness this is very cruel and something needs to happen with this. Serious improvements...

02/05/17 - Google and Facebook bring in one-fifth of global ad revenue (67)

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

This article is about how Google and Facebook attracted one-fifth of global advertising spending last year, nearly double the figure of five years ago, research shows. Online advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest ad medium, according to data and analysis agency Zenith. In addition, 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. This could also lead to the reason of which why some traditional news publishers have started to leave the traditional platform and start to make themselves online such as the Daily Mirror. Despite its large share of the ad market, Google faces a growing boycott from major advertisers including the UK government, Marks & Spencer and McDonald’s, and has promised an overhaul of its advertising policies. Many of the companies involved in the boycott discovered their advertising spend was being used to place banner ads over YouTube videos from groups such as Britain First, indirectly funding extremists.

• 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. The largest traditional media owner is US broadcasting and cable television company Comcast, which was third with $12.9bn in ad revenues in 2016, up from $11.5bn the year before.
• 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.
• Twitter is the fastest-growing media owner, increasing ad revenue by 734% between 2012 and 2016.
• Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. Between them, the seven digital platforms 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.

In my opinion, I believe that this is the great advantage as to which the online platform have over the traditional media platform (newspapers vs online). Since the majority of newspaper audiences have moved towards the online world, online companies have been thriving on the online ads. This is because businessmen know that online marketing is the best way in which someone can get their word around the public. For example, since everyone uses Google as their main search engine, many businesses would use them as a way of online advertising because they would know that many people will be able to see this advert and this is a stand out fact which online advertising has over the traditional advertising.

25/04/17 - FaceApp apologises for 'racist' filter that lightens users' skintone (66)

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

This article is about how the creator of an app which changes your selfies using artificial intelligence has apologised because its “hot” filter automatically lightened people’s skin.

FaceApp is touted as an app which uses “neural networks” to change facial characteristics, adding smiles or making users look older or younger. But users noticed one of the options, initially labelled as “hot” made people look whiter. Yaroslav Goncharov, the creator and CEO of FaceApp, apologised for the feature, which he said was a side-effect of the “neural network”.He said: “We are deeply sorry for this unquestionably serious issue.“It is an unfortunate side-effect of the underlying neural network caused by the training set bias, not intended behaviour.” In addition, the writer also mentions Snapchat and how they have also faced similar problems but still are capable of running their app even though there have been many different criticism about them. 

• He told TechCrunch in February: “We believe that such entertaining effects are subject to trends, but photorealism is timeless
• Yaroslav Goncharov, the creator and CEO of FaceApp, apologised for the feature, which he said was a side-effect of the “neural network”.
• Snapchat’s filters have come under fire on several occasions. Last year it was criticised for promoting “yellowface” after it released a filter which allowed users to turn their selfies into Asian caricatures. Prior to that, a Bob Marley filter was dubbed “the digital equivalent of blackface”.

In my opinion, I believe that this app has been through unnecessary pressure; the argument itself seemed like it had repeated itself as it has been faced with another social media sites Snapchat which was mentioned in the article. The fact that this app makes the user younger to look at, shouldn't be a problem as this is the joy of the app and which makes new and digital media worth while. With these new different technologies makes it more appealing and more users will want to use it as they would be attracted by it.

25/04/17 - Teachers on Twitter: why you should join and how to get started (65)

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/apr/20/teachers-on-twitter-why-join-get-started-social-media

This article is about the different problems which teachers face when they're on social media. A lot of the times, this article talks about how teachers don't specifically like to be on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter mainly because of the fact that students can be able to view their accounts and sometimes make fun of the teachers when they're in school. Most teachers seem to use their real names, but you can make your account private, so that students can’t find you. Another reason why teachers cannot go onto social media is mainly because they may not have enough time too; With marking, meetings, parents’ evenings, administrative tasks and exam entries, teachers aren’t left with much time to discuss teaching practices with colleagues. But we want to talk about what works. On Twitter, it’s refreshing to get an outside view, away from the politics and day-to-day conversations of your own school. 

• Whatever resource you are about to make, stop – open Twitter and explore what is already available. Chances are that another teacher will have created something that is perfect for you, and is using strategies you’ve never thought of.
• The blogs of some incredible teachers have taught me far more about my profession, and given me more practical ideas, than my MA in education did. There is some incredibly useful research being carried out in education, but I didn’t encounter any of it until joining Twitter and following groups such as The Learning Scientists (@AceThatTest).
• Teachers of all ages and nationalities come together on Twitter and they are excited about the profession, their subjects and the students they teach. I’ve found that if you choose to associate yourself with these types of people, you might well become one.

In my opinion, I believe that teachers shouldn't feel the fact that they shouldn't join the social media networking sites. Teachers, nowadays, have many different reasons why they would not like to join the social media sites and to some extent, I agree with that but for some reasons, I believe that they're too sensitive. Everyone should keep up to date with the latest craze no matter who the person is and I feel that teachers should also be apart of that category. Even if the students were to make fun of them, they still have the option to make their accounts private, as mentioned in the article. The same response would happen, even with the traditional newspapers as if the teachers were to be mentioned in those articles and the students say it, they would still respond within the same manner of respect.

Independent NDM case study: Final tasks

18/04/17 - From nasty to nice: how adblockers are trying to pivot (64)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/12/adblockers-trying-pivot-nasty-nice

This article is about how Adblocking, for a long time used quietly by tech-savvy desktop surfers, exploded into the public consciousness in 2015 when Apple allowed content blocking on the iPhone. The article also uses the terms that "it looked like a war was in the offing: adblocker developers argued that ad-supported media on the net was abusing its readers, while publishers argued that blocking ads was tantamount to theft. Both sides experimented with blocks and counter-blocks, culminating in sites simply blocking all users with an adblocker turned on." Like Adblock Plus, Brave wants to help publishers in other ways. Users can pay a certain monthly fee which is distributed using bitcoin to the sites you visit, in proportion to how much you visit them. In addition, rainbow’s plan is to take advantage of its position near the networks to build up an unassailable amount of data on how users interact with adverts and advertisers, and sell that on. 

• Brave, for instance, doesn’t even tell a site owner that it’s been collecting cash until $100 is in the bank, and is currently only able to actually pay out to those publishers who own the domain name they’re publishing on.
• Its pitch to users is the same as many adblockers, particularly mobile ones: by stripping out some content, loading times can be improved by “up to 60%”, privacy can be protected, and the web becomes a more pleasant experience for all.
• But 18 months on, the landscape has changed. Facebook and Google’s share of digital advertising has continued to rocket, even as every other provider has flatlined. Meanwhile, market penetration of adblockers has plateaued (Britain’s IAB estimates 22% of visitors block ads, the same as this time last year).

Despite all the critism that Eyeo is getting from other major companies, I believe that this is a good idea with the whitelisted ads. This is because this is a way which advertising will work as mainly everyone uses the computer since print is becoming a dying media platform. This way, Eyeo and all the other companies that are using this method, can make their companies more aware to the audience and since it pops up on the audiences screen, they have that option whether or not they want to view it. It is beneficial mainly because of the fact that the companies revenue will then increase.

18/04/17 - UK internet ad spend passes £10bn as Google faces YouTube row (63)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/12/uk-internet-ad-google-youtube-mobile-video-tv

This article is about how the internet advertising spend surged above £10bn in the UK last year as companies more than doubled the amount they spent on mobile video ads. A spokesperson called James Chandler, who published the annual digital ad spend report, starts to talk about how hundreds of advertisers have "paused" spending on YouTube; People are increasingly using their smartphones to watch more clips, programmes and films. However, the year-on-year increase of 17% on 2015 comes as many advertisers have pulled campaigns from Google and YouTube after it emerged that some ads have been running around inappropriate content such as extremist videos.Programmatic trading has come under attack following the furore over Google and YouTube placing ads next to inappropriate content.

• The IAB report also found that nearly three-quarters of the £3.8bn digital display advertising market is traded programmatically, where machines have become largely responsible for choosing where ads are booked by advertisers and appear on the internet.
• The year-on-year increase of 17% on 2015 comes as many advertisers have pulled campaigns from Google and YouTube after it emerged that some ads have been running around inappropriate content such as extremist videos. 
• Hundreds of advertisers have “paused” spending on YouTube – where 400 hours of videos are uploaded every minute – which has pledged to tighten controls on where ads appear, such as by banning them running on accounts with fewer than 10,000 viewers.

In my opinion, I believe that the YouTube has become a great place where different users are able to communicate with each other; they are able to make videos and post them online for anyone to watch. However, there will be times where there may be negative comments that are distributed to the video which can be shown to be very aggressive etc. But overall, everything on YouTube is censored and I believe that this is a great place where people can go to, in order to take their minds of things.

11/04/17 - Russian embassy's Twitter account vents barbs against west (62)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/11/russian-embassys-twitter-account-vents-barbs-against-west

This article talks about how the official Russian embassy to the UK Twitter account posted a photograph of flower petals in Sochi lit up in the sunshine. It illustrated the tweet with a painting of the charge of the Light Brigade, when Russian gunners decimated British cavalry during the 'Crimean ar'. Johnson is by no means the only politician to be trolled by the embassy account, which mixes snarky broadsides with photos of staid outreach events and trivia about Russian culture and history. Beckett said that the Russian embassy could get away with provocative tweets because of the country’s misinformation campaign and claims of being a victim of western aggression. He also mentioned that 'if they are trying to be disruptive generally, being a little edgy on Twitter works very well in their strategy'. Asked about the author of its Twitter account, the Russian embassy told the Guardian that “work with social media is a collective activity”. 

• “[It] is trying to sow mistrust and disaffection. It’s pretty marginal … but it has a nice marginal impact, and Russia Today and Sputnik have the same goals.”
• But some in Moscow have speculated that the more inflammatory tweets may be written by ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary Alexander Kramarenko, whose official statements have expressed similar arguments. Born in 1952, he worked at the Russian embassy in Canada in the 1990s and has been a high-ranking aideat the embassy in Britain since 2011.
• “If G7 ultimatum to Russia brings us to real war, what is your trust in @realDonaldTrump as a wartime leader & @BorisJohnson as his lieutenant?” it asked followers in a mocking Twitter poll.

In my opinion, I believe that this is what brings different debates and shows the positives of the new and digital media and the negatives of the traditional media. On the internet, there are so many actions that can take place and people can interact a lot with each other which cannot be done with traditional media such as print. In addition, communication is much quicker which is why high class people have started to use social media and get their word around because they know that people will be listening and this is why this article is also being written up.

11/04/17 - Technology is a marvel – now let’s make it moral (61)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/10/ethical-technology-women-britain-internet

This article is about how 'we are in an age of marvellous technology but also of staggering incomprehension'. We rely on technology for almost everything – our banks, our healthcare, our transport – but we have no idea how it might work or how to hold it to account. At best, that leads to “understand the necessary hashtags”-style blunders. At worst, it leads to companies having the freedom to make foolish or unethical decisions that put our privacy and security at risk. Despite the internet being a huge revelation to the society, there are some certain aspects that are endangering the world as a key thing is that we are becoming very lazy and have become extremely reliant on the internet and new and digital media. In addition to that, the article talks about how there are many social media sites which realise false information, in other words, fake news. But, the article does talk about how we must act to make the internet a much better place for the younger audience; it says the following: We must fight for fairness. We must protect ourselves. Britain has been doing this since time immemorial – it is only the tools at our disposal that have changed.

• This is not just about tech. It is about finding the future of Britain. We’re about to become a smaller country, more alone in a large world. We need something to anchor ourselves to – something to remind us of who we are and where we’re heading.
• These are not revolutionary ideas. Beneath the shiny words – “cyber security”, “venture capitalists” – lie some of our oldest, purest values. 
•  Estonia has been investing in tech education since 1998, when all schools in the country went online; today, companies such as Skype are worth billions of dollars and, as co-founder Taavet Hinrikus told the Economist back in 2013, high-school students now dream of being entrepreneurs instead of rock stars.

In my opinion, I believe that the internet is already a great place which only needs a few changes towards it. One of them being the fake news; misleading people to false and normally, negative views will only make the atmosphere on the internet and in the world uncomfortable. People would have different views about others, whether it's racial or personal it may still be false. The people to blame for this are the ones who run all the different social media sites, as they are the only ones who have control and can stop this false information from being fed to another user. However, there are some certain aspects which is making the world a much more lazier environment such as shopping for clothes or food.

04/04/17 - Katie Price launches petition to make online abuse a criminal offence (60)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/29/katie-price-launches-petition-to-make-online-abuse-a-criminal-offence

This article is about how Katie Price made a petition which will make online abuse a criminal offense. This was all started off when people on social media would start to make fun out of Katie Price's son who is blind, autistic, ADHD and Prader-Willi syndrome. Price has regularly condemned abusive posts targeting her son, who is 14. In February, a teenager was arrested after online abuse directed at Harvey. And in January a man apologised after the Sun revealed he had sent a string of offensive tweets to Price. Last week, after Price tweeted she had passed the location of the Westminster attack, her son became the target of further abuse. Last year, the police chief constable Stephen Kavanagh warned that existing laws were not sufficient to deal with an “unimagined scale of online abuse”. He told the Guardian: “No police chief would claim the way we deliver police services has sufficiently adapted to the new threat and harms that the internet brings.”

• The government is required to respond to all petitions which receive more than 10,000 signatures. At the time of publishing, Price’s petition had reached more than 83,000 signatures.
• The TV personality and former glamour model announced the petition on her Instagram account, after sharing screenshots of online abuse directed at her son Harvey, who is who is blind and has autism, ADHD and Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder affecting appetite and muscle development.

In my opinion, I believe that this is a good idea and approach as it will improve the behaviour of users online. If people are more aware of it, people wouldn't abuse others with disability etc because they would realise that there is a punishment to go with this act. This is good for the new and digital media as there will be less negative comments and a more positive atmosphere will take place on social media. In addition, I believe that a good way to stop this is also by having block the users that may post brutal messages etc which will allow others to get on with there social media lives and not have to bother with those negative people.

04/04/17 - Twitter drops 'egg' avatar in attempt to break association with internet trolls (59)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/03/twitter-drops-egg-avatar-in-attempt-to-break-association-with-internet-trolls

This article is about how Twitter is abandoning its default “egg” avatar in a bid to shake its association with trolls. For the past seven years, new Twitter accounts have been assigned a profile picture of an egg – a playful reference to the site’s bird logo. However, recently the social network announced that it would be introducing default profile photos in a bid to “prompt more self-expression”, and to break free of the association with abuse and trolling on the platform. In addition, some people had retained the default egg profile photo “because they thought it was fun and cute”, read a blog post circulated by Twitter’s product design and research team. So, this specific, new feature would give Twitter a more professional and formal look for a very successful social media site. A spokesperson mentioned that 'the would like to rethink that and change the default profile photo'. They also said "I see you put your engineering manpower into the REALLY serious projects".

• The default profile picture when Twitter first launched in 2006 was of a silhouette of a person. The following year it changed to “o_O”, before the bird motif was introduced in 2009.
• The new default profile photo was chosen through study of bathroom signage iconography, with gender-neutrality a priority, according to Twitter. In a bid to make it feel “temporary, generic and universal”, it was coloured grey.
• “An abusive tweet is an abusive tweet, whether it’s next to an egg, a silhouette or a real person’s avatar.

In addition, I believe that changing the default profile picture from an egg to a more professional look and something which identifies the user is a good thing to a big industry like Twitter; an industry that is as professional as Twitter, they shouldn't use objects such as eggs which would make the social media account as if it was designed for a younger audience. On the other hand, to a lot of the people who use the social media site wouldn't really bother about it because it is just a photo and loads of users normally change their profile pictures anyways and therefore, don't really notice the fact that there are these social media sites.

Case study research tasks

Your chosen industry:

Social Media

Your chosen case study (i.e. text/institution etc.):

Snapchat

Have you received approval for this case study from your teacher? Yes

Audience

1) How has new and digital media changed the audience experience in your chosen industry?

• Allows the user's to communicate via video and images rather than having to type up the messages.

2) Has new and digital media changed the way the audience consume your chosen product?

• New and digital media has always been a way of which people can be able to communicate or actively use their accounts by typing and usually, they would stay on the social media sites permanently, e.g. photos.

3) Has the size of the audience changed as a result of new and digital media?

• Size is always increasing people younger audiences are slowly started to get smartphones etc which will allow them to use different social media sites and interact with others.

4) What are the positive changes new and digital media have brought to the audience of your case study? (E.g. greater choice, easier access etc.)

• It is easier to access.
• Option to communicate without typing. Photos and videos can be used to communicate with others.
• Anyone has the option to use it (any age)

5) What are the negative changes new and digital media have had on your chosen audience? (E.g. quality of product etc.)

• Once the photo or video has been sent, there is no way of accessing that previous message back.
• Once someone opens it, the photo or video will be deleted from the database straight away.

Institution

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking; you can do takeovers on any social channel, so why include it in an article about Snapchat?

Well, yes, you can run a takeover on any channel, but if you’re getting a student to be the person doing the takeover, then Snapchat is the best one to go for. Why? Well, chances are your students have already been using Snapchat for a while, so they’ll be totally comfortable with how to approach it.

In fact, scrap that… they will be far better at Snapchat than you are. By giving a student the keys to your Snapchat account you’ll not only get real student voice in one of your corporate channels, but you’ll also get brilliant content that works brilliantly in that space.

My go-to institution when it comes to great Snapchat takeovers is the University of Glasgow. Just look at this graduation day, seen through the eyes of one of their students. 


UGC

• Snapchat is pushing harder into live events, and it’s relying on its user base to hand over more content in the process.
• Snapchat is expanding its Live Stories feature as part of an app update Monday to get more user-generated content into each story. The idea is that when multiple people upload content of the same real-life moment — say, the game-winning shot at a basketball game — Snapchat was typically showing just one of those videos from just one angle. Now, users can swipe on their phone screen when watching a Live Story to see different angles of the same exact moment.
• Here’s a YouTube video Snapchat created to help explain how the new feature — called Story Explorer — works.
• It feels like a relatively small change, but it matters for a couple reasons. First, it brings more user-generated content into the app, which gives users more incentive to share videos and photos to Snapchat’s Live Stories product, which equals more engagement. More content also provides more digital real estate on which to sell advertising.
• It’s also the first time Snapchat has ventured into computer-generated content curation. Once a snap is selected by one of Snapchat’s Story editors, “advanced computer vision technology” will be used to find other snaps of the same moment at different angles, a spokesperson wrote in an email to Re/code. Facebook and Twitter have ventured into algorithm-based curation with varying degrees of success, and now Snapchat appears to be taking that road, too.

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

Snapchat is, first and foremost, a platform to send funny pictures to your friends and family. And for new users, your parents, or people who don’t understand the hype, it’s just a silly app to send times photos and a distraction from reality. Some people don’t understand all the new great things that come along with app.

Snapchat has taken over millennails is a huge wave in the past year with its additions of filters, daily “magazines” and personalized features, like Bitmoji and memories. I think it supports the ideology of relevancy. Unlike lots of social media platforms, I think Snapchat has been super successful in its endeavors allowing users to catch up with friends in a more personalized way and inform us of important Holidays and recent news stories.

Personally, snapchat updated me on the election, pop culture, and super interesting innovations and discoveries across the world. Instead of an app to send your friends pictures of you making ugly friends (dumbing down), I think people should view Snapchat as a news outlet and social media platform in which to engage users in current events.

Globalisation

Snapchat: The Future of Globalisation?

• The days of placing an advertisement in the local newspaper may be long behind us. It’s sitting comfortably in the rear-view mirror, along with the typewriter and the Walkman CD player. The days of the advertisement reading “job for hire; apply here” is no longer a community affair, a cultural comfort, or a direct line of communication. We live in a world of expansion, as the luxuries of educational and economic opportunity are no longer based in the western world, but whose reach expands to the coast of the Far East and the deepest depths of Africa. Technology brings the world together, expanding information and opportunity, to all those who may access it. Technology, from the Far East to Africa to the western world, has displaced the typewriter and the Walkman, and soon to be, so much more.
• Snapchat, the popular phone application of one hundred and five million users, who send an estimated four hundred and ten million Snapchat messages per day, may want to change their slogan to “Snapchat, the Professional Recruiter: Changing the application process, one download at a time.” For all of those who use Snapchat to speak with their family and friends and significant other, you may already be scratching your heads, preparing to scoff at the ridiculousness of such a notion. It’s even insulting to suggest such an outrageous idea. Snapchat, the image delivery service that is designed for your image to disappear into thin air within seconds, cannot be more effective than a resume or a CV, or the traditional introduction letter. Enter Sober Lane, the popular Irish pub, which is truly living up to its name.

Social media

Facebook tries to clone Snapchat for 8th, 9th and 10th times

• Facebook has been trying to steal Snapchat’s thunder for a while, but this weekend the social network beat even its own covetous record.
• On Friday came the news that Facebook is testing a new camera in its main app that offers Snapchat Lens-style photo and video filters to users. The camera, available to users in Ireland for now, is accessed by swiping right on the homescreen of the Facebook app.
• On Monday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook tried to buy the Asian snapchat clone Snow. Like Snapchat, Snow features, you guessed it, a large portfolio of filters and masks. TechCrunch says that some time after it was profiled by the New York Times in July, the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made a move to acquire the company. But just like Snapchat did before it, Snow rejected the offer, seeing a bigger future outside Facebook than in.
• In 2012, it coded Poke, a flagrant clone of Snapchat, in just 12 days, focusing on the ephemeral picture messaging. Zuckerberg was proud of Facebook’s speed, but the app disappeared without a trace shortly after.
• In 2013, Facebook tried to buy Snapchat for a reported $3bn, but Snapchat declined.
• In 2014, Facebook launched a fully-featured ephemeral messaging rival Slingshot, which actually had unique features of its own, including the ability to require a picture message in reply before the original was ‘unlocked’. Slingshot died a year later.
• In 2015, Facebook tried a different tack, rolling ephemeral messaging into Messenger in a test. The test wasn’t rolled out widely.
• In 2016, it did it again, this time pushing the ephemeral messaging as part of a suite of security updates for messenger, alongside end-to-end encryption. Those features are still in Messenger.

Statistics

UK Internet ad spend passes £10bn as Google faces YouTube row

• Internet advertising spend surged above £10bn in the UK last year as companies more than doubled the amount they spent on mobile video ads.
• The year-on-year increase of 17% on 2015 comes as many advertisers have pulled campaigns from Google and YouTube after it emerged that some ads have been running around inappropriate content such as extremist videos. 
• “People are increasingly using their smartphones to watch more clips, programmes and films,” said James Chandler, the chief marketing officer at the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, which published the annual digital ad spend report. “Consequently, as companies have to follow what the industry calls ‘eyeballs’ to get their ads in front of people, they have to allocate more budget to mobile and online video as that’s where people are spending more time.”
• The IAB report also found that nearly three-quarters of the £3.8bn digital display advertising market is traded programmatically, where machines have become largely responsible for choosing where ads are booked by advertisers and appear on the internet.

Snap shares continue to rise after IPO but analysts remain wary

• Shares in Snap Inc, the picture messaging app that went public yesterday with a valuation of $29bn this week, continued to soar on Friday as some analysts warned against “hot air” fuelling the dramatic rise.
• The stock rose substantially after the media firm NBCUniversal disclosed a $500m stake taken at the initial public offering (IPO).
• The initial success of the offering raises the likelihood that the tech sector could soon present further public offerings, but analysts remain wary.

Issues/debates

Facebook clones Snapchat again with WhatsApp Status and Direct Photos

• Not content with taking on Snapchat by shipping two clones of Snapchat Stories, attempting two acquisitions (one of Snapchat, one of a Chinese company making Snapchat-style camera apps), making four standalone Snapchat-style apps, bundling two ephemeral messaging implementations, and creating five new cameras with AR lenses, (see also here, here, here, here, here, here and here), Facebook is again shamelessly taking on Snapchat.
• The killer app of WhatsApp Status, for the privacy-conscious at least, is the fact that all the status updates are end-to-end encrypted, intended to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks from successfully eavesdropping on your updates.
• “Can they not be innovative? Do they have to steal all of my partner’s ideas? I’m so appalled by that,” Kerr continued. “When you directly copy someone, that’s not innovation.”
• But the bigger news came a few hours later, when Facebook messaging subsidiary WhatsApp announced a major new feature. Status lets users take pictures, add stickers and drawings, and share them to all their contacts for 24 hours. It’s pitched by WhatsApp as an update to the original, text-only, “status” feature, which lets you set a text status like “out for lunch” or “available to talk” within the app, but it’s also a lot like Snapchat Stories. That is, nearly identical to Snapchat Stories. Although, to be fair, it’s also nearly identical to the Instagram clone of Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories.

Does quitting social media make you happier?

• Yes, say young people doing it...
• Facebook made me feel anxious, depressed and like a failure. When I went online it seemed like everyone was in Australia or Thailand, and if they weren’t travelling they were getting engaged or landing great jobs. I felt like everyone was living the dream and I was still at home with my parents, with debt from my student loan hanging over me.
• I also felt that if I wasn’t tagging myself at restaurants or uploading photos from nights out, people would assume I wasn’t living. I remember a friend from uni said to me once, “Yeah, but you’re still going out having fun, I’ve seen on Facebook.” I tried to present myself as always having a great time. If my status didn’t get more than five likes, I’d delete it. 

Wider examples and secondary texts

Apple launches Clips as it bids for a slice of the Snapchat action

• Cloning Snapchat is the new brunch, which is the new black. Facebook did it, Instagram did it, even WhatsApp did it. But even so, it’s surprising today to see that Apple’s done it too.
• Instead, the goal of Clips is to enable the same sort of fun, creative camera tomfoolery that Snapchat does in its main camera app, but with an explicitly destination-neutral approach.
• No Clips Stories; no ephemeral messaging; no new usernames to secure or QR codes to share.
• If that description makes Clips sound like a Frankenstein’s monster of an app, well, it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It’s essentially an evolution of Apple’s mobile version of iMovie, its video-editing app. While iMovie on desktop is a fairly fully-fledged video editing app, useful for creating slick videos with a lot of editing, on mobile it’s always been just a bit too heavy-duty for the sort of things it’s used for, like slamming two clips together and putting a bit of music over them.
• For it to really take off, it needs to find some originality before long. Snapchat’s lenses are rapidly becoming a recognisable draw to the app, even for people who don’t use it to chat. Prisma’s AI-powered filters are similarly unique. Clips can launch without a draw of its own, but eventually it needs its own calling card.

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The Internet/Social Media

The internet and social media are currently transforming the way people communicate, gather information, socialise, access entertainment and organise their lives. There has never been so much information available so readily, and its impact is likely to be as big as that created by the printing press. Old industries (such as print newspapers) are struggling to survive while new technologies such as augmented and virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence are already in development. From cyber-bullying to trolling, easy access to pornography, cat-fishing, radicalisation, and the risk of grooming, the internet and social media have generated many modern moral panics about potential social change. While some of these dangers may be exaggerated, we do know that terrorist groups recruit online and use the Internet to communicate their propaganda, and that bullying and vicious trolling do exist. It is almost inevitable that these technologies will create major societal and economic changes – it’s just not clear what direction these changes will take.

Hostile Media Coverage

How has the media portrayed the refugee crisis? In the British press, a great deal of the language and the imagery has been hostile. Refugees are often labelled as migrants, to create the impression that they are travelling by choice, rather than fleeing a genuine disaster. A quick Google Images search of newspaper headlines reveals a shocking montage of misrepresentation, in which refugees are described as a swarm, horde or tide, marauding and invading their way across the world. They are held responsible for their own condition, even – or especially – when the West itself has contributed to it. Such language deliberately creates the impression in readers’ minds that refugees are a dangerous and threatening mass, parasitically living off the settled countries of the West. In any tabloid scare story about migrants/refugees, there is rarely any analysis of the causes of the refugee crisis. Any such analysis would run the risk of complicating the picture of a deluge of scroungers, and might even lead us to think of them as human beings.

What about YouTube, Vimeo and the hundreds of other sites with film clips, interviews and reviews? They are all useful. The main point is to focus on what you want to research and to search for it in a systematic way. It’s easy to get distracted and start watching a movie. Fine if you’ve got the time, but not good if you have an essay to write or a presentation to give. Teachers and examiners will want to see references for the range of sources you’ve used, so make sure you list some of the industry organisations above. Many of them have their own YouTube channels.

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Heaven or Hell – the Verdict?

So, social media: heaven or hell? Perhaps, like most forms of communication Web 2.0 is only a reflection of our existing social divides. Perhaps for some, it presents opportunities to explore their identities; but for others it works as a set of ideological blinkers concentrating their existing prejudices.

According to Wikipedia, in media, an echo chamber is a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an ‘enclosed’ system, where different or competing views are censored, disallowed or otherwise under-represented. Giddens argues that in modern or postmodern societies, the question of self-identity – ‘What to do? How to act? Who to be?’ – is inescapable. Unlike oral societies, we have to work out our own roles for ourselves. These will be influenced by both individuals and the state, social and legal changes and, of course, the media.

Alan Martin sees personalisation at its most problematic. We don’t have to look too deeply into our Facebook and YouTube commentary streams to find adversarial social media ‘banter’ that can escalate into extreme and entrenched debate. Alan Martin believes that we are more likely to be adversarial online because we immerse ourselves in blinkered communities, identifying our own viewpoints as the centre ground. We think anyone straying too far from that consensus must be wrong, ignorant or mad; in this way, the internet insulates us from unfamiliar ideas.

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The Role of Social Media

It is also possible that social media had an impact as, in what is now ‘classic’ Web 2.0 fashion, it enabled audiences to produce and distribute texts. For example, The Sun’s front page the day before the election has an unflattering picture of Miliband eating a sandwich. A hashtag ‘#JeSuisEd’ encouraged tweeters to share embarrassing pictures of people doing the same, making the point that anyone can look an idiot eating butties. In addition, @twcuddleston started #Milifandom, a Twitter-based fan club for the Labour leader. But whatever impact these memes had, they were overwhelmed by the pro-Tory press coverage.

The first leader interviews received complaints that the two leaders were treated differently, and that the programme was biased against Miliband. Polls taken afterwards showed no clear winner – YouGov took two polls that gave contradictory results. Surveys of social media responses seemed to favour Miliband. The interviews were watched by about 3 million people. About 7 million people watched the ITV debate and the winner of the debate, depending on the poll, was either Miliband or Sturgeon (for the SNP). An analysis of social media showed that Farage’s comments about immigrants with HIV were negatively received and the minor parties were tweeted about most favourably, with Cameron least favoured of all the leaders. The third debate was dogged by controversy. Cameron claimed he was ‘not invited’ to the debate whereas the other parties, the broadcasters and many on social media were keen to point out that the lack of governmental presence was his choice. Nearly 9 million people watched this debate and Miliband appeared to have ‘won’ the debate, in both traditional polls and in online responses.

"A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances."

We’ve already identified how viewers will choose to watch hosts who they relate to or find entertaining. As a mini case study on audience identity, let’s look at the popular YouTube gaming channel and production company, Rooster Teeth. Currently, Rooster Teeth (RT) has approximately 21 million subscribers across their several YouTube channels. Their growth can largely be attributed to their fans. They have created an online community who discuss videos, interact with employees/hosts and create their own content for the company to use. RT’s website features community message boards which allow fans to discuss games, films, videos uploaded by the channel and pretty much anything else. It has become a social hub for fans who know that they all have at least one thing in common. The website also features a store that is well stocked with T-shirts, mugs, hoodies, keyrings, stickers and many other pieces of merchandise for fans to buy.

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The X Factor and the music industry

Last year, a social media campaign successfully kept winner Joe McElderry off the top spot by persuading even more people to download Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’. This ended four years of consecutive Christmas no.1s for The X Factor, and was seen by many as evidence of people power hitting back at the mass-produced commercial fare that Simon Cowell was trying to foist on us. After all, Rage’s song is a rant against capitalism, and the band reinforced this stance by donating the profits to charity.

Celebrity Tweet

What is interesting here is the comparison between the stars that use Twitter and those who don’t – and indeed how this can affect their image. It seems fitting for Frost to post images of himself cooking because the parts that he tends to play require a sense of authenticity and ‘everydayness’. Twitter seems to support his ideological position, and it is down to Frost to support this image through what he posts. Another British celebrity, Jonathon Ross, also provides interesting insights into his home life, again supported with self-taken photographs. The images used to represent the ‘real’ star are no longer photographed and managed by a team of PR consultants, but constructed by the stars themselves. Twitter images thus seem raw and unmediated, offering an interesting comparison to the ‘airbrushed’ artificial presentations we see in magazines and newspapers.

Fac(ebook)ing the changes

For me, one of the big changes in the media is the impact social networking has had on our daily lives. It’s a case of blink, and there it is, all-pervasive, all-consuming, all-knowing, and I didn’t see it coming. Though there are several of these sites – Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, and MSN and so on, I am going to focus on Facebook.

Media Factsheet 131

As social media has developed, it has become a useful way for news editors to gauge the way that people think and feel and so news institutions can select stories that reflect current trends or they can try and create a trend by reporting stories that will get people talking about the story on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Media Factsheet 134

Consequently nearly all digital content has a capacity to be shared on social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, Ello, Medium, Kickstarter but yet the news institutions have yet to create or conceive of a platform where they control the distribution of news, equally social media sites have no interest in employing journalist to editorialise and check content.

Facebook and other social media sites use a series of complicated formulae to decide which news stories rise to the top of your page or news feed and this algorithm contains editorial decisions, every piece of software design carries social implications. Gatekeepers no longer shape the news agenda and newsroom norms but shaped by algorithms which determine which promote popular stories.

Up-to-the-minute research

Snapchat 'will be bigger than Twitter, Yahoo and AOL with advertisers'

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/26/snapchat-will-be-bigger-than-twitter-yahoo-and-aol-with-advertisers

• Snapchat could become more popular with advertisers than Twitter, Yahoo and AOL within three years, with the messaging app company forecast to bring in revenues of more than $3bn (£2.4bn) a year before the end of 2019.
• That bullish forecast is based on advertisers targeting the youth audience that the disappearing photo app has seemingly cornered. More than half (51%) of video users on Snapchat are under 24, compared with 23% for Facebook and 17% for Google’s YouTube, according to Ampere Analysis.
• The number of Snapchat users grew by 14% and 17% in the first two quarters of last year. Following the launch of Instagram Stories, Snapchat’s growth slumped to 7% and just 3.2% in the final two quarters of 2016. Snap has blamed “technical issues” in the rollout of new products, but admitted in its IPO document that Facebook/Instagram would be a huge threat.
• Last summer, Instagram – which has 600 million users to Snapchat’s 158 million – launched a function called Stories, which is similar to Snapchat’s own story feature. Instagram Stories has already achieved 150 million daily active users. Instagram Stories’ launch intensified another concern: Snapchat’s slowing growth.
• “Our competition may mimic our products and therefore harm our user engagement and growth,” Snap acknowledged.

Snap Inc: it's Snapchat, but now with video-recording 'Spectacles'

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2016/sep/26/snap-inc-snapchat-spectacles-video-recording-sunglasses

• Young people have too much time. Perhaps. But as a result, Snapchat is now worth about $22bn (£17bn), just five years after some college friends started it at home. Today, CEO Evan Spiegel is a 26-year-old multi-billionaire engaged to the supermodel Miranda Kerr.
• Glasses that record video … That reminds me of something. Google Glass?
• Snap Inc. Whatever. The point is that Google Glass were these high-tech nerd goggles, but Spectacles will be simple, bold, fun – and cool!
• It seems so obvious, in retrospect. So why does Spiegel think Spectacles will be different? Well, they’re cheaper and brightly coloured. Or, at least, they will be when they go on limited release in the US for $130 (£101) this autumn. Plus, hey, they’re from Snapchat!
• I think I’ve heard of Snapchat. Is it that thing where you show people your genitals for five seconds? Pictures of your genitals, yes. That’s one of its uses. It’s the app that lets you share photos and videos that delete themselves shortly afterwards. Plus you can add silly graphics and effects. Young people like it.

Apple launches Clips as it bids for a slice of the Snapchat action

• Cloning Snapchat is the new brunch, which is the new black. Facebook did it, Instagram did it, even WhatsApp did it. But even so, it’s surprising today to see that Apple’s done it too.
• Instead, the goal of Clips is to enable the same sort of fun, creative camera tomfoolery that Snapchat does in its main camera app, but with an explicitly destination-neutral approach.
• No Clips Stories; no ephemeral messaging; no new usernames to secure or QR codes to share.
• If that description makes Clips sound like a Frankenstein’s monster of an app, well, it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It’s essentially an evolution of Apple’s mobile version of iMovie, its video-editing app. While iMovie on desktop is a fairly fully-fledged video editing app, useful for creating slick videos with a lot of editing, on mobile it’s always been just a bit too heavy-duty for the sort of things it’s used for, like slamming two clips together and putting a bit of music over them.
• For it to really take off, it needs to find some originality before long. Snapchat’s lenses are rapidly becoming a recognisable draw to the app, even for people who don’t use it to chat. Prisma’s AI-powered filters are similarly unique. Clips can launch without a draw of its own, but eventually it needs its own calling card.

Snapchat denies claim CEO did not want to expand into 'poor India'

• Snapchat is facing a public relations crisis in India, the world’s fastest growing smartphone market, after allegations its founder said the app was “only for rich people” and that he did not want to “expand into poor countries like India”.
• The complaint was unsealed last week, revealing an allegation that Spiegel, the company’s chief executive, once told Pompliano he had no interest in expanding Snapchat into countries such as India.
• Snapchat, which has about 4 million users in India, has called the allegations “ridiculous”. “Obviously Snapchat is for everyone. It’s available worldwide to download for free,” the company said.
• India is a burgeoning market for online businesses with about 432 million internet users and another 750 million people yet to be connected.
• But India has proved a challenging market to crack. Last year a scheme by Facebook to provide free mobile internet to hundreds of millions of Indians was ruled a violation of net neutrality and stopped in its tracks.

Facebook clones Snapchat again with WhatsApp Status and Direct Photos

• Not content with taking on Snapchat by shipping two clones of Snapchat Stories, attempting two acquisitions (one of Snapchat, one of a Chinese company making Snapchat-style camera apps), making four standalone Snapchat-style apps, bundling two ephemeral messaging implementations, and creating five new cameras with AR lenses, (see also here, here, here, here, here, here and here), Facebook is again shamelessly taking on Snapchat.
• The killer app of WhatsApp Status, for the privacy-conscious at least, is the fact that all the status updates are end-to-end encrypted, intended to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks from successfully eavesdropping on your updates.
• “Can they not be innovative? Do they have to steal all of my partner’s ideas? I’m so appalled by that,” Kerr continued. “When you directly copy someone, that’s not innovation.”
• But the bigger news came a few hours later, when Facebook messaging subsidiary WhatsApp announced a major new feature. Status lets users take pictures, add stickers and drawings, and share them to all their contacts for 24 hours. It’s pitched by WhatsApp as an update to the original, text-only, “status” feature, which lets you set a text status like “out for lunch” or “available to talk” within the app, but it’s also a lot like Snapchat Stories. That is, nearly identical to Snapchat Stories. Although, to be fair, it’s also nearly identical to the Instagram clone of Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories.

Snap shares continue to rise after IPO but analysts remain wary

• Shares in Snap Inc, the picture messaging app that went public yesterday with a valuation of $29bn this week, continued to soar on Friday as some analysts warned against “hot air” fuelling the dramatic rise.
• The stock rose substantially after the media firm NBCUniversal disclosed a $500m stake taken at the initial public offering (IPO).
• The initial success of the offering raises the likelihood that the tech sector could soon present further public offerings, but analysts remain wary.
• On Thursday, the Instinet analyst Anthony DiClemente urged investors to reduce their holdings of Snap, warning that the company is already seeing a slowdown in the growth of daily average users and average revenue per users.

UK Internet ad spend passes £10bn as Google faces YouTube row

• Internet advertising spend surged above £10bn in the UK last year as companies more than doubled the amount they spent on mobile video ads.
• The year-on-year increase of 17% on 2015 comes as many advertisers have pulled campaigns from Google and YouTube after it emerged that some ads have been running around inappropriate content such as extremist videos. 
• “People are increasingly using their smartphones to watch more clips, programmes and films,” said James Chandler, the chief marketing officer at the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, which published the annual digital ad spend report. “Consequently, as companies have to follow what the industry calls ‘eyeballs’ to get their ads in front of people, they have to allocate more budget to mobile and online video as that’s where people are spending more time.”
• The IAB report also found that nearly three-quarters of the £3.8bn digital display advertising market is traded programmatically, where machines have become largely responsible for choosing where ads are booked by advertisers and appear on the internet.

Snapchat cracks down on risque images and fake news

• Snapchat is tightening up its guidelines for publishers on its Discover service, banning the posting of risque images without editorial value, and clarifying guidelines intended to prevent the spread of fake news on the platform.
• The changes, according to a spokeswoman for Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, are intended to “empower our editorial partners to do their part to keep Snapchat an informative, factual and safe environment for everyone”.
• As well as the rules against questionable pictures, Snapchat Discover will also begin to crack down on the hot topic for most social networks: so-called fake news. Publishers will now be required to start fact-checking Discover stories, both those published in the app and linked to from it.
• Snapchat’s new rules will require some news justification or other editorial value before such stories can be posted to the service. Snap also plans to give publishers a tool in February that will allow them to age-gate content, presenting different stories to users over and under 18, according to the New York Times.

Facebook tries to clone Snapchat for 8th, 9th and 10th times

• Facebook has been trying to steal Snapchat’s thunder for a while, but this weekend the social network beat even its own covetous record.
• On Friday came the news that Facebook is testing a new camera in its main app that offers Snapchat Lens-style photo and video filters to users. The camera, available to users in Ireland for now, is accessed by swiping right on the homescreen of the Facebook app.
• On Monday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook tried to buy the Asian snapchat clone Snow. Like Snapchat, Snow features, you guessed it, a large portfolio of filters and masks. TechCrunch says that some time after it was profiled by the New York Times in July, the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made a move to acquire the company. But just like Snapchat did before it, Snow rejected the offer, seeing a bigger future outside Facebook than in.
• In 2012, it coded Poke, a flagrant clone of Snapchat, in just 12 days, focusing on the ephemeral picture messaging. Zuckerberg was proud of Facebook’s speed, but the app disappeared without a trace shortly after.
• In 2013, Facebook tried to buy Snapchat for a reported $3bn, but Snapchat declined.
• In 2014, Facebook launched a fully-featured ephemeral messaging rival Slingshot, which actually had unique features of its own, including the ability to require a picture message in reply before the original was ‘unlocked’. Slingshot died a year later.
• In 2015, Facebook tried a different tack, rolling ephemeral messaging into Messenger in a test. The test wasn’t rolled out widely.
• In 2016, it did it again, this time pushing the ephemeral messaging as part of a suite of security updates for messenger, alongside end-to-end encryption. Those features are still in Messenger.

Does quitting social media make you happier?

• Yes, say young people doing it...
• Facebook made me feel anxious, depressed and like a failure. When I went online it seemed like everyone was in Australia or Thailand, and if they weren’t travelling they were getting engaged or landing great jobs. I felt like everyone was living the dream and I was still at home with my parents, with debt from my student loan hanging over me.
• I also felt that if I wasn’t tagging myself at restaurants or uploading photos from nights out, people would assume I wasn’t living. I remember a friend from uni said to me once, “Yeah, but you’re still going out having fun, I’ve seen on Facebook.” I tried to present myself as always having a great time. If my status didn’t get more than five likes, I’d delete it.