28/03/17 - Singapore teen blogger who criticised government wins asylum in US (58)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/25/singapore-teen-blogger-who-criticised-government-wins-asylum-in-us

This article is about how a teenage blogger from Singapore whose online posts blasting his government landed in him jail has been granted asylum to remain in the United States. Amos Yee, aged 18, left Singapore with the intention of seeking asylum in the US after being jailed for several weeks in 2015 and 2016. He was accused of hurting the religious feelings of Muslims and Christians; Yee is an atheist. However, many of his blog and social media posts criticized Singapore’s leaders. He created controversy in 2015 as the city-state was mourning the death of its first prime minister and he posted an expletive-laden video about prime minister Lee Kuan Yew just after his death. In addition, Yee said in a phone interview from jail this month that he feared returning to Singapore. But he said he would continue to speak out and had already planned a line of T-shirts and started writing a book about his experiences. “I have an infinite amount of ideas of what to do,” he said.

• It was unclear whether they had appealed the decision or if Yee would have to remain imprisoned if they did. Attorneys have 30 days to appeal.
• “Singapore excels at creating a pressure cooker environment for dissidents and free thinkers who dare challenge the political, economic and social diktats from the ruling People’s Action Party. It’s clear the Singapore government saw Amos Yee as the proverbial nail sticking up that had to be hammered down.”
• Yee left Singapore with the intention of seeking asylum in the US after being jailed for several weeks in 2015 and 2016.

In my opinion, I believe that Such open criticism of political leaders is discouraged in Singapore. The case, which raised questions about free speech and censorship, has been closely watched abroad. The only people to blame for this is the government; if the internet is there to give the users the freedom of posting whatever they wish to, then there shouldn't be any problems with the things they may wish to post. Therefore, I believe that what the government did to this 18 year old blogger is wrong and shouldn't have sent him to prison as it could've affected them personally.

28/03/17 - Internet firms must do more to tackle online extremism, says No 10 (57)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/24/internet-firms-must-do-more-to-tackle-online-extremism-no-10

This article is about how many people believed that Facebook could've done more in order to help hide the extremist material from the internet. In addition, the prime ministers spokesperson believed that social media companies have a responsibility when it comes to making sure this material is not disseminated and we have been clear repeatedly that we think that they can and must do more. For example, Facebook have ways in which only users aged 18 or above could have access only to view and therefore, this was a key reason in which why people were disappointed in why these things weren't thought of when the actual incident was happening. Furthermore, this isn't the only time which Facebook have done this similar sort of thing. Of course the battle of Mosul was another thing which they could've kept aside from the younger audience etc. On the other hand, another spokesman Boris Johnson said that he does think the responsibility for this most lies with the internet providers, with those that are responsible for great social media companies. They have got to look at the stuff that is going up on their sites. They have got to take steps to invigilate it and to take it down where they can”. 

• “Whenever we are made aware of this kind of content, we take swift action to remove it from Facebook and work with law enforcement and security agencies as appropriate. We take this responsibility very seriously and continue to work with the government to explore what more can be done to tackle extremism online.”
• Speaking in New York this week, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said extremist material online was “corrupting and polluting” many people.
• The fight against terrorism and hate speech had to be a joint one, he said. “The government and security services are doing everything they can and it is clear that social media companies can and must do more.”

In my opinion, I believe that what Facebook have been doing about these types of events are not to a professional standard. This is a major company  who is rivaling with the worlds best companies and if Facebook cannot get the little things right, then they would fall far behind due to the reputation that they may potentially get. As said previously, the battle of Mosul was another graphic live stream which wasn't monitored properly by Facebook and also had these similar problems that they are facing now. Therefore, I believe that in the future, Facebook will need to think much more wiser than they may now and would need to step up their content in the future.

21/03/17 - YouTube changes restrictions on gay-themed content following outcry (56)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/21/youtube-changes-restrictions-gay-lgbtq-themed-content-tegan-sarah

This article is about how YouTube have changed the restriction for gay-themed content on its website; they have tried to block out many different things related to this topic and many people associated with this have found this to be very direspectful as they believe that this is personally a bad thing for them. Tegan and Sara, who are both openly gay, were among those who complained about the policy, pointing out its absurdities in a series of tweets: “If you put @YouTube on restricted mode a bunch of our music videos disappear. … LGBTQ people shouldn’t be restricted. SAD!”. In addition, The “restricted” designation lets parents, schools and libraries filter out content that isn’t appropriate for users under 18. Turning on the restriction makes videos inaccessible. YouTube calls it “an optional feature used by a very small subset of users”. However, it’s unclear if the types of videos in question are now being categorised as restricted for the first time, or if this is a long-standing policy towards sexuality that is only now getting attention.

• What sorts of content are filtered out in restricted mode can vary by region, based on countries’ community standards. In general, though, it includes “sexually explicit language or excessive profanity”, and violent or disturbing content, according to YouTube’s policies.
• YouTube content creators can age-restrict their videos themselves. But that’s just one of the ways sensitive content is filtered out. YouTube says it also uses “community flagging”, which means users can flag videos for possible restrictions or removal.

In my opinion, I believe that what YouTube is doing is very wrong and discriminating to the LGBTQ society. I think that YouTube accept what they do and shouldn't question how they act online as it is a personal things and most likely making them feel like they're not apart of this society. If some particular users have something against the way they are behaving, then they still have the option to block that particular account and carry on with searching other content on YouTube. However, if they are fine with this then YouTube shouldn't interfere with this as this is someones personal life and considering they're a large institution, they should respect that people for who they are etc.

21/03/17 - Far-right millionaire: I'll use social media network to back Scottish independence (55)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/20/jim-dowson-back-scottish-independence-patriotic-news-agency-far-right

This article is about a former financial backer of the British Nation party is going to use social media in order to promote the Scottish separatism. For a while, there has been talks about how Scotland are wanting to leave the UK to become an own unit like Ireland. However, this isn't working and this man, Jim Dowson wants to try and change it by persuading it's people via social media. The article continues to talk about how there are similarities between this scenario and the Donald Trump presidential elections. Dowson’s social media group pumped out pro-Trump “news” during the latter stages of the US presidential campaign, including several conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton. This suggests that this person seems to be very powerful across social media and could therefore have a significant impact on the world. As a one-time member of the far-right Britain First organisation, which he resigned from three years ago, Dowson said he would be directing the pro-independence online media campaign from his bases in Hungary and Serbia as well as in Britain, including from an office in Stirling. 

• An unapologetic advocate of Christian nationalist anti-immigrant groups across Europe, the 52-year-old former evangelical preacher is also a strong proponent of Vladimir Putin. Dowson has spoken at a conference of far-right leaders in Russia and wants Trump to enter an era of cooperation with Putin.
• Anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate said: “Dowson has become a major player in social media, using his ‘hub’ in Budapest to spew out hatred right around the world. His proposed intervention in Scotland has nothing to do with independence, but with everything to do with the lust for bigotry and making another of his former places of residence a battleground for hatred.”

In my opinion, I believe that this is just another way of spreading around fake news. Although there was nothing mentioning fake news in this particular article, it still had a lot of relationships to Trump and I do believe that that was based a lot around inaccurate information which was fed to the public. Therefore, the fact that which the Dowson had something to do with the elections tells me that what he will be feeding to the Scottish public, I personally think that he would be posting a lot of unreliable sources which is already a problem which we face on social media every day and we still need to do something which will solve this specific problem.

MEST3 Section A - PPE Prep

1) Throughout the film, a wide range of enigma codes were used and we the audience had many questions with the two film trailers. For example, the first thing which normally came to mind with the media product two is that whether or not we will see the boy, Oskar turning into a vampire; In other vampire or texts linked to vampires, such as the Vampire Diaries, we usually witness that if a vampire were to bite a non vampire, they would usually turn into a vampire too. Therefore, with this trailer we got a sense that this may follow the same reoccurring concept as the other texts which has similar aspects to this movie. In addition to this, product two didn't show enough dialogue and many showed a lot of action, which created a lot of mystery. The fact which the were only two times which the characters had said something made the audience wonder what this story is going to be about. Is the vampire going to be the villain or the hero of this movie? Are we going to discover something different with the vampire concept within this movie. Therefore, with this text, it created a lot of questions for the audience to answer which makes it more appealing for them as they would want to find out what the actual storyline is going to be about considering there was hardly any text and we couldn't get a good justification from the different characters shown in product two.

Furthermore, a lot of binary opposition was shown in product one. For example, straight away we saw this feud between Edward and Jacob which obviously suggested they didn't like each other for the moment we heard the dialogue and their facial expressions. At the beginning, it started off with a question from Jacob to Edward about telling the truth to the female protagonist and this create an enigma code of what is going to happen between the two characters and what they were on about. Also, at the end we saw this battle between werewolf's and vampires, creating another binary opposition and the potential dislikes between the two types of species. 

2) Nowadays, media  products which represent outsiders, such as vampire movies mainly attract the younger audiences. A key reason for this is because the youth enjoy looking at texts which are unique and creative. One example of a text which represents outsiders is the movie Ill Manors, which is a movie based on the youths and how they have been seen to be separated to the older generation, especially the boys. This movie shows the problems that are being faced in Britain and the younger generation may find this film quite attractive because it is giving an inside to themselves which is linked to 'personal identity' in the Uses & Gratification. Ill Manors is all about teenagers and the target audience itself is about teenagers who have been portrayed as the outsiders of the world. For example, they are been defined as serious trouble which has got key links to the London riots which of course, were started by the youth as they believed that this is the only way which they believe that would be heard by the public.

In addition, another text which represents outsiders could be the English-Nigerian comedy Gone Too Far. A lot of the time, with black movies, humour is being generated which makes the movie itself much more appealing to watch. However, the target audience of this specific movie isn't just about the black audience watching it, it replicates other genders too. For example, a similar text which could relate to this is Goodness Gracious Me. With this text, different sorts of identities in the Indian race has been shown, also through the use of comedy. A lot of the time, people do not like to watch documentaries about their culture and so, the watch humorous texts and these are popular because a lot of people could relate to this sort of behavior, e.g. from the foreign parents while they have grown up in another town/country, therefore I believe that this is why the outsider texts are very popular.

3) In my opinion, I do believe that to some extent, official and unofficial websites contribute to a film's box office success. The key reason for this is that websites are accessible globally and anyone with the access of internet, can look at the text website etc gaining a more wider audience. In addition, I believe that the Twilight official websites could potentially make the audience feel more involved within the film; if this is the case then the could potentially have a rise in the box office success and they believe that there may be a personal relationship involved with the film itself. Even though they have only watched the trailer of the movie, the official websites will still allow them to engage with the film more, as the website itself would be designed for the audience to interact with the movie. Furthermore, another website which could be represented in the same way is the Ill Manors  movie website. With Ill Manors, they had the Tag London campaign which allowed the audience to interact with each other and talk about how London makes them feel about their youth status. This allows them to grow as a youth and believe that the film contributed to this and would feel the need to want to watch this as it may seem appealing to them afterwards.
On the other hand, unofficial websites such as Twitter do not allow the audience to engage with the movie or even to interact with each other as it hasn't been designed by the movie creators or it isn't set out properly. However, with huge social media companies such as Facebook still have an upper hand as they have the opportunity to sell their product to a wider audience which could bring more awareness to the audiences.

13/03/17 - Facebook and Twitter should do more to combat fake news, says GCHQ (54)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/14/facebook-twitter-gchq-combat-fake-news

This article is about how social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook should be doing more to combat the emerging threat of fake news. It also starts to talk about how Facebook are the ones to blame for the fake news as they didn't see this coming and haven't tried to do anything to prevent this from happening further. A spokesman, Paul Chichester said that "We don’t own those platforms, we don’t run them, the industry does. It’s really important that they do recognise they carry some social responsibility". This means that these large companies should try to recognise what is happening in the world and how they are one of the main causes for this and should try to act much quicker as the fake news is happening everyday and this hasn't changed for a very long time. This is why people are so frustrated as there aren't any answers from the social media sites chairman such as Mark Zuckerberg. 

• He said: “We don’t own those platforms, we don’t run them, the industry does. It’s really important that they do recognise they carry some social responsibility.
• Asked on Tuesday whether social networks could do more to tackle the rising tide of fake news, Chichester said: “I think so. It’s an emerging threat that we’re all grappling with. It’s not just a challenge for government.

I believe that what Facebook, and a lot of other social media sites, are doing, is trying to save themselves from the critics so that they will not have anything bad said about them. One of the key reasons I think this is because, CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about how 99% of the time, news is accurate which therefore means that there is a 1% chance that the news could be inaccurate. However, he did not mention that; he said that they will spot this 1% chance and no one would notice it. In addition, I believe that this is very misleading for the Facebook users and they then may think that everything that they see on Facebook is true when others would know that this is a false piece of news. Therefore, I think that Facebook should change this and should make sure that everything they distribute should be properly checked over before 'feeding the news' to their audience/users.

13/03/17 - Is Snapchat the sign of a post-literary future? John Naughton (53)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/12/snapchat-sign-of-post-literary-future

This article is an opinion based article talking about if Snapchat will be the future of creativity in the future. The writer believes that Snapchat has taken over the lives of the users which are under the age of 20 in a matter of a few years. 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. Later on, it states the question on "If Snapchat is beginning to assume the qualities of an oral medium?". This means that are Snapchat the key sign which is suggesting post-literary future, where we verbally communication by either taking a photo or even a video of ourselves. Finally, the also concludes with another question asking the audience if Donald Trump is "the first president of our post-literate age?".

• When television replaced print as the dominant medium, Postman (wickedly) argued that childhood effectively ended at age three, because kids of that age could understand popular television programmes – which explained why there were no remedial classes in TV viewing!
• “People wonder why their daughter is taking 10,000 photos a day,” he said. “What they don’t realise is that she isn’t preserving images. She’s talking.”
• You may have noticed a brief flurry of media interest in the stock market flotation of Snap, the company whose Snapchat app has taken the world – or at least that part of it under the age of 20 – by storm.

In my opinion, I do believe that Snapchat is the sign of post-literary future. One of the main reasons why I believe this is because of the fact that they are one of the only companies which have actually started this concept. Also, I believe that this post-literary, where people are beginning to message through the use of video and photos has already begun with many other social media accounts such as Instagram. I think that they have copied this concept from Snapchat as the layout etc is all the same thing. The reason why I believe that this is the case is because of the fact that people find typing a message to their friends or family has become far too long to type and if they were just recording themselves saying something will just make it a lot easier for themselves because it is also a quicker process in doing it.

MEST3 Identity/NDM stories: updated indexes

1) Reading the riots

2) Post-colonialism: theories and Destiny Ekaragwa film analysis

3) Post-colonialism: Orientalism theory and Yasmin clip task
4) Post-colonialism: Media Magazine articles and questions

5) Feminism: post-feminism and No More Page 3 research
6) Feminism: Feminist theory and Beyonce video analysis

7) Feminism: waves of feminism and online activism
8) Feminism: Applying feminism - Media Factsheet
9) Identity and Film - Media Factsheet
10) Identity and the wider media - Factsheet

11) Collective identity and the media

New/digital media story index

1. Nudity and Facebook's censors have a long history 

2. Instagram unveils tool to allow users to filter abusive comments

3. Apple Inc Bombarded With Criticisms Before iPhone 7 Launch

4. Snapchat app launches Discover in France 

5. Snapchat unveils $130 connected sunglasses and rebrands as Snap, Inc.

6. BBC denies iPlayer password plans are part of licence fee crackdown

7. Twitter pays £1.24m in UK tax as revenues increase by 30.5%

8. New research shows there's one big change when cops wear cameras

9. Ad-blockers: are publishers tempted to feed the hand that bites them? 

10. I'm with you on the digital revolution, it's the lack of journalism I can't face 

11. Spotify UK revenues surge to almost £190m as mobile subscriptions take off

12. Netflix paid less than £400,000 in UK corporation tax last year

13. Back to the future: were newspaper publishers wrong to go digital?

14. Channel 4 News defends Facebook live stream of battle for Mosul

15. Make Google and Facebook pay for public service reporting

16. Telegraph paywall initiative is an interesting strategic shift

17. NSPCC records 88% rise in children seeking help for online abuse

18. Facebook staff mount secret push to tackle fake news, reports say

19. Newspapers big and small are facing an existential crisis

20. Facebook and Google move to kick fake news sites off their ad networks

21. Missing iPlayer means your Samsung TV isn’t so smart

22. Tweets ahead: improving public services via Facebook and Twitter

23. Big football clubs take on Facebook with new social media network

24. Here's the truth: 'fake news' is not social media's fault 

25. Defriend everyone on Facebook if you really want to see the world as it is

26. Daily Mail group refuses to rule out sale of newspaper titles

27. Help! I'm caught in a Twitter war and I'm losing (27)

28. Ray Tindle spins away, but journalism will die without a strategy (28)

29. In a world of fake news, real journalism must be paid for

30. How TV news failed to keep up in 2016

31. Do I need to get Snapchat? And would you please explain it to me?

32. Calls to Childline about online sexual abuse up 250% in three years

33. Change never stops, but we will always need journalism

34. Smartphones are stealing our time. This new year, I want to claim it back

35. Snapchat to set up main international hub in UK

36. Film and TV ​streaming and downloads overtake DVD sales for first time

37. BBC sets up team to debunk fake news

38. BBC iPlayer faces complete overhaul in Tony Hall's future-proofing plans

39. Snapchat cracks down on risque images and fake news

40. The real secret of Chinese internet censorship? Distraction John Naughton

41. Lies can thrive in the social media world 

42. Facebook is trying to tackle fake news, but what should we do?

43. IMDb shuts down its message boards

44. Twitter accounts really are echo chambers, study finds

45. Are mobiles changing how we shop?

46. PewDiePie angrily accuses media of 'out-of-context' reports on antisemitic video

47. Why IMDb should rethink the decision to close its message boards

48. Mobile giant Three to block online advertising

49. TV advertising exceeds £5bn for first time 

50. Babysitting apps boom as parents bid to reclaim free time

51. ABC to lose 200 jobs by June in latest round of cuts

52. Fake news inquiry to review social networks' complaints procedures

Collective identity

1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

Who are you?

We are all involved in constructing and image to communicate our identity. there is a difference between what we think we are, what we want to be and who we are seen to be.

I think, therefore I am.

Our identity would have been based around aspects of our lives that were constructed outside of our selves; class, religion, gender and the predetermined roles that were part of the accident of the family we were born into

From citizen to consumer

The idea of creating wants and desires was influenced by the work of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

The rise of the individual

The notion of individualism began in the late 1960s and 1970s; This is where the public wanted to express themselves the way the wanted to

Who will we be

Chandler - creating a homepage shaped materials and ones identity.

2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.

• Android - Android are a very advanced brand which like to make their consumers feel appriciated  by the quality of product they have. I personally enjoy this  brand because of the fact that they challenge the customer with their products and isn't an ordinary, basic product.
• Adidas - This reflects me as the type of person who feels good about themselves when they're playing a particular sport etc. I would always wear Adidas because it lasts a long time and the fact that the quality is great.
• Apple - In terms of computers, Apple are the best and they try to bring the best out of their consumers and try to motivate them to do work etc. An Apple MacBook keeps me motivate and sums up my identity as I tend to program a lot of the time.
• YouTube - This brand helps me gain creative ideas on things which I may be planning to do in the future. Along with that, it also would help others too as it is a worldwide company.
• Levi's - This reflects me as the type of person who feels good about themselves when they're going out with their friends etc.

3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?

Definition: The manner in which an argument (or arguer) is presented is taken to affect the likelihood that the conclusion is true. Examples: Nixon lost the presidential debate because of the sweat on his forehead.
In my opinion, I do believe with the saying style over substance as to some extent, a lot of people would rather care about their appearance than anything else.

5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?

I do feel that my presence on social media is an accurate reflection of who I am. For example, on Twitter I post a lot of things relating to football and I believe that my personality drives around the footballing world. I watch football and that's what I mainly talk about in public. A lot of the time, I hardly have a photo on my social media accounts mainly because of the fact that I do not know what I should and shouldn't post. When I do post something, it would only be done if it was a trending thing at that particular moment.

6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?

Another technical development – data mining – allows corporations to create products designed to meet the needs we reveal in our personal information. Perhaps this is the natural next step in the commodification of self-image and identity – we end up selling our selves.
In my opinion, I don't mind if companies were looking at my search engine because whatever we search online is always going to remain online no matter how hard we try to delete it in the end.

07/03/17 - Fake news inquiry to review social networks' complaints procedures (52)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/08/fake-news-inquiry-social-networks-complaints-policy-facebook

This article is about how a parliamentary inquiry into fake news is to consider legislation forcing social networks to improve the way they handle complaints after Facebook’s failure to remove sexualised images of children. Collins who is the chair of the CMS committee, will examine whether new offences should be created to ensure social networks are held responsible for inappropriate content, including fake news as well as images of children which have been reported.“If we reach a tipping point where the level and virality of fake news is such it is crowding out [real] news it is a challenge to democracy.” Both Google and Facebook are expected to be questioned by Collins and the CMS committee as part of its inquiry into fake news this spring. In addition, the spokes-person said that “Facebook is a major media platform … Just to say this is a technology platform isn’t good enough anymore...". This is in reference to the fact that with a company of Facebook's calibre, how can they not find a way which could scrap the fake news and make sure all the users have the accurate news and not being led to the misleading information.

• Collins, a Conservative MP, also criticised Donald Trump’s use of the term fake news to describe “any news organisation he dislikes … To label that fake news is a particularly pernicious act,” he said.
• “Facebook was in breach of its own community policy,” he said of its decision to remove just 18 of 100 images flagged by a BBC reporter. “Are regular users bringing complaints not being looked at?”

I believe that what Facebook, and a lot of other social media sites, are doing, is trying to save themselves from the critics so that they will not have anything bad said about them. One of the key reasons I think this is because, CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about how 99% of the time, news is accurate which therefore means that there is a 1% chance that the news could be inaccurate. However, he did not mention that; he said that they will spot this 1% chance and no one would notice it. In addition, I believe that this is very misleading for the Facebook users and they then may think that everything that they see on Facebook is true when others would know that this is a false piece of news. Therefore, I think that Facebook should change this and should make sure that everything they distribute should be properly checked over before 'feeding the news' to their audience/users.

07/03/17 - ABC to lose 200 jobs by June in latest round of cuts (51)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/07/abc-to-lose-200-jobs-by-june-in-latest-round-of-cuts

This article is about how the ABC will lose roughly 200 staff by June 2017, alongside taking a 20% cut of management positions. It also states that the reason they have come to this decision is because they need the funds in support to the TV news and television divisions. In addition, the spokes-person talks about how the radio and television reach is starting to decline and the audience gap compared to other competitors are starting to increase too. Furthermore, they also discussed that they'll be "implementing additional efficiency measures in production and support in ABC TV and ABC News. This is part of ongoing work to meet efficiency targets, reduce fixed costs and free up additional funds." Higgins has been appointed chief financial officer and Liston, a former head of human resources, has been elevated to director of engagement, audiences and technology, a role which will see her control the new “content fund” which will build to $50m. Also, Guthrie told staff she would welcome ideas for programming the 6pm to 7pm TV time slot. This means that they are trying to get to an audience before peak times but still a time which a lot of people would be watching everyday TV.

• Guthrie said an additional $15m a year would be spent on targeting audiences in regional and rural Australia and within 18 months 80 new jobs would be created.
• A new $50m content fund created by cuts to middle management would allow the ABC to “respond with flexibility and speed to shifting audience trends”, Guthrie said.
• “It’s expected that across these separate activities – reducing management, eliminating duplication and achieving production and support efficiencies – between 150 and 200 staff will leave the ABC by the end of this financial year.”

In my opinion, I believe that in order to be competing with the major companies such as the BBC, then getting rid off 200 staffs would be a great way to do so. If they are paying for peoples salaries who aren't even needed in the company, there's no point in going on about it and keeping them there. Also, I believe that since the ABC are mostly targetted at people who only listen to the radio and watch TV, it is going to be extremely hard to get the public to pay attention to them as everything has change; the majority of news watchers or viewers are going online to get their news. In my opinion, I believe that the ABC should do something which would allow them to share their news content online rather than broadcasting because as from recent times, TV and radio news is starting to become less popular and will eventually turn out to be like newspapers where hardly anyone would pay attention towards it.

Identity and the wider media

1) The Factsheet discusses how identity is a complex subject. What does it suggest defines our identity?

Identity comes from our own individual experiences we have. We create a range of different identities that change depending on the context we find ourselves in and our relationship with other people.2) Complete the task on page 2: suggest media texts that could reinforce that someone is non-mainstream; edgy; a pleasure seeker; fashionable; witty and fun; cutting-edge.

Non-mainstream - usually not the 'trend' and usually not what everybody else is doing. original and individual.

Edgy - tense, nervous, or irritable.

News coverage talking about results day.

A Pleasure Seeker - a person in search of amusement or enjoyment.
Someone who wants to become a 'footballer'.

Fashionable - characteristic of, influenced by, or representing a current popular style.
Fashion Magazine.

Witty and Fun 

Cutting-edge 

3) What examples are suggested for a case study on urban youth?

• The Jeremy Kyle Show
• Harry Brown
• Eden Lake
• Ben Drew

4) What does Hebdige argue with regards to youth culture? 

Richard Hebdige says that youth cultures show their resistance to the dominant culture through their style choices. Urban youth can show itself to be outside the mainstream by adopting the uniform that is feared by mainstream culture and they learn about this fear in the media representations. 

5) What other theorists are referenced alongside Hebdige? How do they link to the issue of youth identity?

The media continues to represent these youths as deviant in an attempt to reinforce mainstream values (Acland) but of course these representations are constructed by people outside this group (Perkins) and in this case can be seen to be a reflection of adult culture’s fear of urban youth (Giroux).

Acland - The mainstream values of youth is that they all are violent and are always up to no good. 
Perkins - This is mainly thought of by the elder public people, for example, parents of whom have teenage children.
Giroux - Fear is shown by the use of social media etc, as they're may be talks about youth in certain articles etc.
6) How can we link our Year 12 case study on Ill Manors to youth and identity? What specific examples from the case study could be used to discuss Hebdige’s theory that youth culture challenges mainstream culture and dominant ideologies?

From the movie Ill Manors, in my opinion, we hardly don't see anything that is challenging Hebdifge's theory. Throughout the movie, we see all these youths getting up to no good which is reinforcing what the media is talking about on how youths are always violent etc. However, one thing which challenges mainstream media is where the character Ed, in the end of the movie, went into the burning building to save a baby and died as he jumped out of the big building. However, even though we saw him as this violent drug dealer, he still scarified his own life to help a young child.

7) What does theorist David Gauntlett suggest regarding the media’s influence over the construction of identities?

David Gauntlett claims that the media have influence on identity construction and so the way the media stereotypes groups may become part of how individuals see themselves and media institutions are able to use this to sell their products.

8) Do you agree that Hebdige’s view that youth culture will always seek to resist mainstream culture and challenge dominant ideologies?

In my opinion, I disagree with this statement as I believe that to some extent, there will always be some youths around the world which would reinforce the dominant ideologies by looking like a criminal. Also, I believe that this will not change over the years as there are many people who are always being influenced by things such as crimes etc.