Weekly Media News - Mail Online

1) Provide the title and weblink

Woman boxer dubbed 'The Secret Assassin' beat schoolgirl aged ELEVEN - but dodges jail with a £120 fine
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6188373/Teenage-girl-13-left-covered-blood-beaten-friends-BOXER-mother.html

2)Include a relevant image, graphic or screenshot;

3)Summarise the story in your own words: is this is an example ofhard news or soft news?

This story talks about how a 13 year old girl was assaulted by another mother which has experience in boxing and in assaulting other people. The woman who assaulted the girl has gotten away with it as well as other crimes she has committed in the past. This would be considered soft news.4)Explain how or why this story appeals to an audience (use media terminology and theory here).

This story is an example of clickbait and therefore appeals to an audience as a story that may be considered 'out of the ordinary'. This is because assaults on children are looked down apon by society and the fact that the mother who assaulted the young girl has managed to get away with it, surprises the audience, creating an effect clickbait news story.

5)Comment on the story: to what extent does it reflect the values and ideologies of the newspaper? Is this an example of quality journalism or simply clickbait? 

This story doesn't reflect the ideologies of the newspaper however this is an example of clickbait. The article uses pictures of a bloody child in order to generate more 'clicks' as well as key words such as 'secret assassin' in order to exaggerate the story and create a more dramatic story. 

Newspapers: The future of journalism

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

In the video there is an example of how the catholic church was exposed for it's wrong doings around child molestation. He argues that without it these sort of situations wouldn't be exposed and the public eye would never see.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

It is presented as a not a good relationship as the advertisers tend to overpay for a service that may not be worthwhile, but they're forced into due to there not being any other alternatives.
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

Shirky suggests that people consume the news in bulks now and also say that people fine out about news on social media such as twitter instead of reading the actual newspapers.

4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

Many of the good effects in limiting the Catholic Church’s ability to continue doing this were a result of the public reuse of the documents in ways that were simply not possible in 1992 and had become not just available, but trivial by 2000
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? 

Shirky says that it will make newspapers become a finite good whereas it's really an infinite one. He also says he's sceptical of it as we need the public good of the accountability to journalism
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?

A social good is something that will help benefit the whole society for example Journalism is a social good as it helps bring important stories to the public which then gets published therefore a large audience will be able to get this information.
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?

Shirky believes that, newspapers are irreplaceable in their production of accountability journalism.
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?

If they continue taking over then once person can have too much power and be able to manipulate mass amounts of people at a time.

The death of print media: Factsheet blog tasks

1) What has happened to print media in the last 30 years?

Print media was one of the main sources of information for audiences. The desire for information is not a new one. Since the first newspapers in 1660s, and the relaxing of British censorship laws in 1695, printed newspapers have been a primary source of information.

2) Why is the Independent newspaper such a good case study for the decline in print media?

This is because it eventually failed in the printed form even though it was not a bias newspaper in compared to the daily mail or the sun.

3) What was the Independent newspaper famous for?

For giving a fresh non-aligned perspective and it was free from political bias and proprietorial influence.

4) What did the then-owner of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev, say about the newspaper's digital-only future?

They’re showing us that the future is digital. This decision preserves the Independent brand and allows us to continue to invest in the high quality editorial content that is attracting more and more readers to our online platforms.

5) How do online newspapers make money?

Advertisements on the website.

6) What did the Independent's longest-serving editor Simon Kelner warn regarding the switch to digital?

The power of the Independent came from the variety of voices, the originality in its design and the iconoclastic feel of the paper. It is very difficult to replicate that in digital form. And it is even more difficult to do that with a paper like the Independent.
7) What is the concern with fake news? What does 'post-truth' refer to?

The new online sites are not that hard to start up on your own so because of this they can copy news format as well. In compared to newspapers where you do need money to publish and ahre ur knowledge. Together with this and the prevalence of social media, online news is now faster to produce and then share to a global audience.
8) What is your view on the decline in print media? Should news be free? Is it a concern that established media brands such as the Independent can no longer afford to exist as a printed newspaper?

I think the decline in print was bound to happen ever since the internet came out. we are in a age with new technology coming out like even books right now are turning into audio books also i think the news could even be better online. But news being free is hard because if your selling people news you would want them to be true and if its free you are not going to try as hard to check/find out about the news.

Newspapers: The decline in print media

Blog task 1: The impact of Google

Read this article looking at the impact Google has had on the traditional newspaper business.

Answer the following questions:

1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?

Because the Google guys have apparently sucked the lifeblood out of the media business by siphoning off billions in advertising revenue over the past decade or so.

2) Find a statistic from the article that illustrates the decline of traditional news media.

“It’s uncanny, therefore, that of the $60 billion plus of potential annual ad sales that print publications seem to have lost, Google had grabbed about $44 billion by 2012, from virtually nothing in 2000. That two-thirds of slice of the spoils is about equal to the company’s market share of the online search business.”

3) Looking at the graph featured in the article, what period has seen the steepest decline in newspaper advertising revenue? 

Past the year 2000 was the steepest decline it was similar to the one in the 1990's but after about 2005 there was a complete decline in newspaper.
4) Do you personally think Google is to blame for newspapers closing and journalists losing their jobs? Why?

I personally disagree with this as times is changing and so is technology and if google was not going to find then another company would of and would cause the same affect. However google don't charge for the news at all which makes it hard for newspapers to compete against.


5) Read the comments below the article. Pick one comment you agree with and one you disagree with and explain your response to the comments in detail.

"The vast majority of Google’s revenue comes from searches with commercial intent I.e. “cheapest coffeemaker” or “Miami hotels”. They don't earn very much from news related searches like “benghazi interviews”. I would argue they make their money on the backs of commercial enterprise, not journalists. Sergey and Larry owe the news industry nothing."

I agree with this comment mainly because the person is right about they make their money of " the backs of commercial enterprise".

Blog task 2: Ofcom report into news consumption 2018

Now read this Ofcom 2018 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom highlight and answer the following questions:

1) Look at the key findings from the report on page 2. How do UK adults generally get their news? 

TV is the most used news source for adults in the UK at 79% followed by the internet at 64%

2) Read the overall summary on page 8. How popular are newspapers as a news source? How does this compare to other news sources?

Only 40% of adults actually look at newspapers in comparison to 79% TV and 64% internet. 

3) Look at the summary of platforms used on page 13. What audience demographic groups are most and least likely to read newspapers?

People aged 65+ are more likely to be using newspapers while people aged 16-24 are not.

4) Read Section 3 on cross-platform news consumption (page 19). What newspaper brands can you find in the list of most popular news sources across platforms?

The daily mail (12%) The Metro (9%) The Sun (8%) and Mail on Sunday (8%).
5) Now turn to Section 6 focusing on newspapers (page 38). How has the circulation of national newspapers decreased since 2003?

It's been steadily decreasing since 2003 across all platforms.
6) What are the most-used newspaper titles?

National Daily Titles

7) What newspaper are 65+ people more likely to read?

The daily mail 

8) What are the most popular titles when print and online figures are combined (look at page 41)?

The guardian  

9) How does the i compare to the Daily Mail?

The daily mail sells 3 times the print solus and nearly 10 times the digital solus. And overall a 4 times combined
10) Look at page 42. What percentage of newspaper users used free newspapers such as Metro in the UK in 2018 ('freesheets')?

26% of users using free newspapers daily
11) Now study the demographic details for our two CSP newspapers on page 44. What is the breakdown of the Daily Mail audience?

            Total Male Female 16-24 65+ ABC1 C2DE EMG Non-EMG

Daily Mail 31% 29% 32% 22% 37% 31% 30% 31% 31%

12) What is the breakdown for the i audience?

   Total Male Female 16-24 65+ ABC1 C2DE EMG Non-EMG
'i' 5% 7% 4% 11% 5% 7% 4% 4% 6%

13) Look at the summary on page 46: news consumption via social media. What audience groups are using social media for their news and what sites do they use?

44% of adults claim to use social medias such as Facebook (76%) Twitter (32%) then Whattsapp (22%) and Instagram (21%)

14) What does this report tell us about the decline of the traditional newspaper industry in the UK?

Newspapers are declining due to social medias taking over as the younger generations are using the internet a-lot more.
15) How can media institutions such as the Daily Mail and the i remain relevant and profitable in the digital media landscape?

They can expand into the digital side of the news and even have websites and even an app updating people about the news making people want the them even more.

Question on the newspaper

No online news sources are entirely trustworthy ?

I wholeheartedly agree with this because most news sources have been wrong before about the news or even has made up some of it at least once. But if the news has done it once before they could be doing it again right now. However not all news sources have made mistakes. Some can be trustworthy. An example of news being untrustworthy was in August 2017 a devastating hurricane hit the Americas - it was so powerful it broke records, becoming the first category-six storm ever. "Irma, strongest hurricane, recorded category six," warned Alex Jones of American website Info Wars, broadcast to more than 750,000 followers on Facebook. Except it wasn't. Category six hurricanes don't exist. It was fake news.