Nearly half the public have less trust in BBC since Jimmy Savile scandal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/18/public-trust-bbc-jimmy-savile



What is it about?

Nearly half the public have less trust in the BBC since the Jimmy Savile scandal began, according to an opinion poll produced on behalf of MediaGuardian 

What do I think?

I saw this coming to be honest. The Jimmy Savile case was big so I found it difficult how the public would have less trust in the BBC

13C Cover Work 12/12/12

News Corp's publishing arm to focus on losses at Times and Sunday Times

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/07/news-corp-slashing-losses-times

What is it about?

Slashing losses at the Times and Sunday Times, running at an estimated £1m a week, is to be a priority for News Corporation's soon-to-be separated publishing division – although any efforts to tighten integration between the two titles is likely to require a loosening of the undertakings given by Rupert Murdoch when he bought the newspapers.

What do I think?

I think that newspaper are going into decline as there are many losses and having to cut editor's jobs etc... I thought this day would happen but not with the big name newspapers, Sunday times is a prime example. It just shows that New and Digital media is taking over 

Sunday Times's circulation falls below 900,000 for the first time

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/07/sunday-times-circulation-falls

What is it about?

Sunday Times' circulation has fell by 1% month on month from November and now they are below the 900,000 sales mark for the first time. This article discusses the statistics of Guardian, Sunday Times and others about their losses. The Sunday Times has been giving free newspapers in order to help the circulation of sales.

What do I think?

I feel the same about the first article. I still find it shocking that these newspapers are going into decline. It's all becoming very desperate as these are people jobs, that are at jeopardy and it's already hard to get jobs these days.

UK newspaper advertising facing bleak forecast for 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/11/uk-newspaper-advertising-bleak-forecast-2013

What is it about?

The ailing UK newspaper advertising market is set to get even worse next year with national titles forecast to face an almost 9% decline that will see display revenue fall below £1bn for the first time. The market is set to get worse, with *Group M's prediction back in the summer of a 5% year on year fall in 2013 now downgraded to an 8.6% decline. So basically, all newspapers are coming into a decline and it's going to get worse in 2013.

*Group M is WPP's media buying division.

What do I think?

I think that it's unlucky that newspapers are coming to a decline. But I knew this would happen as EVERYTHING is turning digital. Even BOOKS are turning digital... So that's when I knew newspapers have no chance. Not many people are going to buy newspapers on-line  through subscriptions. Reasons because there are free on-line sources available, mostly through social networks. Also there's still news on television that people can refer to. 

The ups, downs and ups of BBC News online

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20678217

What is it about?

This chart shows how global traffic to BBC News online has grown, alongside some key technological milestones.

What do I think?

 

Why can't Newsnight take youth culture seriously?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/06/newsnight-youth-culture

Newsnight have been talking to the youth lately but nothing serious, mostly comic things and taking a cringe-worthy approach. Stephen Smith has become the 'youth speaker' as he is the one interviewing them. As he's seen as 'down-with-the-kids' uncle at Christmas. Earlier in the year Smith was sent to interview rappers Odd Future where his role as "stuffy British bloke on a cultural voyage" played out in predictable fashion. Why does Newsnight have to take a kiddish apporoach when interviewing the youth? This approach ignores the fact that viewers might genuinely be interested, might want to know about trends and new developments, and might not want to be talked to as if they were all out of touch and proud of it. 

Participation Debates – The media and democracy

Morag Davis is a Lecturer in Film and Media at Nelson and Colne College.

So, what is ‘democracy’?

• democracy is a form of government in which all eligible people have an equal say in decision-making.
• ‘one person one vote’ to the modern media landscape
• The great thing is when you start seeing it in places like China and Afghanistan. It’s democracy. We’ve kind of given democracy back to the world. - Simon Cowell
• In the pre-digital era, there were very few ways in which audiences could make their voices heard.
• the digital revolution and Web 2.0 have given users (i.e. us – because we are no longer just audiences) the opportunity to communicate ideas globally through the use of social networking.
• in the countries now experiencing this ‘Arab Spring’, access to mobile technology and the internet is still limited to a relatively small elite, so perhaps we have not yet seen true democracy through the media.
• If information is power, then the internet has empowered its users by giving them unparalleled instant and almost unmediated access to unfolding news stories from a variety of sources, bypassing the hegemonic institutions that control the dominant media discourses in society. 
• Blogging is another way that the media are becoming more democratic. 
• the iconic video footage of the attack on the Twin Towers on 11th September 2001; the first hand reports from the Iran uprising – increasingly we are reporting and recording the news.
• citizen journalism can do is provide eyewitness accounts and subjective angles on stories to complement the work of professional news organisations
• 
  

In the Age of Media Six Questions about Media and Participation

David Buckingham, Professor of Media and Communications at Loughborough University, considers some of the revolutionary claims made for participatory media and 2.0, and makes a case for cautious optimism rather than whole-hearted celebration.

• In the last ten years, we have moved into a new age of participatory media.
• The world of Big Media – in which the media were owned and controlled by large commercial corporations – is no more.
• blogs and online forums provide opportunities for ordinary people to have their say, and to speak back to those in power
• wikis enable us to collaborate and share knowledge in ways that challenge elites and experts
• social networking sites, we can represent ourselves and connect with other people in new ways
• while online sharing sites like YouTube allow people to distribute their own media content to global audiences
•  All these services appear to be free and open and these things are leading in turn to fundamental shifts in the operations of ‘old’ media like television, newspapers and even books: there is much talk of ‘user-generated content’, ‘citizen journalism’ and the empowerment of consumers.

1. What’s new?

• The term ‘Web 2.0’ seems to have been coined by the digital marketing entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly back in 2001.
• Tim Berners-Lee, widely identified as the inventor of the World Wide Web, has argued that the basic technological infrastructure (structures) and many of the forms of Web 2.0 have been around since the beginning of the internet.
• There’s a long history of utopian fantasies about new media and technology.
• The kinds of claims that are being made about the liberating possibilities of social media echo those that were made in earlier times about the impact of cable TV, portable video, radio and even the printing press.
• All these things were apparently going to bring ‘power to the people’
• the ultimate effects of these new technologies were much less revolutionary and much more complicated
• the idea that technology will bring about revolutionary social change, in and of itself.
• their impact is always dependent on how they are used, by whom, and for what purposes

2. Who’s participating?

• those produced by the Pew Foundation in the United States – produce very high estimates of the numbers of young people who ‘share content’ online
• the market research agency Hitwise – suggest that the number of active participants is very low: less than 0.5% of YouTube users, for example, actually upload material, and very little of that material is originally produced, rather than pirated clips from commercial media
• While there are some gender differences – young women are leading the way in areas like blogging, while young men tend to dominate video-sharing
• most remarkable differences are in terms of social class
• Digital divides’ are still apparent here, therefore – and they largely coincide with other differences.
• the most active participants in the creative world of Media 2.0 are the ‘usual suspects’ – people who are already privileged in other areas of their lives. 
• older people are now the fastest-growing group of subscribers; the micro-blogging service Twitter is largely dominated by middle-aged people;  Young people are sometimes the ‘early adopters’

3. What are they doing?

•  it’s often assumed that participation is necessarily a Good Thing in itself
• a real problem in defining what counts as participation, or as ‘creating content’.
• There’s a big difference between posting an occasional comment on an online forum or a social networking profile, and filming, editing and posting a video
• although in surveys all these things tend to be seen as evidence of high levels of participation. In fact, only a very small proportion of users are generating original content: most are simply ‘consuming’ it as they always have done.
• This is not to say that it is trivial or worthless: on the contrary, home video (like the family photo album) can play a very important role in terms of memory and family relationships.
• However, people rarely see it as having anything to do with what they watch in the mainstream media – let alone as a challenge to the power of Big Media.

4. Who’s making money?

• Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media élite… now it’s the people who are taking control.
• The two richest and most profitable global media corporations are now Google and Facebook.
• YouTube (now owned by Google) took five years from its launch before it finally came into profit, despite being the second most frequently visited site online
• Many well-known services have struggled to find ways of ‘monetising’ what they do
• the internet is an exceptionally efficient medium for niche marketing and for targeting individual consumers.
• ‘cookies’ that are planted on the hard drive of our computers. This information is used to ensure that advertising and marketing are targeted only at those people who are most likely to be interested in it
• through a practice known as ‘data mining’, the data can be aggregated and then sold on to other companies.

5. Who’s doing the work?

• Much of this marketing is itself ‘user-generated’ and ‘interactive’
• Other companies (such as the mobile phone provider Orange) have picked up on the idea of ‘user-generated content’ by running competitions for consumers to create videos to promote their products.
• This results in what the media critic Soren Peterson has called ‘loser-generated content’
• What they produce effectively becomes proprietary information, owned by the company: Mark Zuckerberg owns the copyright of all the content posted on Facebook, and can do what he likes with it.
• Some argue that fan websites are about consumers taking back control of the media, making their own meanings from existing media texts, and leading towards a more democratic media environment

6. Will Media 2.0 save democracy?

• does this amount to a democratic revolution in communications? Is it really liberating or empowering ordinary people to take control of the media?
•  digital media are not likely to result in a society of creative media producers, any more than the printing press resulted in a society of published authors.
• Just like ‘old’ media, these new media are driven by commercial imperatives – and that means that some people are bound to benefit from these developments much more than others
• 
  

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

Web 2.0 (as defined by Tim O’Reilly in 2005) is essentially a medium that allows audiences to become producers of media texts. Anyone with a web connection can create and publish text (UGC) it has reduced the duty of gatekeeper, if not removed them completely. There are huge amounts of views and values available on the internet through "web-based software such as blogs". This is supportive of pluralism, which is a society of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant. 

The internet has increased pluralism; it has provided the people with a platform to voice their opinions. Another advantage of new and digital media is that it “interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”(John Gilmore) therefore, it allows pluralism to flourish .The views and ideologies of political leaders and governments can now be challenged through the internet, by the internet. As Al Gore called the internet “Exciting and revolutionary” and went further to say it has had a “more profound impact than the printing press.”  Since 1991, from when the first website went online, ¼ of the world is now online and this number is expanding.  As Tim Bernes Lee said ‘let the people be free’ and this is exactly what the internet has provided, freedom. Many everyday things can now be done online for example banking (97% of bank transactions are done online in Estonia). New and digital media has provided the globe with a “New World Currency.” The web collapses distances.

UCG has become a significant part of the internet as it allows people to create their own media products. Audiences are able to produce media texts, but one view on this is that they are only able to imitate and replicate media texts of traditional media.This empowers the audience as it gives them a sense of freedom to upload what they want, whether it is trivial or with a specific meaning/message behind it. This also allows them and gives them a chance to challenge and rival the traditional media creators which gives the audience a sense of empowerment. Furthermore, cases such as the Ian Tomlinson case in 2009 have allowed audiences the chance to challenge authority. This case showed the benefits of UGC as brought to light an issue that was underlying and rarely spoken about.

Web 2.0 – Participation or Hegemony? SUMMARY

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM39_Participation_Web2_hegemony.html

Nick Lacey explores whether Web 2.0 has really democratised our access to the media, and switched the power from producers to audiences, or whether it has simply become absorbed into the values of ‘old media’. He talks about the power the consumers now have, eg the Ian Tomlinson case which is the political issue.

We – the audience – no longer have to rely upon the token ‘access’ traditional media offered us, such as newspapers’ letter pages or radio phone-ins. Today we can easily produce texts ourselves, even if we seem to be more interested in mimicking traditional media by becoming YouTube celebrities, or watching music videos and/or television programmes by favourite artists.

Strictly Come Dancing wins weekend ratings crown

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/26/strictly-come-dancing-tv-ratings 


What is this about?
Strictly Come Dancing have come out victorious again, winning the most views over Im a Celebrity and X Factor with an outstanding rate of 10.3 million in comparison to X Factor's 9.3 million

What do I think?
I think that Strictly is much better than X Factor even though I don't watch it. The fact that it's now for celebrities puts me off, since they've had their 'fame' and I think they should out the joe public on the show instead. But in comparison to X Factor, X Factor is just pants. I can't explain that enough

Robert Di Matteo SACKED

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20423905

What this story is about?
Di Matteo got sacked just after 8 months managing Chelsea and as he got off his aeroplane to go to the match, thats when he got sacked because of the defeat against Juventus 3-0 by the owner of Chelsea. This is the 9th manager in 9 years.

What do I think?
I dont know anything about football, but I dont like the fact that the owner of chelsea can just fire whoever he likes because they didnt win a game. I dont find it fair. He may be a billionaire but it's still someones job and the humiliation of only being a manager for 8 months. It's like me getting fired from my job because I forgot to scan an item, it just doesnt make sense. That billionaire guy needs to get his head out of his bum and realise that he's messing with people's lives. One day, chelsea will not even have a manager because people may be too frightened to manage the team, because of sheer embarrassment.

Virtual Revolution Part 2

1/4 of our population is connected
Twitter developed in 2006
Iran 2009, Rave conlist about president, oppositional protest
Iran took to Twitter to discuss, freedom rights
Youtuve was a key feature
UGC to help inform people about Iran
Al Gore "It will have a more profound impact that the printing press"

Internet: Positives
Participate
To challenge old power crumbling
openness
democracy

Internet: Negatives
State control

Censorship can be undone by a program, which happened in Iran
253+ Million online in China, they are the biggest users of the internet
33K police the internet (censorship)
"The great firewall of China"
30,000 50 centers to write in favour of the government 
The government now uses bloggers in their speeches as they believe that they think they need to respond
The earthquake that attacked china and they used a site called QQ to update information about the quake. 
There was updated videos/pics about the earth quake. So news relied on amateur journalism
New York times and BBC have been blocked in China

Late 90s freely transfer money
This is when PayPal was created
Peter Theil is the co-founder of PayPal
PayPal is called the New World Currency
Facebook has 350 million users worldwide 
If Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest country in the world
Denial of service = cyber warriors
1/4 of the planet is connected
Will we face new dangers that we never even imagined?

3 articles on Newsnight

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2012/nov/11/bbc-radical-overhaul-newsnight-patten-video

What is this about:

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, says the broadcaster needs a 'radical structural overhaul'. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, he said George Entwistle's replacement will be appointed within weeks rather than months and revealed that he will discuss the future of Newsnight with the acting director general before the end of the day

What do I think?
Well, to be honest I dont know much about Newsnight. I find the story not very interesting. However, I think that Newsnight doesnt have m uch of a 'future' since they messed up big time with this Jimmy Savile case.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9686151/Pressure-on-Lord-Patten-over-BBC-DG-handover-offer-rebuff.html#



What is this about?


Pressure on Lord Patten over BBC DG 'handover' offer rebuff and Pressure mounted on Lord Patten today after it emerged that offers from the BBC's two most senior leaders to help George Entwistle find his feet were rebuffed.

What do I think?

Very similar to my first thought. They must of thought that they wouldnt get caught and now they have been very embarrassed and shamed in front of the nation about this Jimmy Savile case. This makes the BBC look bad also


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231277/George-Entwistle-Lord-Patten-stands-firm-promises-BBC-overhaul-wake-wretched-crisis.html

What is this about?

Lord Pattern refuses to step down as he sees it as too 'radical'. This links in with the video from the first one, but this one is an article, so the views are the same.

A letter to Murdoch........

Dear Mr Murdoch,

I am aware that you are considering charging for online news content. I don't think this is a good idea as there are many disadvantages to this idea. Firstly, everything on the internet is predominantly free so consumers will find other alternatives on finding the news. By monetizing news alienates audience and may lead to one type of group purchasing the news. Also, even though there may be some profit behind this, there will not be as much money as you may of planned since the subscription maybe cheap(ish) but it wont be enough to cover somebody's wages.

In other words, keep news free and leave it to the consumers discretion whether they would like to subscribe instead of forcing them.

Think about what I've said, and I will be glad to hear from you.

Mayor of the world,

Mica Maynard

WikiLeaks film adds James McAvoy to cast

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/nov/12/wikileaks-film-james-mcavoy-benedict-cumberbatch

What is it about?
Benedict Cumberbatch is soon to be playing Assange in the untitled film for WikiLeaks. James McAvoy who  was in the Last King of Scotland.

What do I think?
I think this film will be rather interesting because WikiLeaks has changed the world by exposing information about the government and many other people. So to make a movie will be BIG and rather exciting especially if McAvoy is in it. :)

Half term hwk

Arab Spring

This was based mainly in North Africa with protests and wars against the government. Wiki Leaks is the reason of the wars because they were leaking documents on corruption governments. So UGC was a main factors for information as journalists and news weren't allowed to go there.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline

Ian Tomlinson

So Tomlinson died during G20 protests as he was hit and pushed by police officer, suffered a heart attack shortly after. People didn't think it was fair that the police officer ended up getting away with it, especially his family. Therefore, The guardian published footage after the initial post mortum showing the police brutality. Sparking uproar amongst the public. UGC helped gain justice for Tomlinson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/19/ian-tomlinson-family-civil-case

Gadaffi & Libya

Civil war ripped through the country because the dictator killed and overruled. so rebels protesed against Gaddafi's reign and Gaddafi claims that they are linked to Al Quedea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/12/libyan-attack-fire-cannot-extinguish

My Tram Experience:

This woman was racist in a public place which caused many people offended. Also with her son there, it shows that he hasn't got much hope. She got arrested.

This was a vlog about the event that happened on the tram

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/29/my-tram-experience-croydon?INTCMP=SRCH

Riots

Taken place in August 2011, started with the shooting of Douglas by a policeman caused people to go crazy and start looting and setting buildings on fire. Started off in Tottenham and reached to Birmingham and other midlands.

The news reporting it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/12/riots-prison-sentence-david-lammy

Christian Dior mascara ad banned for airbrushing Natalie Portman eyelashes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/24/dior-mascara-natalie-portman-ad-ban

What is it about?

Watchdog found out that the mascara that Natalie Portman was modelling was airbrush and therefore was banned. 

My Thoughts:

Im happy it got banned because nowadays its all about making money even if it means lying to get it. They were selling women dreams and I dont think it's fair on them

NEWSPAPERS: The effect of online technology

NEWSPAPERS: IN DECLINE

• Newspaper institutions are in competition with one another to ensure they have enough people consuming their products
• It is becoming increasingly difficult for paper-based news forms to compete with the rise in e-media news services.
• They make advertising their main source of money
• Falling circulations mean less money through the till and newspapers’ other main source of income, advertising, is also drying up. 
• In the struggle to stay profitable, newspaper companies are cutting staff, closing offices and, in the case of local papers, getting rid of titles

WHY IS THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IN CRISIS?

• Internet has changed newspapers
• As the internet increases its dominance on the media landscape
• Readers’ attention and loyalties have become divided as papers compete with round the clock reporting and unmediated content
• According to Sull, there are five reasons why the newspaper industry is in a deeper crisis than it should be:
• Ignoring Signs of Change: Since the early 1980’s, institutions have been able to access real time news through networks.
• Dismissing unconventional competitors: Newspapers ignored a steady stream of innovations that they might have imitated to enhance their own business model
• Experimenting too narrowly: Some newspapers did spot the rise of digital technology early and experiment with alternatives.
• Giving up on promising experiments too quickly: Promising business models take time to become successful in many cases and the process entails many setbacks.
• Embarking on a ‘crash course’: Many institutions felt they were not embracing technology quickly enough and pushed for mergers which did not work.
• With so many free news sites to choose from, audiences are not prepared to pay money to read newspapers online.

Should News be Free?

• James Murdoch of NewsCorp has been critical of free news provision online,
• its “expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision,” 
• that news on the web provided by the BBC made it “incredibly difficult” for private news organisations to ask people to pay for their news.
• News Corporation has said it will start changing online customers for news content across all its websites in a bid to recoup and generate money from subscription, but this does not automatically mean that people will pay.

News Online – The Democratisation of News?

• News providers are finding themselves in a complex position in relationship to online technology but it is the changing lifestyles of audiences that pose the biggest problem for papers.

Audience Power

• In some ways audiences are more active in the way they consume news.
• The audience here uncovered links and applied steady pressure by writing about the company and soon the information was made available. 

World Star Hip-hop: making a bankable brand out of brutality

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/18/worldstarhiphop-bankable-brand-brutality

What is it about:
A bus driver uppercut a woman and it reached a famous site called "World Star Hip Hop". It continues to say how powerful "world star hip hop" is and how far it viral the internet. People weren't trying to stop the fight yet, they were videoing so they could get there video on World Star Hip Hop.

My views:
The video is hilarious!!!! I actually started crying. But this is a prime example of "citizen journalism" where people take videos and upload them. But they gave it to WSHH because it's the one place where the video will definitely be showed to everyone. WSHH has been described as "The CNN of the Ghetto". Even though the man didnt need to go to such extremes, I still found it funny.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M6iAxFyAOQ&safe=active
  

Homework: Essay

WWW: An excellent command of examples, Mica, and impressive application of quotes/theories to back up your points

EBI: Lacks reference to the case study study we've started (news): Write a paragraph covering citizen journalism/ pluralism with precise examples

The internet has created a user generated content (UGC) which means that the audience can become producers and they can become anything on the internet. People can become "citizen journalists" which means a normal person to society who has captured footage that is newsworthy. So this can be an easy way to share anything exciting on social sites especially on YouTube where it is solely videos. An example of a citizen journalist is "My Tram Experience", where a woman was being racist on a tram and someone captured it on their mobile phone. This eventually made the news and the woman had got arrested for her immoral behaviour on public transport. However, this gave a chance for people to start uploading videos addressing this issue, which is known as vlogs which expresses their feelings.

Rise of UGC Q&A

What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
A normal person to society who has captured footage that is newsworthy.

What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
Rodney King

List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Blogs, Comment box, polls, Q&A, chat rooms and social media such as twitter

What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
Professional shot footage is usually edited afterwards not showing the audience the reality of what was shot. UCG footage is what is taken at first hand with no editing meaning it is not heavily mediated, it brings realness to a story.

What is a gatekeeper?
Someone who has the ability to choose what is being broadcasted in the media

How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
No, gatekeepers still have to decide whether what is being provided by a citizen journalist is acceptable to be shown in the media

What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
That their jobs will be at risk, with the constant rise of UGC it shows a world without it being unmediated, which by far a lot more people prefer.

Rodney King

Asian Tsunami

Mumbai Bombings

Virginia Tech Shooting

Hudson Plane crash

Angry Birds games have 200m monthly active players

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/oct/10/angry-birds-200m-monthly-users

What is is about?
Angry Birds has been downloaded 1bn times and Andrew Stalbo, owner of Rovio says "'In any given day, we have 20-30m people playing our games connected". Angry Birds will be having a Angry Birds Star Wars to appeal to the Star Wars fans and because they are star wars fans themselves. Also, having a short series Angry Birds Toons. They have released Bad Piggies which reached the top of the downloads in hours of it being released.

My thoughts?
I think that it's a good thing that they want to expand and create more franchise for their popular game "angry birds". However making a series is a little extra, but it's a good way to make money. I've played this game a handful amount of times, I found it kind of addictive but I got over it. Having 20-30million people download it on any given day is pretty impressive also.

Twitter and Facebook to be used for benefit applications

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/04/twitter-facebook-benefits

What is it about?
Basically, the government want to use social networking sites to prove their identity online and tpo access public services. However, this is not compulsory.

My thoughts.
This was to be expected as everything is done on line nowadays. However, I think the government are taking it too far... social media doesnt have to be involved in everything it's already been used to help with the news, but now it especially does not have to be involved with something like this. On the other hand, it could be a quicker way to get info but soon enough the government is going to start penalising people that are not apart of a networking site.  

No point really.

The Virtual Revolution

Tim Berners-Lee is the creator of the Internet, Englishman.

"2 billion of us are online" 

The internet is blamed for creating web addicts

Internet is a current way for the human kind to communicate

The internet was described as a massive brain

The people who have internet are described as "digital haves" and the people that don’t have internet are described as "digital have not". There is a divide between the two which is called: Digital divide. 

Al Gore refers to the internet as "an empowering tool"

A quarter of the world uses the web.

5 million using the web, to go on relationship sites a month.

40% British men watch porn

West London use blogging the most = 18 million 

The internet is a comparison to the industrial revolution which shows the importance to the internet.

35 million are online every day in the UK

£1 billion is spent every day spent on ecommerce

“The internet is a great leveller”

Jimmy Wales created Wiki

More than 65 million people use wiki

Wiki uncut (challenges) authority and its free which equals “people power”

Author/edit content even for ordinary people

The Well is the foundation of every social website

It was made in San Francisco

Founded by Steven Well

John Barlow believes in self-expression and it shouldn’t have any limits. He refers to the internet or The Well to not having any limits.

Emailing was born in 1965 but wasn’t in use until 6^th August 1991

Internet is grounded in Libertarianism or counter-culturalism.

Self-expression is now blogging, so self-expression still exists.

Al Gore also described the internet as “exciting and revolutionary” as its the power of the crowd.

He calls the internet “the paradigm shift” like the printing press which could refer to a new democracy?

The internet was given away for free by Tim Berners-Lee

1975 – Bill Gates worked for a company in Mexico called Mits. They were rocket enthusiastics

Bill Gates saw this as an opportunity for business

Microsoft ended with 90% of the computer

Fanning created Napster in 1999

This is when people realised the darkside of the internet with downloads etc

2002 Napster was shut down

Internet is to share with everyone

Hurley – CEO and Founder of YouTube: 2005 was the first video.

YouTube is user generated 1 billion a day

There is a lot of competition:

Google - 38 million times a day

1 in 3 people use Facebook

eBay - 21 million visits

Amazon – 16 million

“Is the internet unequal because it mirrors the hierarchy in our world?”

Positive about the internet:

Democratization = gives people a voice

Empowerment = gives everyone power creative freedom

Creative, freedom, innovation, UGC, open access

VS

The negatives about the internet:

Control: by the new elites and hierarchies eg: Wiki

New gate keepers: controls what goes out on the internet

Colonization: been taken over by big businesses, piracy and legislation

X factor is an event tv. However its no longer an event or a water cooler tv

TV has stopped being so immersive