NDM - Weekly Story Index

#1:  Facebook and Twitter join coalition to improve social media newsgathering

#2: Twitter: 140 characters in search of a buyer

#3: The Sun cuts about 20 production jobs in shift to digital

#4: Are mobiles changing how we shop?

#5: The dizzying decline of Britain’s local newspapers: do you want the bad news, or the good news?

#6: Rinstagram or Finstagram? The curious duality of the modern Instagram user

#7: News Corp posts 28% decline in global earnings despite real estate boost

#8: A Brand New Game?

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

#10: The Sun and Daily Mail accused of 'fuelling prejudice' in report on rising racist violence and hate speech in UK

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

#12: Daily Mail owner to cut more than 400 jobs amid print advertising decline

#13: UK Ad Viewability Below 50%, Costing Advertisers £154m a Quarter

#14: Newspaper websites suffer post-Olympic dip as print sales hold steady

#15: BuzzFeed prepares to split into news and entertainment units

#16: Senior News of the World staff 'misled' Parliament over phone-hacking, committee finds

#17: Telegraph paywall initiative is an interesting strategic shift

#18:  Why do we still accept that governments collect and snoop on our data ?

#19: Facebook buys tool that tracks how stories spread

#20: Daily Telegraph sacks editor Tony Gallagher in shock move designed to 'move beyond putting news online'

#21: Mobile giant Three to block online advertising

#22: Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected?

#23: Powa Technologies, once a darling of the UK tech scene, collapses into administration

#24: The pedlars of fake news are corroding democracy

#25: BBC awards £100m network deal to BT

#26: Facebook will hire extra 500 UK workers for new central London HQ

#27: Only emotional intelligence can save children from online gambling

#28: The Drum on The Sun’s digital strategy

#29: Daily Mail publisher turns to price rise to counter advertising slump
#30: Digital media's hidden payments crisis
#31: Swipe right? 'Toilet paper' for smartphones trialed in Japanese airport bathrooms
#32: Without question, the Internet can be a toxic place for young people. But withdrawing access to it isn't the right answer
#33: GroupM: Mobile Music Streaming Represents $220 Million Ad Opportunity
#34: Czech Republic to fight 'fake news' with specialist unit
#35: Smartphones 'cause 20m Brits to miss stops'
#36: Facebook break can boost wellbeing, study suggests
#37: How young viewers are abandoning television
#38: The Guardian view on section 40: muzzling journalism
#39: Parliament to grill Facebook chiefs over 'fake news'
#40: Are students justified in banning the sale of newspapers on campus?
#41: The real story behind Facebook 'likes'
#42: Sweden gang rape 'live-streamed on Facebook'
#43: Wolff: The looming shakeout in digital media
#44: Snapchat parent files for $3 billion IPO
#45: Why Amazon Alexa Will Take Over Your Phone and Your Office Next
#46: Facebook, Apple and Google pen letter opposing Trump's travel ban
#47: You don't have to act like a newspaper on the net
#48: Twitter accounts really are echo chambers, study finds
#49: The Outline’s Josh Topolsky: There’s too much sameness in digital media
#50: Disney lays off 80 at Maker and digital media unit
#51: How good journalists can face down fake newsmongers
#52: James Murdoch Calls Digital Media Space An "Unprecedented Competitive Environment"
#53:NBC invested $500 million in Snapchat IPO as part of its ambitious investment in digital media
#54: Fake news inquiry to review social networks' complaints procedures
#55: Google and Levi’s Project Jacquard jacket has restored my faith in wearable's
#56: The city getting rich from fake news
#57: Teach schoolchildren how to spot fake news, says OECD
#58: Facebook and Twitter could pay the price for hate speech
#59: WhatsApp's privacy protections questioned after terror attack
#60: Why one newspaper's reporting could change the face of digital media
#61: Google Maps users should NOT trust EVERYTHING in this app, and this is why
#62: Amazon climbs as beneficiary of ‘retail apocalypse’
#63: Journalists must meet challenge of social and digital media
#64: Ofsted considers using social media to monitor schools
#65: Amazon Echo v Google Home - Which smart speaker should you buy?
#66: Revealed: the more time that children chat on social media, the less happy they feel
#67: GOVERNMENT 'BLOCKED' FROM ACCESSING TWITTER DATA TO HELP SPOT TERRORIST PLOTS
#68: PAY ATTENTION TO MOVIES RELEASED ON STREAMING PLATFORMS
#69: Popsugar Seeks New Platforms Through New Film Studio, Investment In Long-Form Production Company
#70: Facebook Live: Zuckerberg adds 3,000 moderators in wake of murders
#71: Fake News or not, the future belongs to Facebook
#72: Opinion: VOD vs Cinema – It’s a matter of availability, as much as choice
#73: Update your PR resume with this digital media course
#74: UK film companies call for government help as 70th Cannes Film Festival opens
#75: Row over Netflix films casts shadow over Cannes Film Festival

NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 22nd May (75)

Row over Netflix films casts shadow over Cannes Film Festival

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/row-over-netflix-films-casts-shadow-over-cannes-film-festival-35728042.html

Summary

With the 70th Cannes Film Festival having opened yesterday under sunny Cote D'Azur skies the stars are coming out in their thousands. This year's festival features a line up widely considered to be well stocked with heavyweight filmmakers, including Sofia Coppola and Lynne Ramsay. However, a storm is brewing over Netflix's place at the world's most prestigious film festival as it continued to steal the spotlight. For the first time, Cannes selected two Netflix releases - Bong Joon-ho's 'Okja' and Noah Baumbach's 'The Meyerowitz Stories' - for its Palme d'Or competition. Though, French theaters which have strict rules regarding streaming service films, rebelled at the thought of a movie that will not play on the big screen winning the competition.The festival officials rebelled and next year will not be accepting streaming - only films. 

  

Key Statistics

• Netflix will debut the $90m fantasy thriller 'Bright' in which Smith stars later this year.

My Opinion

I can understand why allowing streaming services to have a spotlight at such a prestigious film festival is being rebelled against by many. However, we all know that with technological advancements going the way they are streaming services are the way forward and I think that eventually festival's like Cannes Film are going to have to find a way to adapt to the changes. Maybe there could be a separate branch off the main festival that celebrates films released on streaming services. 

NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 22nd May (74)

UK film companies call for government

help as 70th Cannes Film Festival opens

http://realbusiness.co.uk/current-affairs/2017/05/18/uk-film-companies-call-government-help-70th-cannes-film-festival-opens/

Summary

The Cannes Film Festival isn't just about the red carpet, next door in the Marché Du Film (Movie theatre) films are changing hands for hundreds of millions and production companies are struggling. So British producers are looking to whoever is in number 10, after June 8th to play a hero role and assist them in this struggle. Although, the film tax credit has indeed given the UK film industry some much needed relief it has played more to the benefit of Hollywood producers using the UK, as a location for filming; said PACT (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television). So PACT is now pushing for the tax credit to be increased. The call from PACT comes at a vital time for UK film companies as with Brexit funding from The European Media Fund is likely to cease after the UK exit from the European Union.

Key Statistics

• PACT is pushing for the tax credit to be increased to 40% on films with budgets between 2 -10 million. 

• There are nearly 7,000 independent film companies in the UK. Last year, those 7,000 companies collectively spent just shy of £1.6 billion making films. 

• According to PACT, worldwide sales of UK production films have slumped by 50% since 2007

• The Film Tax Relief allows a film producer to claim a cash rebate of 25 per cent from HMRC of qualifying expenditure on a film made in the UK, up to 80 per cent of the total film budget with no budget limit.

• Film production – along with the other components to the creative industries – delivers a mighty £84.1bn to the UK economy every year.

My Opinion

I knew that production companies were struggling with the rise of streaming services and similar dramatically changing the way we view films etc. However, never did I think it would come to the point where UK film companies are calling for Government help to stay afloat. I just figured that they will produce some big hitting films which would do wonderfully at the box office and that that cash would tide them over, clearly this is not the case. From what I have seen about the budgets in the news I don't know whether PACT will be able to get the Government's help on this front. 

NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 22nd May (73)

Update your PR resume with this digital media course

http://www.businessinsider.com/update-your-pr-resume-with-this-digital-media-course-2017-5?IR=T

Summary

The web has dramatically changed our life's from the way we communicate to the way we shop and beyond. The web has allowed thousands of people to build careers like YouTube starts Cameron Dallas and iiSuperwomenii and share their content globally. But, of course to do this web sharing stuff you've got to be web-savvy... so why not sign up to the "Digital media & public relations bundle". The course brings two media driven courses together, designed to show you the in's and out's of creating polished, marketable content and sharing it on a global content. The course will use free software such as WordPress and Blogger. 

Key Statistics

• You can kick start your digital career for $26 AUD (£14.92) 

• This deal saves you more than 90% on the normal $405 AUD (£232.37) retail price 

My Opinion

We all know that the web has dramatically changed our life's and it is increasingly the case that employers need someone who can work the web. So bundle's/courses like this are the way we are going to end up going forward to ensure that everybody is web savvy like the younger generations. However, with technology changing at the rate it is; how are these courses ever going to stay up to date, people will have just completed a course and then technology will change dramatically a few months down the line. 

NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 15th May (72)

Opinion: VOD vs Cinema – It’s a matter of availability, as much as choice

http://scannain.com/featured/editorial/opinion/

Summary

We all know that the likes of Netflix and Love Film are changing the way we watch films, depending on who you speak to in Hollywood these days, certain circles of the industry are bending over backwards to condemn steaming and VoD services. They say that by providing the option to watch films at home, instead of in the cinema the very roots of the art form of going to the cinema is being eroded. Many people have urged people to watch films at the cinema rather than at home, but what isn't taken into account is that many people do not have the disposable income to go to the cinema. An association, of French film critics frowned at the thought that Netflix's original productions would screen in competition in Cannes, changing the rules to say that all films entered had to have had theatrical release. The theatrical experience, is not as much as it may be disputed democratic; it does not offer the same ease of access and choice to everyone. 

Key Statistics

My Opinion

It has been pretty obvious now, for a while that cinema's are suffering because of streaming services such as Netflix and I do not think that the cinema chains have come up with any unique way of giving audiences a reason to come back to the cinemas; other than urging them to go to the cinema instead. However, no chain takes into consideration in the current economic climate people's financial situation to be able to afford to go to the cinema; rather than spending money on getting more and more VIP seats or similar I would say that the cinema chains attempt to revisit their pricing if they could reduce it maybe people might start to go to the cinema again. However, people also speak of how streaming services are more open for them providing a better variety etc; but this is because there is nobody to stop people watching certain films at home the world of age ratings does not exist.It seems as though people want to translate this into the cinema's but what they do not realize is that directors and the cinema chains have rules to follow. If they didn't follow these rules then the wider variety debate would be settled as the variety at the cinema would be just as wide as it is at home but equally then people would just complain when their child is exposed to some material they do not like.  

NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 15th May (71)

Fake News or not, the future belongs to Facebook 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/14/fake-news-or-not-future-belongs-to-facebook

Summary

Fake news became a massive talking point during the and in the aftermath of the US Presidential Election. In this week, when fake news furore went legacy - viral Facebook bought full page print ad's in national daily papers detailing '10 tips for spotting "false news".' (Tip 9: "Is the story a joke?"). Then last week BBC Panorama aired a Facebook programme full of warnings reporting that Facebook had been a game changer for both Brexit and Trump. Facebook could apparently help to target and delude individual voters. Fakery can be an excuse for failure in defeat and a digital strategists inflated reason for success. Legislators looking for work hate finding an area of operation so big and as the head of the Commons culture committee says "totally unregulated". Stir these elements into the pot of fakery: strands of fear, self interest and bravado this shows that this isn't a plot, it's a situation. They do not, however mean that the furore of fake news will fade or that answers will be found. With this in mind, if forecasters are right that print will soon seize to exist completely and social media domination continues then the question posed is what will the 2042 general election look like. Social media with its reach ever more complete and its algorithms ever more sophisticated will be the dominator. 

   

Key Statistics

• Newspapers see Facebook and Google eating what's left of their future as digital giants devour 90% if advertising growth.

• Through all the fake news controversy, adding 3,000 more monitors to try to keep up its act, Facebook has only added more paying adherents.

My Opinion 

With the way technological advancements are progressing I definitely agree with forecasters that soon print will die out completely and digital giants are going to dominate what they do not already.  Social media is going to soon be the new BBC and News Corp but some digital giants will survive against each other while others such as Snapchat will not; it already feeds on itself as it grows. However, how are the dominating sites like Facebook going to be regulated, with everyone using them it will be even harder to regulate posts than it is now, which still prove to be difficult for Facebook. If the sites are even harder to regulate isn't the world of fakery just going to keep growing, I think that if we are moving towards a time where we are going to completely rely upon social media sites namely Facebook to provide us with the news then they need to be properly regulated as when this happens forecasters believe that the likes of the BBC will not exist which will mean that we will not have anywhere to turn to check the viability of the source. 

Essay Practices Index

1. Essay Question - The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.
2. June 12 - Section A Essay Practice
3. 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? (48 marks)