Weekly news articles

Politics has gone wrong: Is digital technology to blame? (13) 

This article discusses the impact of digital technology on politics, such as the General Election in the US. The columnist compares the candidates of the present and the past, and suggests that individuals such as Hilary Clinton and Theresa May who have been involved in politics since the past when the internet was starting up have far more potential. Furthermore, the article suggests that digital technologies make it far easier than it has ever been to find out what people want – their likes and dislikes, this can be seen as a positive aspect or a negative one. The article also discusses the inferiority of digital media titans who are vulnerable to politics. For example, if Trump wins, even Mark Zuckerberg might find himself wondering what comes next. Politicians still have weapons at their disposal that Google and Facebook can’t match: armies, currencies, taxes.The article concludes with mentioning how digital technologies are changing human behaviour, and not always for the better. . Intolerance appears to be on the rise and governments have proved more adept at using this technology to keep an eye on us than we have been at keeping an eye on them.

I personally believe that digital technology plays a major part of politics today, as many politicians and even election candidates use social media for example as a platform to gain voters. However this does have implications and can be seen as unprofessional when compared to the past. 

Why do we still accept that governments collect and snoop on our data? (14)

The article discusses the impact of government surveillance in light of the Hollywood film about Edward Snowden and the movement to pardon the NSA whistleblower. The writer columnist also refers to a British court that has been held in which British intelligence agencies have been found acting unlawfully by concealing bulk spying programs from the public for over a decade. According to the law, government surveillance must be prescribed by law, targeted and proportionate. These requirements are designed to balance a government’s need to address security threats and its obligation to protect fundamental rights. However, what has been taking place is bulk spying programs which fail those requirements. They invade the privacy of people without any individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. The columnist believes that surveillance should be directed at obtaining specific intelligence in individual operations, not indiscriminately subjecting all of our private information to government scrutiny. The article ends with the columnist questioning whether the European court of human rights should rule against mass surveillance.

I believe that it is vital to consider the ways in which surveillance can have an impact on us, however it is still important for it to take place across the population to prevent any threats or terrorism for example. 

The New Day and The Guardian

The New Day

1) The new day was trying to tap into a new market. The new day was created so it could fit into peoples modern lifestyles.

2)

• About 6 million people buy a newspaper in Britain everyday 
• One million people have stopped buying newspapers in the last 2 years 

3)The New Day tried to attract people aged 35 to 55 and those who wanted people who want a more modern approach to news.

4) According to the article the new day may have failed because the editor aimed to produce a paper which avoided traditional structures, and which readers could digest within 30 minutes. Although this is innovative it was quite a risky move. The new day also had more dominant magazine-type articles i.e. soft-news rather than hard-news. The newspaper has a target audience of people aged 35 to 55, however from the look and content of the new day it can be suggested that they are aiming at people even younger such as twenty-somethings, or parents with young children. The majority of the articles seemed to target young women particularly, and the lack of space given to topics such as sport, coupled with the fact that sport was not positioned in its customary space on the back pages, meant that sports fans were not especially well catered for. Personally, I believe the new day failed because the already failing newspaper industry meant that wouldn't be a solid audience such as those traditional newspaper. 

The Guardian

1) 

• The Guardian website is the third most read in the world with over 120 million monthly unique browsers 
• June 2016: daily average of almost 9 million unique browsers, only about one third of whom are from the UK.
• February 2016: The Guardian was behind the market leader MailOnline (14 million) but ahead of the Telegraph (4 million).
• The print circulation of the Guardian is only 161,000.
• In the course of 2015, the Guardian reportedly lost ‘around £70 million, with slower-than-expected digital ad sales failing to offset a continued slump in revenue from print.’

3)The Guardians strategy for reversing this decline is through developing its ability to deliver 24-hour rolling coverage of major world news event, which is want the audience want. The guardian is also focusing on developing a variety of technologies and its website. More importantly, its offered subscription services for those who want to download/read the print format online, and its membership programme, which offers some exclusive content and discounted access to events, is also keeping The Guardian stable and reversing the decline as it is a way of sponsoring the Guardian to remain editorially independent and not go bankrupt.

4) The Guardian won awards for their reporting on the Paris attacks in which they won praise not only from readers but from the Society of Editors. The Guardian was applauded for its comprehensive news service and which boasts consistent innovation. Its live blogging, its long reads, and the comment section of the Guardian were described as 'superb'

5) I believe the global website strategy can be enough to save The Guardian for now as a global audience can bring in  more revenue and create stability. Furthermore, it makes live blogging more easier, which the Guardian is noted for. However, this strategy may not continue to work in the long term as the way audiences consume media and what they want to consume is always changing, so The Guardian has to keep up with these changes. 

NDM News: The future of journalism

Blog tasks (Lecture)

1) Clay Shirky argues that "accountability journalism" is so important because it is a public good and brings subjects and corruption that are normally hidden to light. The example he gives of this is the trial of Father John Geoghan, who was a priest and pedophile who had been employed by the Catholic Church since the 1960s. Three Globe reporters had been working on this story and they had gotten hold of the documents the church had been forced to submit in the upcoming trial. 

2) Shirky believes that there is a relationship between newspapers and advertisers. If advertisers are forced to overpay for the services they receive, newspapers essentially will have the kind of speculative investment capital to do long-range, high-risk work such as the one on the catholic church. Websites such as Monster and Match and Craigslist have replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers.

3) Shirky suggests that audiences are consuming their news from other sites rather than the original newspaper sites. Shirky states that the number of people who go to the Times’ homepage as a percentage of total readership falls every year because users don't go to the Times, they go to the story from an alternative website such as a Twitter or Facebook and this benefits them rather than the news site.

4) Shirky suggests that the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992 as users would be able to quickly forward it and read it online, and this could easily reach hundreds of readers. However during the period of the scandal one would have had to clip out an article in the paper and mail it, which would take days or even weeks to arrive. 

5) Shirky argues against paywalls because he believes that paywall damages general news and benefits financial news. He also states that a paywall is a violation of contract to make use of the news as an audience.

6) A social good is something thatt benefits the largest number of people in the largest possible way in a positive manner. Journalism can be described as a 'social good' as news stories and investigative journalism for example can bring corruption to light and also inform the audience of what is going on in the world. This will then lead to justice. 

9)Shirky believes that newspapers are irreplaceable in their production of accountability journalism and that instead we should expend any effort or resources we can to keep ourselves from having to replace them. However, there is currently a revolution taking place in media production, the current shock in the media environment is so inimical to the 20th-century model of news production that time spent trying to replace newspapers is misspent effort and that we should instead be transferring our concern to the production of lots and lots of smaller, overlapping models of accountability journalism.

10) I believe that it is very important for major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian to continue staying in business and providing news as they have the power and skills to take time investigating serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing in a professional manner. This is important for society as the readers need to be aware of what is going on in the world, and investigative journalism can even bring justice in some cases.

Weekly Articles

The Sun and Daily Mail accused of 'fuelling prejudice' in report on rising racist violence and hate speech in UK - The Independent (11)

This article discusses a report examining The Sun and Daily Mail on “hate speech” and discrimination in the UK. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) aimed some British media outlets, particularly tabloid newspapers, for “offensive, discriminatory and provocative terminology”. Its report said hate speech was a serious problem, including against Roma, gypsies and travellers, as well as “unscrupulous press reporting” targeting the LGBT community. This in relation to a trans schoolteacher who committed suicide after being outed by the Daily Mail newspaper. Other forms of hate speech have also been mentioned in this article, such as Kate Hopkins column in The Sun where she likened refugees as to cockroaches in one of her articles. The report by the ECRI called for the establishment of a press regulator, and said the two competing bodies currently in place were insufficient. It also recommended more rigorous ethical training for journalist and widening a clause of the Editors’ Code of Practice on discrimination

• The number of hate crimes recorded for the last two weeks in June has spiked by 42 per cent since last year.
• A total of 3,076 incidents were recorded across the country between 16 and 30 June

I agree with the ECRI as hate crime is on the rise as shown from statistics, and this can only be tackled if certain tabloids prevented articles that degrade ethnic groups and communities being published as this only fuels hatred and divisions. Journalists have a responsibility of understanding the difference between blatant racism and homophobia and freedom of speech. 

Donald Trump as president 'would be a threat to press freedom' - The Guardian (12)

This article discusses the view of the the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which is that if Donald Trump wins the presidency he would be a threat to press freedom. The CPJ’s board of directors passed a resolution declaring Trump to be a “threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ’s ability to advocate for press freedom around the world”. Several issues in the past are recalled in this article, such as when Trump mocked a disabled New York Times journalist and called an ABC News reporter a ‘sleaze’ in a press conference. According to the CPJ Trump had refused to condemn attacks on journalists by his supporters while his campaign team had “systematically denied press credentials to outlets that have covered him critically”. The rally in Texas in February is also mentioned in which Trump pledged to “open up our libel laws so when [newspapers] write purposely negative stories… we can sue them and make lots of money”.

Personally I agree with this article as Trump clearly has no respect for the profession of journalism, and with his current attitude it won't be a surprise if he attempts to oppress the press and the work they produce 

NDM story index

1. 13/09/16 - Are mobiles changing how we shop? - Telegraph
2. 13/09/16 - Culture secretary will raise issue of hate crime with newspaper editors - The Guardian
3. 20/09/16 - Why Facebook is public enemy number one for newspapers, and journalism - The Guardian
4. 20/09/16 - Senior News of the World staff 'misled' Parliament over phone-hacking, committee finds - The Independent
5. 27/09/16 - BBC iPlayer users will have to use personal logins from early 2017 - The Independent
6. 27/09/16 - TV industry could face 'harder diversity targets', says Ofcom chief - The Guardian
7. 4/10/16 - Daily Mail owner to cut more than 400 jobs amid print advertising decline  - The Independent
8. 4/10/16 - Ad-blockers: are publishers tempted to feed the hand that bites them? - The Guardian 
9. 11/10/16 - An economist makes the case for saving investigative journalism - Poytner
10. 11/10/16 - I'm with you on the digital revolution, it's the lack of journalism I can't face - The Guardian

Newspapers: the effect of online technology

1)  I do not completely agree with James Murdoch stating that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online, I understand the point Murdoch is trying to put across in attempting to preserve the future of journalism, and I do agree that journalists should get paid in some form. However, I do not believe that all news organisations will ask their users to pay for the news as the news industry is vast and each have their own agendas and also audiences. If all news was to be paid for, only those of the AB and possible C1 socio-economic groups would be able to afford to get their news, and we all have a right to know about what is going on in the world. The BBC is also in some form paid for through the TV license so it is not ultimately free. Furthermore, NewsCorp is profit driven whereas the BBC isn't, it is more neutral in terms of the news it puts out and although there could always be the chances of the government sponsoring the sort of jourrnalism that is put out as Murdoch claims, it is highly unlikely. 

3) I believe that Rupert Murdoch was right in putting his news content behind a paywall as content needs to be paid for to be of top quality, and it has proven to be successful. The Times and The Sunday Times have amassed a total of 140,000 paying digital subscribers and now have more paying customers than they did on 2 July 2010, which is regarded by News UK executives as the true marker of success. The paywall provides a "sustainable profitability" as a reliance on advertising revenue and profit from other sources will only cause more harm than good in the long term. The Times has a reliable and loyal audience as it is a middle-class/upper-class newspaper so convincing people to "pay for news" has not had a significantly negative impact on News Uk.

4) In favour of the paywall: The Times, more than any other paper, is more ready for a printless future, should it arise, as they just need to migrate users, in relatively low numbers. to the digital subscription. And it is having an almighty practice run to get it right. It doesn't need to create vast volumes of (crap) content that the Mail does and it has a very strong brand argument to Ad buyers. 

Against the paywall: The Times has zero web presence. Whats the point of existing in the 21st century without one? I never hear or read anything from the newspaper, because nobody can share what it publishes.

As much as I do agree with The Times having a strong brand image and being ready for a future that does not rely on print revenue, I believe that the paywall is also having a negative impact. I believe that it is true that The Times has almost a non-existent presence on the web, and this will have an impact on mitigating users. The majority of users will get their sources of news from from news-aggregation sites such as google, and if not they will opt for free news, only those of the middle/upper classes who are of the slightly older generation will pay a subscription for The Times, and they are a minority.

6) The Evening Standard has bucked the trend and has increased in circulation and profit in the last two years because of the fact that they distribute their newspapers to the public for free. Doing so during times such as the rush hour means that the newspaper can have a greater reach, and the fact that the Standard also announced it was expanding its distribution from around 700,000 copies a day to closer to 900,000, explains the 27 percent increase in circulation recorded by the ABC as their news is being distributed even further.

7) I believe that the newspaper industry will eventually die out as the years go by as majority of the newspapers are now adapting to demands for news online and closing down their print news i.e. The Independent and I believe many newspapers will follow. This is not surprising as millennial natives base the majority of their new intake from the digital world, and it is those of the older generation who prefer to get their news through print, and even they are switching to online news. Despite the fact that newspapers are however also adapting in terms of print from (Evening Standard distributing their news for free), many will prefer to get their news from their devices as these devices have now incorporated TV and newspapers into one through convergence.

Weekly news articles

An economist makes the case for saving investigative journalism (Poytner)

This article discusses the advantages and the disadvantages of investigative journalism and how it contributes to society such as whether investigative reporting that saves lives is adequately valued. The article highlights some of the earliest forms of investigative journalism such as the Frank Leslie's 1858 expose of the swill milk trade in New York City to the Flint water crisis. The article then continues to show the price of investigative journalism. "What's hidden is hard to unearth, with denials and cover-ups to be expected. That's why big investigations of systemic issues take months and years — not weeks — and can cost tens or hundreds of thousand dollars."

• According to News Observer editor John Drescher, it’s not unsual for the paper to spend $150,000-$200,000 on a single reporting project.

I personally believe that investigative journalism should be valued and also admired as it can bring positive outcomes and even prevent corruption. However, the fact that it comes with such a high price such as putting others at risk and also the fact that it can take months/years which unsurprisingly can cost tens or hundreds of thousand dollars, therefore not every media outlet can afford or even want to take part in investigative journalism.

I'm with you on the digital revolution, it's the lack of journalism I can't face (The Guardian)

This article discusses the implications of a reduction in the number of news-gatherers after another newspaper title is withdrawn from publication. The article mentions how some readers use the remark 'I don’t read newspapers. I get all my news from Twitter’. Which is almost discrediting the writers of these articles, that someone read the document or produced the report — gathered the news — that we repost or tweet or link to. The growth in the numbers of newspaper-based news-gatherers in those former times when print profited from its advertising revenue is also mentioned. "People listening didn’t get their news from the radio. Ultimately, they got their news from the newspaper reporters". The article states how that social media reacts to news rather than finding it, and the fall in the numbers of news-gatherers is a genuine concern.

I personally believe that the fact that users don't credit journalists and the fact that the majority of users get their news on news-aggregation sites is true and also unfair on the journalists. 

Build the Wall article

• Section 1: This section states that news should be paid through subscriptions to keep the industry stable
• Section 2: Evaluates the pro's/con's of establishing a paywall through using examples, and the risks establishing a paywall may carry and the impact of revenues on the industry
• Section 3: The change in news and revenue since 1995, evaluates statistics. 
• Section 4: Discusses the different scenarios that may take place if newspapers establish the paywall and the impact each scenario will have on revenue etc. 

4) David Simon overall argument is that paywall's are necessary to keep newspapers going and the industry stable. Simon believes that if newspapers are going to establish a paywall on their online site, all other newspapers would need to do the same to keep the industry going, as readers will ultimately prefer to read the free version of the news rather than the paid version. Furthermore, he states that content matters and that the news industry will have to find a way to make people pay for that content, and this can only be done through professional journalism. "If you do not find a way to make people pay for your product, then you are—if you choose to remain in this line of work—delusional." To support his argument of creating paywalls, Simon uses The Times and The Post as an example of the potential newspapers can have if they go for it. According to Simon, great revenue would be brought in for the two newspapers as as more people are reading the Times (nearly 20 million average unique visitors monthly) and the Post (more than 10 million monthly unique visitors), though they are doing it online and not paying for the privilege. This highlights the potential of these newspapers if they were to make their users pay for their content. Simon continues to outline the several scenarios that could take place if the newspaper industry was to take forward the idea of paywalls and the impact it would have on regional and national audiences.

5) AC Graylings piece on the state of journalism has references to new and digital media as it discusses the impact that citizen journalism is having on the news industry, as highlighted through the phenomena of blogging and interactivity it has created to the the comment threads that accompany articles. Grayling goes on to discuss the positives and the negatives of the influence of new/digital media on the newspaper industry, such as users having the chance to express their opinions and debate and the way it has made the world "porous to information". Despite the negatives such as the "volume of rubbish" online and the weaker presence the media has over some parts of the world such as the US, the article gives an overall view that we just have to accept the changes that new and digital media has brought us.

6) I personally believe that journalism is a profession that is being affected by the lack of revenue and this will ultimately lead to a decline in good journalism, therefore a paywall is in some form necessary in order to keep good journalism alive. As an individual, I would pay for news if it is completely worth it, however if the same news is available for free from a different source then unsurprisingly I would turn to it, such as the BBC which provides free, unbiased news. Getting news is ultimately a right that everyone is entitled for because as a society we need to keep up with what is going on in the world, and not all can afford to or want to pay for news when they can easily get it for free anywhere else. I believe there should be some sort of scheme that supports newspapers, and that only high end news papers should charge their readers such as The Financial Times does. Paywall's have been proven to not always work i.e. The Sun, so I believe that it is not something for all newspapers to take part in and they should instead attempt to find revenue somewhere else.

NDM: The decline of the newspaper industry

Article link: http://www.economist.com/node/7830218

The article discusses what factors may have had an impact towards the "death" of newspapers, such as the lose of advertising revenue and the shift towards online news. It also lays out the advantages of the digital age of the news industry and the changes it has brought and whether they are positive or negative. There are also predictions on where the news industry is going in the next couple of decades. 

1) I agree with the statement that it is a cause concern yet not one to create panic as there still are opportunities for news corporations and new forms of news. News-aggregation sites such as Google News draw together sources from around the world, which can benefit the news sources, however it can also deprive them as users begin to prefer using Google News as a platform over the actual news website. Furthermore, newspapers can still reach a worldwide audience. The website of Britain's Guardian now has nearly half as many readers in America as it does at home. Citizen journalism is now also able to flourish, so there are some advantages, but also disadvantages with it as it can be biased and provide unreliable news. However, there still should be concerns over the change in digital media such as the diminishing advertising revenue for newspapers, less people reading print leading to the loss of jobs and the decline of gatekeepers (professional and reliable journalists). Of all the “old” media, newspapers have the most to lose from the internet

2) The writers predictions have slightly come to pass according to certain statistics from the Ofcom research. Newspaper sales have indeed declined, with some even going out of business. This can be shown through statistics which state that news consumption through newspapers has declined by more than 27 percentage points since 2005, with those accessing their news through newspapers dropping from 40% in 2014 to 31% in 2015 according to the Ofcom report on news consumption. However, this could be argued that it is due to the preferences of the readers in terms of demographics etc. Statistics show that reach of national newspapers varies by age group: 29.3% of 15-24s are print newspaper readers, compared to 67.9% of over-65. Ultimately there is no denial on the other hand that newspapers are in decline and this form of media is dying out, and there is truth in the writers predictions. 

3) The fact that the economist suggests that high-quality journalism in the future could be backed by non-profit organisations is true, with a prime example being The Guardian, which is funded by the public. "Good" journalism has to come with a price, and now that much of the news industry is now online means that newspaper have to now invest more money into their news and what platform they provide it on. Many newspapers are being impacted with problems such as a lack of advertising revenue aswell, therefore it is no surprise that websites such as The Guardian ask users to subscribe to pay monthly fees to keep it going. 

Profit-seeking media corporations only provide mainstream news of the day, whereas high quality journalism takes an insight into many aspects and provide a variety, which not all profit-seeking media corporations do. Furthermore, not all profit-seeking media corporations would want to provide for investigative journalism. The cost of investigative journalism is quite high and not all media corporations are willing to pursue a claim that they have to spend months if not years searching into as it can lead to a loss in profits which can be used elsewehere. There is also uncertainty with investigative journalism and if a claim is seen to be untrue, it could have a major impact on the reputation of an organisation. The Panama Papers exposed the tax havens that many of today's leaders and important figures around the have taken advantage of, and suggests that the digital age has allowed investigative journalism to move forward and reach higher levels as the Panama Papers have had a major impact in terms of politics, the internet has also provided the general public with the actual papers, therefore it suggests that the digital age is allowing the public to have more power in terms of what they read.

Weekly news articles

Daily Mail owner to cut more than 400 jobs amid print advertising decline (7)

This article discusses how the decline in print sales (newspapers) have meant that the Daily Mail will cut more than 400 jobs. Despite this, MailOnline continues to flourish as it has helped to offset the impact, with ad sales up 18 per cent in the first 11 months of its financial year. They have also increased the price of the Daily Mail for the first time in three years in February, by 5p to 65p, while it lifted the price of the Mail on Sunday in July.

• Print advertising revenues had declined 13 per cent in the six months to the end of March 2016, and to 15 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
• Online ad sales were up 18 per cent in the first 11 months of its financial year

Personally I am not surprised in the decrease of print sales leading to the cuts of jobs, as many institutions can no longer afford to pay off all its journalists. However I am aware of the Daily Mail being quite a success in the news industry, hence the statistics showing the increase in advertising revenue. 

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

This article discusses how Ad Block, a commercial company, are now issuing a licensing fee for companies have their ads deemed acceptable – and therefore whitelisted.  This is an advantage for the company behind Ad Block, Eyeo, as larger publishers and ad networks will see 6% of the total advertising revenue from these ads go to Adblock Plus. Some say that Eyeo has erected a gate and now it is charging people to go through it.  Eyeo are strategically attempting to position themselves as part of the ad ecosystem and take an increased slice of the revenues but in reality they are damaging it, according to Flood. 

• Adblock Plus says it has over 1,000 publishers on board
• Larger publishers and ad networks will also see 6% of the total advertising revenue from these ads go to Adblock Plus

Personally I am not surprised by Ad Block attempting to gain more revenue as it has quite a lot of potential with the power it has over advertisers, however it makes it harder for the advertising industry as they now have to invest more money into making sure they are whitelisted. 

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