MEST3 mock exam - Learner Response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: Good references to Marxism and pluralism - balanced essay

EBI: Make more explicit reference to the question, especially in the intro/conclusion - rewrite these. Add a paragraphy on globalisation/americanisation and Paretos' law.

2) Read through the mark scheme. Pay particular attention to page 9 that has suggested content for each of the questions in Section A. How many of these potential points did you make? Did you successfully answer the questions?

Q1) 4/8

• Direct address of the “Who are you?” questioning
• Catchy soundtrack
• Use of text on screen
• universality of marriage
• Appeal to a range of audiences through use of different nationalities / ages etc.

• Contrast similarities in celebration/social ritual
• Viewpoint of photographer
• Fast editing
•  One text creates the desire to own a product,

Q2) 3/12

• Identification with celebrity
• Response to lifestyle activities and celebration of choices
• Modification of audience behaviour
• Online identity and manipulation
• Creation of personal spectacle
•  Pros and cons of social networks
• Increased opportunity for members of the public to control their own representations

Q3) 4/12

• Key to advertising/marketing revenue
•  Growth of e-Media economy
• Illusion of empowerment
•  Direct audience feedback
•  Demographic targeting
• Cross media promotion

3) Now look at page 15 of the mark scheme. How many of the broad areas suggested by AQA did you cover in your Section B essay? Did you successfully answer the question?

L3 26/48 

• A good essay, showing good critical autonomy.
• Proficient understanding of identity.
• A clear focus on the question.
• Good application of a range of media issues/debates/theories and wider contexts.
• A clear individual case study, with a range of examples.
• Well-structured and clearly expressed.

4) Read the Examiner's Report in full. For each question, would you classify your response as one of the stronger answers or one of the weaker answers the Chief Examiner discusses? Why? What could you do differently next time? Write a reflection for EACH question in the paper.

Q1) My answer focused more on the weaker side as i focused on fairly simple points of analysis, in some cases being limited to brief references to one or two media language and i did not engage with the specific wording of the question.
Q2) My second answer also was a weak answer as i focused on the unseen extracts that were shown at the start of the exam, and did not involve reference to additional media products. I therefore was limited in my ability to explore the range of technologies and platforms available to individuals when revealing their identity.
Q3) I made fairly simplistic points, often referring just to the presence of Twitter rather than exploring the implications of its use for media producers and audiences, or by only making passing reference to the opportunity for audiences to express a preference for a performer.
Q4) My answer for question four was both weak and strong. It is bang in the middle between the both. I focused on the development of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc but then i made reference to just one or two examples which, while being largely relevant to the wording of the question, primarily argued that people have been empowered just because platforms such as Facebook and Twitter now exist.

5) Choose your weakest question in Section A and re-write an answer in full based on the suggested content from the Examiner's Report. This answer needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme. This will be somewhere between 3-6 well-developed paragraphs (depending on the number of marks).

Q2) 3/12

Personal identity is portrayed in the media in a number of ways. Nowadays, members of the public like to see themselves as higher up people in the media such as celebs. For example, young girls would love to be exactly like the famous Kylie Jenner - she's like a role model to them. Thus, their own identity is disappearing over time, due to being influenced by the elite. The same is happening with both genders. Males are also being influneced. For example, they want be to be muscular and 'buff' like e.g Taylor Laughtner. 

Work on this during the lesson you are given your paper back but you will need to complete for homework.

Independent NDM case study: Media Factsheet research

Horror films

• The most common way to consider genre is through the identification of its most commonly used visual and aural characteristics. These characteristics, sometimes called iconographies or codes and conventions, are used by media audiences to identify the genre of text being accessed. 
• Once recognised, these iconographies ‘frame the audience’s expectation’ (Chandler) of the type of story the text will tell and the way the story will be constructed. The horror genre can be considered in this way and there are some iconographies that are often associated with horror films.
• There are many techniques used by horror films to attempt to scare the audience. Some are relatively simple to identify such as the use of atmospheric music or sounds to create a feeling of unease or uncertainty. 
• Jump cuts in editing, camera techniques like extreme close-ups and low key lighting can create a similar impression. 
• All sub-genres of horror use a range of deliberate media language choices to promote the appropriate audience response for the text.
• It is a good idea to think carefully and note the way that texts you are analysing are using media language choices to attempt to frighten the audience.
• However, horror films have been around for a long time and when watching texts from other eras often we, as modern audiences, find that horrors lose their impact. Clearly then, creating fear is more than just a collection of eerie and creepy media language choices.
• In addition, audiences get bored. Whilst it is important for a genre to be recognisable from its use of iconographies, if these codes and conventions are overused, audiences may find the genre too predictable and clichéd. One of the main challenges that film makers have to deal with is how to find a middle ground between a recognisable genre text and one that offers something new and unique to its audience.
• The best way to create fear for the audience in a horror text is to play on the fears that already exist. Tudor identifies this as he says that horrors provide a ‘monstrous threat’ and this threat is ‘based on notions…from the producing society’. Horror films won’t meet their primary objective of scaring the audience if they do not in some way represent the fears of the people watching them.
• A useful way to identify the type of fears being identified by horror texts is for analyse the monsters within the films.
• Neale identified that horror texts have different types of monster. The monster is the source of the fear.
•  The External Monster – an outsider. The external monster will be one who comes from‘somewhere else’ and brings the threat to a community.
• Vampire films are good examples of this as traditionally they come from Transylvania and were shown terrorising a British community.

Representing the world

• Representation is: the constructed and mediated presentation of people, things, ideas, places etc.
• Everything in the media is a representation – everything we see is being represented.
• The media re-presents people, ideas and events. What we see in the media is in some way a ‘second-hand’ version – it is clearly not the thing itself. The representation has been created or constructed by the selection of specific media language elements. In addition, everything we see in a media text has gone through some process to get to us – this is called mediation
• Sometimes, representations are seen to be a deliberate attempt to create associations and ideas for the audience.
• Advertising can be seen in this way too as the linking together of ideas and images to a product is used to persuade the audience to act in a certain way.
• Even though some media texts can be seen to be very deliberately creating ideas and associations through representations, this way of viewing the media can lead to an undermining of the audience. There is an assumption here that these intentionalist methods are always successful and the audience is ‘victim’ to the ideas created by the media. It assumes they are passive and unable to recognise the techniques being used. Clearly this is a simplistic view of the audience and does not take into account their ability to interpret information for themselves. However, advertising does work. Successful products and brands rely on it to alert the audience to the existence of their product and to persuade them to choose it over the alternatives that are available. They pay large amounts of money for space on TV, in magazines, on billboards etc. specifically for this purpose.

Media Language

• Media language is the combination of elements that are used in the construction of a media text. For example, newspapers use combinations of words, pictures and design elements such as columns to convey meanings to its readers. Films have their own media language system which includes the use of:
• Camera – the way the camera is positioned, angled and how/if it moves 
•  Editing – the way one camera shot moves into the next: techniques include a straight cut, a fade to black or white, a dissolve from one image to another
•  Mise en scene – the way sets, props characters are designed and arranged within the camera’s frame
•  Lighting – the way light is used in the: e.g. high contrast (low-key) lighting and coloured lighting create different effects
•  Sound – diegetic sound is the sound within the film and non-diegetic sound is placed over the image
• An analysis of the media language in a film is simply a study of the way film directors have used these five elements to create what we see on the screen.
• The establishing shot presents a large field of ice and then a drilling station. The wide angled long shot which tracks over the ice emphasises the vastness of the location and makes the drilling station seem small and vulnerable. There is an edit to a close-up of the American flag which identifies the nationality of the characters we see and implies that American values will be important in this film. The ice cracks and it is shown in another long tracking shot which reinforces the danger to the scientists.
• Any sign that can be specifically linked to a genre is called an icon.
• The signs identified in the two images are part of the film’s iconography. Iconographies and their connotations can also help identify the genre of a text.
• Genre is a formula or pattern that enables producers and audiences to categorise film texts by their similarities. When a genre of film is successful, producers are usually keen to repeat the film’s formula to bring the audience’s back to the cinema again.

Mise - En - Scene

• Even the smallest Hollywood movie has a budget of many thousands of dollars. However, for your coursework production, you are likey to have no money at all. You cannot hire expensive studio space or rent locations for you to shoot in so you are limited to locations that you can access for free.
• When shooting your film, give some consideration to set dressing. If you have written a scene that takes place in a restaurant, your best bet is to try and shoot it in a real restaurant; it will be worth the effort. If that is not possible, use scenery carefully to make your set look like a restaurant
• Making even a small effort to dress your characters in appropriate costumes can make a world of difference to your film. A lot of student productions feature actors who are just wearing the clothes they happened to be in at the time and that tells the audience next to nothing about the characters. Also, make sure your actors arewearing exactly the same clothes every time you shoot to avoid issues of continuity.
• Giving a character a prop to hold or use can develop their character or just provide some visual interest in the film. Make an effort to find objects for your actors to use that help us make sense of their character.
• Just as important as what you put into your mise-en-scene is how you present it to your audience. A lot of student films are shot in college and you may want to pretend that your classroom is another location entirely. You can bring in as many props and bits of scenery as you can to dress up your set but if you film it in a wide shot, classroom elements will creep into the frame and it will not be convincing. Make sure you frame your mise-en-scene tightly so only the bits you want to been seen are in the frame.

Twilight cross media case study 

• The elements of the Twilight marketing campaign were spread over the three media platforms: print media, broadcast media ande-media and, as such, are an example of synergy
• Marketing can be defined as the ways an institution builds relationships with audience members in order to attract them and encourage them to spend money on their products.
• Twilight is targeted at teenage girls. The audience are supposed to be able to identify with Bella, who is represented as an average teenage girl. She is not incredibly beautiful or exceptional in any way so the audience can see themselves in her place.
• There were three official Twilight posters in the print campaign, accompanied by cinema-only posters featuring lone characters. Each poster featured the Twilight logo. This acted as branding, linking each part of the marketing campaign to the other parts. Bella and Edward were featured on all three posters and James and his coven were present on the billboard poster
• The broadcast media element of Summit Entertainment’s marketing campaign was comprised of trailers. The purpose of trailers is to create hype and excitement about a film and to get the audience talking about the film before it is released. Some films, such as Twilight, have teaser trailers
• Three different theatrical trailers were made for Twilight: a teaser trailer aimed at teenage girls which featured the romantic scenes from the film, a teaser trailer aimed at teenage boys which featured action and sports scenes from the film and the main trailer which explained more about the film’s narrative
• The official Twilight website: www.twilightthemovie.com, featured key images used in the poster campaigns and hosted the trailers and music video, creating a link between all three media platforms. Users could download badges, widgets (which counted down until the release of the film in theatres and then on DVD), IM icons and wallpapers from the site.
• The purpose of this was to encourage users to promote the film, through their use of social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, by embedding the key images and logo into their profiles.
• The same website has subsequently been used to promote the second film in the saga, New Moon.

The impact of new and digital media: Television 

• Newspaper circulation figures have been in decline for a number of years. The newspaper industry has been keen to counter this by using the internet to its advantage, allowing audiences to access their product on-line. The television industry too has had to adapt to allow for the impact of new digital media, as have all of the traditional media industries.
• In terms of audience demographics, today’s teenagers have grown up in a digital world and as a result are sometimes referred to as ‘the internet generation’. This generation is familiar with new media and the interactive opportunities that goes with it.
• New media not only facilitate opportunities for interactivity, they also make geographic distance obsolete, increase the volume of communication and help create convergence. For example, smart phones have made it possible for anyone who has access to the necessary equipment to capture footage then upload it on any number of websites
•  
• Due to new media technologies, they are able to utilise the television itself to access content via ‘on demand’ software, such as BBC iPlayer and 4oD. Such technologies may be one way of explaining why people do not realise how much television content they are consuming.

Introduction to Audience

• Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way. Success is measured by the audiences response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive. At the heart of this is the fact that all media texts are created in order to make money.
• If a media text is deemed successful it needs to attempt to ensure it offers appropriate pleasures (gratifications) its audience. Each media text will be targeted towards a specific group and the way it is constructed will be carefully considered in light of who the target audience is.
• Some media texts attempt to appeal to a broad range of people. Although difficult to achieve, this is an ideal way to create very large audiences and, therefore, maximise the potential for success and ultimately profit. This group, consisting of males and females, young and old and a wide range of social groups is often called the mainstream or mass audience.
• The mass audience is not the only one that can make a lot of money for media producers. Some media texts are created with a specific sub-section of the audience in mind - a niche audience. Whilst a niche audience is likely to be smaller in number than a mass audience, there are many ways appealing to a specific group can be profitable
• It is important for media producers to recognise and identify who their target audience is. It is the knowledge of who the audience is assumed to be that enables media producers to make specific choices about how to construct their media texts. This knowledge will help them decide on what content to include and how to present the content. The first consideration will always be attempting to appeal to and maintain the interest of the identified audience. Media producers are keen to give their audience what they want so that the audience are more likely to watch or read again.
• Members of a media audience cannot all be exactly the same. Media producers need to consider their target audiences as a mass in order to attempt to appeal to them. In reality there will always be differences in the way audience members access texts and the interpretations they make. The aspects of ourselves which make us individuals may also impact on the way we interpret a text. These aspects have been called subjectives… they are the things which add to the way we view and define the world around us and include: • Gender • Age • Nationality • Life experience. 
• Subjectives may go some way to explain why you and your parents like different media texts – the differences in your age and life experience means you will interpret media texts differently, will have different ways of being entertained and will have different perspectives on the content of texts. Products which aim at a niche audience attempt to capitalise on these subjectives but texts which aim at a mass audience attempt to limit their impact by focusing on things that different people are likely to share.

Independent NDM case study: Up-to-the-minute web research

The third research task for your New/Digital Media independent case study is find recent online articles about your institution and industry that give you up-to-the-minute examples, statistics and quotes.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/apr/16/movie-downloads-streaming-legally

• According to the British Video Association, the market for legal downloads of films more than doubled from £35m to £78m in 2010, while rental-style digital services grew in value by £5m to £205m last year
• The film industry's hope is that the growing number of legal sites offering affordable (and even free) downloading and streaming of movies will mean consumers will abandon dodgy filesharing sources, which still account for the vast majority of downloads.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/09/amc-cineplex-vod-paramount-early-streaming-deal

• Two giant North American cinema chains have decided to disrupt tradition by allowing Paramount Studios to offer a couple of trial titles to home viewers a few weeks after they appear in theatres.
• Exhibitors normally insist on a lengthy window between cinema and home viewing. The perceived wisdom is that people are less likely to go to the cinema if a film is available to watch at home. It’s thought that the rise of VOD services like Netflix has increased viewer expectations about faster availability of home-entertainment titles, an idea that’s caused consternation among exhibitors.
• Netflix’s content acquisition boss Ted Sarandos is a proponent of “day-and-date” releases for independent titles, a system by which films are released on streaming services on the same day as they appear in theatres. Netflix, which recently expanded into film production, will release their homegrown titles using this model.
• Paramount are planning to approach other cinema chains to see if they are willing to take the two films on similar terms. In return, exhibitors will get a cut of the rental revenue for 90 days after the films’ theatrical release.
• “Consumers know theatrical movies from their ‘gotta see it now’ exclusive releases in theaters, but every movie is different, and a one-size-fits-all business model has never made sense,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/05/youtube-deal-paramount-pictures

• YouTube has reached a deal to screen films from Paramount Pictures in the US and Canada, meaning the web channel now has agreements with all six major Hollywood studios bar Twentieth Century Fox.
• The contract means users of the channel will be able to stream more than 9,000 Paramount titles.
• The channel is seen as a competitor to services such as Netflix and LoveFilm, along with YouTube, in Britain.
• "Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest movie studios on the planet,"
• YouTube also has agreements with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Studios in North America. The deal with Paramount is all the more remarkable because of the studio's attempt last October to revive a long-standing $1bn legal battle with YouTube over allegedly unauthorised clips from TV shows shown on the website. No verdict has yet been delivered in the case.
• Where once it was eyed suspiciously by the film industry, YouTube has increasingly been seen as a potential business partner for studios looking to increase revenue from streaming services, in stark contrast with file sharing sites.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/17/digital-piracy-film-online-counterfeit-dvds

• The movie industry excels in selling dreams. But since the dawn of the digital revolution, there is one narrative they've consistently and conspicuously failed to sell: that piracy is theft and consumers who indulge ought to feel guilty about it. Recent research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft costs the UK audiovisual industries about £500m a year.

 http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/04/film-streaming-downloads-dvd-netflix

• A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has declared that the market for DVDs and Blu-ray is quickly declining, with the slack taken up by increasingly popular on-demand streaming services like Netflix – which will also overtake cinema box office revenues in the coming years.
• The study says that revenue from electronic home video (ie streaming and downloading films) will outstrip physical media in 2016, and that the market for physical media will drop from $12.2bn now to $8.7bn in 2018. They also predict that in 2017 electronic home video will overtake the traditional cinema as the biggest contributor to total film revenue in the US, reaching a total of $17bn the following year – double the $8.5bn the sector currently generates.
• That's not to say the multiplex is under threat – PwC predict a 16% increase in ticket sales over the next five years. "People still want to go to the movies, especially the big tentpole films," said Cindy McKenzie, managing director of PwC's entertainment, media and communications arm. She also pointed to the cheap and easy distribution allowed by digital media as being a major cost saving: "The amount of money that you're making per transaction may not be the same, but it is cheaper to distribute things digitally."
• Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and the popular US streaming service Hulu are funnelling their growth into ambitious production projects: all have quickly made the jump from mere middlemen to creators of original content, with hits like House of Cards and Arrested Development. Netflix's revenue rose an astonishing 24% in the first quarter of 2014.

2 news articles

2 news articles

#47 Facebook to pay millions more in UK tax

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/facebook-pay-millions-more-uk-tax-reports

After some major corporate changes Facebook may be made to pay millions and would no longer be able to evade their tax payments. This plan will mostly benefit UK and USA as well as mitigating the the criticism that institutions such as Facebook are currently receiving due to avoiding paying their tax. Facebook also works with advertising agencies and gain great profit from that aspect.

• The UK represents less than 10% of Facebook’s global revenue

•  more than 850 staff remain an important part of the business

• The company faced criticism after it was revealed it paid just £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014, despite its UK staff taking home an average of £210,000 in the same period

• The world’s poorest nations are hardest hit by corporate tax dodging - losing at least $100bn every year that could pay for hospitals and schools.

• Google’s similar ad-sales arrangements showed that only 1% of its ads were sold offline, but that they accounted for approximately 60% of the company’s revenue in the UK

• HMRC, which spent £27,000 on adverts with Facebook in the past year, would not comment on the particulars of the social network’s tax arrangements.

• Google has also been criticised for its tax arrangements. It agreed to pay £130m in back taxes in January

It has been a very apparent issue recently that big institutions, Google and Facebook only being two of the many, who avoid paying great taxes. But as the companies have been receiving may criticisms of their actions, they are feeling more pressurized to change how they go about paying for taxes and have decided to pay their taxes in full.

#48Google hires founder of 4chan, the ‘Zuckerberg of online underground’

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/chris-poole-4chan-google-hire-social-media

Christopher Poole, who was the founder of the controversial site, 4Chan, has been recently hired by Google. It is speculated that Poole will attempt to help Google with its social media aspects, an area where the company is greatly lacking and Poole stated through a post of Tumblr  that he would like to contribute his experience from a dozen years, creating online communities. Although Google announced in November 2015 that they will release a social network that will be similar to pinterest and reddit, this announcement did not receive much attention. Poole's involvement may possibly turn the audience around for the better.

• Described by Rolling Stone as the “Mark Zuckerberg of the online underground”
• Poole founded 4chan in 2003 when he was just 15 years old.
• Today the site claims to attract 22 million unique visitors per month.
• 4chan has also gained a reputation as a breeding ground for abuse, trolling and online harassment.
• In January 2015, Poole retired from running 4chan, and in September 2015, the site was sold to a Japanese entrepreneur.

Google being a massive, leading institution, will greatly benefit from Poole's involvement to help them increase their reputation in terms of social media. However, since Poole is notorious for running a site that is a hub for online abuse and harassment, if there is a negative outcome from any of Poole's future projects, Google will also be greatly damaged and will become mistrusted

2 news articles

#45 Hong Kong’s post-1997 search for identity helped rise of K-pop, says South Korean consul

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1885703/hong-kongs-post-1997-search-identity-helped-rise

Hongkongers’ struggle for a cultural identity after the 1997 handover has given rise to the popularity of Korean pop culture in the city, according to Seoul’s top diplomat here. Speaking on the eve of tonight’s Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) taking place in Hong Kong for the fourth time, Kim said he was initially surprised to learn that Korean wave, or hallyu in Korean, has a huge following in Hong Kong as well as mainland China.

• the power of cultural exports to generate economic benefits, 
• South Korean Consul General Kim Kwang-dong said cultivating strong manufacturing industries was essential and urged the city’s leaders to consider reviving this faded sector.

#46 It's The New Day - first look at Trinity Mirror's new newspaper

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/feb/22/its-the-new-day-first-look-at-trinity-mirrors-new-newspaper

One week ahead of Trinity Mirror’s innovative leap into newsprint, it has released a photograph of its new national newspaper, the New Day.Calling it “the first standalone national daily newspaper for 30 years”, the company will launch the Monday-to-Friday title on Monday, 29 February.Trinity Mirror stresses that it will not be a sister title to its flagship, the Daily Mirror.

• According to a press release issued early Monday morning, it “will report with an upbeat, optimistic approach and will be politically neutral.”
• It will be available free from over 40,000 retailers on launch day, and will be priced at 25p for the following two weeks before selling at 50p after that.

Its editor, Alison Phillips, said: “There are many people who aren’t currently buying a newspaper, not because they have fallen out of love with newspapers as a format, but because what is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs. “This paper has been created as a result of customer insight and is the first newspaper designed for people’s modern lifestyles.”

index - Articles

Story 1 & 2: How live video on periscope helped get inside the Syrian refugees story. How instagram is becoming more gay

Story 3 & 4: Amazon launches gaming and 4K streaming fire TV update. Social media is harming the mental health of teenagers.

Story 5 & 6: Muslim gang violence. Virgin media uses female role models for TV ad campaign

Story 7 & 8: Watch out instagram users - the mums, dads and racists are coming. Jon Steinberg to leave Daily Mails US digital operation

Story 9 & 10: USA todays Facebook - inspired use of emojis gets thumb down. Tech companies urged to protect young from dangers of excessive screen time

Story 11 & 12: Google launches 150 euros fund for publishers digital news projects. Why the future of newspapers are not all doom and gloom

Story 13 & 14: Moshi monsters in 'name and shame' campaign by UK ad regulator. Viral video: Star Wars, Drake dancing and Britney's broken zip

Story 15 & 16: New wave of podcasts aimed at younger, wider audience. Buzzfeed journalist attacked by far-right jewish extremists in Paris

Story 17 & 18 -  BBC says public back its online journalism even if it hurts papers. Can dropping the paywall and upping the story count boost Sun’s website?

Story 19 & 20 - Broadband bills will have to increase to pay for snooper's charter, MPs are warned

Story 21 & 22 -  BBC to cut entertainment.  American Isis Twitter scene reveals social media's power to radicalise

Story 23 & 24 - What would Tanzaia's cost-cutting president do? Twitter responds. YouTube tipped to strike licensing deals for TV shows and films

 Story 25 & 26 - Sun website traffic up by more than 25%.  Viral video: One Direction, Justin Bieber and Star Wars VIII

 Story 27 & 28 - Facebook cracks down on marijuana firms with dozens of accounts shut down.  A work reunion? I’ve been naked in front of some of these people – I’m not sure

Story 29 & 30 - Anti-Isis hackers claim responsibility for BBC cyber-attack. BringBackOurGirls of 2016: what will dominate Africa's Twittersphere this year?

Story 31 & 32 - Has social media ruined the web? Telegraph criticised by watchdog for 'misleading' Michelin advertorial 

Story 33 & 34 - Twitter unveils revised rules regarding hate speech in posts. Turn off, shut down, log out: the digital detox holiday is here

Story 35 & 36 - Sydney man accused of making rape threats on Facebook pleads not guilty. The social housing tenants taking to Twitter to influence policy

Story 37 & 38 -  Sun website traffic falls by more than 5% despite axing of paywall

Story 39 & 40 - BuzzFeed faces $11m defamation lawsuit from viral news agency. How Facebook and Twitter changed missing child searches

Story 41 & 42 - Welcome to the sixth evolution of television: place-shifting. Daily Mail website's ad revenues surge as paper announces price hike

Story 43 & 44 - Facebook sets up 'social VR' team to explore virtual reality beyond games. Mobile operator Three to introduce adblocking