2 new articles

#43 Facebook sets up 'social VR' team to explore virtual reality beyond games

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/22/facebook-social-virtual-reality-beyond-games-mark-zuckerberg

Facebook has created a “social VR” team to explore virtual-reality technology’s potential beyond games, as it prepares for the consumer launch of its Oculus Rift VR headset.Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed the plans in a surprise appearance at Samsung’s Mobile World Congress press conference, while talking up the popularity of 360-degree videos on Facebook, and on Samsung’s Gear VR headset – which uses technology from Oculus.“People have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR,”explained a blog post from Facebook following the event. “Already, millions of people watch 360 videos on Facebook every day. More than 20,000 have been uploaded, with hundreds more added daily.”Facebook is upping the quality of 360-degree videos on its service, while tasking its new team with developing other kinds of non-games content for VR headsets.

• Virtual reality is already one of the hot topics at this year’s Mobile World Congress conference.
• HTC has confirmed that its Vive headset will cost $799, with pre-orders opening at the end of February. Meanwhile, LG is launching its own headset, designed to work with its new G5 Android smartphone.

#44 Mobile operator Three to introduce adblocking

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/19/mobile-operator-three-ad-blocking

Mobile company Three is to introduce adblocking across its UK and Italian networks, making it the first major European operator to do so. Three has struck a deal with Israeli company Shine that will see the mobile adblocking technology introduced in the UK and Italy, followed by a “rapid roll-out” across its operations in other countries. The move is cause for serious concern for digital publishers and advertisers, which are already dealing with a rising number of people who block advertising when they use their phones. Three said its move to implement network-wide adblocking is not an attempt to “eliminate” all mobile advertising, but to “give customers more control, choice and greater transparency over what they receive”. The company, which has 9 million UK customers, said a network-wide adblocking strategy is better than relying on apps because it “reaches a broader range of mobile adblocking”.

• Customers pay data charges so they should not then receive ads, costs which the company says advertisers should be made to pay.
• Some advertising aims to elicit customer data and information without them knowing.
• Customers should only receive relevant advertising and not have their mobile experience “degraded by excessive, intrusive, unwanted or irrelevant ads”

Index

1) Reading the riots 

2) Post colonialism : Destiny Ekaragwa film analysis 

3) Post feminism: theory and clip task 

4)Feminism: Post colonialism article and no more page 3

5)Feminism: Feminist theory and Beyonce video analysis

6) Feminism: waves and feminism and online activism

7) Identity and Film - Media Factsheet task

8) Collective identity and the media

Media and collective identity

1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

I think, therefore I am:  Social position was, at one point, much more important than being an individual, and it was what our success was based on.

From Citizen to consumer: Edward Bernays said that people purposefully conditioned themselves to become a passive consumer from an active citizen and that with this, advertisers aimed to sell products by promoting a positive self image.

The rise of the individual: The concept of individualism become popular and people rebelled against conformity as they wanted to show their different and unique points.

Branding and Lifestyle:  Branding associates personality with a product and we, as the audience, attempt to find products that match our personalities.

2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.

Apple: Apple products are created for numerous purposes and has many functions, converged into one device, whether it be an iPhone, computer of watch. I think it shows how I seek convenience.

Converse: Shoes which are comfortable yet stylish shows how I like to wear things that look good but are also comfortable for daily life.

H&M: Clothing is often affordable and comfortable which is all thats needed from clothing.

Vans:Shoes which are comfortable yet stylish shows how I like to wear things that look good but are also comfortable for daily life.

Kipling: Kipling bags are mostly for casual use, but they are also very effective due to the many pockets and compartments that most bags have. The material is also very durable, which shows that I like to use the same style for a long while.

3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?

This expression means that people worry more about the outlook and appearance of their product rather than the effectiveness of its purpose, and I think that recently, this statement has been proven to be very true. Many people have a great focus on items that are trending in fashion whether it be clothing or digital items, and that the function of the item no longer matters. I think, to a certain extent, the style and branding of items, in some sense, shows other people the type of person you are and people carefully choose the things they own to portray a certain image to society. Although, there is a proportion of people who think its more about substance over style, it is evident that the media is entirely comprised of different forms of promoting style rather than substance.

4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.

The media has conditioned society to think a certain way and act a certain way. As we are completely overloaded with the media's dominant ideologies, we can no longer distinguish between the real value of commodities and the great value that the media conveys.

5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?

I think my presence on social media greatly reflects who I am but only to a certain extent. I think this is because with social media sites such as Facebook, people get to see your likes and interests through what kind of pages and posts you like. However, it is difficult to see my personality through my presence on social media. I haven't removed or added pictures purely with the intent of showing people what kind of person I am, but it is common with many people as they only want certain aspects of their character to be shown publicly.

6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?

Personally, I have no issues with data mining as greatly filters out what kind of things I would want to see and what kind of things I wouldn't want to see. I think it would be a great time saver when the time comes where there is something particular that I would like to buy or watch. I do think this is an invasion of ones privacy, however, unless someone is doing something that is inappropriate or illegal, there aren't any major effects for anyone.

Identities and Film: blog task

1) Read Media Factsheet 142: Identity and Film.

2) Complete the Twenty Statements Test yourself. This means answering the question ‘Who am I?’ 20 times with 20 different answers. What do they say about your identity? Write the 20 answers in full on your blog.

I am a Pakistani

I am a female

I am Muslim 

I am a henna artist

I am a student

I am a Bollywood fan

I am going to be a councillor

I am a film lover

I am an animal lover

I am a feminist

I am a fan of Zayn Malik

I am bad at English

I am kind

I am polite

I am funny

I am a middle child

I am amazing

I am creative

I am smart

I am..

3) Classify your answers into the categories listed  on the Factsheet: Social groups, ideological beliefs, interests etc.

• Interests 
• self evaluations 
• ideological beliefs 
• ambitions 
• social groups

4) Go back to your favourite film (as identified in the lesson). What does this choice of film say about your identity? Are there any identities within the film (e.g. certain characters) that particularly resonated with your values and beliefs?
My favourite film is wedding ringer This shows that i am ...

5) Watch the trailers for the five films highlighted as examples of gay/lesbian representation in mainstream film. How are LGBT identities constructed in the trailers and how are audiences encouraged to respond to these representations?

2 articles

#41 Welcome to the sixth evolution of television: place-shifting

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/29/welcome-sixth-evolution-of-television-place-shifting

Thanks to over-the-top services and systems such as Sky Q, this year will be the year where watching TV where you want it, when you want it and on whichever device you want it goes mainstream.  in the mid-1920s television has gone through five major shifts that affect the way viewers consume it. Now we’re on the verge of a sixth shift that will bring it kicking and screaming into a brave new world of TV everywhere. People are place-shifting their content, watching TV online through devices at a time that suits them. This year will see that behaviour cemented with the continued rise of on-demand and the launch of new services, such as Sky Q, which allow all television to be place-shifted – the sixth evolution of TV.

Evolution of TVs: 

• Black and white
• Colour
• Time-shifting
• Digital TV
• Widescreen and HD
• Place shifting

Key facts:

• Between 2000 and 2003, most TV broadcasters in the UK switched to 16:9 before introducing HD channels, starting with BBC HD and Sky’s HD channels in 2006 via satellite. Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5 and most others followed suit, producing HDTV channels, while terrestrial HD broadcasting was introduced in 2009 with Freeview HD.
• The UK lagged well behind the US in the adoption of HDTV, which first started broadcasting in HD in 1996 before official adoption in 1998. Europe’s first HDTV broadcast to the home was in 2004 in Belgium.
• 1998 that the first digital broadcast was made in the UK.

#42 Daily Mail website's ad revenues surge as paper announces price hike

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/28/daily-mail-websites-ad-revenues-surge-as-paper-prepares-for-price-hike

The owner of the Daily Mail has said that Mail Online boosted its ad revenues by 27% in the final three months of last year, as it announced that the paper is to increase its cover price for the first time in three years.Daily Mail & General Trust reported on Thursday that Mail Online, which missed its £80m annual revenue target last year, had a growth rate of 16% in the year to the end of September.

• Mail Online’s 27% boost in the final quarter is a promising sign, particularly given at one point last year its growth rate fell to single digits as the entire digital newspaper ad market faltered.
• Advertising across the Mail business as a whole, including print and digital, was down by 3%.
• DMG Media, the division which includes the Mail business, Metro and Elite Daily, said that in the four weeks since 27 December total underlying ad revenues are down 12% year on year.Print revenues fell 20% in the four-week period, while digital grew by just 11%.

2 new articles

#39 BuzzFeed faces $11m defamation lawsuit from viral news agency

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/27/buzzfeed-lawsuit-central-european-news-michael-leidig

BuzzFeed is being sued for $11m (£7.7m) by a news agency and its founder over an article titled “The King of Bullsh*t News”.Central European News, founded and run by British journalist Michael Leidig, has launched a US legal action claiming that BuzzFeed’s 7,000-word article deliberately set out to damage its business.The article, published in April last year, alleged that the agency frequently runs attention-grabbing stories that are “often inaccurate or downright false”.CEN and Leidig allege that BuzzFeed maliciously intended to damage the news agency in order to “obtain a greater share of the market for viral news in Great Britain and elsewhere around the world”.They are seeking $5m each, as well as a further $1.04m for lost business opportunities, and further punitive damages.“The BuzzFeed story accuses Mr Leidig, an experienced and award-winning journalist, of the worst thing you can accuse a journalist of – fraud,” said Harry Wise, the New York-based lawyer representing CEN and Leidig. “It is unfortunate that BuzzFeed refuses to recognise that its story is completely unfounded, and has done terrible damage to Mr Leidig and his company. We look forward to demonstrating those things in court.”

• BuzzFeed is being sued for $11m (£7.7m) by a news agency and its founder over an article titled “The King of Bullsh*t News”.

#40 How Facebook and Twitter changed missing child searches

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jan/27/facebook-twitter-missing-child-searches-social-media

Every three minutes a child is reported missing in the UK; across the EU that number rises to one child every two minutes. In the US, the FBI recorded almost 467,000 missing children in 2014, which is close to one reported every minute. In the US, milk cartons, posters, flyers, meetings and traditional news reports formed the main missing child search channels until 1996, when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop a warning system that interrupted regular programming on television and radio broadcasts, and highway signs. The service, Amber Alert, is used only for the most serious of cases, sending out messages via email, text, traffic signs and digital billboards, as well as through Twitter and Facebook. International non-profit organisation Action Against Abduction long pressed for a similar system in the UK, but it wasn’t until 2012, after the abduction of April Jones, that Child Rescue Alert was activated nationally. 

• Newcomb says the Met operates more than 400 Twitter accounts, but also works closely with other agencies.
• In 2015 the charity created a video appeal featuring imagery of a missing girl and the person they suspected had kidnapped her. The video was shared widely and a woman spotted them.
• Extensive social media campaign in which a computer-generated composite image was estimated to have reached 47 million people on Facebook.

Identities: Feminism and new/digital media

Emma Watson: HeForShe gender equality campaign

Emma Watson started the "HeForShe gender equality campaign" which was the first campaign of its kind at the UN to try and motivate as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. She then outlines how no country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality. - "it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights." It's a balanced debate as she then goes on to identify that men are being imprisoned by gender stereotypes - "Men don’t have the benefits of equality either - young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less “macho”—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease." Overall, I think Emma Watson's campaign is valid as it looks at both sides and discusses the issues surrounding gender stereotypes, such as pressures from society to look a certain way.

Caroline Criado-Perez: female presence on banknotes

Caroline was the feminist campaigner who had won her battle with the Bank of England to reinstate a woman on the back of an English banknote. Caroline had campaigned since it was announced that social reformer Elizabeth Fry was to be wiped off the fiver and replaced with Winston Churchill, leaving an all-male, all-white lineup on our English banknotes. Criado-Perez had threaten to sue the bank under the 2010 Equality Act. The then Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, appeared to dismiss her request. Then, within a week of new boss Mark Carney taking up his post, she had been invited to the bank and asked if she would accept Jane Austen on the back of a tenner. Five days later, Criado-Perez was back on the news in a very different context. This time she was talking about the rape and death threats she had received on Twitter, following her victory. I believe that Caroline's campaign was successful as it meant that women have equality around economics and politics by remaining on the banknote. She states that 'Women have always been put in their place and kept there through the threat of sexual violence. What social media has done is enable people to behave in way they wouldn't face to face."

 Caitlin Moran: Twitter silence

 Caitlin Moran created a Twitter trend called #TwitterSilence, this Trend was towards women and for women who were not able to speak out. Twitter, however, had already announced it would be listening to the protests of the U.K. feminists, adding more staff to deal with abuse claims and rolling out its current "Report Abuse" button for iPhone to its Android and web platforms as well. 

 However, many people were allowing Twitter users to "Report Abuse" and would do anything but make it harder for feminists to make their voices heard. This campaign was not useful as women were not getting their opinions across by being silent.

Identities: Feminist theory

Feminist theory: key notes

Judith Butler: gender roles
Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.
By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders
Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

Butler and the media
If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.
And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?

Angela McRobbie: empowering women
McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.
McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.
This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

The video contributes to Butler's idea roles that genders are a performance as at the beginning, Beyonce is seen fixing a car. This is a male based job and the fact that she is fixing it does suggest that genders are a performance.

2) Would McRobbie view Beyonce as an empowering role model for women?

No, McRobbie would not see this an an empowering role model for women. This is due to the fact that Beyonce is still portraying herself as a sex object that a respectful individual. She is seen wearing clothing of a housewife, however these have been altered to show her figure and body parts, showing that Beyonce is not an empowering role model. However, as she is seen fixing a car, we can imply that gender roles are not fixed; females and males can do the same jobs.

3) What are your OWN views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey)?

In my opinion, I think that Beyonce reinforces the traditional 'male gaze'. This is due to the fact that she is wearing a tight, figure-hugging, 'sexy' outfit, which males gaze upon and stare at her body. Its telling the audience, that its right for women to have these roles in society and to show off her feminine features, which in my opinion she shouldn't be doing so.