26/12/16 - What does the future of publishing look like? (32)

26/12/16 - What does the future of publishing look like? (32)

Views of five industry experts on the future of publishing:

Lorraine Candy, former editor-in-chief of Elle UK, incoming Sunday Times luxury content editor

Lorraine Candy expresses her view that the death of the print platform is nothing but a myth. Not only but this but she says there 'there is enough evidence to prove [...] it will continue to be in many forms and be available in many places.' She also goes into how the world we live in now is primarily driven by both consumers and by companies that aggregate content which are essentially social networks.

Simon Fox, CEO, Trinity Mirror

Simon Fox makes clear his hope that print will have still have a part to play in the next 2 decades. However in assessing the likelihood that a 'generation that has not grown up with papers' will migrate to print, makes it clear that there's no viable reason to think it would happen. He brings up that the imperative decisions that current publishers have to make is the amount of their content they're going to make available on social media and how it can still be monetised. With this he brushes over the issue that adblocking poses which makes it so that digital advertising can't be relied on as a sole stream for revenue. Things like e-commerce which publishers like The Sun have adopted must also be opted for.

Bob Franklin, professor of journalism studies, Cardiff University

Bob Franklin starts off by talking about how search engines with their algorithms suggesting content to users based on previous searches don't challenge the integrity but rather just reinforce their own views.  After having a brief digression to the topic of drone journalism, Franklin mentions how the current issue is that once people read news content online, they stop buying the print product. This is a 'real uphill battle' when: 'you've got to get 100 online readers to match the [ad] revenue income from one print reader.'

Lucie Greene, worldwide director of The Innovation Group, J Walter Thompson, which recently published their own 'pop-up' magazine, Glass

Lucie Greene begins going into how with publishing, the mass market printbrands are now shrinking to reallocate focus onto e-media and also how new entrants to the market are launching online first as oppose to going into print. Audio is also something that is becoming increasingly used to get new information across with things like branded podcasts and also products like Amazon Echo contributing to this. At the same time though, what's being seen is publishers for design and women's titles opting for a luxury experience with things like high quality paper and also a luxury price point. Things like this may become more common over time since what seems to be the case now is that there is a focus 'on scale rather than price point.'

Roy Greenslade, Guardian columnist and professor of journalism, City, University of London

Roy Greenslade brings up that social media companies like Facebook and Twitter need to realise that they actually do need publishers. Bringing up how the agenda for the Brexit debate was set by mainstream newspapers, Greenslade wonders how national conversation will occur in the future as print 'will not be in a position to do that.' He doesn't view social networks as being capable of this with the eco-bubble that they are known to have, particularly Facebook in particular, just feeding you information that reinforces your own ideologies.

What the future of publishing looks like is very unclear as of now. While most share the view that print will be dead, there also a few that actually think it'll continue to live on albeit in different forms. Challenges that there will be come in the form of things like adblocking and also the monetising of online content, with the latter being a very iffy topic in particular. With this said there also worries as to how these social networks will evolve into becoming 'forum(s) for national conversation' as papers die when at the moment they only seem to be good in showing us things that reflect us. It's clear here that publishing's future is unbeknown to anyone as of now, digital expert or not.

26/12/16 - Facebook to begin flagging fake news in response to mounting criticism (31)

26/12/16 - Facebook to begin flagging fake news in response to mounting criticism (31)

With the assistance of both users and outside fact checkers, Facebook has revealed its plans to flag fake news stories that crop up on the social network. This will work through users firstly flagging the potential fake stories and this report being referred to outside fact-checking organisations once enough users flag a story as fake. Among these fact-checkers will be ABC News, AP, FactCheck.org, Politifact and Snopes (none of these organisations being paid for their services). If they deem it that a story is fake, it'll be 'publicly flagged as "disputed by 23rd party fact-checkers."' Users can view why exactly a story was disputed and if they still want to go ahead and share it, they'll be further warned about the reliability of it. Along with this, stories that are shared more by people who've only read the headline as oppose to actually clicking on them and reading the text will be also clearly marked out. While these two procedures will be taken, Facebook is also taking measures to reduce the financial benefits that come with making fake news websites. Activist and journalist Daniel Sieradski, has said that this announcement is a definite step in the right direction but it is still susceptible to failure since 'false-flagging' of fake news by people will occur which only make the process more difficult.

It's clear here that the influx of fake news that there now is, is something that is recognised by Facebook as a danger to society. This contrasts hugely from the attitude taken by founder, Mark Zuckerberg just a few weeks ago. Daniel Sieradski's thoughts on the move the social network has taken match those of mine. While it's definitely a good approach to take in terms of stopping the circulation of the news, 'false-flaggers' pose a huge challenge to the true effectiveness of the procedures and could essentially prevent it from working altogether if not combated against.

19/12/16 - News publishers contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015 (30)

19/12/16 - News publishers contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015 (30)

According to Deloitte report by the industry trade body, News Media Association, the news publishing industry in 2015 contributed £5.3 billion to the UK economy amongst the challenges industry has faced as of recent. Along with this it has been also been cited for supporting a large number of jobs within the country whether that be through investment in digital services or the supply chain. Interestingly the report talks about how if this contribution is to be continued in this manner, then newsbrand content 'particularly on digital platforms' has to be monetised to fund newsgathering. Continuing on the topic of the digital platform, Ashley Highfield, chairman of the NMA, said that there's now a need for 'a fair and equitable regime in which news media publishers’ investment in news is appropriately acknowledged and rewarded, without the commercial benefits being siphoned off by digital platforms and aggregators.' Digital giants such as Google and Facebook can be thought to be the main culprits he's referencing here. Additionally the job the UK media does in 'underpinning' democracy is discussed here with how investigative journalism has helped  improve accountability of institutions with an example being the Guardian's Panama Papers findings.

• The news publishing industry contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015
•  news media industry generated £4.8bn revenue through circulation and advertising over the course of 2015
• The sector also supported an estimated 87,500 UK jobs; invested £97m in digital services; and added value across the supply chain because the average publisher dealt with nearly 2,600 suppliers
• 90% of the total spend with suppliers by news media organisations remained within the UK, compared to the average of 77% across the economy
• publishers are by far the biggest investors in original news content, accounting for 58% of the total investment in news production

I feel that this article has a lot more of a positive outlook on the situation of the UK news industry. Displaying the benefits it continues to bring with one being its investigative journalism and another its support of jobs, it's clear that the sector isn't completely gloomy. The main part of the article which really caught my eye though, is the one that describes how this positive contribution of news publishers can continue. Monetising news online is something that can either be a hit or miss move, with it more often than not being the latter with The Sun being an example of this. Whether most publishers in the industry will choose to make this move will be something that'll have to be paid attention to over the next few years.

19/12/16 - Complex Media shuts down print magazine after 14 years (29)

19/12/16 - Complex Media shuts down print magazine after 14 years (29)

Complex Media, a New York media company founded in 2002, has announced plans to cease production of its bi-monthly print edition centred mainly around pop culture and the hip-hop genre, Complex Magazine. With the December 2016/January 2017 issue marking the last edition of the magazine, Complex has said in a statement to Billboard that this move was made as the company 'embarks on a rapid expansion of premium video creation across the company's networks and with a growing list of distribution partners.' With this of course comes with redundancies, with a number of staffers from the editorial department of the company making it clear that they had been laid off on Twitter, though Complex have not made clear the exact amount of these.

• Verizon Communications Inc. and Hearst Corp. said they have agreed to acquire Complex Media, with the deal valuing Complex at $250 million to $300 million

This article just continues to chronicle this downfall that the print platform is going through. While it doesn't appear that Complex Magazine is necessarily doing badly as a print product, it seems that from an cost efficiency point, continuing to invest in it just doesn't make any sense. Something that should also be paid attention to is the fact that this move will be done as a way of 'reallocating certain positions to address its content needs' which funnily enough lie in the e-media platform. Again, this is representative of this 'death' that e-media is causing for print.

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

1.

Respected newsbrands are good for Twitter since it means that the social network, as well as having content coming from citizen journalists and just ordinary citizens in general, there is also things coming from trusted organisations too. With the lack of gatekeeping that takes place on the internet, this goes a long way in boosting the accuracy of information that there is and also helps the network stretch its audience even wider since people will be willing to join it to get up-to-date stories from the newsbrand - increasing ad revenue for Twitter.

2.

Twitter is good for these brands since as said above, it's a way of expanding/widening their audiences even further. As said in the report, 60% of newsbrand followers say that twitter gives them the opportunity to engage with newspaper brands they wouldn't normally read in print format, representative of how the social network even helps these papers increase their readership.

3.

Personally I do feel that old and new media are in direct competition. With the large number of closures and downsizing of newspaper institutions that have gone in this year alone due to the reduction in print revenue being received, partly due to digital giants like Facebook and Google, new and digital media can be viewed sometimes as something of a slow killer to old media. This coexistence can also be said to not really be there as we're now seeing what could be referred to as a 'death of journalism' due to new media, which as a public good is a matter of huge concern within the newspaper industry.

4.

• Neil Ashton - Arsenal are toast: In all seriousness now, what are the sales figures like for this kind of stuff?
• Camilla Long - Favourite story all weekend has been Del Boy killing the British sheepskin coat industry. LOL
• Tom Newton Dunn - Biggest cheer at the Emirates tonight by #AFC? To an announcement for the MUFC away fans that no more trains leaving Euston.

5.

It can generally be said that the reputation of news and journalists isn't really harmed that much by their use of banter, however to a minimal extent it could be thought to damage it. Audience members may end up perceiving posts by journalists like this as being representative of a lack of seriousness and real inclination for journalism amongst them.

6.

The report essentially represents that trust in news stories on Twitter emanates from verification. With this being confirmation that the account is of an authentic nature shown through a blue badge, when users see this then they can be sure that they can trust things being posted from that journalist's account. This means that there isn't any uncertainty on behalf of readers when seeing this content.

7.

New and digital media developments like Twitter can be thought to have had a positive impact on traditional newspapers in the sense that for one, the citizen journalism that is prevalent through it can become part of the stories in these papers. In cases where there aren't journalists on the field able to report on an event, using things like images that come from ordinary citizens on Twitter can be very helpful in forming news stories. However of course, an issue creeps up in that these same new and digital media developments are contributing heavily to the ongoing death of print media (newspapers) through factors such as the immediacy they have in getting stories across and also easier accessibility.

8.

With the influx of fake news that's been coming through Facebook, perhaps what needs to be done which has already been suggested, is clearly marking out stories that have been published by respected newsbrands. By separating these articles from all the others then it'll be clear to audiences that they need to be more wary when reading stories that aren't actually from these brands. A system like this could be compared to how Twitter has its 'verified' system which was described above.

12/12/16 - Only 20% of US adults have information overload, but those who do feel burden (28)

12/12/16 - Only 20% of US adults have information overload, but those who do feel burden (28)

The Pew Research Center released a report looking into the extent of information overload facing adults in the U.S. While the majority don't feel particularly overwhelming, it's quite interesting to see that there are quite a lot of people who do feel the overload. These people tend to have access to less technology, be poorer, less well-educated and older too according to the author of the report, Jonathan Spira. The problem gets worse when there are 'high information demands on people' by institutions like banks and schools since they'll suffer as they're not digitally adept enough to perhaps provide that information. Another interesting point is how Spira says:'There is so much information out there that people are no longer able to distinguish between legitimate information and fake news.' A quote like this could be easily be compared to what happen in the U.S Presidential Election where people totally unaware were actually reading fake news about the candidates. The main takeaway from here is that the overload some feel is so significant that it further deepens this digital divide that exists between people in the modern world.

• Some 20% of American adults feel the burden of information overload
• Americans feel overloaded now than they did in 2006, when the figure was 27%
• 77% of US adults say they like having so much information at their fingertips
• 47% of those whose household income is less than $30,000 sometimes feel stressed by the information they have to keep track of compared with 39% of those earning more than $75,000

I feel that this report is quite insightful in letting us understand the extent of information overload that people have to deal with in the modern world. With fake news being addressed here, a definite cause is of course the lack of gatekeepers that there are on the internet platform and due to this it appears to me that this overload will only continue in growth. With this it'll be interesting to see how in the next couple of years how many more or possibly less people will feel the overload.

12/12/16 - Local news reporting is vital – so journalists like me are fighting for its future (27)

12/12/16 - Local news reporting is vital – so journalists like me are fighting for its future (27)

This article by Sam Blackledge, chief reporter on the Plymouth Herald, essentially details the plight that local news reporters have had to deal with in recent years. Starting with the initial signs of the credit crunch in the summer of 2008, Blackledge details how he never would have thought the financial crash would impact the journalism profession in the way that it did. Going from readers actually not buying newspapers, to advertisers withdrawing from the pages and offices eventually closing, these were the beginnings of the dismantlement of the newspaper industry. Citing how things like social media are replacing traditions in news gathering, he describes how young reporters despite their talent are now becoming disillusioned with the industry. With the profession being referred to as something of a social good, Blackledge recognises that less people adopting it could cause less accountability within our society for authority - democratic deficit (Press Gazette, Mike Gilson). One of the more notable examples of the issues local newspapers have been able to raise is the cover-up at Pennine Acute NHS Trust by the Manchester Evening News where it was revealed that hospital attempted to hide the state of the maternity services there. This all said, Blackledge puts across effectively why exactly local news reporting is vital within our society.

Personally I feel that this article acts a reiteration of what we already know about not just the general death of newspapers, but local news reporting too. From the perspective of a journalist himself you understand the sheer impact that this decline is having, even deterring young potential journalists to pursue it themselves. It appears that one of the more worrying things is the lack of accountability of authority that will follow if local news reporting stops since it's often this that conduct extremely vital investigative journalism.

NDM News: Globalisation and fake news

NDM News: Globalisation and fake news

The Guardian & the global problem of fake news

1)

A similarity between both France and Germany presented in the article and their problem with fake news is that it's used to influence and manipulate the political beliefs of people particularly during election periods. While the dissemination of the news unlike in the USA isn't done with the incentive of ad revenue in mind, it is in terms of affecting the ideology of people. While it can be done to tarnish the image of a political figure, with Angela Merkel being an example of this, it's something that is mainly employed by people on the far ends of the political spectrum, resulting in the fruition of things like conspiracy theories.

2)

The lack of gatekeepers that exist on the internet is what's causing this influx of fake news and is without a doubt, an inevitable consequence of 'the culture of freedom and innovation.' It could potentially be stopped if say digital giants decided to change the algorithms they're employing which means that all stories whether branded or not appear as standards. If they were branded with the logo and name of the publication perhaps less people would actually access the fake news.Whether it'd be stopped as a whole though is a completely other question.

New York Times and the creation of fake news

1)

Stories that were particularly successful for student Beqa Latsabidze, were ones which talked about Donald Trump in a way of praise based on both real and completely fake news. These drove traffic to his site particularly, adding to the anti-Hilary Clinton fervour.  Articles to do with Trump's proposal to create a wall around Mexico for example combined with some lies, were ones which were especially successful.

2)

Google and Facebook can be blamed for the global rise in fake news since almost inevitably, they help to actually disseminate it. The 'like, share and comment' buttons on Facebook for example all help to make news stories circulate further as the algorithm values engagement as justification for showing it to more people. With fake news especially catching a lot of attention and reactions from viewers, it's undoubtedly going to be the case that tons of people end up reading and possibly believing what they're accessing. This is representative of how it the digital giants can be held responsible for the rise of it.

NDM News: Globalisation

NDM News: Globalisation

1)

It could without a doubt be said that national news is affected by American cultural imperialism. Examples of this were visible in the run-up to and actual week of the US Presidential Election where most of the news, particularly on TV, was commentary on the victory of Donald Trump. Not only this, but when natural disasters occur in the country such as Hurricane Matthew this year, its impact tends to be covered quite heavily by the UK media.

2)

Increased globalisation can be said to improve the audience experience of news in that has done things like open up the amount of choice people have in the type of media that they consume. So for example in the late night, they can decide to tune into either ITV News, BBC News, Channel 4 News or even a newspaper website such as The Independent. At the same though it can be said that with this news tending to be quite US-centric that we're unable to form our own cultural perceptions of media products that we view - 'McDonaldisation.' At the same though, reception theory suggests that audiences are active in constructing their own values and the actual producers of media only create material which reflects the ideologies of audiences, showing their autonomy.

3)

Globalisation can be said to have more benefit for major news institutions than disadvantages.  This can mainly be seen by how the process has allowed them to monopolise global information over other countries. With this, particularly with national broadcasters, they have the capability of mediating information to suit domestic needs best while also dominating those other nations which don't have that much power within the media. With this the damage on them is only minimal.

Globalisation: taking it further

Globalisation: taking it further

1)

Google Glass was deemed controversial mainly for the infringements to privacy that it could potentially bring along. With the glasses having a built-in camera, filming the general public without their permission isn't that far-fetched of a concept. Not only this but the facial recognition software that the glasses feature, allowing them to identify specific individuals amongst crowds of people only amplify the concept of a techno-panic being associated with the device. From a technological determinism standpoint as well, the product can be considered controversial since it's likely that with its release people will become less engaged in conversations with one other with them being distracted by their glasses, just generally decreasing interactions between people.

2)

• It makes the world more accessible to those who many not have originally had to opportunity to understand it that well - 'information age'
• It offers increased opportunities and choice for people to receive empowerment from e.g. citizen journalism, jobs etc.
• It enhances the democratic process in that it allows people to express their own independent views

3)

• The benefits derived from it are provided sometimes by a single institution/corporation - not that welcoming for smaller companies who want to compete and be part of the global market
• The choice that we get from it comes at a cost in that it's provided by a limited number of companies who dominate the global market - 'top 5%'

4)

Techno-panic - moral panic that centres around fears regarding a specific contemporary technology

It links to moral panic as it in itself is a type of moral panic, just regarding modern technology with an example being the Google Glass where people are concerned about what the product could do to people's privacy.

5)

Personally, I feel that the privacy debate and concerns of major corporations being able to access large quantities of our personal data are things that are almost redundant now. Datamining is procedure that is now undoubtedly implemented by major corporations such as Google as a way of tracking things like our buying habits (targeted advertising algorithms) and even voting patterns. Privacy has essentially been thrown out at the window and everyone has digital footprint that they leave behind when they access all ranges of content on the internet. For this I feel like there isn't really a debate that can be had for the topic, and really it's something that we should all just is going on. 

Media Factsheet: Globalisation and capitalism

1) Marshall McLuhan coined the 'global village' phrase and companies that can display this are Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Nike.

2) Slavoj Zizek suggests that the media acts essentially as a mask for 'the way in which western institutions 'do business.'' This relates mainly to the exploitation that these business are generally responsible for with the way in which the producers of their products are mistreated. They usually tend to be in LDCs working in subpar working conditions with unreasonably low pay attached to it. Things like charity donations can work to conceal these truths.

3) 'Capitalism with a conscience' is the global media raising awareness about social issues while still sustaining Western capitalist dominance within marketing campaigns.

4) The (PRODUCT) RED campaign, founded in 2006, is one that engaged the private sector in raising awareness and funds to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.

5) Personally I have more of a cynical outlook on the RED campaign. I believe that it's simply a scheme to make multinational companies look more caring and ethical towards global issues than they actually are. This can be seen especially through the fact that the firm has actually spent more on advertising than it has on donations to AID charities showing that it's something that mainly helps brand image as oppose to development/progress on a large-scale. The involvement of multinationals who have had bad reputations for their operations in other countries such as Apple, also works to suggest that perhaps RED is just something to make the brand image of firms better in the face of certain allegations.

05/12/16 - The paywalls come down and readers flood in. But revenue doesn’t (26)

05/12/16 - The paywalls come down and readers flood in. But revenue doesn’t (26)

In competing with newspapers like the Daily Mail, Guardian and Mirror who've all had increasing readership figures year-on-year, The Sun has been the real leader with them going up from 13 million in 2015 to 24 million in November 2016 in monthly reach. The real major contributor to this taking place was the removal of the paywall on the paper by Rupert Murdoch in November 2015. With this, while readership figures of the paper saw a surge advertising of course didn't follow suit as without a subscription service then the paper fundamentally lose out on it. Linking to advertising, it's said by Enders Analysis that digital advertising in 2017 will grow by 12.7%, but what's quite interesting to note here is that 90% of this growth will end up in the hands of giants, Google and Facebook.

• The Sun: up from 13m in 2015 to 24m last month on the back of a tenfold increase in mobile readers
• Digital advertising in 2017 set to grow by 12.7%, another mobile surge (almost hitting £10bn a year)
• Some 90% of growth lands straight in the pockets of Facebook and Google

This article to me is representative of a problem that newspapers are currently having. While by them not imposing a firewall they are getting high levels of circulation for their papers, at the same time they're not going to be earning the advertising revenue that they potentially could be and need to 'stay alive' as a publication. This is where companies like Google and Facebook in particular capitalise on quite well with them 'siphoning off' this advertising revenue. The fact that 90% of the growth of digital advertising will go in the hands of Google and Facebook clearly shows this being the case, perhaps suggesting that they're now monopolising the news industry.

05/12/16 - Here's the truth: 'fake news' is not social media's fault (25)

05/12/16 - Here's the truth: 'fake news' is not social media's fault (25)

Initially before the internet had started to get the widespread usage it's getting now, it was believed that 'mainstream media's lies and distortions were going to be corrected by people using social media,' with the public of course bring things like injustices to light. Alternatively though, what we've ended up getting is 'mainstream media trying to cope with fake news distributed through social media.' Technology companies such as Google and Facebook have expressed their intentions to contribute to the stop of the circulation of this fake news by doing things such as removing advertising tools that let websites earn money from publications spreading false news. However another issue come forth in that not only can the news be published by people for profit reasons but also to get propaganda across. Events currently being used to display the impact that these propagandistic messages have had is both the Brexit and US Election 2016 vote. Both of these had false news going around on either side of the votes, highlighting the strength post-truth politics now has in our modern world. The phrase 'everything is true and nothing is true' relates to this particularly. What seems to be quite a major issue, new and digital media in mind here, is that the speed at which these fake stories are spread and how difficult it is to give evidence correcting the misleading information in them. Another phrase being 'a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its trousers on,' represents the way in which these stories can posted on the internet and be disseminated without an opportunity for rebuttal, only working to further polarise the general public.

Personally I agree with the article in saying that it's not necessarily the fault of social media that fake news is becoming more prominent. It can't be doubted that the bulk of fake news is being distributed through these social networks with Facebook being particularly notable for it, but at the same time a phenomenon is occurring where the act of lying is almost being cemented as a norm and alright within society. Rather than people making false stories solely for profit, they're now also doing it to spread certain ideologies and views. With this said, I'm hard-pressed to find ways that companies can defend against this post-truth culture.