13E: MEST3 Section B question

In Tuesday's lesson, we will be writing a complete answer to the question we worked on last week as a class. I want this to be a 'perfect answer' - that means you can take longer than the 60 minutes you'll have in the exam and use all of your notes, research and the internet to make your answer as good as possible. If we can create a 'perfect' answer in these conditions, we can then revise that material so we have all the key information in our heads before the exam.

A reminder of the question:

New and digital media offers media institutions different ways of reaching audiences.

Consider how and why media institutions are using these techniques. (48 marks)

The rough section-by-section plan we put together was something like this:

Section 1: Paywalls and newspaper industry

Section 2: Focus on News Corporation

Section 3: Opportunity to target younger audience to newspaper – Mail Online/Guardian website

Section 4: UGC – citizen journalists

Section 5: Audience choice – Marxism/Pluralism

Section 6+: Something from your independent case study

You'll have notes from Thursday that provide more detail than the above but it's important to have an idea of how many different ideas we need in a full Section B essay. It's worth 48 marks and we need to earn them!

You won't finish the essay in the lesson so complete for homework.

Due: next Tuesday

While you're writing your essay, I'll be calling you up to check your blogs. You need to have the following up on your blogs:

• Your complete independent case study for New and Digital Media
• Your New and Digital Media stories for the last three weeks (including three that link to journalism or news). That means you're up to 26 stories in total.

Good luck!

By the way, here's a great story for your ongoing NDM homework - about the Mail on Sunday's food bank expose backfiring thanks to Twitter.

13E: NDM independent case study

Now that we've completed our case study looking at the impact of new and digital media on the news industry you need your own independent case study to use in the exam. This needs to be something you're interested in and a different industry to news. Ideally, you will be able to draw links between the work we have done on news and your chosen case study even though they cover different aspects of the media.

The structure is all here in New and Digital Media Case Study pack.

You will need to complete ALL twelve questions from the case study pack. This will take you some serious time but will make a huge difference when you are writing that one hour essay in the exam on Tuesday 10 June.

You should also find as many up-to-the-minute links/research from Media Guardian and other more academic sources (in a similar way to your Critical Investigation) for your NDM case study and post them up on to your exam blog along with the twelve questions from the case study pack.

Due: when we return after Easter.

13E: News on the Tweet

News on the Tweet is a report from Newsworks (a marketing organisation representing newspapers) and Twitter designed to show the positive impact new and digital media can have on traditional media.

Read the report and answer the questions on your blog. Include the News on the Tweet infographic above in your blogpost.

1. Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?
2. Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?
3. The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?
4. On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to gossip or banter. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this? 
5. Do you think the increasing amount of gossip or banter is harming the reputation of news and journalists?
6. What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?
7. Finally, do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

Finish for homework if you don't get it finished in the lesson - due on Thursday.

13E homework

Right, we're nearly done with our class topic for new and digital media: News.

Next week you'll be starting your own individual case study on another aspect of new and digital technology, so please have a think about something specific you'd like to research. An industry or issue that we can use to draw links with our News case study is particularly helpful here. Make sure you've got a few ideas of what your case study could be - some good ideas so far include the impact new and digital media has had on the music industry and the audience experience of sport (although both of these need to drill down to pick one aspect of these broad topics). These can both be linked to News because previous revenue streams have been decimated or changed but you could argue that the audience experience has improved.

You also need to make sure you find your regular two new and digital media stories and, if you missed Tuesday's lesson, create an index of the 20 stories you have found so far. Have a look at Akshay's blogpost if you're not sure what this involves.

So, to sum up your homework:

1) Finish the classwork on News Corporation.

2) Find your regular two new and digital media stories.

3) Think about what case study you are going to research over Easter.

Due: next week

13E: News Corporation research

News Corp is the world's third-largest media conglomerate.  

In the UK (under two subsidiary companies, News International and BSKYB), its news interests include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun & The Sun on Sunday (plus their online versions) in addition to Sky News & Sky Sports News.

News Corp is a cross-platform, vertically integrated multi-media company.

Some of the ideas we discussed in class regarding the impact of new and digital media on News Corp included:

• Online subscriptions/paywalls
• Price promotions for newspapers
• Impact on institution content and its appeal
• Paid subscriptions for TV content
• Quality of journalism
• User generated content
• Social media/online news providers (Huff Post, Ampp3d etc.)

Tasks

1) Research News Corporation’s response to the growth of new and digital media by listing each of the institution’s brands (Sky News, Times etc.) Have any closed, changed or been in the news in the last five years for any reason?

2) Develop examples of the impact that new and digital media has had on News Corp’s brands (paywalls, readership figures, audience share etc.)

3) Use what you have found out about News Corp to answer the following question:

Why and with what success are traditional media institutions adapting to the challenge posed by new/digital media?

Complete for homework if you don't finish it in the lesson.

New and Digital Media stories

With coursework deadlines approaching, it's easy to lose focus on our exam topic - New and Digital Media and, specifically, news. However, you need to keep finding regular stories on these key issues and if you visit the right websites it won't take you long. After a quick look this morning, I found the following:

Here's a brilliant one for New and Digital Media and news in particular:

US paper tells reporters the more stories you post the more pay you get 
It contains a brilliant quote from New York Times journalist David Carr: "Journalism's status as a profession is up for grabs. A viral hit is no longer defined by the credentials of an individual or organisation. The media ecosystem is increasingly a pro-am affair, where the wisdom — or prurient interest — of the crowd decides what is important and worthy of sharing."

You've also got the ongoing story in Turkey regarding banning Twitter:

Turkey steps up bid to block Twitter after users flout ban

And there's a lot about Apple and iTunes recently with talks of streaming:

7 ways a streaming iTunes could compete with Spotify and its rivals

All those are just from a quick look on the Guardian website Media section.

A quick look at the Telegraph reveals plenty more out there:

How your tweets can reveal where you live

Remember, you need two stories a week, one involving news.

13E: Your next two are due on Thursday.

13E: Globalisation

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Is our news influenced by American cultural imperialism? What examples can you think of?

2) Has the increased globalisation of news improved the audience experience? How? Why?

3) Has globalisation benefited or damaged major news institutions? How? Why?

Complete for homework if you don't get it finished in the lesson.

NDM Case Study

You will need to complete ALL twelve questions from the New and Digital Media Case Study pack. 

You should also find as many up-to-the-minute links/research from Media Guardian and other more academic sources (in a similar way to how you did your Critical Investigation) for your NDM case study and post them up onto your blog

Then do TASK 13 - the detailed presentation, in which you summarise your case study, providing at least three detailed textual examples, using as much of your research as you can, and as much media theory/terminology as you can include.

Deadline - when we return after Easter.

13E: Marxism and Pluralism

Remember our definitions:

Pluralists argue that we live in a classless society and media organisations are responsive to an audience and are economically determined. 


Marxists believe the mass media are a tool used by ruling bodies to maintain hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society.

Having completed the 'To what extent...' exercise in class looking at the question from both a Marxist and Pluralist perspective, answer the following question on your blog:

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

13E: homework catch-up and the examiner's report

In our single lesson we need to make sure we are keeping up with homework and continuing to publish our New and Digital Media stories every week. I'll be calling you up individually for a brief chat on this subject. 

Hopefully, the mock exam will have reminded you how important it is to develop a wide range of examples from across the media - but in case of any doubt the AQA Examiner's Report from 2012 exam will confirm it.

Read the Report on the Examination you did for the mock and then add to your learner response blogpost by answering the following questions...

1) How many of the examiner's points did you manage to cover in your answers?
2) How many examples did you provide in your answers that did not come from classwork?
3) What will you do between now and the exam in June to ensure you have a wide variety of examples to refer to in questions two and three?

NDM News Articles 10/3/14

Two key articles from the last fortnight...

Daily Mail and Guardian digital 'minnows', says News UKchief. Mike Darcey says relying on online ads as main revenue stream is risky in market containing rivals such as Google and Facebook.

News travels fast in cyberspace but can we trust it? Social media is now a major source of information. The challenge is ensure that it is reliable and correct.

Section A Mock Exam Revision

Aside from revising all the key theories/issues/debates (a good place to start is the Media A-Z Glossary) and going through all your NDM/representation blog work, do this practice paper and then read the tips/advice/commentary...

MEST3, Section A: Olympics 

(login... user: greenford / pw: greenfordedu)

Also complete the exam practice you started in class...

• DJ Hero 
• Kinect

13D: Critical Investigation 2nd draft

Firstly, I think all our Year 13 Media students deserve a great deal of credit for the BFI library trip yesterday - the attitude was superb and the staff at the BFI were very impressed. The library is free to use if you want to go back and add to your research - Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am - 7pm. 

Now, you need to make sure you use that research to really improve your first drafts and move up to the level you want to reach.

Your second draft deadline is Thursday 13 March.

This gives you plenty of time to really deliver a second draft of great quality. Following this, you will have one more tutorial to check it over and then a final opportunity to make improvements. After that, it will be marked and sent to AQA.

Remember, the overall deadline for both critical investigation and the linked production is Easter.

Good luck!

13E News values: homework

Homework

How has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?

How would you update them for 2014?

In a blog post, write how each news value has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken by the time the paper is published so different angles might be required.

A reminder of Galtung and Ruge's news values:
Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency:  did the event happen fairly quickly?
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death

Great link for gender representation

One of my superb GCSE Media students, Kishan, has sent me this link - it may be useful for those of you doing critical investigations on gender representations or advertising. Either way, it's an interesting watch and could be an example you quote in the MEST3 exam Section A representation question (or even next week in the mock!)

13E - Citizen Journalism

Read the article from Media Magazine (Dec 2009 pg 56-58) and then create a blogpost where you make notes under the following headings: 

• examples
• theory (audience reception etc.) 
• benefits to institutions 
• benefits to audience 
• wider issues and debates 
• SHEP

Next, answer the following questions in the same blogpost:

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
5) What is a gatekeeper?
6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

Finally, consider the following questions:

What impact is new/digital media having on the following:

• news stories
• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)
• the role of professionals in news

Finish this for homework - due next Thursday 13 February.

Remember, this is in addition to your regular two NDM stories on your blog that are due for next Tuesday - these should be stories #13 and #14 and one should be about news or journalism.

IMPORTANT: Media Magazine - new log-in

We have been given a new log-in to access Media Magazine online resources. For the rest of this year you need to use the following:

Username: mediamagazine11
Password: qp726zr

Our MediaEdu log-in remains as it was:

Username: greenford
Password: greenfordedu

If you have any problems accessing our subscription sites do contact us so we can investigate.

Laurie Penny lecture - this Thursday lunchtime

The Laurie Penny lecture has been re-scheduled for this Thursday lunchtime (6 Feb). You will be sent an invitation so you can leave your Period 4 lesson at 12pm to get lunch prior to the 12.15pm start in the Lecture Theatre.

The school is incredibly lucky to have such a high profile guest speaker coming in and as you know we are making it compulsory for all A Level Media students to attend.

Laurie Penny is a journalist, feminist and prolific user of new and digital technology to challenge widely held viewpoints in the mainstream media. She will provide a perfect additional case study for our New and Digital Media topic and a fascinating perspective on the representation of women in modern media.

We will be taking a register of all Year 13 Media students so see you there!

13E: Murdoch's paywall

Read the last page of the handout - Newspapers: The effect of online technology (from 'Should News be Free').

Also read this blog on the Times paywall three years on.

Answer these two questions on your blog:

1) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online?

2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a paywall?

Finish for homework if you don't get it done in the lesson.

Look! A free NDM story for your homework...

Zulq has suggested that there is always something better to do with your time than read the Guardian... but those of us who live these miserable lives of interest and curiosity sometimes find relevant stories for our NDM homework.

Here's one about whether the internet is killing general knowledge and it's written by a professor of journalism at Kingston University.

Feel free to use it for one of your stories this week.