EXAMPLES OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM

1. 
   The first example of citizen journalism was the footage of the Los Angeles police brutally beating up someone called Rodney King. This footage was very important so that racial injustice was stopped. Also the release of this footage meant that every news organisation showed this which meant a massive riot took place to stand against the LA police.

Another example is the footage of the 2005 bombings. This is important so that the world could see the raw footage and how a devastating event took place in which they can experience a point of view from people suffering.

One more example is the asian tsunami that hit Japan and was captured by tourists. The main importance of this is so that people can see the tsunami as a spectator which could also help with reason to why the tsunami was so harmful. Also this footage can also help to identify how people may have reacted.

Also Russian metoer was caught on camera. A meteor that had flown across Russia was caught on a dash cam. This is important so that events we can capture that are maybe not expected and very useful for people to predict when things like a meteor striking will appear again in the future. If the meteor did any damage we could know that there was meteor that actually did it.


The UK riots were caught on mobile phones by many people. This is important so that the police could identify the damage that was done to businesses and  find out the people that were responsible for such an event that would go down in history for Britain for 2011.

One shocking piece if citizen journalism police beating black men and woman from the USA. These attacks by the police especially in the USA states such as Texas where racism is increased. It is important for this type of footage to be recorded and spread around social media so that these such police men are exposed and taken action against.

Videos have also been filmed of unusual events such as a video showing a man being pushed by supposedly a ghost. These type of videos help to discover any paranormal activity in which people can review footage to find a conclusion as to why this paranormal activity happened.

One disturbing type of citizen journalism is Seung Hui Cho has mailed into NBC news about his plans to undergo a mass morder. This type of citizen journalism is important so that people can identify intentions about people before something tragic happens. However in this case 32 people were killed at a college

Another disturbing type of Citizen journalism is the elliot rodger case. This person was the son of a famous directer who directed the Hunger Games. Elliot documented what he was going to do a day before the acutal event where he murdered people. This is important again so people can identify intentions of people before something tragic happens. This is one of the few cases that had not been stopped however the mother and father tried to stop the plan in which they could not.

NEW/DIGITAL STORIES

Sun website traffic slips by 14%

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/15/sun-website-traffic

- Suffered first fall in web traffic 

- saw average visitors drop by 14% 

- The figure has dropped to 1.1 million people

- Likely to be because of football transfer window has closed

- Companies who suffered even more are the Daily Star and The Metro.

- The Daily Stars average daily visitors dropped by 35% and The Metros daily visitors dropped by 33.9%.

- However other companies such as theGuardian have increased by 11.28%, also the Independent increased daily traffic by 10.32%

I think that was results was expected as there are many football fans that go on to news websites to see news about transfers. I also feel that The Sun is based on entertainment and not things such as politics which means that when something big happens in the entertainment world there will be a more daily visitors attracted for the website.

Twitter slashes global workforce as it struggles for growth

- Twitter is cutting 336 jobs which is 8% of its work force

- The job losses will be mainly in the area product and engineering functions

- Twitter is struggling to grow its 300 million users

- Twitter is still less popular than Facebook and Instagram

- Facebook has 1.4 billion users in which Twitter cannot compete

I am shocked that Twitter is struggling to grow as as the number of twitter users are on the increase. Also I think that the rise of Instagram has slowed the process down for Twitter to grow as a business.One more thing I would like to add is that Mark Zucherberg has thought about how to sop Twitter from growing as he bought Instagram which is on a rapid increase

Citizen Journalism

Examples -Another example was footage captured by a citizen of the asian tsunami on December 26th 2004

One more example is the London bombings 2005.

Theories -

Benefits toInstitution - News companies do not have to send journalists document the issue and can use the UGC to display and inform audiences about.

Benefits to Audience - Audiences can now witness news that was recorded by a citizen and show it as it actually is. Audiences then were allowed to like comment about the issue that had been posted on the social media site.

Wider Issues & debates -

SHEP -

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

A citizen journalist is an ordinary person who documents things such as recording with their smart phones.

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

The first example was footage recorded by someone of Rodney King being beat up by LA Police.

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)?
The difference would be that professionally there will be a better quality and footage shot by hand will not have the best quality as well as lack of equipment to film.

5) What is a gatekeeper?

 A gatekeeper is what UCG is broadcasted on the news and what will never be broadcasted on the news is all decided by 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?

Journalists are losing their jobs because of this ordinary people are doing the job of journalists

Newspapers - The effect of online technology

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

I do not agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news because they can do what they want with the way their organisation is setup. Also the BBC have thought of a fantastic marketing strategy in order to get more viewers onto their dedicated news website. This will then earn the BBC revenue from the advertising paying them to display ads.However I do feel that organisations such as the BBC are destroying the business for independent news companies to earn any money for charging for newspapers.


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

Rupert Murdoch was right in putting in pace a paywall as the newspapers that are owned by Rupert Murdoch have already a brand reputation and loyal consumers of their newspapers, therefore would be willing to pay for a digitalised version at a cost. I also believe that because Rupert Murdoch's news company was the first in doing so more people paid a subscription for The Times and The Sun. However these paid subscriptions do not recover profits that the company needs to run as with the paywall in place, there are still people losing their jobs at The Time and The Sun. Having said that, it still makes more money than most websites that offer free news. One new organisation that can disagree with this statement is the Daily Mirror who earns most of its profits through its 6 millions users each day and equates to a revenue of £45 million a year.

COMMENTS -

Just a thought on that: Times gets £14.99 pm from 140,000 subscribers, making it considerably more than it made in online advertising. Are you suggesting that it would be better for a commercial organisation to make less money? Or in other words, what's the point of having a web presence if you make no money?

I agree with this comment as The Times do make a lot of profit and would not be beneficial for a news company to just rely on the revenue from advertising. I also think that making people pay for a subscription is reasonable according to people paying for content that took time and effort to edit and publish onto their app. 

It is so ridiculous if these mainstream newspapers believe that they can "force readership of fee-based news. One can get the same "news" for free almost anywhere on the internet. I'd take a hint from the alternative free weeklies that survive just off their local advertising. I don't think anyone would read them otherwise. These papers are full of paid advertising. The fee model will never work.

I disagree with this comment as The Times have actually made this pay wall system work as they know have 140,000 subscriptions that £14.99 a month. Another reason I disagree with is that content should be paid for so that a news company such as The Times and The Sun are helped with increased that are now faced due to less people buying their print newspapers.

BUILD THE WALL ANALYSIS

SECTION 1 - This first section talks about the 2 newspaper executives that can save high end journalism, newspapers cutting down prices on newspapers that do not sell and that advertisers think of newspaper advertising to be valueless.

SECTION 2 - two newspaper publishers Arthur Sulzberger jr and Katherine Weymouth can find peace for the newspaper industry in the digitalised revolution however have failed to do so, also mentions people/ newspaper organisations closing down.

SECTION 3 - smart people in the newspaper could have won by considering the internets implications.

SECTION 4 - a paid subscription should have been implemented a long time age and that it would not attract readers for some newspapers that are doing this now.

THE FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS

Who killed the newspaper? (Article)

This article discusses the different issues that many that the newspaper industry faces. Also highlight possible reasons as to why the newspaper industry has declined as it has. The most obvious and main reason was the internet. This is because the article mentioned the fact that anyone with an internet connection and a keyboard and create things such as blogs. Also the fact that the internet has made it much more easier to access news around the world due to googles search engines. People no longer has to search through paper to find the information they are looking for. The damage the internet was also spoken about where the article mentioned that Britain's newspapers Guardian had half as many more readers in America than in Britain. This shows the type of damage internet has done. If people are no longer reading newspaper most advertising do not want to use newspaper advertising as a way to advertise and instead use websites where there is more viewers such as Craigslist. Another topic discuses is what newspaper companies have done to make sure they survive. This part of the article suggested that many newspapers are now offered for free and the fact that many newspapers have changed the type of news they are covering. The type of news has changed to entertainment and lifestyle to try and engage with the younger audience. Also the fact that formal news about politics is something that many readers do not want to read. It was also said that in the year 2043 there will be the last reader of newspapers. This means that as circulation in America is massively decreasing, it will stop in the year 2043. One more point that was mentioned is that if there are no newspapers then who would favour politicians.

Do you agree with its view that it is ‘a cause for concern, but not for panic’?

I agree that the decline in the newspaper industry a cause for concern as there are people who are losing their jobs and aspiring journalists who are about to go into the newspaper industry would have a hard time trying to find a job however its not a panic as newspapers should have learned to adapt with the technical advances with the internet.

2 new/digital news stories

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11881158/Music-streaming-just-became-a-billion-dollar-industry.html

MUSIC STREAMING BECAME A BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY
-  Revenues from streaming songs on the internet has passed $1bn for the first time, new figures have shown.
- Digital downloads of songs continued to fall out of favour in the first half of the year, while free and paid music-streaming revenue kept growing, even 
- The rise of digital streaming has helped the industry maintain annual revenues of around $7bn since 2010,
- Certain rates for Internet radio are set by government bodies.

Personally I think that the music industry is booming for streaming, Also the convenience for streaming makes more popular for users.This is because there are streaming apps that are available to download on smart phones in which a lot of people have.

Facebook working a dislike button

- 1.5bn users will soon be able to vent their anger in a new way after the social network revealed its working on dislike button

- 4.5 billion likes are generated everyday from pop sensation shakira

- She is also the most popular on the social media website

- dislike button has been rumoured for a long time

- current like button is criticised as they use it to collect data

- Facebook are planning to remove pages with fake likes.

In my opinion Facebook shouldn't ass a dislike button as many people might be discouraged and might think about insecurities which will increase cyber bullying and other things that can be very bad for society.