New/digital media

Anti-Isis hackers claim responsibility for BBC cyber-attack

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/02/bbc-cyber-attack-anti-isis-hackers-claim-responsibility

- Activists who say their aim is to tackle online propoganda by Islamic state have claimed responsibility for BBC cyber attack on the BBC website

- BBC correspondent had received a tweet from group New World Hacking (NWH) claiming responsibility for DDOS attack.

- This attack took down BBC services such as BBC iplayer for a few hours

- NWH claimed it attacked BBC website to test power of their servers

I think that cyber hackers who's aim is to fight for justice do have intentions to target these organisation to see if they are able to do so. Also I don't see why they feel that was okay to do and come clean through Twitter. Online hacks do cost organisation money in which is not good for organisations such as the BBC who are funded by the public.

Has social media ruined the web?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/31/has-social-media-ruined-the-web

- Has the web lost its power to derive social change? 

- Acoording to an Iranian blogger , he has said the web has lost its power to derive social change

- The iranian blogger was imprisoned by regime in 2008 and released and pardoned in 2014.

- During his time in prison, the rise of smart phones and apps had changed the online world

- Blogging and independent websites have been overtaken by social media websites

- Social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter who are dominating the market

I feel like social media websites have definitely taken over blogs and independent wesbites in the short space of time they have been around. Also the audience has moved on from blogs and independent websites so there is a part to play by them in which social media is much more user friendly with the functionalities that enable users to interact with each other.

new/digital media (31/32)

Telegraph criticised by watchdog for 'misleading' Michelin advertorial

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/30/telegraph-criticised-asa-watchdog-michelin-advertorial

- The Telegraph has been reprimanded by the advertising watchdog for failing to adequately label an online advertorial for Michelin tyres.

- Advertising standards authority said the article and video on Telegraph that compared michelin tyres with named budget brand were misleading and did not make it clear that they have been paid for

- The Telegraph argued that visual and written cues, such as the words “in association with Michelin” indicated there was a financial arrangement. 

I believe that misleading audiences happens very often on the Internet in which is a massive issue for organisations such as the ASA will need to tackle. Also in order to make the Telegraph money, viewers would need to click on the michelin adverts and less people would do so if advertised adequately.

Sun website traffic rises by a quarter – but it is eclipsed by the Mirror

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/17/sun-website-traffic-mirror

- News UK site boosts average daily unique browsers by 25.6% to 1.6 million in November – but its rival increases by 28.1% rise to 4.7 million

- The Sun’s website traffic rose by more than a quarter in November – but it was not enough to close the gap with rival Mirror.

- News UK’s website, which began offering most online articles for free this summer and had completely abolished its paywall by the end of November, posted a 25.6% rise in daily unique browsers to 1.6 million.

- The paris attacks was a major contributor for this increase

- The Independent was up 24.4% compared with October to 3.27 million daily unique browsers

- Telegraph.co.uk jumped 17.2% to just over 5 million, 

- theguardian.com rose 13.7% to 9.27 million 

- MailOnline added 10.5% to 14.6 million.

My opinion is that this has only happened because of getting rid of the paywall, if TheSun got rid of this paywall some time ago, they would have a larger viewership onto their website. This is because people do not want to pay for news anymore as news is readily available in other places. Also TheSun used to believe in quality and their content should be paid for but has not done so well and that is why they had to remove it.

new/digital stories (33/34)

Make or break for the sun and more consolidation
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/jan/03/2016-predictions-make-or-break-for-the-sun-and-more-consolidation

- Rebeekah Brooks returns as News Uk chief executive , year after she was cleared of charges from phone hacking scandal
- The Sun recently dismantled their paywall recently
- The Sun also have a new editor Tom Gallagher has tasks of playing digital catch up
- They have a job of building an online giant to match status as the best selling daily newspaper
- Sun reported 25 million monthly users in November in which the figure has stayed the same since 2009
- This figure is only 10% of MailOnlines monthly viewers.
- Good news is that advertising decline should not be as bad as 2015

I believe that it will be a difficult job for The Sun to reach the viewership of the MailOnline whom has millions of monthly users viewing from America and have a larger population. The key will be able to tackle the audiences in America which can equate to many more users on the website and making the media company much more profitable.

Ad-blocking and fraud pose big questions for online advertising
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/jan/03/2016-predictions-ad-blocking-and-pose-big-questions-for-online-advertising

- Potential threats of consumers taking to ad blocking in huge numbers leaving advertising companies preoccupied with dealing with this issue
- Developments such as Apple’s move to allow iPhone and iPad owners to download apps to block ads
- Mozilla’s release of a new adblocking app for Firefox, and the spectre of true in-app adblocking, have fuelled a sense of panic.
- the amount of revenue that publishers lose due to it will double next year to $41.4bn globally.
- The firms estimate there were 15 million desktop adblock users in the UK at the end of last year.
- This will grow to about 21 million by the end of 2016
- Ad market is worth about $70bn globally. 
-  The real revenue risk is likely to be just $100m of that, maybe less
- Android does not support this ad blocking through natural native support, meaning external adblockers on android will not work on apps
- Android runs on 80% of the 2.5bn tablets and smartphones out there, so not as much damage will be done.

I think that adblockers do possess a threat however do not really have much of an impact to hurt the revenue by advertising agencies. Also the fact that Apple is supporting adblocking is good for consumers and was probably implemented by listening to consumers. This will help Apple grow further as a business and then advertising businesses are affected as a result.

News on the Tweet

1. Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?

Two of those - what is going on in the world and following people they don’t know (celebrities and the journalists themselves) - are core news brand territory, while even ‘passing the time’ is something that is often done with news brand content. 

Meanwhile, ‘to keep in touch with people I know’ (26%) or ‘to enhance my enjoyment of television programmes’ (12%) were less of an attraction.

One way respected news brands are good for Twitter is that they help to eliminate the nonsense or false information presented on the social media website. This is because everyone can use Twitter.

Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?

Respected news brands are good for Twitter as people or Twitter users will trust those news brands in which can mean more viewership directed to news articles poster to their online platforms such as their website or YouTube page.

Newsbrands bring a number of assets to the table, but it is a symbiotic relationship. Twitter is helping to make newsbrands more accessible, more influential and more connected than ever before.

The immediacy and accessibility of Twitter brings valuable readers to newspaper brands that they would not normally read in print or directly online.  

1. 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?

1. On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this? 

You can see above that there are many ways in which journalists have tried to become banterous in which may attract more people to view tweet and allows tweet to circulate making the journalists more followed than normal.

1. Do you think the increasing amount of 'gossip' or 'banter' is harming the reputation of news and journalists?

I feel like the increase of gossip or banter is not harming reputation as this is what will attract the mass Twitter users. In order to sell their articles this is what journalists have to do and creating banterous tweets shouldn't affect a journalists reputation in my opinion to be honest.

1. What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?

1. Finally, do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

Statistics -

- 60% of UK newsbrand followers say they follow newspaper brands that normally they wouldn’t read in print

- 59% of Twitter users follow newspaper brands

- 64% of newspaper followers say Twitter helps ensure that established newsbrands continue to resonate with new audiences

- while 62% think it’s important that news on Twitter is verified by a respected brand

- In fact, almost 60% of all Twitter users in the UK follow some form of newsbrand content

- Among newsbrand followers, 78% follow more than one handle and may cover a range of brands, specialist areas and specific journalists or columnists.

Meanwhile to keep in touch as 26% of people have said this as shivums is a dickhead if you you know and i dont know what i am doing tbh because i am a twat if you know what i mean. I dont think you know what i mean tbh

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NDM stories (27/28)

1) Post - Internet : Has the bubble burst on pop's social media strategy?

- Ed Sheeran said says he's leaving social media so no longer has to see world through a screen

- Ed Sheehan used his instagram account with 5.5 million followers that he was taking a sabbatical break from all of his social media

- This break will be until the pop star finishes his third album in autumn 2016

- Suggests a greater disatisfaction amongst musicians with social media obligations

- There was a point a few years ago that music industry has become obsessed with social media figures

- Many record labels have been fixated over quantitative instead of qualitative 

- If social media following was increasing this directly relates to a greater hit making labels more money

- A Twitter audit suggests that 30% of Ed Sheerans Twitter followers are not real

I believe that musicians such as Ed Sheeran are heavily reliant on their followers to market new music to an audience in which increases sales on buying music from iTunes. If pop stars such as Ed Sheeran do not use social media then they are not maxmising sales so it is crucial for artists to have these accounts and increase their recognition.

2) Twitter warns users they may have been hacked by state sponsored actors

- social media company emails more than 20 accounts, warning them they may have been targeted by hackers

- Twitter is following Google and Facebook in warning users about potential hacks to perceived targets of state sponsored attacks

- Googles warning were introduced in 2012 while Facebook started in October this year 

- Twitters warning has sparked criticism from those who received it
- company advises users to use the anonymous browser

I believe that serves used online such as Twitter have security concerns in which many accounts can be hacked. This means information can be taken and used to an advantage in a negative manner. As a result people have to be extra cautious when dealing with their accounts. Maybe people should be questioning Twitters security and how hackers have hacked these accounts or what are Twitter doing to help prevent this in the future.

Institution case study: News Corporation

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 10 years for any reason?

These are the companies that the News Corporation currnently own. The News Corporation had bought myspace at the time when it was the biggest social media website for just under 580 million dollars in 2005. However myspace was then sold at a massive loss of 35 million dollars. This is because other social media platforms emerged in which people did not use the social media site. 

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

An example of the impact that new and digital media has has is that TheSun who is owned by the news corp had stopped their paywall subscriptions. However the financial times has kept their paywall subscription. 

Also an example is that the MailOnline is one of the most viewed news websites which has more readers in america than the UK.3) Use what you have found out about News Corp to answer the following question:

NDM Stories (25/26)

UK Most advanced TV watching country in the world, research finds

- OFCOM study shows 70% of British adults watch free to air catch up services such as IPlayer and All4
- This 70% is ahead of france and spain who are 52% of adults that watch free to air catch up services
- The research also found out that four out of five adults watch some kind of online TV or film service such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
- British adults who watch film services is greater than Italy and Spain who 76% of adults watch film services
- These trends are being driven by smart phones and tablets
- More than half of UK adults own a tablet
 - 16% will use a tablet to watch TV
- UK has one of the highest proportions of TV connected to the internet , 42% which is more than any other country

In my opinion I believe that the convergence of smart phones made it much more accessible for people to access on-line TV. Also the internet accessibility outside is widely available across all phone providers. One more reason as to why this has happened is in the UK is there is load of different places where WIFI is offered for free to attract customers which means that people will use those services to watch online TV.



The independents blog site hit by ransomware attach







- blog hosting site has fallen foul of hackers who are using ads to target viewers with viruses
-  The targeted visitors encrypts files and demand a ransom
- As a precaution all ads have been removed from the independents blog
- A spokesman from the independent said

“It appears that an advert appearing on that blogsite may have included malware. There is no suggestion or evidence that any of our users have been affected by this. As a precaution, all advertising has been removed from the blog site, pending further information.”

- Threat was highlighted by security firm Trend Micro
- Fewer than 5000 people go onto the website a day
- The malware will only affect people with not up to date version of flash
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I think that there are people who are not using the internet ethically in which are out to harm users of the internet making the internet a dangerous place for vulnerable people that may not be technical with their computers. Also cyber crime is increasing as many people who do these crimes make their IP untraceable.