Can Amazon take on Netflix with ad-supported video?

Title: Can Amazon take on Netflix with ad-supported video?

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/24/amazon-netflix-ad-supported-video

Summary:

This article is about how Amazon has expanded from a medium through which products are bought and sold to a streaming video service under its Prime banner, including a growing number of original shows like Alpha House and The After. Amazon will compete against Hulu and Netflix.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  “Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is primed and ready for a fresh assault on the streaming-video space. The e-commerce giant will roll out a new ad-supported streaming offering early next year that will be separate from its $99-a-year Prime membership, which includes a video service, sources said.” from the New York Post.

Ø  The report also suggests that more than 25m people are already watching Prime Video, although this being Amazon, it hasn’t announced any official figures, while the ratings for its individual shows remain as mysterious as those on Netflix.

Ø  “While roughly 75 percent of developers at traditional video-game companies are male, many of the most prominent Twine developers are women, making games whose purpose is to explore personal perspectives and issues of identity, sexuality and trauma that mainstream games rarely touch on.”

Ø  Reel SEO has a report digging into the details of Minecraft fandom on YouTube, estimating that 31bn views have been notched up by fan-created videos of the game. That’s 99.4% of all Minecraft videos on YouTube, since Mojang’s official channel had around 183m views at the time the study was commissioned.

Opinion:

In my opinion, this article presents how there is more competition in the online streaming industry where Amazon has stepped in to the industry and wants to challenge the Netflix dominance. Personally, I think that this is beneficial to the audience as they are able to have a larger variety of choice.  

Google launches smart spoon shaking hands liftware

Title: Google launches smart spoon shaking hands liftware

 http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/25/google-launches-smart-spoon-shaking-hands-liftware

Summary:

This article is about how Google’s expansion from drones, self-driving cars, robots to balloons providing internet has now has stretched to a smart spoon to their line of hi-tech products.  The smart spoon is a liftware spoon, which uses hundreds of algorithms to sense how a hand is shaking and make instant adjustments in order to stay balanced. The spoon is targeting a demographic of people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s diseases. Google had acquired Lift lab, the makers of the spoon, earlier this year, with the founder, Anupam Pathak, now working for Google X’s life science division. This division also owns a stake in DNAnexus, which is a software company analysing genome sequencing to better understand the genetic factors of heart disease and ageing. It is also working on how nanoparticles in blood might help detect diseases and a smart contact lens that would measure glucose levels in tears to help diabetics track their blood sugar levels.  

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  The product is aimed at people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease and, according to the company, can reduce shaking of the spoon bowl by an average of 76%.

Ø  Essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease affect more than 10 million people worldwide, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s mother. Brin has also said he has a genetic mutation associated with higher rates of Parkinson’s. He has donated more than $50m to research for a cure.

Ø  The spoons are now available for $295.

Opinion:

In my opinion, this article shows the development of new and digital media has led to the growth of Google as the most dominant media institution and growing at a rapid rate, this evident from Google moving from the search engine industry to the vehicle and medical industry.

Twitter scanning users' other apps to help deliver 'tailored content'

Title: Twitter scanning users' other apps to help deliver 'tailored content'

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/27/twitter-scanning-other-apps-tailored-content

Summary:

This article is about how twitter has plans to scan other apps on the user’s smartphones; twitter explained this decision as an attempt to build twitter up as more personal experience, they state that they will be building up a list of apps in order to deliver tailored content. They also say that they will not be collecting data from the app. According to Twitter, it will use the data to provide better “who to follow” suggestions; to add “tweets, accounts, or other content to your timeline that we think you’ll find especially interesting”; and to boost its advertising business by “showing you more relevant promoted content”. There will be an option to turn the app graph off within the android/iOS apps.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  The company reported $320m of advertising revenues in the third quarter of 2014 alone, with 85% of that coming from mobile ads. The more it can refine how they’re targeted, the more money it will make.

Opinion:

In my opinion, article addresses the issue of privacy and the difference between Twitter publicly announcing scanning the user’s others apps and Google and Apple scanning apps without permission, and notifying them after scanning the apps. The fact that Twitter is creating an app graph to tailor fit the user’s newsfeeds just to promote specific company’s products, but publicly announcing it is and informing the users that it can be turned off is a break from the previous app privacy controversies, where data had been collected without their knowledge.  

Report claims a third of UK jobs at risk from robots

Title: Report claims a third of UK jobs at risk from robots

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2014/nov/11/uk-jobs-robots-automation-masque-attack-ebola

Summary:

This article is about warnings of a threat to UK jobs from robots rather than immigrants. These changes coming in the next two decades are fully understood and anticipated by businesses, policy makers and educators, there will be a risk of avoidable unemployment and under-employment.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  It claims that 35% of existing UK jobs is at “high risk of replacement in the next 20 years” from technology, automation and robotics, with lower-paid jobs more than five times more likely to be replaced than higher-paid jobs.

Ø  The report also suggests that in London specifically, 73% of businesses are planning to increase their overall headcount, to bring in the new skills and roles required by technology advances.

Opinion:

In my opinion, the fact that new and digital media is becoming so advanced that robots are threatening to take over the low paid jobs.

Murdoch Pay Wall

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/times-digital-subscribers-reach-140-000-as-paywall-project-reaches-maturity

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jQxGe_uDYgYDkZLo9Rc8FUgC6DAGsFoWt5qF_HVYdgQ/edit?pli=1

1)      Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online?
To some extent I do agree with James Murdoch that the BBC shouldn’t be allowed to provide free online news, as its free online content has led to a dramatic fall of print media for a majority of the UK’s newspapers and over the last 10 years, the UK’s daily newspapers have lost some 2.25 million readers, and advertising revenues falling by 20% too. The newspaper industry has been in crisis despite obvious signs in the 1980’s where most news executives had ignored the early signs of change in news gathering techniques. Putting up a pay wall will be beneficial too, but it will lead to a small dip in the number of people that read and buy The Sun or The Times. In contrast to this the BBC should be allowed to provide free news online without any issues due to the fact that the BBC runs on the TV license fee and is a public service broadcaster that runs on.

2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times/Sun) behind a pay wall?
To a certain point Rupert Murdoch was right to put his news content behind a pay wall, this is because The Times and The Sun are both traditional broadsheets that are currently keeping to their roots and keeping professional high quality news alive. Rupert Murdoch is attempting to protect his products content unique.  

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

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

Immediacy: Prior to the new and digital media era, news was always slow, as it used to be a day old, and wasn’t up to date, however nowadays receiving news is immediate and almost instantaneous, news can be received through smart phones, mobile devices , tablets and television. The growth has expanded the news world in to websites and applications, traditional institutions have had to adapt or perish to this change. The immediacy has become an addiction, in order for us to consume more and more, without seeing bias. Examples of applications are Twitter, Facebook and even Buzzfeed.

Familiarity: The growth of new and digital media has changed the familiarity of news as the news that is shown has become international and news from around the world is being shown, we as consumers have take in more and more news in order to look down upon situations like Palestine-Israeli conflict, or natural disasters across the world.

 
Amplitude: The growth of new and digital media has led to the globalisation of the internet, where more and more incidents get reported, especially if they involve a large number of people, as it has a bigger impact on the audiences, as it can create a sort of moral panic, leading to the audiences to be glued to their news apps and sites, for more information, for example when swine flu had broken out, there was global panic and it was news worthy so the gatekeepers allowed it to be in the headlines for several consecutive weeks.

Frequency: The growth has affected the frequency of news is that events that take place fairly consistently, and that the speed that events/incidents have become fairly quick as it sets of a chain of information through various social media sites, for example an event can start from twitter and then be shown on the news.

 
Unambiguity: The growth of new and digital technology and media has led to the development of newer and unclear news products, such as the hoaxes online, also it has led to major news institution becoming narrower minded in terms of only showing the negativity in the UK and the world. for example the media in the UK demonises the youth for being rebellious and speaking out, but have never taken the side of the youths, which in turn is actually the youths stepping away from the dominant ideologies of the country which creates moral panic.

Predictability: The predictability of news has been altered in terms certain types of news stories have becoming so predictable and evident we tend not to give it much importance unless it affects us or we are the victims, for example the Apple iCloud hacking comes under privacy, it was evident from the hacking of phones a few years ago that Apple was just a sitting duck waiting to be taken out. However there have been news stories which have been unpredictable, such as the death of Bin Laden came unexpectedly, as well as deaths of stars like Michael Clarke Duncan to Michael Jackson.

Surprise: The Growth has affected the news as the news becomes rare and unexpected such as natural disasters, like tsunamis and large scale floods. As the consumer we see repeated incidents of news, which doesn’t affect us on a lot; however some stories do come as a shook, like Jihadi John’s beheadings and the Windsor beheading of the soldier in the street in broad daylight.  

Continuity: The continuity of news has developed the growth of this as the news stories may appear consistently, for example the Alice Gross case, where the media had consistently been following the story till her body was unceremoniously found in a lake. Also, there very few trusted sources, like the BBC or Sky News.

Elite nations and people: The growth of new and digital media has developed a growth in the curiosity of elite nations and people, this is because some elite nations may be viewed in role model way or seen as a superpower. For example, the United States of America  is seen always being reported on as it is that important, due to Wall Street crucial to the world’s trading, if that were to crash it would be the headlines of every news institution in the world.  

Negativity: The majority of the news that is reported anywhere is predominantly negative and stereotypical, this all down to the gatekeepers who approve of the negativity. The fact that negative news is shown presents the world and all its consumers that we only focus on the malevolence in the world. For example, the media in the UK has been known to demonise teenagers between the ages of 15-25, for being different and dressing unconventionally. There have been some positives in the news, when it comes to the achievements of certain areas of the government.

Balance: The majority of news that is show/broadcasted is unbalanced and always presents biased towards one side or even stereotypical views of the groups/individuals shown. For example, the Palestine conflict had shown the violence and murder that was being dealt to one side, but there was no news story that had given the oppositions side. On the other side, there have been a few balanced stories, for example the swine flu epidemic had created a globally panic, but then a cure was introduced and the panic had been silenced. Even recently, Ebola had stirred up a panic, not as large as Swine flu, however it did lead to many people worrying, nonetheless the cure for Ebola was simple antibiotics. 

Buzzfeed recruits Sun Whitehall reporter and Telegraph assistant editor

Title: Buzzfeed recruits Sun Whitehall reporter and Telegraph assistant editor

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/21/buzzfeed-sun-daily-telegraph-emily-ashton-robert-colville

Summary:

This article is about Buzzfeed being passive recruiters of high ranked employees of established media giants, in this case the Sun’s Whitehall correspondent and a daily telegraph assistant editor, Emily Ashton. Her new role is as the social news website’s senior political correspondent with a brief to break Westminster stories. Also she has to report to the deputy editor of Buzzfeed UK, Jim Waterson; she will also have a leading role in covering the May general elections.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  Buzzfeed has also hired Robert Colvile, who joined the Telegraph in 2004 and was acting head of comment from October last year until August. .

Ø  Buzzfeed UK is the site’s largest operation outside the US, with 17 million monthly unique visitors and the fastest growing with nearly 50 employees.

Opinion:

In my opinion this is a prime article to show the transition of traditional broadsheet news to a new and digital form of media. The fact that high ranked employees of traditional media institutions are beginning to be recruited by the newer digital institutions and challenging and beating traditional media for top place in providing the audiences with news.   

Driverless cars could face threat from hackers trying to cause road chaos

Title: Driverless cars could face threat from hackers trying to cause road chaos

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/driverless-cars-hacking-threat-road-trials-january

Summary:

This article talks about the trials of the self driving car that is hitting the roads of 3 select areas in the United Kingdom in January 2015,  and then goes on to talk about how the self driving cars will be prone to hacking, and are likely to take the control over the car. The article talks about how the self-driving car could reduce road casualties by eliminating human error, however there is the counter point of the self-driving car could actually increase car accidents amongst motorists who will still use manual cars if and when they are mixing in the same roads. There is a prediction that within 15 years time there will be fully autonomous vehicles taking goods and people around Britain, which will bring cheaper and safer mobility for passengers.

Facts/phrases:

Ø  According to Dr Nick Reed, principal human factors researcher at the Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne, Berkshire, 95% of the 1.2m annual deaths worldwide on the road involve human error. 

Ø  “Recent reports analysing software show that 98% of applications have serious defects and in many cases there were 10-15 defects per application,” as stated by Hugh Boyes, the cyber security lead at the Institution of Engineering  and Technology.

Opinion:

In my opinion this article highlights a key issue of safety of new and digital media as there are newer and more dangerous risks that have been coming out with the introduction of technological developments. History will repeat itself again, similar to the introduction of the internet in the 90’s, where a new type of crime had been introduced and cyber cell departments had to be placed in the enforcement of laws. Perhaps they will be making laws like, you cannot hack into cars systems, with not succeeding, more and more accidents will take place. The whole network of self-driving cars will be a hackers playground with each car being his toys to manipulate. 

Build the Wall Analysis

Section 1- this section is about how as an audience we should pay for traditional, high quality journalism, or not receive it at all.

Section 2- this section presents how newspaper giants need to take a step in order to change the landscape, where quality news is reported by professional journalists, rather than citizen journalists and advertising.

Section 3- this section presents how the newspaper industry ignored the rising threat of the internet and how it acted like a disease that started small, but wasn’t recognised before the damage was done, similarly  new media came up like a disease.

Section 4- in this section Simons, talks about three scenarios, the first being the pay wall is successful and that the audience is willing to pay for quality, the second scenario states that newspapers become local to their regions and online pay walls go up. The final scenario states that all small newspapers are eviscerated and only unique and essential newspapers have survived.

Summary

David Simons, in this article is demonstrating his personal view and perspective about the decimation of the news industry, he begin s starting off with what the newspapers that are on top have, that make them sell more, and that is high quality professional journalism, that is paid for, rather than citizen journalism that is unprofessional, and if the audience is not willing to pay for their news they shouldn’t receive it at all. The media institutions that Simons talks about states how influential they are and that since they are influential they should use it to change the landscape of the newspaper world. David Simons also mentions how the threat of new and digital media was seen, but never acknowledged as a great by the news giants, and thus suffered as the damage was severely done when it was realized as a supreme threat. David Simons finishes off with 3 scenarios, one that is beneficial to all, one that is a complete balance and the third is the where that newspaper industry only survives through the unique institutions.   

Comments

Ø  “A monopoly! Exactly the right way to go - can I get some fries with that?” #4 Posted by Wild Bill on Thu 16 Jul 2009 at 01:13 PM, this agrees with Simon’s opinion as it makes jokes about how NDM has become a monopoly.

Ø  “My issue with publishers building an interactive strategy of charging for content is that the very act of charging effectively closes the doors on any number of new interactive businesses that publishers might reasonably pursue. Charging for content is a strategy that places the survival of the existing product first and ignores the needs of businesses and consumers who might otherwise help publishers create numerous new revenue streams. Instead of thinking of the online newspaper as an end in and of itself (or as a way to support printed newspapers), think of it as the entry point into a system of interlocking new products and services. The free newspaper Web site is the aggregation magnet that brings a large audience into the system. The site then qualifies those customers for a wide variety of other products and services that meet the needs of paying business customers (e.g., lead-generation services, transaction fulfilment services, audience development and management services, and so on). If you strangle the size of your original audience by charging them (in the notion that the only business opportunity before you is porting the newspaper over to the Web), you stifle any number of opportunities down the pipeline, opportunities that are made possible by a free and easy-to-access aggregation site up front.” #5 Posted by John Granatino on Thu 16 Jul 2009 at 01:22 PM, this opinion agrees with the opinion

Ø  Please do this. Authoritative resources are being lost in the Wikipedia world. One must go around the world to find authoritative on the ground reporting. I would pay for it, no question. #8 Posted by Judy on Fri 17 Jul 2009 at 11:47 AM. This opinion clearly agrees with Simon’s opinion and wants to pay for reliable news.

My opinion

My opinion is that newspapers have been the foundation and original source of news on all platforms as news was first written and sent out through them , but nowadays newspaper have been sidelined and pushed away in order to use applications and sites, as they are faster, more recent and short. Personally, I think that the pay wall should go up as the dying world of news has dumb down audience in to looking at listicles and pictures of cats. This will at least give us as readers high quality journalism.  

Latest ABCs show newspaper market decline running at 8% a year

Title: Latest ABCs show newspaper market decline running at 8% a year

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jul/11/abcs-national-newspapers

Summary:

This article is about the rate at which the newspaper market declining at a 8%+ rate. The article is made up of statistics to do with the newspaper market. The majority of the article states that newspapers have gone in to the negatives with only a few newspapers having a decent year.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  “....newspaper market is falling at a rate of more than 8% a year, according to the latest set of officially audited circulation figures produced by ABBC.”

Ø  “The Sunday market, which now sells some 570,000 fewer copies than the weekday issues, is declining slightly faster at more than 9%.”

Ø  The Times have enjoyed a slight year-on-year increase, of 0.66% (though noticeably supported by 21,983 bulk sales)

Ø   The Guardian (without bulks) managed to record a drop of just 0.9%. (Its 0.53% loss on the six-monthly comparison makes it the best performing of any national daily on that metric).

Ø  The Daily Telegraph, with a drop of 5.94% in June this year compared to the same month in 2013

Ø  The I, with a 5.5% fall, also came in better than the rest of the market.

Ø  The Financial Times, which is following a digital-first strategy, saw sales fall by 14.68% over the 12 months while The Independent was down 13.08%.

Ø  The Daily Star lost 75,000 buyers over the year, which represents a decrease of 13.67%, while The Sun was down 9.37%.

Ø  The Daily Mirror, down 7.71%, and the Daily Mail, down 7.36%, did somewhat better, while the Daily Express suffered an 8.15% drop.

Ø  Year-on-year, and on the six-monthly comparisons, all the red-tops - Sun on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People and Daily Star Sunday - registered falls averaging about 11%.

Ø  The Mail on Sunday and Sunday Express, down by 6.68% and 8.28% respectively, appear to be losing about 1.5% of their sales month after month.

Ø  The Observer enjoyed its second best year-on-year performance with a slight drop of 2.5% (about 5,300) copies to register a June total of 207,005 copies.

Ø  The Sunday Times, still triumphant as the market leader with an average sale in June of 815,759, was down 2.9% on the year, but was 3.4% down on the month.

Ø  The Sunday Telegraph managed a slight month-on-month rise, but it dropped 3.9% on the year.

Ø  10-year comparisons reveal that the Sunday market total has dropped from 12,752,933 to 6,697,573, a decrease of 47.5%.

Opinion:

 In my opinion, this article indirectly highlights how the introduction, development and advancements of new and digital media have created a destructive effect on the newspaper industry. The most significant evidence being the 10-year comparison that had revealed the Sunday market total has dropped from 12,752,933 to 6,697,573, a decrease of 47.5%. The issue with this is that without broadsheets, audiences have become dumb down, and are not used to hard hitting news that is in more complicated English, instead of informal language and pictures of cats.

Man jailed for WhatsApp ‘revenge porn’ after posting images of woman online

Title: Man jailed for WhatsApp ‘revenge porn’ after posting images of woman online

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/14/man-jailed-revenge-porn-whatsapp

Summary:

This article is about Luke King, becoming the first person in the UK to be convicted for Whatsapp “revenge porn” and has been jailed for 3 months. King had pleaded guilty to harassing the victim without violence. King had published intimate images of a woman on Whatsapp after he had threatened.  He was also issued a restraining order, which prevents him from contacting the woman. This case is the first since the new online guidelines were put in place last month about “revenge porn” being a legitimate threat to people’s explicit images and videos. 

Facts/phrases:

Ø  “Prosecutors are now following guidance issued in October that clarifies how we can use existing legislation to prosecute perpetrators of these intrusive offences.”

Ø  “This is the first case of its kind in Derbyshire since the new guidelines came into effect and is a sharp reminder that these offences will be taken seriously and we will use a range of legislation to secure justice for its victims.”

Ø  Derbyshire police said: “It’s important for people to realise that it is an offence to harass others in this way. We agree with the judge that it was a despicable thing to do, especially after Luke King received warnings to stop. Anyone who is subjected to this type of crime should keep the evidence and contact the police as soon as possible.”

Opinion:

In my opinion this case is a clear indication of the ripple effect that new and digital media has created, especially in terms of the United Kingdom’s first case of “Revenge porn” after the new guidelines where “Revenge porn” being put in place in October. The effect of New and Digital Media has created new crimes in “Revenge porn” and this has led to developments in the judicial system of the countries. Personally I think it came late as the internet has been around for 20 plus years and “Revenge porn” emerging in the last 15 years.

Double trouble for Apple, as two software security flaws discovered

Title: Double trouble for Apple, as two software security flaws discovered

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/06/apple-mac-iphone-security-malware

Summary:

This article informs the audience about how there is twice as much trouble in regards to Apple’s desktop operating system and the emergence of a new iPhone malware. The vulnerabilities that have been found in Apple are for users of Mac OS X. The first is the Root pipe this was found by a Swedish hacker called Emil Kvarnhammar; this enables an attacker to gain “root” control of a computer, known as the highest level of access, without the Intel of using a password. Root pipe, in theory allows a hacker to install any malicious software that could be used to seal credit cards details or other personal data, among other things. The second is called Wire lurker; this is the first malware that has been found in the wild, which targets iOS devices that haven’t been jailbroken, it can be used to extract the basic personnel information from a phone. Wire lurker tricks the user in to installing it on their Mac and then waits until an iPhone and iPad is plugged in over the USB before using trusted relationship between the two to install software on the mobile device.         

Opinion

In my opinion this continues to put Apple in the spotlight for controversy, especially since Apple has not yet responded to the request for comments. Apple has become targeted yet again via hacking and vulnerability, this shows that Apple is suffering in regards of reputation and seriously needs to fix up their security systems. 

Google launches Fit app to take on Apple’s Heath and Samsung’s S Health

Title: Google launches Fit app to take on Apple’s Heath and Samsung’s S Health

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/29/google-launches-fit-app-apple-heath-samsungs-s-health

Summary:

This article is about how Google is taking a step in to another niche, this time in to the fitness application world. Google Fit, the name of the Fitness app, tracks the health and fitness data using the Smartphone’s built in sensors, but the difference is that Google Fit can connect to third-party apps, gadgets and services, so it can be used while using other apps. A basic version of Google Fit was built in to Android smart watches, such as Motorola Moto 360, and LG G Watch. The article talks about how the app is a convergence of the capability of tracking steps, recording them, and checking heart rates and weight as well as reviewing runs. The Google Fit app requires the user to manually measure the heart rate, which is a disadvantage compared to the Moto 360 heart rate sensor app, which takes it automatically throughout the day.          

Facts/Phrases:

Ø   In Britain, more than £100bn a year is spent on the NHS, according to the Department of Health.

Ø  “You can also connect your favourite fitness devices and apps like Strava, Withings, Runtastic, Runkeeper and Noom Coach to Google Fit and we’ll surface all of the relevant data in one spot, giving you a clear and complete view of your fitness,” said Sabrina Ellis a director of for Google Fit.

Ø  The healthcare industry is a potentially lucrative market to exploit, worth about 10% of the economy of developed nations.

Opinion:

In my opinion, this article briefly hints to the Google’s attempts at becoming the most dominant media institution in the current era, its step in to a newer niche although it seems that Google have just introduced an app in reality its entered the fitness industry, and though they have announced it to be free, they will monetise the application by inserting advertisements in to it, thereby profiting from yet another business venture that has gone Google’s way.