NDM #2

When fiction becomes fact: can we trust the internet?

A series of hoaxes have flown around the internet. But what happens when news sites report fiction as fact, delighting then disappointing their readers?

A story went viral of a man live-tweeting his interactions with a woman on the plane – was revealed to be fake. At the same time a Twitter conversation between a comedian and an American salsa brand – which appeared to result in employees being fired and had shot, sneeze-like across the internet – was confirmed as a hoax.

BuzzFeed is a lot of things. It's a gallery of grinning dogs. It's a thousand comedy lists about the 90s. It's a scrolling advert, a comic sports site, a politics blog, a moving newspaper, and its ad revenues this year are estimated to be $40m. As it stretches across our consciousness like clingfilm, its responsibilities are being called into question more and more. As a news organisation, profiting from the stories it shares, shouldn't it be verifying them before it publishes? And if this continues to happen – if it repeatedly reports on fictions as if they're fact – then won't it start to lose us, its fast-clicking readers? We don't expect every story posted by a stranger on Twitter to be true, but we do expect every story reported on by a huge media organisation to be, because that's what they're for. The point of them is to filter through the daily mess of culture and to repackage it for us in witty, bite-sized, trustworthy chunks. The more they mess up, the less we'll return.

That we see isn't always true, the internet can be edited. Television is an illusion - we believe what we see. This article talks about the issues about publishing newspaper articles, nobody verifies them before publishing, however they make profit, and a moving newspaper and it's ad revenue this year are estimated to be $40m. A story written by a reality TV producer then reported as fact by an international media company (BuzzFeed's post got almost 1.5m views) and shared frantically by those who think it's real.Also, on twitter we won't expect every story posted by a stranger to be true. However, we expect every story report by media to be true.  This is because of the authority they hold, and the power, they are able to engage audiences and can fool them into believing anything and everything is true, as audiences are fooled to believe the articles have been verified beforehand and are official, even though they may not be verified. Also, the internet is harmless, nobody gets hurt, but it affects how we engage online. We will be led to trust less and enjoy less. In the long-term it is said that our lives will become fractionally worse, but the issue lies not with the storyteller, it lies with the sites that share it. 

Pareto's Law

1) What is Pareto's Law? Sum it up in a paragraph.
Pareto's law is the 80/20 rule

2) What other industries or examples can you apply the 80/20 rule to?

• 80% of the media is owned by 20% of the institutions 
• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's complaints come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of the time its staff spend
• 80% of a company's sales come from 20% of its products
• 80% of a company's sales are made by 20% of its sales staff

3) List three arguments in FAVOUR of Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
Microsoft owns Hotmail and Skype
Google owns Gmail, Android, YouTube, Blogger
75% of users volume is from 5% of the top sites. 

4) List three arguments AGAINST Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
Wikipedia - user generated information - not reliable information
Twitter - don't own what is produced, there can be many rumours about a certain topic. 
Tumblr - we post images up, not always true can just copy it from somewhere else

Finally, answer the following question:
5) Even if Pareto's Law applies to internet ownership, does it still apply to the content we read online?

New and Digital Media #1

Rich kids of instagram - http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/06/selfies-status-updates-digital-bragging-web

Launched in 2012, Rich Kids Of Instagram is a blog dedicated to the iPhone snapshots of teens and twentysomethings living opulent lifestyles around the world, like a two-dimensional MTV Cribs for people who aren't famous. If you live by the philosophy "money talks but wealth whispers", perhaps look away now, because this is high-pitched shouting. As the website tagline puts it: "They have more money than you and this is what they do." Much of it involves infinity pools, yachts and private jets, and bar tab receipts going into the tens of thousands. Many of the posts are accompanied by nauseating captions: a picture of a room featuring a giant Lichtenstein canvas bears the words "home is where the art is"; an image of a woman's head emerging from a sea of Chanel and Hermès bags is tagged as #goldrush; a young man's "reptile" shoe collection, meanwhile, is labelled #endangered. But even more likely to have you clamouring for revolution are the posts of mock humility: a #livingroom containing an old master and a chandelier, or "weekend at the farm" involving a young man in red trousers disembarking from a helicopter.

You may think looking at a 17-year-old's Ferrari ("This is how the pimps roll") might be an exercise in impoverished masochism, but the lack of self-awareness makes the whole experience strangely gratifying. It's that old schadenfreude working its magic again. These people may have "more money than you", but they're making complete tits of themselves in the process.

Instagram was launched in 2012, there is a blog post of instagram which is dedicated to the rich kids. This article talks about the glam of instagram and has quotes of what people do on instagram, such as '#' this is a way other people can search up the hashtag and then their picture will be there, so others are able to see it. It talks about different hash tags which are used on instagram and what they show i.e #livingroom it clearly says what the image contains, of an old master and chandelier.

Hegemony

House prices

• The dominant or hegemonic view is that high house prices are good.
• Lots of coverage – with high prices almost always presented as a good thing. Mostly positive stories.
• Stories generally presented from perspective of people who already own homes rather than those hoping to buy them – a classic example of the angle favouring the wealthy or ruling class.
• Very little reference to the fact that house prices and risky mortgages contributed to the major economic crash in 2008.
• Little coverage of the impossibility of buying a house for young people.
• However, columns, blogs and comments present different opinions that contradict the dominant or hegemonic view (often written by younger people) 

The royal family

- The royal family is an dominant or hegemonic view, we have to accept it within the society, this is purely because the royal family are the ones who are in control of the country. 

                                             

The sun had the royal wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton on the front page, and as a black women is reading it, it shows everyone was into this, showing how everyone wants to know about them and cares about what is happening in their lives as people are reading into it, despite reading is an newspaper is an old method of finding out information. Many people watched the royal wedding live on T.V and some went near to where the royal wedding was, people came from worldwide, to attend this wedding. This shows how dominating the wedding was, and how much attention it had gained. 

                          

Here is an image of the Princess and Prince, on their wedding day and in front of them all they see is millions of people, some whom have came from around the world just to attend this wedding, and some who are just local.  

                                                    

Daily mirror, had Kate and William on the front page, when they had there "little prince" the fact that it is on a magazine, it shows how much of a big issue. 

The sun, also had included the fact the royal family had a baby, the headlines stated "the baby formally known as Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge" there was an image of the baby in large, and a smaller image of the parents holding the baby.

Cultivation theory

In today’s lesson we watch the opening scene of ‘Top Boy’ which consisted of several positive and negative representations of youths in today’s society, as within the first minute there were 4 positive things and only a minimum of 1 negative representation. The positive representations were of when the boys came home after school, which showed they’re not “typical gangsters” or “street boys” as the majority of the public would refer to school boys as. Moreover, the way they were dressed was very relaxed, which is what is expected from kids when they arrive home from school. Furthermore, another positive aspect was when the boy tries to find his mum in the house, showing his concern and how worried he was. Furthermore think links in with Gerbner’s cultivation theory, as youngsters would watch this, and they would be able to learn how to behave. Furthermore, the more an audience watches or lives in a TV world, the likeliness are they’d believe the representations which are presented within the series. The cultivation theory is the argument that watching television may influence viewers’ ideas of what the everyday world is like. Cultivation theorists argue that television has long-term effects which are small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and significant. There was a scene were a group of boys met and using foul language and one guy giving drugs to another. This shows how negatively they’re portrayed through the use of their speech and actions, this is a dangerous representation of young people, as if you were to see them doing this on the road people would feel scared and feel as if they’re around dangerous people. Overall in the first 10 minutes of Top Boy, I had found 22 positive aspects of young people and 25 negative aspects of young people. This comes to show that there are roughly equal amounts of both sides,

Theorists

Fannons theory - Fannon loves Halloween - putting on a white mask
- The lady from the image from the Best exotic marigold hotel is white and from the west, so is supposed to be shown to be civilised, but she's wearing traditional clothing, so putting on a mask to fit in with people in India.
                                             
- Jay Z, as he's a business man and he's a singer
- Adopting white middle class value - showing the change in their personality

Alvorados theory - Pitied, Humorous, Dangerous, Exotic - PhDE  
- The image of the Exotic items at the back from the film The Best exotic marigold hotel, reinforce Alvorado's theories, through the traditional items in the back.
                     
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Saids theory - Uncivilised East vs Civilised West
- The West being superior and helping the East, in the image of generating kill. Portraying the west to be civilised and holding power, as the US Solider, gives water to the Afghan baby, and he is seen to be a doctor in a sense to the baby.   
- The west visiting the east, helping them as they hold more power and are more economically and financially developed as well as being civilised. 
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Yasmin (2004)

Does it offer a positive or negative representation of British Muslims?

The film Yasmin, has represented British Muslims in a negative manner, as she has been going against the norm of Muslim women, as she was driving and working, which isn't expected from a Muslim women. Also, when the guy was praying, to awaken everyone into a peaceful day, the girl removes her cultural clothing, and in a sense ignores the prayers and wears English clothing and drives off, showing she has two different personalities. When in Islam you should be yourself and be truthful, she does this in private when nobody is around her, as she wouldn't want anyone to know about it. This links in with Katz and Blumlers theory of escapism, as she runs away from her lifestyle and changes. Furthermore, she disrespects her religion as she removes her hijab and as, she went into a pub, which isn't acceptable within Islam despite her not drinking anything, she was still in there, even though it wasn't shown she wasn't a Muslim girl, due to her not having any obvious factors showing she's Muslim, such as her hijab. 

However, there is a positive representation of the Muslim girl as she returns back into her cultural clothing, showing a sense of giving up and returning back and then is approached by the police. The police where white, approaching the Muslim girl, showing their racist. As, if she wasn't in that clothing they wouldn't approach her. Never the less, she was really accepting when the police approached her, and she gave all her details such as her name and how she hasn't had any points on her license. 

To what extent does the opening of Yasmin reinforce or challenge Said’s theory of Orientalism – that the west is superior to the exotic or dangerous east?

To a certain extent it would most likely show the west having power, due to the police being able have the power to stop Yasmin, due to her being muslim and questioning her. However, she stands her ground by answering the questions they would ask her, which could initially mean she's been questioned as such before, so showing a sense of being used to it, and showing herself to be a women who respects the people around her. The west are portrayed as the the opposite of what Said's theory of Orientalism would include, as the west is seen to be dangerous as shown through the graffiti and the police stopping and searching, as well as them entering the pub, which initially shows that they are going to get drunk and cause chaos. Moreover, the east are portrayed in a more sincere manner, and not dangerous. 

Post-colonialism

The representations of race and ethnicity in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony and the subsequent opinion piece of the Daily Mail website. The 2012 London Olympics ceremony portrayed themselves in a positive manner, due to the body language and movement. The music played was cheerful and complimented the atmosphere, and what the NHS was doing. The ceremony consisted of representations of the modern life in England, as the mother was a middle-aged lady and the father was black, they were portrayed as a happy family, whom were growing together. This shows how races/cultures are coming together as one. The step by step procedure of the family’s lifestyle, as they were growing up together and still in the same environment connotes the happiness of the family under one ground, showing racism doesn't exist and black and whites can live together. However, Fannon's theory goes against this as it suggests that you have to wear a mask in order to be happy, which suggests it was just an act of the family, they weren't really happy. Colonialism was a period of history in the 15th centuries when people declared that they own the land, showing the power they hold. Post-colonialism is what has been happening since 1950 empire. However, shortly after the Olympics opening ceremony the daily mail had published an article, a man named Rick Dewsbury had made this. The article portrayed the NHS to be racists, which is a negative outlook for the NHS. They didn't provide a boy with water, considering he was in the stages of dying. This shows the way the NHS don't consider somebody's health and actually aren't as caring as they may come across to, such as how they portrayed themselves within the Olympic ceremony. 

Learner Response

Why might some people in the media object to Robin Thicke's song and video for 'Blurred lines'?

WWW: some very good points, real depth to response, theory + issues included
EBI: look again at McRobbie: does this video empower women or degrade them? Does this suggest feminism is still required? 

LR: answer the above questions

I believe this video doesn't empower women at all, it degrades them in a sense that they're portraying themselves in a bad manner. As, the girls body language and movement conveys the sexual connotations the women have. This is shown in a male view as Robin  Thicke has the idea that "even good girls have a bad side" this is objectifying women, as good or bad, which is an outdated view. Moreover, men currently have more power than women, suggesting feminism is required in order to allow women to have an equal feel against men. The media objects towards post-feminism, as they would argue that women should no longer be seen any different than men. However, Judith Bulter believes that traditional feminists are wrong to divide the society into parts of men and women. He strongly holds beliefs for believing gender isn't biologically fixed. Judith believes it is socially constructed, as he states gender roles are a performance. 

Feminism

Was the Twitter boycott an appropriate response to the online threats prominent women were receiving?

The Twitter boycott was irrelevant, and as it was only done for a day it wasn't something major, as not many people would notice it if it was only for a short period of time. It only had an impact on some celebrities and a few fans of theirs, whom didn't tweet for a day. 

Should Twitter have done more in response to those threats?

Twitter should have done more to respond to the threats,rather than just an formal apology as it is a well-known social networking site, but their isn't much they could do, which would be considered a big action. However, not every tweet can't be kept a track off, as there are millions of users. However, there is a report button which allows people to report abusive behaviour or if they feel harassed by others, this reporting button would lead to the person either being ban depending on the extent of abusive and harassed behaviour. 

Should young women in 2013 take an interest in feminism? Do young women need to 'reclaim' feminism?

Women should take an interest in feminism, as otherwise men believe they hold a lot of authority and are more dominating, as they're able to get any job and as they receive better pay than women in all sorts of jobs. Gender is highly considered within this world, and some people take it to an extent where they only offer men certain jobs and say women won't be able to do the job. Underestimation of women would lead to them feeling they're only made to do household jobs. Moreover, I think young women need to reclaim feminism to hold a status within society, otherwise men would take upon all roles and they'd be worth nothing. 

Why has the internet been effective in feminist campaigns?

The internet has been effective in feminist campaigns due to the messages being able to spread quickly, and the internet is a fast, easy and effective way to interact with the public, and other feminists. Feminists are able to hold protests and able to get others to sign petitions online, which is an effective way to get things done and be more recognised, as the internet is the new source of technology which everyone uses and it gives away a lot of information.

What is your opinion on page 3 of the Sun still featuring a half-naked young woman in 2013?

Page 3 of the Sun featuring half-naked young woman, allow men to have this dominating factor over women, as that's purely what men want to see, and expect from women. Women doing this shows them they're ready to give anything for a man. This is a sense of sexual pleasure for men, as women are being objectified by men and men want women to be encourage by this page. Women shouldn't be giving in for men so easily, by showing off themselves half-naked, they should be as challenging as men, and not publishing their images on newspapers and magazines. Women are standing more of a ground over the years, as from the 1990's where less women were working and they were just cooking at home, now in 2013, women are working and on more or less the same level as man, so they shouldn't give themselves away so easily.