Media Magazine conference - follow-up

What Has the Internet Ever Done for Me?

-Bill Thompson

-The internet is the basis for daily interactions
-1/10 children in Indonesia have no  idea how the internet works, they use Facebook and are able to access it but they have no idea how they are using the internet.
-Facebook sits and relies on the internet
-Local authority are able to access data; arguable is this controversial? Should they be allowed to view what we process though
-The internet is permissive; it allows us to be free minded and say what we want to, we are more free
-We are still at the point where the underlined network can get in the way
-Ways we use the net: connection, information, voices in your head, political action, caritas & campaigning, financial reward, games, learning, friendship...
(candy crush was sold for £5.9 billion)
- Downside: bullying, unwanted porn, images of child sexual abuse, extremism, abuse, scams and rip offs, fraud, conspiracy theories...
-"The network is paid to be done"
-The internet has given all these possibilities
-Given all the possibilities, that is what essentially makes up the internet whether they are positive or negative-The internet is something hard to control; unless you know what the software does/works, you can't control it

Media Power and Life After Leveson

-Professor Natalie Fenton

-Phone hacking in 2011 done by the news of the world was something that changed media. Cameron had called a public inquiry
-"never was simply about journalists behaving badly; it was and is about power"

MEDIA POWER

Power cover...
-Media content?
-Audiences?
-Journalists?
-Governments?

Power to...
-Censor?
-Mislead?
-Set the agenda?

-There is a lot of power over media content
-Mediated democracy we live in-where the government is scared how they are portrayed by the mainstream media
-In the last three decade we have seen a massive explosion o news platforms &news being free
-Entanglement of media & political elites
-The government can try & imitate the media
-"Social media will bring social change"
-The news industries are 'monstoring' us
-Example of news industries monstoring us- Chris Jefferies- accused of murder- press admitted they had no proof. They wrecked a person's life just for the sales.
-The news industries say to government- "challenge us if you dare" because they have much more readership obviously what they say can shape a view on the government.
-Since 1979 no government has been elected without Rupert Murdoch's help. Because articles relate to the government which he would want to be in power.
-Vote Cameron, get Murdoch.
-over 50% of newspapers are controlled by Rupert Murdoch. (National Newspapers)
-Stuart Hall: The role of the media in circulating 'common sense'. Media processes are over representing some and under representing some. This leads to asymmetry between elite people.
-BlackLivesMatter #EricGarner- difference in being a civil activist in 1960's to 2015
-Twitter is good for getting people involved- although social media has become a place for harassment, racism and abuse.
-Social media has become a surveillance

The Media, Democracy and Politics

-Owen Jones

-Just last years million of people in the UK were driven to food banks.
-The richest 100 people have doubled their wealth in the past year.
-The youth service are being cut
-1/4 people in London grow up in overcrowded homes.
-The government are ruining our lives
-Media is the pillar for democracy
-There are many barriers in journalism
-1/2 of top 100 journalists are educated; 7% went to private school, 14% went to a comprehensive school
-Its as if they can't understand issues of other people in other positions.
-Narrow social backgrounds
-There needs to be a bigger fuller diversity
-"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will"- Frederick Douglass-Social media is important- the sun- 3 million copies were bought in 2010, now only 1.8 million
-New channels are doing okay, they are surviving NDM
-Citizen journalism, especially on twitter has led to more real time topics, mainstream media has regulations
-There has become a much more diverse and alternation view points and opinions.
-Demonetization of the working class
-No class in Britain, just middle class
-Wealthiest people can afford to pay tax. 'class worrier'
-Low paid worker, in work on benefits cuts
-Powerful people are those who are responsible.
-The media distort the world, don't scrutinize the powerful
-Media is not accurate, representation of society is not true.