How Facebook changed the world...

Notes...

Part one of The Arab Spring...

As a generation of young people no longer prepared to suffer in silence, rose up against the hated deskbox who ruled their country. By the end of February was beginning to look as if the revolution was easy, a generation of young bloggers and tweeters giving voice to democratic movements across the Arab world.

- World changing events recorded every hour 

- Balance of power

- 26 year old Mohammed Buazizi a fruit seller

- Bassam Chicri (Friend of Mohammed) made a complaint but ignored

- People started recorded events on their mobile phones (Buazizi set himself on fire)

- Tunisa's television reported nothing

- Press was censored 

- Police shot innocent people for recording footage

- Tunisa - Ben Ali a dictator (Police state)

- Reference to this protest was not featured on television

- Bloggers faced torture and detention

- UGTT (hacked union website)

- Moving onto democracy and pluralism

- Failed public relations campaign on television (old media which everyone ignored)

- Internet is immediate, no single/central hub (out of control)

- Protest videos went viral

- Al Jazeera News is a leading Arab news channel

- Copycat demonstrations

- Warnings on Twitter and Facebook

- Live mobile streaming

Statistics and Dates...
- December 2010 a man commuted suicide (Uprising of The Arab Spring)
- December 17th Friday a police women abused Mohammed Buazizi on the street
- 90% of Tunisaian's had mobile phones
- Quarter had broadband
- Took 28 days for Ben Ali to end dictatorship
- 2 million facebook user (one in five)

People...

- Mohammed Buazizi (Fruit seller)

- Bassam Chicri (Mohammed's Friend)

- Ben Ali (Dictator)

Part two of The Arab Spring...

- Gaddafi had the run the country for 42 years as his personal theft-Dom

- Gaddafi failed invest in economical growth 

- A divide/rule policy 

- Any form of public gathering was not allowed 

- Tunisa's and Egypt found the internet where young people can meet and talk

- Aya and Mimi made facebook to express their voices/freedom

- Groups created on Facebook

- Libya had poor communications 

- Social media had the power to unite young people against Gaddafi 

- Invisible army of young Libyian's waiting for a revolution

- Unemployed graduates saw no prospects for themselves in Gaddafi's Libya (Mohammed, Saleem and Mohammed)

- First spark of revolution in Libya was in the eastern city of Bengazi

- Gaddafi's right man was Abdullah Senussi

- Young chemical engineer started recording footage on his mobile phone 

- Tripulee shut-down the internet and mobile connections but footage was already reached to the other side

- Street wars 

- Some of Gaddafi's men turned into protesters 

- Gaddafi's eastern rule in Libya was over

- Gaddafi's speech back fired as parody's were made

- Protests breaking out in Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and a small island state in Bahrain

- Bahrain is connoted as a rich famous country and for its oil

- Corrupt leadership, discrimination, democracy 

- Young Shia activist Ali Abdul Hardi... used facebook to organise a protest 

- Police followed and shot Ali Abdul who died later in hospital

- King Hamad made a rare television appearance - expressed his regret for Ali Abdul and another protester and dialogue

- Demanded for political reform and equal rights for all citizens both Shia and Sunni

- Human rights activist Nabil Rajab saw something unique happening in the society he lived in

- Footage of people shot uploaded onto YouTube

- Doctors and nurses arrested and tortured for helping the protesters

- Libya was in civil war

- Yemen protesters threatened presidents 30 year rule

- Journalists banned from Syria 

- Cyber activist Rami Nakhle created a Facebook page

- Assad knew the power of the internet therefore blocked Facebook and YouTube

- Country in the eye of security 

- In February Assad unblocked Facebook (Big mistake)

- Revolution and uprising conversations over Facebook

- Early March a group of young teenagers was arrested in the Southern Syria town of Delha, they were caught spray painting the walls of their school, they were soon disappeared

- City found out the teenagers were tortured and therefore the protesters reacted rebelliously

- YouTube a popular media outlet 

- Protests spread in Syria of Baniyas, Homs, Hama, Latakia 

- Syrian police started hacking into activists websites and Facebook pages 

- Omar and Rami received threats inside Syria

Statistics and Dates...
- 1992 Assad's father was responsible for the massacre of 10 thousand people.
- 1996 over thousand prisoners were gunned down while being held in the Abusaleem Prison in Tripulee
- February 2011 Egypt Revolution began

- February 14th Bahrain started protesting

- March 15th Omar and activists protested 

- March 18th troops fired at the heart of Pearl roundabout

- March 17th  a UN resolution was passed, authorising the us of military force against Gaddafi of Libya

- March 23rd authority sealed of the city, many protesters beaten up and arrested

- March 25th zero tolerance of uprising 

- April 16th Al-Assad made a speech 

- April 19th Hom's started protesting

- April 25th tanks were sent into Baniyas, Hom's, Dara

- May 9th ever Friday there was warfare across the streets

- July 31st tanks were sent into Hama

- August 21st a dramatic change in Libya, Gaddafi was not in power

- 1000 people killed

- 3000 people took to the streets 

- 5% of the population had access to the internet

- 20% of the population had access to the internet

People...
- Gaddafi dictator of Libya
- Aya Bokharobah (Mother in prison)

- Mimi Mahmoud (Father killed in prison)

- Abdullah Senussi Brother-in-law of Gaddafi

- Tawfik Othman a Chemical engineer

- Ali Abdul Hardi... Protester

- Entisar Mushaima (Ali Abdul's aunt)

- Saleh Mushaima (Ali Abdul's Father)

- Nabil Rajab a Human rights activist 

- Rami Nakhle a Cyber activist

- President Bashar As Assad reputation of politics

- Wahid Saqr former Syrian Government Security Officer

- Omar Edilbi Father of one of the teenagers who was arrested 

Weekly NDM Story...

Beyoncé's surprise iTunes album sells 829k copies in first three days. Apple confirms sales figures for singer's fifth solo album, which has broken records on the iTunes Store...

Beyoncé chose to release her new album exclusively on Apple's iTunes Store. Photograph: Robin Harper/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/16/beyonce-itunes-album-sales-figures

Beyonce's secret fifth album released on 13th Friday morning has sold 828, 773 copies on Apple's iTunes store. The fourteen track album has topped the iTunes charts in 104 countries, the three day sales include 68, 000 copies in the UK and 617, 213 copies in the US. The album produced by Beyonce herself did not warn us a new album was being made therefore it was a great shock to the audience on Friday 13th December 2013 surprising along side fans and journalists. The album accompanied seventeen videos with fourteen tracks. Beyonce quotes: "I didn't want to release my music the way I've done it, I am bored with that. I feel like I am able to speak directly to my fans. There's so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fans. I felt like I didn't want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it's ready and from me to my fans."

- Sold 828, 773 copies on Apple's iTunes store.
- 104 countries.
- 68, 000 copies in the UK.
- 617, 213 copies in the US.

I personally think, many audiences were shocked and surprised by the new fifth album as no one knew about the release. Beyonce has attracted a huge audience by this move as she's done something new in the music industry. It creates excitement as she's one of the most successful female artists and most known for her feminist character therefore the album would get a positive approach by critics/audiences.

Weekly NDM Story...

Last.fm loses almost £4m as UK income plummets 70%. CBS-owned online music service's financial filing for 2012 reveals total revenues fell 21% year-on-year to £6.38million...

Last.fm's income at its UK operation plummeted 70%, but revenue at its US operation grew by 22%.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/13/last-fm-loses-4-million-uk-income-plummets

A online music service called 'Last.fm' owned by CBS as loss almost £4 million last year, as income plummeted 70% at its UK operation. Its global unique user base was 23 million at the end if the year, moreover the company's financial filing shows that the total revenues fell 21% year on year from £8.13 million in 2011 to £6.38 million last year. Last.fm derives the majority of its revenue from display and video advertising across its "traditional computer-based, mobile and other connected device platforms". In December last year the service introduced a paywall and scrapping its radio streaming offering altogether in most countries.

- Gross profits more than halved, from £3.7 million to £1.4 million.

- Advertising revenues fell by 23% to £4.33 million.
- Last.fm took its biggest revenue hit in the UK, the company's largest market, where income fell by 69% from £4.15m to £1.27m.
- The company employed 51 staff – 30 of them "technical" – in 2011. This number rose to 61 last year, with 37 technical and 18 sales.
- The salary bill for last year was £3.7m, up slightly from £3.4m in 2011.

The company has lost a huge amount of profit including their revenues as the statitics above show the differences of the past three years of the service. The online music service is used by tens of millions of audiences each month therefore it could still be successful as company's do have their negative points.

Virtual Revolution Part 2...

The world wide web has transformed our world, a quarter of the world is connected...

- Fight for freedom and democracy 

- Tweets posted every hour in Iran

- Harpernet

- Packet information: takes a piece of information and breaks it up into small pieces, then sent over to a network, often not in the right order or even over the same line. At the receivers end the packets are recombined in the right order and the data is made whole again.

- Ican (International Body) No one as the power to switch the internet off
- Battles against authority
- Investigative journalists, by publishing hard information
- Wiki leaks allows people to anonymously blow the whistle on governments and corporations
- Censorship is a big impact
- February 2008 came a court junction by a Swiss bank, after Wiki leaks published allegations about tax ablation
- The internet is not such a controlled environment any more
- Block censorship government and organisations
- Haystack network an encryption programme (hides in everyday web data) secure
- Iranian's's do not have access to social media sites however Haystack network is another social media site they can access
- The web gives citizens power to route around censorship and ease access
- Express in politics is only voting in elections
- However more able to express in politics over the internet
- China has more people online than any other nation in the world
- Web effect on politics is a huge threat to the Sates
- Lots of sites blocked in China
- China has blocked mostly western sites
- Citizen journalists taken sources and uploaded onto sites
- Internet commentators
- Politics raising on the internet
- PayPal system allows ordinary people to transfer small amounts of money internationally
- PayPal caught authority
- Like minded people usual post online terrorist content
- Cyber net/Cyber bolkisation
- Net gives us power however it can be used in a good or bad way
- Cyber attack in Astonia (Denial of service) caused many problems with money usually with banks
- Reinforcing prejudice
- Will the web help us or create danger?
- Power and war-fair

Statistics/Facts and Dates...

-  1990's freely move money around the world (PayPal)

- 1957 launched first space satellite (Russians)

- 1974 two computer scientists, Vincer and Bob connected how the internet works 

- 2006 Twitter was developed in Sans Francisco
- April 2007 Russia and Astonia faced riots

- February 2008 came a court junction by a Swiss bank

- May 2008 a massive earthquake in China killed 70 thousand people

- June 2009 Iran - Riot, protests turned to Twitter

- 2 million tweets by half a million people 

- 2 billion people online

- 1.2 million documents (Military encryption to secure sources)

- 253 million online in China

- 30 thousand policing the web in China

- 300 thousand 50 centers operating in China today 

- 350 million users worldwide on Facebook

Important People...

- Jeff Bezos CEO and founder of Amazon.com

- Aleks Krostoski presenter

- Vincer and Bob scientists 

- Mitch Kapor co-founder, electronic frontier foundation 

- Austin Heap a geak hacker 

- David Runclman Cambridge University

- Lee Siegel Author

- Hu Young Beijing University

- Wen Yunchao a Blogger 

- Peter Thiel Co-founder of PayPal

- Konstantin Goloskokov Commissar, Nashi

Quotes from Important people...

- "It's driving the perfection of information" Jeff Bezos

- "Capture information from a crown of eye witnesses and transmit globally in real time" Aleks Krostoski

- "The net interpenetrates censorship as damage and wraps around it" John Gillmore

- "The web is a fantastic resource in sharing information and gathering issues" David Runclman

- "Government want to use the power of the internet" Hu Young

- "50 cent army exaggerated" Wen Yunchao

- "Internet a open communication" Bill Gates

Weekly NDM Story...

Trinity Mirror data journalism project to be called Ampp3d. Site follows success of publisher's Buzzfeed-style social content site UsvsTh3m, which attracted some 3 million users in October...

Ampp3d: follows Trinity Mirror's launch of UsvsTh3m

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/27/trinity-mirror-data-journalism-project-ampp3d

Trinity Mirror's new journalism project is to be called Ampp3d after following up with UsvsTh3m, the site is a new social shareable data project perfect for citizen journalists. The new site has an Facebook page for the imitative, previously called "Mysterious Project Y" which promises "a topical, factual data-driven site from the Daily Mirror, making journalism accessible through data visualisation and infographics". The site will be along side UsvsTh3m which was from Trinity Mirror's Buzzfeed, an similar social content site announced last month.

- "It's a mobile first, topical, factual data-driven site with an exclusively digital focus, the site will be publishing charts, graphs, facts, figures and producing infographics to explore both the day's news agenda and a range of topics that people care passionately about."
- Buzzfeed attracted nearly three million unique users in October.

I think the site would be very useful for citizen journalists as it would be an easier way of accessing information and sharing it too. The project I think would be successful as Buzzfeed another social content site was popular reaching three million users within three months. 

Weekly NDM story...

Viral Video Chart: Chatroulette wrecks Miley and it's move over Kanye West. James Franco and Seth Rogen's take on Bound 2, Family Guy fans protest and Alan Partridge conquers Norwich...

 

Kanye West: Bound 2 and Miley Cyrus: Wrecking ball parody

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/29/miley-cyrus-kanye-west-family-guy

The most popular music video parody spin off for this week has beaten Miley Cyrus's wreaking ball parody to Kanye West's new song called 'bound 2' featuring James Franco as Kanye West and Seth Rogen's as Kim Kardashian. The pai were filming a new movie called 'The Interview' when they had time out to remake the new song Bound 2. 

- More Christmas festival parody's in the way.

- More viewers watch parody videos than the original music video.

Recently there have been more music video parody's are coming out, the most famous one was blurred lines by robin thicke then the Miley Cyrus Wrecking ball video. I think they are becoming more recognizable now than the original music videos.

Essay...

Development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the argument for and against for this view.

This essay focuses on whether the audience is powerful in terms of producing new and digital media developed through text or has the new and digital media done little to empower the audience. The development of new and digital media has increased incredibly over the years as multimedia technologies have become famous worldwide such as smartphones, Ipads, tablets, social media sites etc, all these benefit access to a large demographic audience. Pluralist's would argue that we live in a classless society in democracy therefore we are entitled for freedom and choice. Audiences are perceived as capable of manipulating the media and having access to 'the plural values of society' enabling them to 'conform, accommodate or reject'. On the other hand a Marxist's point of view would be a different approach on the new and digital media development, as they would say the mass media seek greater audiences because of the profit motive, they believe the media is a tool to control us and maintain the ideological hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society. 

A Pluralist prospective would argue that the audience have more power over the media as the new and digital developments have become economically active. An example would be the Web 2.0 produced in 2005 by Tim O'Relly, a site where audiences from different demographics are able to become producers of a media text. Audiences are now relying on more citizen journalism based sites which allow audiences to produce and display their own content online rather than expecting information from conglomerates which are sometimes exaggerated content. "The internet is an empowering tool" (Al Gore) which states the audience have more freedom to what they do such as accessing the internet, an citizen journalist would strongly relate to this quote as they are journalist who produce their own content online. An example of citizen journalism can be the 2004 'Tsunami' which many of ordinary people at the place and time took footage of what was really happening, this footage by audience were published into online sites which spread very fast across the internet for others to see, whereas professionals did not have live realistic footage of the tragedy. Thus, new and digital developments has become a huge impact in society as cameras, online social media text etc are becoming very popular to access information and publish text online. 

However a Marxist's could argue that new and digital media text are all developed by conglomerates who have produced these social sites for audiences to acces therefore in order for audience to access information they need the internet content to provide it. Revenue is a huge institution in the media world as conglomerates such as News Corporation charge for their content online, they know the media seek greater audiences of the profit motive and that audiences would be willingly enough to pay it. In addition this is because the mass media maintains the dominate ideologies and values of the ruling class as they know what the audience pleasures are. '38% of UK pupils aged 9-19 never question the accuracy of online information' (Livingstone/Bober 2005) as audiences are too vulnerable to what the internet provides and says. This quote shows how the audience are not in control as the internet is in more power against them.

According to Pluralist's another argument could be that the audience are in power over the internet due to social media sites and other active sites, as conglomerates need a greater audience for their profits and institutions to be successful. The use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc are all controlled by the audience as we are able to self-express our freedom and speech of content. Moreover "Technological blossoming of the culture of freedom, individual innovation and entrepreneurialism" (Castells 1996) is all up to the audience as we are in control in what we want to do online. Another example of audiences being in control over the media is user generated content, audiences are able to express their own opinion and views on social networking sites as well as an famous site called 'Youtube' which allows audiences to publish their own content for worldwide audiences to view and share opinions. The rise of citizen journalism and user generated content has made the audience more powerful in terms of consumption and production through the new and digital media developments. Moreover in relation to Blumler and Katz users and gratification theory, the audience are expressing their personal views online, it relates to personal relationship, surveillance or identity. 

"The internet has given readers much more power, the world is changing and newspapers have to adapt" (Rupert Murdoch) This quote states that the new and digital media developments are certainly changing society and how audiences access the internet. Rupert Murdoch himself is huge individual in the media industry as he owns a big conglomerate called News Corporation mentioned above, he owns one of the popular newspapers called 'The Sun' which is also known as a news and tabloid media text. As online versions have developed audiences are becoming less interested in the print values therefore more audiences are subscribing onto sites which provide news as new and digital technologies such as smartphones are used to access these sites.

On the other hand again a Marxist would disagree with a Pluralist's point of view as the media have dumbed down their output and construct texts simply to generate mass audiences, moreover this could relate to the hypodermic needle theory as they believe the audience tend to believe what the media provides. James Murdoch states "It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it" this quote is an example to Marxism as the audience would need to go through a pay-wall in order to receive the media text therefore audiences are willingly enough to pay for this subscription to value the news so audiences need the internet to pleasure their own values. In addition gatekeepers are another example in which professionals produce the media content therefore they would be the ones getting paid instead of citizen journalists as they do not own the revenue itself.

Furthermore, one could say that the audience are in empowered by the internet as censorship has impacted the audience and internet very much. I believe pornography is mostly watched by 40% of men and that these sites are mostly paid for to watch. As well as censorship, the media text also consumes the privacy and copyright content which restricts audiences from copying content of copyright as it is a big impact in our society. An example of copyright can be 'Napstar' which was created in 1999, and network which allowed to download free copyright music, this was later banned as it was a disadvantage to the economically industries therefore the audience do not have any control over the internet. 

In addition the new and digital media developments have let the audience become in power of the internet as censorship of pornography can been easily accessed by anyone, even of a younger demographic as the privacy of pornography is not restricted. The audiences choose to go on certain sites if they please which is somehow always available to them online, thus the audience do have the power over the internet as there is not much restriction. Also the copyright of 'Napstar' was another illegal issue of downloading music, however there many sites still available for many audiences to access and download music, not even music, as well as films, media text and more. Another example to what a Pluralist would argue against would be the Arab communication which allowed Arabs to share their opinions and context across the internet to others to view, what was really happening in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. The use of new and digital media has allowed the Arab communication to publish their content on the internet making the issue more notable and in consideration, as surveillance was not able to have freedom of speech. This relates to the users and gratification theory of person identity and person relationships.

In conclusion the developments of new and digital media can be argued equally as the audience have power in terms of consumption and production from both point of views. As a Pluralist would argue that the control of media is said to be in the hands of an elite who allow a considerable degree of flexibility in production choices whereas a Marxist's would state Mass media are seen as a way of entertaining the workers while drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs. Both sides argue equally showing us there are an audience who agree or disagree with some points therefore the argument is truly to be equal.