NDM

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. 

New and Digital Media

        What is Pareto's law?

Pareto's law is the 80-20 rule, which means that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. A common example is that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients. The Pareto principle is only related to Pareto efficiency. Pareto developed both concepts in the context of the distribution of income and wealth among the population. 

      What other industries or examples can you apply to the 80/20 rule to?
One industry that you can apply to the 80/20 rule is 

Weekly New and Digital Media Story

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/dec/09/nelsonmandela-daily-mirror

How the Daily Mirror, and my wife, got the first Mandela interview?



This article is about how Trevor McDonald's wife got the the first ever interview for the Daily Mirror, which was the first newspaper interview.  He was too delighted to publish her 'world exclusive'. In the Sunday Times, he said that his interview with Nelson Mandela was 'one of the most cherished memories of his journalistic life'. The article talks about how they got the interview, they got the interview because the Mirror's then owner (the late Robert Maxwell) had offered Mandela his plane to fly him from Johannesburg to London for the the "Free South Africa" concert at Wembley stadium. In the event, the ANC rejected the offer in the belief that there were potential security and safety risks. So he and his wife, Winnie, took a scheduled flight instead, accompanied by Noreen.

This article shows the impact Nelson Mandela had on people's lives, as Trevor McDonald said that the the interview was the most cherish memories of his journalistic life. 

Hegemony

House prices

The hegemonic view is that the houses with the highest prices are the good ones. If there are high prices, it is always shown as a good thing, especially in the media, they get positive coverage. The stories get shown by a group of people that already own homes rather than those who are hoping to buy them. However, there is very low coverage of the fact that house price and risky mortgages contributed to the major economic crash in 2008. The columns, blogs and comments show different opinions that contradict the dominant or hegemonic view, 

which is usually written by younger people.

The Royal Family

The royal family is a hegemonic view; we have accepted it in our society, as they are the ones who are in control of our country. Whenever something happens in the royal family, they are always in the headlines of all the newspapers. When the royal wedding took place, they were on every front page. This shows that everyone was interested in this topic; they wanted to know details about the wedding etc. Many people watched the wedding on TV, and some people went to Buckingham Palace to go and watch the wedding, showing that the royal family are dominating. Millions of people came from across the world to see the wedding take place. Also, when the royal baby was born, it was on majority of newspapers, which shows how much of a big issue it was. 

Top Boy

In the opening of Top Boy, there are both positive and negative portrayals of young people. In the first minute of the opening there were 4 positive portrayals of young people. The two boys were coming straight home from school and being a part of the kids that ‘hand around’ in the streets after school. Another positive aspect was when the boy rejected the money from one of the guys that was talking to them; they know not to take things from strangers. Another positive portrayal we see is when the kid stays home, as he is worried about his mum not being home. He waits for her and his friend waits with him, which shows how much he cares. Gerberns theory is linked to this as young people are watching this and can see that they should come straight home. This is a positive portrayal of young people. In the eighth minute, there are 2 negative aspects of young people, as they are seen swearing, which shows that there is a bad side to them. Overall, there are 9 positive aspects and 11 negative aspects in the opening of Top Boy. 

Edward Said - Orientalism

1.   

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

I think that it offers a positive and negative representation of British Muslims; however the negative representation overpowers the positive. The only positive representation of the British Muslims is that they are religious; they are passionate about praying and about Islam. There are many negative representations of the British Muslims, for example when the women goes into the pub, with a white man, it shows that she is going against her religion. First of all, a western woman going into a pub isn’t something that would be acceptable in Islam, and the fact that she was with a white man. Other people in the pub were looking at her and giving her looks, as they don’t see that sort of thing happen on a daily basis.

2.   

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

Orientalism is the difference between east and west. Edward Said argued that the west created the meaning of the east, as it was shown as dangerous and uncivilised. However, the theory is used in today’s society, due to the 9/11 bombings. In the clip of Yasmin, the difference of the east and west is shown, for example on the gates of one of the Muslims, there was graffiti on the gate which had ‘paki’ spray painted on it. This shows the difference of east and west, as the graffiti shows that the west doesn’t accept Muslims in their society. However, it does show the east in a positive way, as they are seen as being religious, by taking part in morning prayers and reading their holy book. In the clip, the white people are seen as rude, as they stop Yasmin, when she is wearing her hijab, they question her and she told the police what they wanted to know before they could ask. This challenges the theory of Edward Said, as it is showing both sides, but in differently ways as others see them. 

Learner Response

WWW: You make two brilliant points that could provide the basis for a much higher grade (the two theorists)

EBI: Others than those points, you mainly describe the text to me, and you wont get any marks for that

LR: What is your personal opinion on the question?
My personal opinion on the question is that I understand why the media object Robin Thicke's song and video for Blurred Lines, as women are seen as objects for men to look at. In the video, all the women are barely wearing clothes and the men are fully dressed. This could link to Butler, as she says that traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into 'women and men'. By the way that they are dressed in the video, shows a divide between the two. As both the women and men in the video are dressed differently, it shows the divide between the two genders, as it is being reinforced.

Daily Mail's Olympic Ceremony

The opening ceremony for the Olympics was held in London, showed the way the country is portrayed. It was shown as a diverse place where everyone is happy. They showed happy families that were from different races and how it is okay for people to be married to different races. In one of the opening scenes, a representation of modern life in England is shown as an educated white middle aged mother and black father are shown living together as a happy family. Dewsbury said that this was a 'set-up' and how it wasn't a fair representation of family life in Britain. 

In the next scene, there was an ethnic minority performer, there was grime music playing in the background to emphasise the fact that it was representing South London. Dewsbury said 'this multi-cultural equality agenda was so staged it was painful to watch'. However, this could link to Alvarado’s theory of racial representations, as black performers are usually seen as dangerous, as they are linked to crime and gangs. This is what people in South London are usually associated with. Also, they are seen as ‘exotic’ because they are known for having different types of food.  The typical stereotype of black people is that they are usually seen as ‘putting on a white mask’ to fit into society. In my opinion, I think that the London Olympics didn’t show a fair representation of Britain, from the way they portrayed the mixed families to the way the NHS was shown. In a way, I do agree with some of what Dewsbury said.