New and Digital media - end of unit question

What are the possible benefits and problems attached to the Internet? 

The media constantly changes everyday and involved new and digital technology. For example, before technology such as computers, laptops, iPads, smartphones etc. came out,  media such as newspapers and magazines would constantly be used and these were things that were important, however, due to this change, this encourage a lot more advertisement and allowed people to share more ideas amongst each other. 

New technologies such as viewing articles online compared to reading them in newspapers changed a lot of things and allowed people to interact by commenting on the bottom of the articles starting biased wars as to what they believe in leading to technology to evolve quicker than ever. New and digital technology targeted all different types of target audiences ranging from adults to younger children drawing in a large target market being a stereotype linking to Perkin's theory of having some element of truth within each stereotype and the new and digital media, in this case, is usually known for attracting the younger generation of people.  

One benefit attached to the media includes sharing views and ideologies of what people feel amongst one another by sharing things from many to many, one to many or many to one. By doing this not only gave people the opportunity to share ideas but also lead to a raise in awareness. For example, on YouTube, well known artists of today such as Justin Bieber's career started because of the use of new and digital media allowing him to be one of the most searched people upon the whole web. 

One problem attached to the internet includes things such as institutional bias and this is where institutes allow their ideas to take over and to be well known so that they can share their views with more people getting them to believe in more things that the institutes believe in. For example, institutions such as Fox News are known for only showing one-sided stories; one impact of them doing this effected the voting within the US.'We find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gained 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News.'  -Being a potential downfall for the reputation for not only the internet but for the whole new and digital media. Linking to Pareto's Law of 80/20 showing that 80% of votes were due to the 20% of bias shown on television. 

Overall and personally, my opinion is that the internet can be positive but can also cause problems depending on how people make use of it. The positives can be that more ideologies get across to people and opinions are shared in order to gain more awareness, however, on the other hand, negative things such as biased views also encourage more wars to take place such as political wars for example.  

Pareto's law

1) What is Pareto's Law? Sum it up in a paragraph.

Pareto's law 'states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes'. For example, the law started off and was based off the idea of 80% of Italy being owned by 20% of the people. This law was so useful that it could be applied to computer science as for example, Microsoft noted that by fixing the top '20% most reported bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would be eliminated.'

2) What other industries or examples can you apply the 80/20 rule to?
Microsoft - computer engineering
The business industries e.g. 

• 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:

Twitter owns vine 
Google owns YouTube
Google owns Blogger
4) List three arguments AGAINST Pareto's Law applying to the internet:

Instagram - everyone is equal posting pictures as the instagram HQ do not have all access to everyone posting pictures. 
FB - People are able to post things from one to many or many to many people 
Twitter - Does not always control what people tweet like any other social network. 


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?

Sometimes; maybe, idunno :( 

Article of the week... Tom Daley's YouTube video

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/03/tom-daley-youtube-video

• Positive representation overall for his lifestyle choice 
• Thanking the internet for 'brands to take control of their narrative' 
• 'Daley demonstrates why celebrity brands must quickly embrace transparency in an open and candid way'
• One sided argument leading to the encouragement on homosexual rights 
• Talks about how Tom Daley sets a good example for people. 'Tom Daley teaches us some valuable lessons' 
• Article doesn't use the words 'homosexual' or 'gay' or 'bisexual' connotes that they do not want to label his lifestyle choice, showing a sense of bias towards who he is being an overall positive article. 

From the article as an overall, it showed to support who Tom Daley is and how he was an inspiration to people and how people like him within the industry being a celebrity brand must be able to 'quickly embrace transparency in an open candid way, before a high-profile TV vehicle catapults them to prime time.' Also, within the article, due to Tom's sexuality, as he claims within the video, of him being a bisexual, none of the words are mentioned as this may show how the writer of the article is one-sided and may respect the choices that he has made being in a relationship with a man and how he 'came out of the closet' through using technology such as new and digital media, YouTube. The article also states that 'The London 2012 bronze medalist has decided to use YouTube as the means to out his narrative. This is an impressive example of strategic control.' continuing to praise him. The comments overall on the article were a mixture of both positive and negative as some people vouched for his sexuality whilst other claimed that other people in other countries such as Russia may have insults yelled out at him from different crowds whilst performing within these places as it is ILLEGAL for anyone to be openly gay within countries such as these. 

Web 2.0: Hegemony or participation

1)
Within the Ian Tomlinson case, the police are portrayed within a very negative manner as this one example of a boy getting killed by a police officer has spread throughout the media, brainwashing people and making them believe that police officers such as himself are spiteful. However, as this was not within the police's intentions to kill the boy, it was made out to look like he was. The new and digital media created a different story by favouring a death of a boy who could have been doing the wrong thing leading to a reason as to why the police officer may have hit him like he did. On the other side of the story, it is said that without the web being there to help favour the victim, the story may have never gone to court. 

2) 
I believe that the new and digital media does in fact alter the way people think and behave as it challenges ideologies of certain things and it puts the power of dictatorship within the audiences' hands within the media as factors such as commenting upon certain articles, videos or other aspects of the media may disagree with certain media put up for everyone to see. The comments may allow on-line wars as for example, if people disagree with something that has been posted up being a video, then more people may be encouraged to put their views across upon the video and may either get their comment reported or may either get their points across into making the video been taken off of the website.
3)
Due to the new and digital media being a contemporary tool, we, the audience, no longer depend on 'old school' forms of media such as newspapers or magazines as they can be made and found on-line. I believe that with this new technology, unlike the older times, the audience have just as much power as the publishers allowing certain things of the media either being glorified or taken down. 

4) 
Hegemonic vs alternative ideologies of: 
The Royal Family - Wealthy, big family, UK, positive impact upon society as people may aspire to be like them, Royal Wedding, Royal baby// Good for nothing, doing nothing for the UK. 
Education - Bad thing as schools are seen to be failing, exam results have only gone up as exams are now easier than before// Good schools, poor schools. 
Police - Good as they look out for society, people feel safe, protect the people//Violent, tragic, abusive. 
NHS - UK love them due to it regularly being free unlike other countries such as the US as a lot of people within the UK are struggling to cope with bills// Slow service, keep people in the hospital for days for no reason
Politicians - Money stealing, very negative, not trusted// Great ideas, creative.  
The armed forces - Heroes, go out to war fighting for the UK// Violent, killing people, going against peace.   

The royal family

The dominant or hegemonic view is that the royal family are the most valued family within the whole UK.
Lots of coverage - a lot of publicity, mainly positive, not always positive e.g. Kate been seen naked from a hotel room.
Stories are generally posted from the paparazzi and from people who are very patriotic about the UK; due to how well known the Royal Family are.
More importance and attention has come upon the Royal Family due to the Royal Baby and the Royal Marriage as more people watched the live coverage of the wedding from all around the world.
A lot of news and magazine coverage mostly in the UK but also internationally too.
Here is an example of an article covering one of many things that the Royal Family have done to appeal to people. Here are both William and Kate selling poppies in a tube station. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/10433186/In-pictures-the-Duke-and-Duchess-of-Cambridge-join-poppy-sellers-at-a-London-Tube-station.html?frame=2726786
Also the Daily Mail article talks about how the Royal Family have had a rift. Stating that 

'A dramatic rift emerged in the Royal Family last night, a mere eight days into the Queen's Golden Jubilee year.

A new royal biography revealed a deep bitterness between the Queen and Prince Charles, her uncompromising attitude towards Camilla Parker Bowles and claims she viewed the late Princess of Wales as 'mad'.

Astonishingly, it emerged that the Queen considered the possibility of bypassing the Prince of Wales in the succession in favour of Prince William.

The extraordinary claim, which was published yesterday in a broadsheet newspaper, is certain to start a fresh round of in-fighting between courtiers at Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, where the Prince has his office.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-93780/New-Royal-Family-rift.html 

Top Boy analysis

Within the beginning of the opening scene of Top Boy, there were different variations of both positive and negative aspects of the youth generation. For example, for the introduction, you could see that within the first minute, there were at least 2 or more positive and negative things. One of the negatives is that the boys look very scruffy and that may be because it is after school, but they may also dress like that in school; this may encourage the young people to also dress like this as they may want to look like the characters appearing on Top Boy. As there were more positives than negatives noticed, one positive was that the two young boys came home right after school portraying them to be 'good boys' and not random 'thugs' on the street hanging around after school near the shops, however, as the audience don't know that they are just assuming that they boys may be good. On the other hand, as one of the boys has an ice cream in his hand may suggest that the boys could have come home later after school from coming back from the shops reinforcing stereotypes of being a stereotypical youth within today's society. Also, another positive is that the young boy is concerned about his mother not being at home and his friend offers a friendly gesture to stay with him until his mother returns showing an optimistic view on the younger generation. The way that the boy is concerned about his mother even though he lives within an estate, shows how much he cares as usually, estate teenagers within society are represented as negative youths and this subverts this theory. Also, another negative representation within the opening scene was that there was a lot of swearing included and as there may be a lot of young viewers watching this TV series even though it is not necessarily targeted towards them, they may also pick up on swearing as may want to carry out the trend represented within Top Boy.

Theorists

Fanon - Putting on a white mask
Alvarado - Black people being humorous, exotic,

Orientalism - Edward Said

Does the 10 minutes opening scene of Yasmin offer a positive of a negative representation of British Muslims?

At the start of the opening sequence, Muslims are represented to be very religious and cultural due to the hymns chanted. As they were chanted through a microphone in order to amplify the sound so that the whole town could hear it, it just shows the level of how religious the Muslims living in Britain are. Also, due to the discipline whilst the boy was reading his holy book to his father by telling him to repeat every sentence in order for him to get it right portrays Muslims to be very committed within everything they do being a positive representation. On the other hand, the girl at the start in noticed changing into non-cultural clothes such as blue jeans and a pink stripped top, it connotes to the audience that she may not be as religious and maybe not as proud of her religion and that she would have to be 'putting on a white mask' which is a theory said by Franz Fanon who believed that people have to change the way they act and the way they look due to society; as this usually only applied to black people which was his theory initially, in this case, it also refers to other culturs as the girl had to dress in western clothing in order to approach a white-British male.

Pareto's Law - Against

I believe that what this person believed in was not true as, for example, Twitter is owned by Twitter inc. and not owned by anyone else.

There are a large amount of companies on the internet that allow people to share things amongst each other and not just one main one. 

Large companies such as Twitter may own other companies such as Vine, however,  Twitter itself, allows people to post Tweets and allow them to talk between each other being a form of many to many communication as lots of people would tweet to lots of others. 

Also, Apple is it's individual company worth $644, 000, 000, 000.