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.