'We media and Democracy'- Owen Robson

I get my news, mostly, from newspapers, such as the daily mirror and metro, and the BBC news app. The metro is an independent newspaper that is distributed Monday through Friday on public transportation; it leans towards the conservatives in terms of political stance and does not have many journalists and often relies on what others give them for their information. The daily mirror is owned by its parent company, trinity mirror, and is distributed Monday through Saturday with a sister paper, the Sunday mirror, on Sundays and is distributed in the conventional manner i.e. sold in post offices (or what few are left) and independent news agents and  is typically viewed as labour in its political stance. The BBC news app is clearly owned by the BBC and can be downloaded on virtually any device with internet access on a whim and, as it is the BBC, attempts to remain impartial in political matters, as well as the BBC TV news which is very mush the same as the BBC news app, with potential bias only coming from guests such as MPs being interviewed.

I believe that the BBC news app, launched in 2010, is a trusted source as they try to filter all forms of political bias from their articles to present the audience with the facts, staying as close to the undiluted truth as possible. The metro is actually relatively new, launched in 1999, and is owned by the same media group which owns the daily mail, DMG media. This media group is skewed towards the conservatives in terms of political stance and will almost certainly be skewed towards tory views, it is also free, however, and provides those who would not go out of their way to buy a paper with a source of, relatively, reliable information which, in the eyes of most, is enough to be considered a trustworthy news source.  The daily mirror is very old in comparison to the other news source I have talked about, it was launched in 1903, making it 113 years old at the time of this blog’s publication, and the fact it is still going should be an indication of how popular and trusted it is as a news source. It’s political stance, labour, guarantees that, at least some of the time, the facts and opinions stated will be those slightly biased towards labour, making it a favourite with the working class, and slightly less reliable than impartial news sources such as the BBC. The BBC TV news, however, is much older than its app counter-part and was launched in 1948 and, much like the daily mirror, has the benefit of trust that comes with age, its popularity with previous generations making the current generation trusting of its content.

In regard to the BBC News app, I have found that some of the most common news categories in Britain include Brexit and Education. I have found this from asking other members of my media studies group about which categories catch there interests the most.

The news stories included on the BBC News app, but are not limited to, consist of: US convoy attacked in Syria due to the abrupt end of the cease fire, preventing aid to Aleppo was a story that I read in depth, as well as other stories I glanced over or read the headline, such as seven arrests over a school brawl (which was shared via social media sites as well) and a solid gold public toilet in Germany, all of which were learned about reading a news website, also including Corbyn’s victory in the labour elections via big media i.e. BBC news.

 I also found out about various other news stories from those within the media group such as Theresa May’s controversial proposal to reopen grammar schools, Colombian referendum, Joey Barton out for several weeks, sport direct paying employees £200 million in bonuses, the PS4 Pro launch, brownlee brothers at the marathon, N.Korean rocket/firework test etc. Only several of which were read in any depth, Theresa May’s grammar school plan in particular, the problem being that grammar schools cherry pick students from other schools catchment radius’ worsening the comprehensive schools quality and quantity of students, skewing the Ofsted ratings for the worse for contemporary schools as well as giving some an unfair advantage over others as well as social class being a significant factor in the results of the tests required for admittance, however, most grammar schools have undeniably high a-level scores as well as some saying it “undermines” privilege as they aid the brightest children from poorer families. Ceasefire broken as UN convoy attacked, by CNN politics, the aid convey was hit when it was travelling east towards Aleppo from the west it is unclear who attacked the convoy but America is falling back on its blame the Russians strategy, yet again, what is clear is that around 20 were killed in the attack and they were killed via an airstrike. Russia denies involvement, which would likely be the case whether a country is guilty or not, and are blaming the Syrian rebels. The UN’s response is about as indecisive as you’d think: “Just when we think it cannot get any worse, the power of depravity sinks lower.” 18 out of the 31 trucks went down in the airstrike. Finally, N.Korea’s “successful” rocket engine/firework test was conducted in an underground nuclear test bunker with the US and China agreeing with the UN to address N.Korea’s fifth nuke test. North Korea repeatedly make claims about the “success and progress” of there nuclear and missile programmes with analysts saying that the claims are too numerous too independently verify and the UN declaring increased and toughened sanctions against Pyongyang. N.K claim the rocket is for a non-military related satellite, claiming that the test is of a purely scientific nature with the US, South Korea and China being inclined to disagree, there track record of non-violence related anything being quite bad. The test is almost universal considered as an indication that North Korea will soon launch another long range missile/rocket by the UN/ everyone who isn’t North Korean.

We Media and Democracy - Lewis Martin

I have learnt from the summer that there are a variety of ways to access news content. Examples of this include: TV, websites, newspapers, news apps and various social media. All of which are said to be bias in some way and I will try and look at different perspectives and different people’s views on accessing news content.

Examples of the TV programmes that broadcast news content are: BBC, Sky News, channel 4. However, each of these channels will broadcast the same news content but in different perspectives in order to portray their ideological views to the public. Sky news is a very right wing broadcasting channel as figures from a survey conducted by themediablog.co.uk shows that ‘nearly two-thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said Sky News displays a clear pro-Conservative bias in its reporting. In total, 34.5 per cent of respondents said Sky News displays a "strong Conservative" bias, while 29.3 said the channel shows "some Conservative" bias’. They may try and blur the lines of a news story in order for it to be viewed in one way rather than the intentional purpose. For example, during the build up to the EU referendum, Sky news constantly referred to the EU (European Union) as Europe implying that a vote to leave has damaging implications. This is just one example of how TV broadcasting channels can twist the news in order to present their ideological views and try and be unintentionally bias.

Personally I do not get my news from television as advances in technology and apps have allowed me to access news content through the BBC news app which I believe to be a reliable and trusted source to get my news. I also feel as it does not lean politically towards one side and tries to be as neutral as possible. Also, the app allows you to apply filters so it will only show you topics that you are interested in; I had chosen football, boxing and the Paralympics at that particular period of time. I was able to see news content such as Golovkin beating Brook and the build up to the Manchester derby and also that Ellie Simmonds captured Gold with a new world record. The app is very useful as now you can just view what interests you and not read pointless stories that have no appeal. However, with this filter, you will not be able to see important news stories so if there was a terrorist attack then you would be unaware and not be knowledgeable of that important/serious event.

Social media is constantly evolving and changing to a point where it is easy for regular people to become journalists, where they are able to post news that they see and it can be spread through sharing on Facebook or retweeting on twitter in order for it to go viral. However, you have to be careful with what you read on Facebook and other social media because you do not know if it is a reliable and trusted source. For example, I was scrolling down Facebook the other day and an article came up with a headline that read, ‘Jaden Smith dead after suicide’, I instantly clicked thinking that this was true and the article seemed to be serious and have a story about how it was believed to be true. Some people would use this source as a fact of information but I was not being lead along this easily, so I searched on google Jaden Smith suicide and it came up with articles about how it was a hoax. This just demonstrates on how Facebook can be a negative tool to use a source of journalism and stories like this reflect why it will never be a trusted source. However this does not damage the fact that it is still a great tool for people to voice their opinions on key issues that are ever present in today’s society. For example, if a trusted source like the BBC posted an article on a contradictory topic then people would be allowed to comment their opinions and challenge others views.

They can also create online blogs in which they can literally use this as platform to post their news and voice their own views and opinions on matters that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to do in a newspaper or on the television. Dan Gillmor suggests that media and news content is becoming more of a democracy where everyone is able to report on news and voice their opinions. This is a change from a concentrated choice of media and profits for an oligopoly of companies where they are the only people to have an opinion. Ownership and control of companies are usually in the hands of white males with a private school education. Gillmor sees the internet as a catalyst for a challenge against hegemony, as ordinary citizens can use blogs and other online communication tools to share their own views – ‘citizen journalism’.

In my opinion, I believe that the internet is a great tool for people to voice their opinion and beliefs on real life events. Also, if people are at a scene where there is news being reported then they can use camera phone to record the lie events that are happening. Citizens do not take out any footage that they record whereas broadcasters will edit their footage so it only shows footage that reflects their ideological views in a positive light. For example, on 9/11, TV broadcasters did not show a particular camera angle when the towers got attacked and there is some conspiracy as to why. Everyday people will show everything that they record as they do not have a reputation to keep up and do not have an issue with looking bad and do not have to cover their backs. This is just a few reasons why I think that some programmes hide news from us in order to not reflect them in a negative light.

Lewis Martin

We Media and Democracy - Ben Locking

'We Media' is a term used today to describe the news and content that is created by the audience (usually the general public) rather than the main hosts, or Big Media, such as Channel 4, BBC, etc. 

We Media is changing society in the way that media is actually distributed and is becoming a democratic approach to sharing the news around the world and whatever news is wished to be shown without the Big Media limiting to what is heard, when it is heard, and how it is heard. This has come around through pressure groups wanting to change the way media was received and working within the public to voice their own opinion. Eventually a large popularity caught on and have been working further since to see the change that is now being achieved with a more (as I would say) 'community-based' approach. 


David Gauntlett devised a theory of Media 2.0 to help explain how quickly We Media has come along. He explained that we are currently in a world where there are rapid changes in technology, how media is produced and how we choose to receive it – and it's down to us how we share it. However, technology has moved even further now to satisfy us and the news we like to hear. Internet 3.0. This is the use of cookies on our computers which tracks our commonly visited sites, what we watch, texts we expand and so much more. It then finds other data similar to the ones that have caught our attention and displays it to us for more usage. It's essentially a way of tailoring our very own internet to fit us like a perfect suit and this new advance can very much affect the way in which we see media. 


Over the holidays I've not really been open to much news since I live in my bedroom and rarely come out unless it's something like eating. Anyway, despite the anti-social behaviour I have still managed to hear about a few mishaps and achievements around the world in various different ways. 


The first story was about the Italy earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 that sadly destroyed Amatrice. I had heard this from a news organisation of BBC News and had only really been caught by the headline and then listened to a slight more information for a few minutes about the casualties, and how people were trying to be rescued before they moved onto another story. This is one of the stories I actually tried to keep up on as I was intrigued on how the reformation and saviour of the trapped people would go but coverage has slowly dropped off on the story. However, with this being breaking news at the time, it brought plenty of attention to the matter and could've indicated a potential cry for help to gain support from others to rescue the people in need or danger. Through receiving this news I see it to be accurate and trustworthy with it being broadcasted over national television to the country and publicised in various newspapers. 


A second story was during the Olympics, showing that England had done their best ever whilst overseas winning 67 medals. I took an in depth look into this story with sport being a strong passion of mine; mainly football, but sport in general. The team had only targeted to achieve around 48 this year but managed to smash that goal and come 2^nd place overall, putting China out of the chase by day 15. I believe that the dominant meaning of the story was to bring pride to the country and help to strengthen the image of the country as a whole and to gain support for a country so small compared to others to do so well and succeed together. The story had been broadcasted everywhere – radio, TV, newspapers, you name it. So I have lots of reasoning to trust the sources as multiple places have had the same story. It was also shows over a long period of time meaning that the information had to be consistently accurate to be trustworthy.


The third story I found was different to the other two and involved a boy getting 28 months to prison for sexting girls as young as 13. However, as a change to other ways like TV or popular news I accessed this through the use of We Media. I first discovered the news of friends talking about this on social media (Twitter in particular) but was unsure of where they got the information from. I then proceeded to share this with people on social media and target shared it with friends on various platforms – creating my very own form of We Media. I then later discovered the information to be reliable once the Big Media came into contact with it such at the Daily Mail releasing a news report on the subject. I believe it was provided to show child pornography in such a negative light and degrade others.


I believe that this is a strong example of We Media as the news had originally came from a social circle within Twitter with people that I shared similar interests with, in this case music, following each other and the boy in the report was well known within the social group and to see that he had been convicted was quickly shared around on Twitter meaning that the few thousand of the social circle were some of the very first to know and so beat the Big News to share it around. The fact of people following each other with shared interests on Twitter can additionally be an example of Internet 3.0 but with us manually adapting it, essentially without the use of cookies but us doing that part ourselves. We had managed to suit the internet, or webpage (Twitter), to ourselves by following what we see relevant within a social circle and with who we want to interact with.


In conclusion, I believe that the most important information or the big headlines are still dominated by the Big Media with We Media just following behind; despite there being personal footage and such sent into the Big Media to aid them in getting out the news as quickly as possible. However I feel that with much smaller stories within groups or pages created by Internet 3.0 that We Media thrives to produce a more personal story within a shorter space of time. Unfortunately I still feel that there is some sort of mistrust towards the accuracy of We Media due to the number of internet ‘trolls’ that often make up stories just for drama or people may accidentally get information incorrect which links back to my third story of me being sceptical at first until the Daily Mail mentioned it. Overall, I believe that We Media can grow into a much more dominant way to receive media and news over time – just not yet.

We media assessment

Over the summer we had to research the media and democracy within the media. This is so we could reflect on the ways that we access and look at news. Also it was for us to think about was whether the ways we were accessing media were trusted. We have since then looked at the sub types of news myself and others tend to be more interested in and how others access news, additionally how often they look at it. These are the results of research I carried out and conclusions we can draw from them.

In the ‘my news’ section of the BBC News app it allows you to pick which news categories you want to read and hear about first. In this section I chose to look at; Derby, football, cricket, music, television and media. This shows a quite wide variety of topics.  However I think it also portrays that I do not pay much attention or interest to political or international matters. However as I have the Derby section within my categories, this could show that I take an interest in local matters and news. I tend to check the news about once a day on average. It is also important to make sure the news that you are reading is legitimate. So the ways you access media is from trustworthy source. For example the institutes I trust are BBC, ITV and official Facebook pages.

My results are different to others however. For example in my research into other people’s media I found that one person finds their news from social media, newspapers, radio and online. This shows some more traditional methods of viewing news stories. As not as many people will read newspapers to read about the news, especially the younger generation who are more technologically gifted. One of the people was 41 years of age, their chosen categories to read about were Education, Brexit, Syrian Civil War and migrant crisis. 5 of the stories he knew about were; grammar schools being put into place in the UK, Donald Trump vs Hilary Clinton and also the Colombian peace deal. Another thing that was different to my results were than this person checked the news 5/6 times a day. They also read more than the headline often as opposed to me only sometimes reading more than the headline. Compared to me they also collected their news from a range of different places, these were; BBC, Radio 4 (generally not a radio station that younger people listen to), channel 4 and also The Guardian. This person also said that they trust all of these institutions and also trust The Financial Times. I think that these results are very different because of the age difference between me and the other person I asked for their opinions. As they were essentially looking at more important world topics. If you compare two, one was about Theresa May wanting to introduce more grammar schools into Britain. Whereas one of the stories I read was about Ryan Sidebottom signing a new 1 year contract at Yorkshire County Cricket Club. This shows that the other person is older and has more of an opinion of world and national matters.

I do not think that it is a bad thing that the more traditional ways of accessing news such as newspapers are becoming less popular compared to online news apps and websites. I think this because you are essentially reading yesterday’s news with newspapers as they get printed and dispatched mostly throughout the night. Where as with apps and websites you can be kept right up to date with news as it happens and lets you see breaking news. Which I think is better as you are better and more quickly informed. This is another reason why the media now is more democratic than it used to be. This backs up Dan Gilmor’s theory on we the media

I also think that the media has changed in a different way through advancements in technology. In the sense that before it would be a journalist who would get the first story on a case. Nowadays it could be any random person who is passing by where a story could potentially occur. I think that this is also a good development in media as stories will be less farfetched and fantasize cases. This is another point to back up Dan Gilmors theories in we the media.

Overall I think that the media on the whole has become more democratic. I think this because people have made ways to make news more accessible. Whether this be by blogs, apps, websites or social media. It is also now easier to make your own news, by videoing or commenting on a certain event. So it is not just the big media companies that can be the first source of the news headlines, it can now be any person. I also think that it is younger people who are accessing the more modern ways to view the news such as online newspapers, apps and websites. Where as older people who still use the more traditional ways to access the news that they want to, such as newspapers, news channels, radios etc. This could be the because they are more set in their ways and do not want to change the way they view the news themselves.

We media and Democracy- Brooke

What have you learnt about your own media use and how you access news content?

I haven’t always kept up to date with the news, other than what I’d occasionally hear via the radio when I’m sat in the car etc. But I never seemed to take much more interest than that. Until more recently when I started watching ITV news at 6(pm), the good thing about watching news via the TV, is the stories are air the same day they take place, which enables the world to become more aware and similarly more democratic. Even more recently I downloaded the BBC News App, which has actually proven very useful as it sends me constant daily updates on news stories. I was able to filter these by choosing topics I am interested in (my chosen 3 were: UK, World and US Election) which is what the BBC App notifies me with, however I am also able to view all the other news stories once on the app, sometimes only reading the headline, however very often reading beyond and getting the full story which the BBC have portrayed to us. It is now been found that we have become a society which filters the information we get, due to how much the media cover. In many ways this is good as we are able to pay more interest into the stories and events which interest us, however there are also negative aspects of these features as it limits our knowledge of much more that is happening around the world.

Thinking about it there are also many other way where I get my news from, but I just don’t fully realise it, this is through the format of social media, e.g. Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter. Facebook for example uses cookies to filter the news which is shown on people feed, by what people look at whilst online. Also people online share news stories, or stories which seem to be from the news, without actually checking if the web address which they get the information from is genuine, therefore untrue stories and biased opinions on certain issues are escalated and spread throughout social media. This always makes me question the reliability of some people’s information.  Snapchat on the other hand also have begun providing news on their app, however more often than not the information which they provide is information you would read from a magazine, or in that category of new, which again you can never be sure if the source is reliable. With these type of media distributors I have learnt that they don’t create the information, they just find their material from others and copy it.

However looking at the positive aspects of social media news is that the situations are open for debate and opinions from a huge audience, which is where conspiracy theories begin. We are also given information from citizens that big/traditional media companies aren’t obligated to post. Citizens also point out inaccuracies in news reporting which tends to make people in general more optimistic about what they believe.

More recently I have realised how much the way we access media has changed over generations, the way I access media is certainly very different to the way my grandparents would access media. For example when my grandparents were my age the most popular form of news access was newspaper format, the news which people read on their was news from the day before, and the news wasn’t open to debate as much as is it now, so people’s views on different situations were limited. Also not everyone in those days could read so the rich wrote what other rich people read, which meant that people who were illiterate weren’t as up to date on the issues around the world. Which meant in those days it was less democratic. When looking at the ways my parent’s accessed media the variety had advanced slightly, for example TV news was then developed which meant that Newspapers and TV were the most popular formats of receiving media, and the thing with TV is that the news is reported the same day, and you don’t have to be literate to listen to the news, making the world more democratic as a whole. In comparison to now there are so many formats where we can access media, social media networks are now the biggest distributors of news, however they aren’t the producers of it, so what sites like BBC first write is then copied and then changed with the opinions of others involved. This has caused the demand for things such as newspapers to decrease, with mainly older generations purchasing them. 

'We Media and Democracy' - Olivia Needham

As the ever-changing world of technology continues to evolve, we move along with it, navigating our way through the media maze, but we all have our unique ways of accessing the news in today’s society. Whether it be a large earthquake, an EU referendum or Kim and Kanye's wedding, most people take interest in finding out about the world around them and the current events making headlines, and seek out this news in different ways.

Personally, I am extremely interested in keeping up to date with the news of the world, as I feel it is vital to know what is happening to other people in other areas of the world, and to be able to learn from, and be involved with events happening elsewhere; in my opinion it would be ignorant to not keep updated with current events. I like to know about the serious things such as politics, tragedies and crime, however, I also enjoy hearing about pop culture, celebrity gossip and music and fashion related news.

I access my news in many different ways, one of these ways being the television. In the morning when I’m having breakfast, sometimes I might flick over to the news to see what has been happening in the world. Other times I might pass a newspaper in a shop and have a gaze over the biggest headlines. Another way I access news is through the internet, where I might see a news story on a website or in the advert section. However the main source of news for me is Twitter. Every day when I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone for notifications, after doing that I go onto Twitter and open up the trending section and see what the most tweeted events of the day are. I find this to be extremely useful and reliable, because I know if millions of people are talking about it then there must be truth to it. This is an example of Dan Gilmor’s idea of the consumer becoming the creators from his book ‘We the Media’.

The idea that millions of people come together to spread awareness of a story turns us into the journalists in a way, because it gives us a voice, an opinion, and an ability to spread the word. With 313 million users active on Twitter monthly, word can spread incredibly fast. I have found out about many of the top news stories via Twitter, for example, I heard the news about the death of certain celebrities such as David Bowie, Prince and Alan Rickman through Twitter, however one thing Twitter is common for is creating false death stories, so I always have to validate them online when I see one on the app.

One experiment my class conducted was where we all downloaded the BBC News app on our smartphones, chose topics that interested us, and reported back a week later on our news consumption. I wrote down the findings of 5 other students and two teachers. The information I gathered was in a table that featured sections asking about their age, what categories they picked, how often they checked the app and what stories they learned about. My findings were that the older test subjects (teachers) tended to check the app many more times a day/week than the member of my class who are between 17 and 18 years of age. Also I found that the teachers had chosen more categories than the class, and included more serious topics such as Politics and Education, whereas the people my age had chosen things such as Entertainment and Music. Furthermore, most of the males that I took information on had chosen Sports as a category.

This experiment has helped me to learn a lot about our news consumption. The first thing I realised is that the older people taking part in the experiment would check the app a lot more frequently than the younger ones, but I believe this to mainly be down to the fact that the younger generation are a lot more active on social media, so come across news this way, and feel less of a need to check the BBC app. The next thing I learnt was that boys and girls had different interests, for example the boys I took notes on all had some type of sport as a category, whereas the girls had more of the celebrity news as a focus. However a lot of people still had a lot of the same big news stories remembered, such as the Olympics in Rio and Brexit, which says to me that even though we all have separate interests, we all hear about the main stories and care about them to an extent.

In today’s society, we are becoming curators of our own media; we can create, and view news as we please. We are the media. As part of the young generation today, I can support the fact that we have grown up in a world where news is easily accessible on many formats, and through the use of social media, we can stay updated, as well as make others aware of our own stories, however big or small. Older generations may be able to do exactly the same, however, having not grown up in the same way as we have, are still adapting to these changes and are not quite as accustomed to things like social media as the younger generation, many still read newspapers, which a younger person with a smart phone might never do, as it is simply at the tip of their fingers and a google search away. Overall, I have learnt that we are all collectively significant in the media and have to power to control and consume it in whatever way available to us.

'We media' and Democracy - Kieran Lukas

We media and democracy from kieranlukas

We Media And Democracy - Dan Winn

Media assessment

 

In this assessment I will be talking about the news, including my opinions on what I think to the news, how I hear about stories and whether I look into them or not. Over the summer we was set to keep an eye out about stories about anything which was to our interest. Here is my views and opinions of the news and how we hear about it.

Where did you get your news from? Do you think that they are a trusted source?

During the summer I found all types of news on multiple platforms such as TV, newspapers, phones and from family and friends through word of mouth. Looking into hearing news from TV I believe that this is a trusted source because the BBC have a right to inform the country about things happening worldwide. However I don't necessarily watch or pay attention to the news unless it will have an effect on myself, this is because I don't see it as anything that will change my everyday life. Since the start of the summer we was told to download the BBC news app and select categories that are to our interests, I chose Chelsea, UK, Sport and Television. As you can probably guess I am a person who loves their sports, I am not too fussed about news in the politics area or other worldwide news although it could have some effect on myself. If I did not have the BBC news app then I doubt I would use another type of news source simply because I am not too bothered about things in the news that isn't targeted to me.

BBC News App

As I previously said, I chose my categories which now inform me of news within these categories when they are released. It is a good way to get people to interact with the news and a better way to hear about news too. For people like me who don't pay much attention to the news it then makes them pay attention because it is on their phone. Most people in the current generation are on their phones, therefore in a way there is no avoiding the news as it will reoccur through notifications, even if they don't read into a story or article then they can at least see the headline. So people will hear of more news without trying or wanting to.

How did you access this information?

I accessed this information on my phone by downloading the BBC news app, this is easy for me to access as I usually have my phone on me so I can read any news that I want when I see an article that interests me. Most civilians my age (17) tend to access information through the use of social media as it is a big trend in recent years, however people like our parents and grandparents get their news from a different source. These sources can vary from newspapers through to word of mouth. The stereotypical grandparent is thought to be sat there in a big armchair with a newspaper from The Sun or The  Metro etc. Although not everyone's grandparents are like this, they could be as up to date as the modern teenager for all we know. Our parents or guardians are stereotypically known for gaining news off of the television which is a common source of gaining the news, however like the grandparent situation everyone's parents are different but the most common source of news is the TV if you are an adult. This reflects the 1950/60's in America when only 9% of Americans had a TV in the 1950's, the changes then happened 10 years later in the 1960's when 90% of Americans had a TV, during the 60's President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, this may have had a huge effect on the country wanting to know news like this. Over time things change and in this case there has been some reflection of these events just not nearly as severe. In the next ten years who knows how people will receive their news, will we be the stereotypes who use social media as a source of news whilst the new generation gain news a different way?  

People all have different opinions and views on certain things, to adapt to this, the media will know this and have to try to interact as well as to not offend their audience as it could reflect back badly on themselves. To do this the media as a whole specifically newspaper organisations must write useful and interesting stories which have appropriate wording so none of their audience feel like they are being manipulated or targeted. Sometimes this is avoided however on the rare occasion people can be offended which then leads on to more issues.

Example stories

One of the first stories I saw after I followed categories such as sport, football, Chelsea, UK and football transfers was David Luiz signing for Chelsea on Deadline Day for £30 million, this was the biggest news story on this specific day because it became a shock for the football world as it was an unheard of story before this time. For me it was a surprise as I didn't even think David Luiz would ever come back to Chelsea, however I was still extremely happy that he is back, he receives a lot of criticism from the media but he was one of my favourites before he left the club and now he's back nothing has changed.

Another story that I found on the BBC news app over the course of the summer was that David Cameron resigning from the prime minister role of the country, this came as a huge surprise to the country, some say they expected it after the other news story of UK leaving the EU, Cameron wanted to stay within the EU so after this decision he decided to resign. In my own opinion I was undecided on whether to leave or stay as I could not vote due to being under 18 therefore I didn't look too much into it. Therefore I only looked at the headline and didn't read the article.

As a whole I used the BBC news app to a certain extent where I would get my news from and then pass this information on later down the line. Here is my opinions and views on the 'we media and democracy' section of my media studies.   

'We Media' and Democracy - Jonjo Murtagh

This is an essay on the way I consume news that I see and wear that news comes from.

We media from JJMurtagh5799

We Media and Democracy - Abbie

What have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content’.

When speaking about my own media consumption, I never really read or watched the news. The only times I would ever read the news would be when something popped up on Facebook when scrolling through my news feed. I didn’t really look for news, it rather just came to me. However, in recent years, I have found myself wanting to know more about the world we live in. Over the summer we were set a task in which we had to find out some media stories that were happening in the world, and download the BBC news app. This gave me the opportunity to look at how I get my information about news that is transpiring locally, nationally and worldwide. If I read a headline on Facebook and though it was interesting and was intrigued to read more, I would then read further on the matter. But because Facebook has many links, where some may be biased or lying, I would look either on Google for some news stories or go on my BBC news app to see if they have covered it, which will then tell me if it’s not only true, but also to get a more in depth understanding of the particular news article. However, i don't really find that much news from Facebook, and more likely if watching the news or reading articles on the BBC news app. 



The way I would get my news from would either be the BBC News app, watching TV or mainly through social media. Besides social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, the only news story access I choose to have is with applications would be the BBC news app which I do feel is a trustworthy source and that it brings me the most important updates from around the world. This is the third most-used source out of all news providers which has  "24% of the news market" which is said in a polling conducted for Ofcom’s annual news consumption report. Also my family all tend to watch BBC news when it comes to choosing a source of news. The BBC is an unbiased network as it is paid for by people’s taxes, meaning they have to appeal to all audiences. The BBC website remains the most popular online destination, used by 52% of people who go online. However, The BBC is focused more on entertainment rather than news yet they still attract one out of every 28 people around the world. The main reason that I use this app is because of its accessibility and it is easy of use, I try and check the app at least once a day and have alerts on which give me the most important breaking news that is happening in the world. I think having alerts on was a good idea for me because I like to be updated and being able to know as soon as possible when something has happened. The BBC news app has a wide variety of tabs to choose from if you’re wanting to search for news fast, e.g. ‘Top Stories’, ‘Most Read’ and ‘Most Watched’ etc. Personally, I think the BBC news app is a perfect app to have on everyone’s phone as you are able to adapt the app and create your own tab which is called ‘My News’ which enables you to tailor the app to your own interests. When I first downloaded the app I didn’t take much notice in this feature, but as I got more and more interested within reading news, I chose a few categories that personally, I would like to read about. Some of these topics that I have put on my app would include ‘World’, ‘Brexit’, ‘Entertainment and Arts’ etc.



 The way that I accessed the news I was reading would be through either my phone, computer or by watching TV. An example of a news story that took my attention over the summer would be the recent uprising of Marina Joyce. I learnt about this when scrolling through twitter and seeing the tag #SaveMarinaJoyce spread amongst many different people, even some famous youtubers such as ‘Callux’ were taken aback by this and wrote to Marina, which then gained more popularity due to his fan base concerned on her safety. When Marina then tried to arrange a 6:30am meet up with her fans, some speculated she was involved in a trap set by Isis. Fans began talking about how she appeared frightened and distressed. More than 60 people tweeted that it had caused them to have an anxiety or panic attack. I think that that the fans of Marina Joyce created this tag due to their high concern of Marina’s safety. This just shows how the media can have an effect upon people. The mood was one of hysteria for fans of Marina Joyce. This is therefore an example of ‘we media’ as it shows how the audience are making the news by creating their own hashtag and then it going viral around the world, we can see this when the hashtag #SaveMarinaJoyce became the number one trending topic worldwide. Another example of a news story that I followed just before summer would be the shooting at a nightclub in the city of Fort Myers in Florida. Two people were killed and 16 injured in the shooting and was big across all news. The way that I found out about this attack was also again, through twitter, however on this one, I decided to take matters further and look on my BBC news app, which also alerted me of the attack and gave us updates on what was happening at the given moment. The attack happened at Club Blu, which was hosting a party for teenagers. The club hosted a swimsuit party on Sunday night where no ID was required, according to a flyer. Club Blu said the shooting happened as the party ended and parents arrived to pick up their children.


When researching, I noted the ways in which people got their news with the added fact of how old they are. I found that a lot of teenagers i.e. 17 to 18 year olds, got their news in the same way as I did, through social media. However, when asking people older than me how they got theirs from, they said newspapers etc.  This shows the different audience behaviour on how we get our media as the elderly stick to the more traditional/ old fashioned way, however the younger generation stick to what’s current, which is social media. When looking at the Ofcom report, it states that “Around 44% of people said they got their main sources of news from radio (with the BBC having a 75% share of this) and newspapers, however, again there is a big difference in age groups and a slight difference in gender.” It says that “women more likely to get their news from TV compared to men; men more likely to listen the radio or use an app than women” This shows the difference in age and also gender differences. In lesson, we also conducted a questionnaire in which we went round the class and found out about peoples news consumption. I could see a big difference in age as for example a 17 year old had down in their categories on the BBC news app, entertainment, news and music, comparing that with a 41 year old, the categories consisted of education, family, schools, and Brexit. This therefore shows the difference in what different people choose to put in their categories and what they want to be kept updated on. I also noticed that the older you were, the more you read the news. However, one similarity was that most people, from all age ranges seem to trust the BBC and Channel 4 the most when bringing the news. I think that we increasingly are the curators of our media as I believe that we are creating our own news, the news we want to listen to. The way we are doing this would be through being able to make our own categories on what our preferences are and are reading what we want to read. This would also be an example of media 3.0 as we are able to create our own media.

We Media and Democracy- Lauren

As an individual with ample access to the internet at virtually all times in my day-to-day life, I find it almost difficult to escape the news. With breaking news alerts disrupting radio shows, events being posted about on social media websites by those affected or concerned; and even by simple word of mouth (e.g “Oh my gosh did you hear about Mary Berry leaving Bake Off?”). Without making a point about personal first-hand consumption of the day-to-day news, I feel as though, one way or another, it will find me.

That said however, I do make a point about finding out the news first-hand (not first-hand in the sense that I appear at the scene of recent news events, this must be stipulated), and have a couple of apps downloaded to my phone, with banner alerts notifying me when terrible or less-bad-than-terrible things are happening around the world. The app that notifies me about breaking news alerts is BBC News, I chose this app to be my primary news source as, due to being funded by the Taxpayer, the BBC has a duty to deliver the news in a relatively unbiased manner, meaning that the information I should receive about global events should carry no interpretations or lexis to sway a reader into thinking a certain way about a particular topic.

Whilst I personally am suspicious of hidden agendas even within PBS’ (Public Service Broadcasting Channels), I have a tendency to read a BBC news alert and believe the first pieces of information I read to be true (with exception of the news alert about David Bowie’s death, which had the adverse effect, encouraging denial). Topics such as the current affair with Great British Bake Off’s move to Channel 4, I often hear about through headlines to articles which I don’t read, or through conversations that interested parties have about the matter in the dinner-line: since the topics are of no particular interest to me, I do not research into them as I would do with subjects that I regularly follow within the news.

Recently, I enabled the ‘My News’ section of the BBC News app, which allows you to pick categories of personal interest and filters articles of those categories out of the regular news feed, generating a personal feed. It can be assumed that the idea behind this is to save scrolling through a mass of headlines to find articles that you wish to devote your time to, but there is a danger that, by being curators of our own information, we may become unaware of news that is important to know or could be affecting us without our realising it. It could be argued that there is an element of ignorance in choosing which news topics to dismiss and which to be presented to you, for instance: with the recent EU referendum, I found that those who had no view or were on the fence tended to be quite uninformed (largely through no fault of their own) and those who had a view were strong on their views and weren’t necessarily well-informed about their opposition. Adding personal news into the equation could mean that people’s own views are perpetuated through what they choose to know (notice that I’m using the holistic term ‘know’ to sway the reader to think a certain way about the matter, I’m sorry if I’m annoying you).

BBC News isn’t the only source of information through which I hear first reports of world events. Surprisingly, the social media sites I frequent can often be the first and, on rare occasions, the only way I find out about certain news. By searching keywords into Twitter, I can scroll through the top tweets on my search, which I usually do when tweets about a news event appear on my regular Twitter feed and get my attention. Mostly this year, it’s been news events about American police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement that I’ve read the first information on through Twitter. In events of injustice such as this, I am more inclined to read most about the event through my social media accounts, as I believe conglomerates feel the need to be suitably delicate or evasive about situations concerning high authorities (sometimes though, I just want to be angry about the situation). This could make me an oppositional consumer in this case, meaning I am more likely to reject information that news organisations distribute and trust that @magalufLAD95 is providing me with credible information.

For those who do not seek out the news personally, they could be at an even further disadvantage than those who choose their own news, with little clarity being gained in the passing news they’ll hear on the television in the background, or in the line for a small Pomodoro. It is more often than not that people, especially those who do not actively consume the news, will know little about many current news events rather than a lot about a few. Whether this a positive or a negative effect of the proliferation of news is down to interpretation. In researching the ways in which others consume the news, I found that an overwhelming percentage (I don’t know the percentage) of people mainly get their news from the BBC. Whether it’s the news app, television, or the radio, the BBC are or are among the public’s main source(s) of the news.

In this oligopoly, with 75% of British newspapers being owned by only 3 people: with the BBC owning a 75% share of radio (of which around 44% of people said they got their main source of news from) and being one of the most watched news channels, would it be paranoid to question the authenticity of the news that we receive? To wonder if we ever really receive truly unbiased news? In my research I’ve found that most people viewed The Guardian as a trustworthy source of news, but my research lacks generalisability, as I didn’t survey a panel of representatives for the whole nation, I only questioned those who lived in my area, went to my school, or were my mother. The Guardian is often regarded as a more left-wing paper, and by only interviewing a small number of people from the same area, it’s no surprise that there is not a wide variety of beliefs. 

In conclusion to this rather weak analysis, there is a plethora of ways that members of the public can consume the news, and they aren't necessarily different formats of established news organisations. It could be the comedy panel shows you sit down on Thursday nights to watch, hashtags that you search for when a person has retweeted about that gorilla story, and many other ways. The news is everywhere, which, in a way, is democratic in the sense that everyone is able to gain information and form their own opinions on subjects; but on the other hand, with the incredible amount of power that few people have over our news organisations, it could be that we're one nation under, not a groove, but a set of heavy influences that in time, will come to make a less democratic Britain that we know today.

Cheers for reading, and sorry again.

We Media and Democracy - Amy Heald

What have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content?

Throughout summer I took note of how I found out about news stories and what I then do with this information I find.

A story that I was notified by on my phone via the BBC news app was the devastating earthquake that struck Italy on the 24^th August. When receiving the notification I looked further than the headline as it grabbed my attention, although not always do I do this if something doesn’t interest me. I found out that almost 300 people had died and 4000 people were made homeless after the quake, I believe that these facts and figures I get from BBC news are reliable as the BBC is a very trustworthy source and has a very good reputation; statistics show many other people agree with me as 23% of people view BBC as their most trusted source for news in the UK. The BBC is different from other news sources as is it funded by households across the UK by the annual TV licence and is a PSB which claims to be intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests – further encouraging the trust of consumers. I learnt that my own media use to access news is focused around my phone as I get the majority of my news from the BBC news app, because of technology changes 24% of the news market is owned by this app alone. The app has been very popular, especially for younger people as more young people find it easier to stay in touch with the news through their phone rather than a newspaper or TV – myself included. From a recent survey that I completed with my peers I found that majority of people my age (17-19) use the BBC news app over watching news channels or newspapers, whereas the older generation (28+) tend to still get a lot of news from TV and possibly newspapers.

Another way that I see news articles is from social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. As a person who regularly checks their Facebook feed (at least once a day) I often see news headlines that have popped up on my feed from pages that I have liked or from friends who have shared them. If I see a news article on Facebook or Twitter I am less likely to click onto the article and read it than if I see the article on BBC news. This is because I believe Facebook is a lot less reliable for news as the sites the articles are on may be unknown or just not trustworthy. Many times I find articles on social media sites can be “clickbait” where the headline of the article is very misleading to what the main story is actually about just so the article gains more views equalling more money which I try to avoid . Also, I can tailor my interests on the BBC news app to what I like to see for example some topics I chose were ‘UK’, ‘World’, and ‘Music’ however on Facebook it could be anything rather than things that interest me therefore I am not intrigued to click further than the headline.

Although TV news is very popular within the older generation I believe for younger people such as myself it isn’t taken as well as using your phone is much easier and quicker to access the news you want to see not what the news programme is broadcasting to you. I found that I very rarely watch news on TV such as BBC news, Channel 4 news or ITV news. Despite this, TV news still dominates but is slowly decreasing in the market specifically amongst people ages 16-24.

The media is an ever-changing phenomenon and the way we view news and other content will continue to change over time. Compared to past times the media is now more democratic and allows people to make their own viewpoints a lot easier, for example people can post their own opinions and content on sites such as blog sites, YouTube and even their own websites. Due to this change, the huge media conglomerates (‘Big Media’) aren’t the only source of news available to people this allows consumers to hear different viewpoints and explore a wider range of topics and people. This is the idea of ‘We Media’ created by Dan Gillmor, he believes this makes media a more democratic and representative of people. I somewhat agree with this theory as people creating their own news/ stating their own opinions aren’t restricted by rules and regulations like the BBC are, however in many cases I wouldn’t completely trust sources from people creating their own content over a reliable source such as the BBC.

Some statistics which back up the points that I have been making are, 75% of UK adults say that they get their news from TV, however within these statistics 90% of people over 55 get their news from TV compared to 59% of 16-24 year olds. Another statistic is 19% of 16-24 year olds said they only use the internet and apps for their news whereas only 1% of over 55s only use internet or apps. Also, 59% of people in the UK say they use the BBC news app.

Overall, the media has a very large influence on consumers around the world and the content that we view affects our own personal views. I personally shape some of my views on certain topics around the things I hear from news sources, media sites and friends/family as this is what is around me and what I hear.

We Media and Democracy - Tammy Baldwin

Over the summer I learnt about various news stories from different sources including: the BBC News app, social media and BBC Radio 2. Out of these I believe the BBC to be the most trustworthy source as it is paid for by the tax payers themselves and they expect it to deliver the correct information to the public with an objective view. The main social media I used to gain the news was Twitter. Twitter can be seen as both a trustworthy and untrustworthy source depending on where/who you are getting the information from. For example there is a section called ‘Moments’ which gives the reader updates of the news and what’s happening across various different sections e.g. News, Sports, Entertainment etc. However, it can be argued that some of these sections are untrustworthy, or don’t get the full story as they come from people that aren’t always news corporations or journalists but are just normal people dispersing the news. However, unlike the BBC News app Twitter gives people the chance to respond to these stories with their own views on the subject, therefore gaining a bigger insight and subjective opinions of the issues. On the other hand, if someone was to follow one of the verified BBC News Twitter accounts they would get reliable information as well as seeing other people’s comments and opinions.

The BBC News app allows people to curate their own news consumption by choosing the subjects they wish to read about. For example some of the sections I chose included: animals, Afghanistan, social media and film; because they are the subjects I am interested in. One story I learnt about was the actions that took place in Kabul (capital of Afghanistan). This included kidnappings of US and Australian professors, which are just some of the recent accounts of this common offence in Afghanistan at this time; a university raid that killed thirteen people including seven students; and a charity hit by a bomb and gun attack killing 41 people including an army general and four senior police officers. Although these stories are very serious and tragic I never saw them featured on world news. I think this is because everyone has become accustomed to these attacks in Afghanistan and feel helpless when they see the stories on the news. However, earlier in the year when Paris was attacked it was a massive global news story because other countries that we thought were safe suddenly weren’t, which scared a lot of people. This could show that most people only pay attention to issues that may affect them, making them feel unsafe as the violence has left places like Afghanistan.

However, people don’t prefer to hear bad news which is why there’s something called the ‘art of distraction’, this is where people will immerse themselves in news stories that are more light-hearted. An example of this is TV shows/films and the many people who care what others make of a plot or a change. One story that has dominated the news in the UK is the move of the Great British Bake Off from the BBC to Channel 4. Even though this news story doesn’t seem too important, and won’t matter in the future, people get involved in the drama because it distracts them for the real issues going on in the world. It could also be argued that this is such a big deal because it directly affects the BBC so they will deliver the news that they are able to gain the whole story for, but it may be harder for them to stay unbiased when it affects them, their income, and their viewing numbers.

Due to social media, stories/rumours now days can go viral, which means the whole world will learn about these stories through the use of twitter hashtags, YouTube videos, and Facebook pages. One obvious example of this is the gorilla called Harambe that was killed at a zoo in Cincinnati after a three-year-old boy climbed into its enclosure. This story exploded the media with pictures and videos commemorating Harambe. There was even a video showing the actual footage of the boy being dragged by the gorilla taken on someone’s smart phone which was the footage shown on the news, displaying how democracy in media allows people to share news stories themselves through the use of new technology. However, it can be disputed whether or not these are respectful or not as it is has turned a serious issue into to a joke. This just goes to show how far the media has evolved during the last decade, because if this event happened before these big social media sites it probably wouldn’t have been world-wide news.

It is now easier to get the news from various sources in minutes, sometimes even as they are still happening through the use of things such as live streams. This means that the news therefore spreads easier and faster over the world enabling anyone with the resources to see what’s happening. Sometimes this mass dispersion of media can lead people to get the wrong ideas by just reading the headlines of the articles, or seeing a untrustworthy source post a ‘click-bate’ title that makes the issues seem worse or better than it actually is just to get people to read it. This therefore promotes commotion and confusion between people causing it to go viral, sometimes before actual news corporations can release the true story. One example of this is the #YoutubeIsOverParty that took over Twitter. This issue involved popular people’s videos e.g. Phillip DeFranco, getting demonetised (age-restricted) due to the videos being ‘non-user friendly’, this also meant that these creators don’t get money for the video. This story became so big due to YouTube failing to mention/warn people that they would be starting to get stricter with enforcing their policies that some people didn’t even know excised before this. A lot of the largest youtubers talked about this subject, again making it seem worse than it was, stating that YouTube is going to start deleting people’s channels. This only caused an outbreak over social media from the millions of subscribers exaggerating the issue. YouTube has since remonetised these videos and the hype disappeared. This shows the extent of how fast news can spread and be taken out of context when using things such as social media.

In conclusion, reflecting back on my own news consumption I can see that most of the information I gain is through social media, and I believe that in this society that is the norm. After asking my classmates about their news consumption habits I can see that that a lot of them share my way of receiving information. I think this is due to our similar ages and being in the same generation, taken over by smart phones and social media. However, I also asked some of the older generation e.g. parents. I found out that they hear their news mostly through TV and radio, usually the BBC, this shows the differences between the generations.    

We Media and Democracy- Emily Flaxman

What have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content?

Over the summer holidays I broadened my outlook on current affairs by downloading the BBC news app and paying close attention to news on the TV as well as social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter which provided an insight into the way media in the 21^st century adapts to different audiences. The majority of the time I get news from social media websites such as, twitter, Facebook and Snapchat as these are the sites I spend most time looking at. However, sometimes I don’t feel like these sites are reliable place to get information from as they aren’t always accurate. However, on some occasions I look on the BBC news app as I am sure that this is a reliable place to get information from, this is because it is government funded and has to follow certain guidelines for it to be aired.

Over the past few weeks our homework was to pay close to the BBC news app, I found keeping up with what’s goes on in the world interesting, particularly when its topics I’m interested in. we needed to look for news however, when we saw something we were interested in we were set to note it down and say which platform we got the information from. I then looked over my results and found the main source I got my information from and decided where it was a reliable site. I found that i mostly found my news on social media sites, such as Snapchat, Facebook and twitter as I found that these sites grabbed my attention more than the news shown on the BBC news app or on the TV. This may be due to the fact some of the news shown on social media sites aren’t always accurate and are there for entertainment purposes rather than educating the readers. This may be the reason I go further than the title when reading news on social media. On some occasions when I find news on social media sites I would go onto the news app to see if they were accurate.

 During lesson we had the task to carry out research and find out different ways students in our class find out news. From this research I found that the younger generation ages 17 to 18 are more likely to find information about the world online on sites such as Facebook, twitter, Snapchat and the BBC news app. This is because going on these sites are more convenient and quick as it’s well-known that people of this age are on their phones a lot. However when looking at where older people got there news from, they are less likely to get it from social media sites and apps and find things out via the TV or newspapers. This wasn’t a shock to me as I am familiar with the fact older people aren’t as confident with social media sites and the internet.  I am 17 and the main source I get news from is via social media. This is because I am on it a lot and if something catches my eye I will read further, I see news stories on site such as snapchat. This is because on this I am subscribed to categories which I’m interested in meaning I’m more likely to read further because the stories are things I’m interested in. this is similar to the BBC news app which I have, as I have noted which stories I’m interested in once again I get a notification when new stories come in which I’m interested in. however when reading stories on the BBC news app I am sure that the are genuine other than when reading on social media I’m not always convinced that there true.

One piece of news which took my interest in the past few weeks was about an earth quake in Italy. I received a notification from the app and read further as it caught my eye, the title that caught my eye was ‘Italy earthquake toll rises to 297 after two die of injuries’. From reading more I found that over 4000 people had died from the earthquake. After reading I didn’t question if the information is true, as I know for a fact that it is. As BBC news is different to other news sources as is it funded by households across the UK by the annual TV licence. And all news broadcasted by them isn’t abbreviated in order to grab attention.

'We Media And Democracy' - Phoebe

'We Media and Democracy ' 

Over the course of the summer term six weeks, and the starting weeks into the new school term I have learnt a lot about my own media use and how I access media myself, for example the news. The media has a great impact on people and also influences the society. I feel the media is our main source of gathering information for this generation. While examining my research I learnt a lot about myself and how I gather information in my day to day life.  

   What have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content? 

I learned that I access the news through Facebook, Twitter and the Radio. This is because when I check my social media a lot, from when I wake up to when I go to sleep. The social media society, embraces controversy and shares the news of the world. Things are shared on Facebook/Twitter and then you have the opportunity  to click and open the link to the news page or scroll past it. I normally scroll past most headlines as if I am not drawn in then I wont open the link, as I don’t check the news and am not aware of what's going on in the world as I probably should be. I think this is down to me having a busy life style and not having much free time. I don't think social media links are always reliable as some news can be manipulated to sound more interesting and to engage the audience. Alongside social media I gather information from the radio as I listen to the music on the stations while in the car and sometimes when I'm at home doing some work or cleaning etc. Although I don’t opt to listen to the news on the radio, in the intervals of the music, the latest news is broadcasted. Another way I gather news without searching or opting to myself, is when i am watching T.V at night before i go to sleep. Quick programs such as 'The News At Ten' will come on and I will watch these as I am waiting for the channels next program to come on. I don't fully pay attention to the news as i would be on my phone or doing other stuff. My last way of gathering the media is from other people, just by socializing in the common room and talking to people. 

I recently downloaded the BBC news app on my phone and had to record down how I used it. The categories I chose was Uk,Entertainment & Arts,Music and Food. There is a difference between female and males categories and interests. For example I asked 4 males what categories they chose. They ranged from sports, human rights, education, Brexit, US election, football, Syrian war. As you can see the differences between the categories are vast.  

I feel that boys take more interest in the news than girls(according to my research). Girls seem to look at categories more personal to them, as girls are more materialistic. We tend to look at celebrities lives and take less interest in our own and what's affecting the world we live in.Compared to boys that chose stuff more around the world. I'm unsure of why this is. One of my theories for this is, that girls don't like to see all the horrible things that happen around the world as it can be upsetting. However I do take interest in stuff such as 9/11 as on the anniversary I googled to find out more about the tragic incident.

I found the article on 'The falling man'. It was all based around a photo a local photographer took, not realizing how popular the photo would get and how many times it would be used on media. The photo is seen as disturbing for some people. This was one of the first times I went out myself to find the information online. 

It seems as people only check the news when something tragic event has happened or a celebrity has died. 

For example when I was abroad I still found out that, Gene Wilder, ‘Willy Wonka’ had died at the age of 83. Despite me being miles away sat on a balcony in the sun. This shows that the media has a positive impact as everyone around the world can access the same news no matter where they are. This makes information able to spread fast. The reason I know about this is because I had interest in the film and the character of Willy Wonka and many people my age wrote/shared the information on Facebook.  

I think that people are selective with what they choose to hear about and find out. Which has positives and negatives as sometimes its crucial that we are educated with what's happening around the world for our own safety and well being. On the other hand people who don’t want to see all of the terrible terrorism around the world as it upsets some people.