'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.