Online news questions

I interviewed ten people from different ages and ethnic origins on their online news comsumption. I found that most people I interviewed got their news from mainstream news sources such as The Times, The Daily Mail newspaper, BBC news on television etc. I found that generally, people working in the city tended to be mostly interested in political, economic and current events in the news and so therefore accessed news through newspapers and television mostly. I found that 18-25 year olds were the most likely to be interested in sport and celebrity news and so were more likely to access news online. Many people said that they found news stories from social networking sites such as Facebook and Hotmail news indirectly as they click on a headline if it interests them. People over the age of 50 were the least likely to use the internet for news and instead preferred newspapers, television and radio. Young people seemed to use niche sources of news the most, as they had various hobbies which they gained news regularly from. For example one 18 year old regularly reads a dancing magazine which includes news stories that would not appear in mainstream news but interests her. I also found that people's occupation influenced how they consumed news. People who worked in an office were much more likely to use the internet to find out current news whereas people who worked for example in the medical profession tended to read newspapers/magazines related to their area of work more.

Wikinomics

Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything is a book published by Don Topscott and Anthony Williams in 2006. It looks at how companies have become successful through mass collaboration and peer production. 

• Peering - Free sharing of files on the Internet
• Free creativity - People can edit and remix files on the Internet. Creative Commons provide licenses which protect intellectual property but allow others to remix material
• Democratised - Free creativity and citizen journalism 
• Thinking globally - Internet creates a public sphere where national and cultural boundaries are reduced
• Perfect storm - Combination of Technology, demographics and economics means it is impossible to resist Web 2.0

Sceptics believe that things aren't changing that quickly and that a lot of the world's population don't have access to broadband so thinking globally is not a reliable term.

Key terms

Citizen journalism - Public 'playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information'

Web 2.0 - Where people can interact with webpages and edit the content such as Facebook and Wikipedia

Pubic Sphere - an area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify social problems and matters of mutual interest

Convergence - Different types of media coming together, e.g. Red button on TV - becomes more like online news where you can access more information

Interactivity - How much the user can engage and control what they watch/receive in the media

Accessibility - How easy it is for the audience to access the media

Comparing news and the internet

News websites mean that people do not have to buy newspapers and can select the news that they want to know about rather than reading a whole newspaper to find an article that interests them. Younger people may be encouraged to find out more news online as they are more likely to use the internet than read newspapers. The content of news websites often differs from that in newspapers as there are links online to related articles and so there is a broader variety of news online from different topics, especially celebrity news. Online news means that people can select what news appeals to them without having to read a whole newspaper to find the news that they want. However, this could also mean that people are restricting the news that they consume as they may be encouraged to read other articles in a newspaper that they would not look for online.

I found a specific article in the Daily Mail newspaper about X Factor and I then went onto the Daily Mail website and typed in X Factor Danyl and the article appeared in a list of X Factor articles. This was a very easy way of accessing and locating a specific article and was easier than reading a whole newspaper to find it.
On the webpage there were many links to various related articles and a hundreds of articles related to X Factor, creating a broader variety of news that is restrcited in just a newspaper. The related articles are either about Danyl or the other contestants in X Factor which would interest people who are reading the article and who would probably want to read related articles. The online article is also an extended version of that in the newspaper accompanied by photographs of the show and information about the other acts and references to other related articles which encourages readers to read read other articles online.


I interviewed 10 people on their news consumption. After interviewing my parents, I found that they found out most of the news from newspapers and on television. My dad, like many other people like him works in the city and reads the free newspaper on the commute to work, saying it was easier to get the news from this than on his phone as internet access on his phone is quite slow and the newspaper is free on the train. I found that most working people read newspapers for news but agree that if finding a specific article or looking for news whilst at work will use online websites as they have broader information on them and make it easier to find specific news.
Of the younger people I interviewed, I found that most of them also read newspapers daily for news as their parents bought them at home. However they were much more likely to use the internet to find out news than older people as they spend more time on the internet. I also found that teenagers appear to be more interested in celebrity, television and sport news, for example my friend Raechelle aged 18 often checks celebrity news online such as X Factor and Big Brother news as there is more of this type of news online than in newspapers. Most of the younger people I interviewed often use news websites when trying to find a certain article or researching in depth for school work rather than buying and reading a whole newspaper.
Most people I interviewed agreed that there was much broader news available online than in newspapers and access to online websites makes it easier to read news online than in newspapers or on television, however it seems that the younger generations are more likely to read news online as they can select what appeals to them.

The History of News

During the 17th century, most news was spread through posters, pamphlets and broadsides - a single sheet of paper printed one on side which continued to co-existed with the first newspapers published weekly in the 17th century. Printing was strictly controlled in Britain and the first newspaper printed in Britain was printed by Joris Veseler in Amsterdam around 1620.
The printing press was first invented in 1440 but spread more rapidly after the civil war. During the civil war, the demand for news rose and the first London Gazette was published in 1665. The first national newspaper published was The Daily Universal Register which later became The Times in 1788. The first publications were in the 16th and 17th century after the development of the printing press and most of the quality broadsheet newspapers around today were founded before 1896 such as The Times, Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Observer. For most of the 19th century, newspapers were targeted at the richer and better educated people until late in the 19th century when most of the population could read and write.


The coronation of George VI was one of the first events to be recorded by the BBC in 1936. By 1948, The BBC was producing its own news footage in the form of live sounds at the scenes of accidents and ceremony's such as Elizabeth II's coronation.
The BBC was the first national broadcasting organisation and its first daily news bulletin was read in 1954. It last 20 minutes and was introduced as an 'Illustrated summary of the news...followed by the latest film of events and happenings at home and abroad'.


A restriction of this first news bulletin was that the news reader could not be seen; it consisted of a series of maps and photographs while the presenters voice could be heard, followed by a film in the second half which was not very 'visually impressive'. Shortly after, newsreaders were shown on camera, however another restriction was that there was no autocue so they had to constantly glance down at their script.
Another problem with news was that each story was only focused on for a minute so that audiences did not get bored, however, there was a lack of depth in every news story.



CNN was one of the first news companies to have their own website, launched in August 1995. BBC News was one of the first in Britain, launching their website in 1997.



Timeline:
1620 - First newspaper in Britain printed in Amsterdam
1665 - London Gazette first published
1788 - First national newspaper published, The Times
1954 - BBC's first daily tv bulletin started
1995 - CNN launched the first news website
1997 - BBC launched their news website

Essay

Do the internet and the world wide web have the potential to be a more idealised version of the Habermas Public sphere?

In 1962, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere J was written by Jurgen Habermas about what he believed was the ‘public sphere’ which had developed in the 18^th century and had turned society from feudal to democracy. Habermas defined the public sphere as the sphere of private people who join together to form a ‘public’ and develop a democracy through opinions in public discussions. Habermas believed that the public sphere developed through men individually reading and obtaining information from books and journals and then coming together as a public in coffee houses to discuss their opinions on what they had read. Decmocracy was established as people could discuss issues as equals and express their opinions on what they had read, rather than passively receiving information.

Today, the internet has developed into a more idealised version of Habermas’ public sphere where people can communicate and express opinions online between different networks of people, for example in chat rooms where people from across the world can come together and discuss issues and share opinions on different events and issues. Internet access is growing rapidly and as more people worldwide have access to the internet, the public sphere is growing as different cultures and types of people can come together and discuss opinions. People using the internet can talk as equals, just as the original public sphere had developed and are even less likely to be judged on appearance online as they would have been when talking face to face.

People in a public sphere need prior knowledge of the point of discussion and through the development of Web 2.0, users can now edit the content of webpages, adding their own knowledge and sharing files online. For example, Wikpedia allows people to access information on almost all subjects online rather than getting information from books and journals. Websites such as Wikipedia also allow users to edit the content of pages to add their own knowledge which creates a large bank of knowledge from a variety of different people. However, this could be influenced by opinion and therefore may mean that information online is not particularly reliable, resulting in a less effective public sphere if people are misinformed.

Web 2.0 has allowed the internet to develop into a more idealised version of the public sphere, especially through social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Social networking sites allow users to create their own profiles in which they can edit the information about themselves, join networks of friends, upload and share photos and videos and update their status to let friends know what they have been doing. These websites allows instant updates to be sent to friends, without having to meet face to face and information can be sent almost instantly through instant messaging services due to increasing internet connection speed, meaning that the public sphere is becoming more and more effective through the internet. Google documents is another example of how Web 2.0 can help to develop the online public sphere through the internet as it allows people to collaborate and come together to work on a document, posting it online so others can then work on it on another computer. These examples of Web 2.0 allow people the freedom and equality to change the information they receive online, and allows them to discuss and share opinions, suggesting that it is becoming a more idealised version of Habermas’ public sphere.

On the other hand, access to the internet is still limited to those who can afford it and those of particular ages, as older people tend not to use the internet as a public sphere as much as younger people, who particularly use Web 2.0 and social networking sites.  Therefore the online public sphere may not have the potential to become a more idealised version of the original idea of the public sphere as it restricts the number and variety of people who can use the internet, therefore restricting the effectiveness of the public sphere.

The information that people receive online may often be unreliable as it is controlled or censored by certain companies or individuals who may portray a biased account in favour of what they believe. If a certain company or if a government body monitored internet chat rooms, people may limit what they post online and may not feel as though they have freedom of speech as they would when speaking in person which would prevent the internet from becoming a more idealised version of the public sphere. As internet users can also edit the content of webpages such as Wikipedia, they may write a biased account or opinion onto the webpages which can misinform other people who look to it as a reliable source of information. This can effect the public sphere as people may have misinformed discussion online, preventing it from being a public sphere. As the internet is very influential, people may be misinformed by information they receive online and therefore will undermine the idea of democracy promoted by the public sphere.

The internet is constantly developing and improving and it does have the potential to become a more idealised version of Habermas’ public sphere if it develops so that more people of different ages have access to the internet and use it as a public sphere. However, it also has many problems such as unreliable sources and content of websites which could challenge the ideas of democracy behind the public sphere.

Public sphere

Habermas was born in 1929. He believed that the public sphere developed in the 18th century. The public sphere was when people would read books etc at home and come together in public to discuss ideas and share opinions as equals which transformed society to democracy as people could express their opinions. This relates to web 2.0 as people can now edit information online and influence it with their own opinions, for example in forums, social networking sites and wikipedia.

Social Networking Sites

An example of Web 2.0 is social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Myspace where users can interact with others and create their own profile pages. Social networking sites build online communities where people can share information and communicate with friends. Facebook is one of the most widely used social networking sites with around 250 million users worldwide and claims to ‘help you connect and share with the people in your life’. Facebook allows users to add and message friends, update their status to notify friends as to what they are doing and upload photos and videos to share with friends.
Facebook was founded by a group of students at Harvard University in 2004 initially for Harvard university students to get to know each other better but was expanded to other colleges such as Stanford and Yale University and due to its fast expansion, was later expanded all high school and university students and in 2006 was opened worldwide to anyone over 13.
Facebook is an example of Web 2.0 as it allows users to create and edit the content of the webpage as users have their own profile in which they can customise. Facebook, like Twitter is an interactive website which allows the user to update their status to inform their friends of their whereabouts, what they are doing or thinking and upload photos of recent events on which friends can leave comments about and tag themselves in photos. This allows users to edit the information seen by other users and allows people to join online communities where they have control over the online data, rather than non interactive websites where users can only view the information provided.
The majority of facebook users are between 18 and 25, however facebook is seeing a growth in users aged between 35-44. This has grown due to the ease of finding and keeping in touch with people on networks such as old school and university friends. Young people have grown up in the online age and most college students register to facebook to keep in touch with friends and keep updated on events.

Web 2.0

Today we learned about Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is where people can interact with the webpage and change the content. Examples of Web 2.0 are social networking sites such as Facebook where people can contact friends and family online and share photos with friends.  Google Documents mean that people can collaborate to work on a document rather than in Microsoft Word for example. Wikipedia allows people to view and edit the content on topics. Online shopping websites such as Amazon, Play.com and Ebay allow people to leave feedback about items they have bought for other people to view before buying. Youtube allows people to share home videos and comment on other videos, and artists can release music to large audiences.