Monday 7 January 2013

Learner Response

Your introduction doesn't really lay out your case study, and an answer to the question. re-write it.

      

Thursday 6 December 2012



The Prime Minister announced a two-part inquiry investigating the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal, on 13 July 2011.
Lord Justice Leveson was appointed as Chairman of the Inquiry.  The first part will examine the culture, practices and ethics of the media. In particular, Lord Justice Leveson will examine the relationship of the press with the public, police and politicians.  He is assisted by a panel of six independent assessors with expertise in key issues being considered by the Inquiry.
The Inquiry has been established under the Inquiries Act 2005 and has the power to summon witnesses.  It is expected that a range of witnesses, including newspaper reporters, management, proprietors, police officers and politicians of all parties will give evidence under oath and in public.
It will make recommendations on the future of press regulation and governance consistent with maintaining freedom of the press and ensuring the highest ethical and professional standards.
Lord Justice Leveson opened the hearings on 14 November 2011, saying: “The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the heart of this Inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who guards the guardians?”
The ultimate aim is to create an independent regulator with the power to fine up to £1 million, whilst operating a low-cost tribunal system that that will handle the ‘libel and privacy claims’. The 7 recommendations that editors failed to sign up consisted of the Ofcom or any other regulator ‘agreeing to wait to see what non-statutory proposals Downing Street would have to offer’. The chairman (Lord Hunt) of the Press complaints commission will be continuing to to work at setting up this new regulator.

The Editors at the meeting also agreed to wait for Oliver Letwin and David Cameron’s policy fixer to come back with a proposal. On how to toughen up and support the planned new regulator. Whilst, it is still unclear whether newspapers ‘deemed the Letwin plan to be uneffective.

Monday 5 November 2012

To what extent do you agree with Judith Butler's theory that gender roles are socially constructed? Use examples from the media in your response.

In today's society we highly influenced by our surroundings, media and role models. This falls nicely into the subject on feminism, raising a number of questions with the topic. The main one i am looking at is Judith Butler's theory that gender representation is socially constructed?

Judith Butler a believer in the idea of post feminism disagree's in the way traditional feminism was handled. She believes that the separation is not biologically  other than the clear differentiation of giving birth, but the idea that gender representation is a 'performance.' This means that we are told to behave a certain way due to our gender by the way society pressures us into it. This is something i agree with.

Simple things from such an early age such as what colour baby grow your child wears, or further years down the line to what toy your child is told to play with. I agree with Butler's theory as society takes such a horror and mellow dramatic reaction to a 6 year old girl walking into supermarket giant 'Morrisions' and picking up a action man in the blue boys toys section. The supermarket was earlier last month criticised for sectioning their toys into blue boy toys and pink girl toys. This re-enforces the idea that gender representation is in fact a performance The media plays such a big part in this idea that gender representation is a performance also.

It seems like a ridiculous gesture but even featuring a boy in a Barbie doll advert is totally obscure, however this shouldn't be the case. A 2011 poll showed 79% of all TV adverts have some form of fixed gender representation. This could be anything up to stereotypical L'oreal adverts to cleaning products. You then have role models in media promoting certain products in a certain gender stereotypical way, influencing young children and possibly go as far as to use the hypodermic theory in this sense.

However an argument against Butler is that the separation between the two gender's is that women cannot be offered the top job's because they have the ability to become pregnant  They lust for a family a high earning job and being the breadwinners, maybe this is a fantasy? And this is where Judith Butler is challenged in her theory. There are attempts to salvage this public issue with shops like Marks & Spencers as they have chosen to get ride of boys and girls toys and have a clear section named unisex toys and a number of other shops have followed this also. But the question still remains is it Butler's theory correct?

In conclusion i believe that Butler's theory is spot on. We live in a society where the media is probably the most influential thing in the world and the most powerful. Bold statement? yes but people who don't know or understand certain things will, especially children, will see how people on television react to it. How does a 5 year old boy know that the 'male is expected to propose' to the female, through media. And i think we do underestimate the power of the media and Judith Butler's idea of performance is something i agree with.

Friday 19 October 2012

Apple iPad Mini 'to go on sale on November 2'

The rumours of a new ipad being released have been put to rest as the announcement of the Ipad Mini has been set. Apple are set to release the new product on the 2nd of november.

To the dissapointment of Apple fans as they were expecting a new Ipad itself however the company insist upon the 'amazing' new features with the slogan "we've got a little more to show you."
















This has prompted speculation about when the iPad Mini - rumoured to have a 7.8-inch screen compared with the 9.7-inch iPad display - would go on sale.

The iPad Mini, however, would instead compete in the growing market for cheap, small-screen tablets; taking on the already-established seven-inch slates from Amazon and Google, the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 respectively.

Thursday 11 October 2012

Google vs Apple?

Eric Schmidt has opened up about the bitter rivalry between Apple's iOS and the Android operating system.
The internet giant's executive chairman referred to the battle between the two platforms as the technology industry's "defining fight" and expressed an affinity for both sides.

He went on to say that he has seen figures indicating that four Android handsets are sold to every iPhone, and predicted that the Google OS will be found on more than 1 billion handsets within a year. He then claimed that the google mobile was on the uprise and then said a typical worker could live most of their life off the mobile phone.

 Bold statement by the man looking to lure customers away from Apple to Google. With the release of the new iphone 5, Apple have not helped their cause by having many malfunctions with the new software update and criticised for not having enough new features on the new and highly anticipated phone. 

iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy SIII
Apple and Google are reported to have attended high-level peace talks recently in an effort to end the ongoing patent disputes plaguing the tech industry. 

Tuesday 25 September 2012

                                       FACEBOOK


who owns it?

Facebook is owned by the 28 year old Mark Zuckerberg, the worlds 2nd youngest billionaire worth just under 17.5 billion dollars. He launched Facebook of February the 4th 2004 from his Harvard dorm room now used by over 955 million people world wide.

Other Traditional Companies?

Facebook of course being a social networking site doesn't really own other companies however the current on the rise social networking site 'Instagram' officially was taken over by Facebook on September 6th 2012 for 1 billion dollars cash and is now apart of the Facebook company.

Revenue & overall worth?

Facebooks revenue currently stands at 3.71 billion dollars. The overall worth of Facebook also currently stands at juat over 100 billion dollars.

Facts and figures?

1) Current country most active on Facebook is USA with 155.6 Million users
2) It is the number one most used social networking site in every country other than six
3) It has an average of 526 million users every day.
4) Facebook market value of 104 billion dollars has vowed to take over Google's 203 billion and the leader Apple's 495 billion dollars
5) 

Inforgraphic?


Quotes?

I just think people have a lot of fiction. But, you know, I mean, the real story of Facebook is just that we've worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.


I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed. 


The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?' 
Mark Zuckerberg 




Friday 21 September 2012

TOP TEN MEDIA COMPANIES


10) Viacom-
Closing price 7/21/11: $57.40

9) CBS-
Closing price 8/3/11: $26.70

8) Time Warner-
Closing price 7/21/11: $36.32

7) Google-
Closing price 7/21/11: $606.99

6) News Corp-
Closing price 7/21/11: $16.48

5) Amazon-
Closing price 7/21/11: $213.21

4) Walt Disney- Closing price 7/21/11: $40.74

3) Microsoft-
Closing price 7/21/11: $27.095

2) Apple-
Closing price 7/21/11: $387.29

1) General Electric-