Friday 4 December 2015

Learner Response

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

Re-write your introduction working on answering the question from both sides and clearly introducing your News case study. Then, write a new paragraph answering the question clearly with regards to the decline in the newspaper industry.


Introduction:
Many would agree that advances in technology allow audiences to feel empowered, especially in an era known as the “information revolution” whereby audiences have strong opinions of news and can express that freely on social media sites. The decline in newspapers means the new and digital media for news is used more efficiently from smartphones because of the quick and easy access, ultimately this allows audiences to feel empowered as they can publish a discussion on news at any point in time. The theories of Marxism and Pluralism are vital in differentiating how exactly powerful audiences are with the audiences in new and digital media, as it demonstrates a clear contrast in power between the elite and how society influences the media through freedom of speech.

The newspaper industry has shown a sufficient decline, as statistics show how The Sun went from generating 2.2 million copies a day to now 1.8 million. The explanation for this decline is simply because newspapers publish articles online, considering the fact most people have access to the internet from their phones  making it quicker and easier to access news online rather than going out to a shop to buy a paper copy. Furthermore, this emphasises how audiences are more empowered by technology as they have no limitations of access to gaining news online and ultimately save money. In the most recent years, Rupert Murdoch decided to put a paywall up for The Sun Online, the number of visitors to thesun.co.uk fell 61.4 per cent from 37.3 million in July – the last month before the paywall went up – to 14.4 million in August. Ultimately, it’s evident that users went to competitors such as the Mail Online to gain news, which helps the competing newspapers have a sense of empowerment to a short extent. Although the standard of news may not be of high quality, having news quickly, which links to immediacy (news values) it was attracts audiences. It is prominent that audiences are empowered in terms of consuming news as they can get it for free, which makes established newspapers such as The Sun to lose revenues and customers because putting up a paywall drives people away to free resources which are easily available. 

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