Weekly story

BBC2 controller steps down

BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow has to step down the role after more than five years to take up a new job as controller. She is also the controller of BBC4 said it had been an "amazing privilege" to run BBC2 which she said she had "loved ever since I was old enough to appreciate great programmes." She is leaving on the channels 50th birthday, on 20 April this year. She become in charge for the BBC4 last year. In her new job she will "develop and originate high-impact, cross-platform series, seasons and other major television events." She will also "advise Danny Cohen and the channel controllers on broadcast strategy."The BBC's director of television, Danny Cohen, said Hadlow had been an "extraordinarily successful controller of BBC2. In a time of digital change, she has both creatively enriched BBC2 and ensured it remains a competitive force to be reckoned with".

My view: I personally think this could seriously affect the BBC as they are loosing a controller, who was in charge of two things in the company. This could seriosuly affect the company in many different ways as she was an star for them. The channel might not be controlled the same way as she use to control it. This could result to having unorgainsed staff and unorgained channel. This will then affect the BBC as one of there channels is nopt performing well and is loosing viewers, which means the company will be loosing its audience.

Weekly story

Parents unaware of dangers faced by children on smartphones

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26121434

Many parents are out of touch with the dangers faced by their children on tablets and smartphones.

One in five children said they had seen something on their devices that had upset them. A study found that just over 20% of parents do not monitor what their children are doing online. The rest of the parents said that they have spoken to their children about staying safe onlin when using a tablet or a smartphone. The parents said that they are happy to let their children use the internet unsupervised. The study found out that teenagers aged 12-15 do get bullied on the internet as they are the young age and people think they can say whatever they like to them. Before there wasn't as much of the danger when people use to use PC's but now that people have communicating in a much intractive way, the danger has increased. Apple's iPhone and iPad have restrictions, or parental controls, that can be set using a passcode.Access to certain apps or websites can be blocked completely or restricted to age appropriate content.Restricted profile accounts can also be set up on Android smartphones and tablets.

My view:

I think that the parents should not let go out their children, they should keep up to date with what their chilldren are using on the internet with their phones and tablets. I think parents need to be more aware of the dangers and risks to their children which is why they should be in control of what they use and what not they use. I think if parents don't take the responsibility and let their children do whatever they like then there children could face so many problems which their parents will hardly know about. Parents need to show their power and control what their children use on the internet. They should manage the apps and websites their children use because at the end of the day they are the parents and they have to take full responsibilty of their children. 

Weekly story

JK Rowling sues Daily Mail for libel over 'single mother' article

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/31/jkrowling-dailymail

The Daily Mail had to take down one of their from its website about the author JK Rowling because she sued the paper for libel, she says that they were publishing false statements about her. She claims that the online article was talking about her when she was a single mother and how it upset other people. She says that the paper has injured her reputation and caused her great distress and embarrassment. They filed out some documents at the High court in which her lawyer argues that the article was published across two pages of the paper in September last year and it suggested Rowling had given "a knowingly false account of her time as a single mother in Edinburgh." She believes the Mail story was "premised on a false picture" of her own article published 10 days before on the website for the single parents'

My view: I think what she did was really right, one one has any right to publish a false statement about someone in Britain. I personally think she did a very good job by raising her voice and fighting for the right. If she did not take any action against the Daily Mail then tomorrow they would have done more wrong things. By raising her voice, i think Rowling did a very good job because everyone knows how the Dialy Mail are, they hate everyone, which is why i think she did a very good job by taking this matter to court. This made them take off the story off their paper, which shows they got thretened. If she didnt say anything against them then they would have took this chance as a opportunity and they would have published false statements about others.

Weekly story

BT's push into football and fibre broadband drives up revenues

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/31/bt-sport-football-fibre-broadband-revenues-profits 

The push which BT made into football and their fibre broadband helped them to increase 2% in their revenue across the company. They claim that with BT sports they have attracted another half a million extra customers. BT's group pre-tax profits grew 8% to £722m in the three months to the end of 2013. They did not do as well in the retail division which includes their broadband, phone services and BT sports to UK homes. Retail revenues were higher than the City had expected at £1.85bn, up 4% in the three months to 31 December compared with the same period last year.The drop in retail earnings was offset by a 22% rise at the global services division, which won a new international contract with Tesco."Our strategic investments are delivering," said BT chief executive Gavin Patterson. "It was another record quarter for fibre take-up and there are now more than 18m premises with access to our fibre. Fibre helps SMEs to compete and underpins our TV plans."

My view: I personally believe that the new company is doing really well, as they have justed reciently opened BT sports. This shows how Sports means a lot to the people in Britain, which is why we can see a high number of new customers joining BT. Bt will have to some how come up with new offers with their phone, as they can see a decrease in the sales of phone services. it shows how hard the company worked together which is why it has made them so successful. If they did not make the push in their Sports and fibre broadband then they wouldn't have rised the revenue for the company.

Feedback from essay

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

Learner response: 28/48 Level 3 

WWW- Well structure with a good sense of Marxism

EBI- More on the other side of the question needed. Add a paragraph on pluralism and develop the paragraph on the Arab Spring. 

A pluralist would argue that the audience has got so much power of the internet. They would argue that the internet runs because of UGC (user generated content). This means that ordinary people will be running the internet on a day to day basis. They have the power to do whatever they want on the internet, they could be a completly random person and they can do whatever they want. They would believe that the internet has given that power to the audience, it allows ordinary people to post up whatever they like on the internet and whenever they like, which then could be seen around the world by anyone. This is how advance new and digital media is gone, people can communicate in seconds through the internet. The new technology has made ordinary people into citizen journalists who publish important things like news on the internet for free. People these days do not need to rely on people giving them the news, as people can now get up to dated news of every minute. This is because the people everywhere around the world using the internet, the internet allows them to such things. It allows them to post, publish, comment on anything they like, as no one can stop them.

One of the biggest examples for a pluralist prospective would be the Arab Spring, the internet is the aspect which gave Egypt, Tunisia and Libya censorship, democracy and freedom. If it was not because of the internet, they government in them three states will be still ruling on its people. The citizens of them three states will be still get told what to do everyday by their government, they wouldn't have has any freedom. Mohamed Buazizi was the guy which they Arab Spring started off. He burnt himself outside the town hall in Tunisia because no one was listening to him. The police refused to write a report about what happened to him. So he burnt himself outside the town hall, no media, no press came to record what has happening to him, what he was doing. The incident was not on TV, but ordinary people of the society become citizen journalists and recorded what was happening. They made videos viral about what was happening, they posted it up everywhere by use of internet. This is how the internet allowed people in them three states to communicate with eachother and for them to fight for their freedom. The internet allowed them to raise their voice and get some freedom for themselves, so that no one was in charge of them and no one was ruling them.