NDM

Our online efforts to boost local democracy

There is no easily accessible online information about local elections, candidates and subsequent results, leaving many voters in the dark when it comes to who they are electing locally and the political makeup of their councils. We believe that voters should have as much information, as transparently as possible, to help them make these decisions and understand their potential consequences. That’s when democracy works best.

Local democracy is at its strongest when people have all the information they need about who makes decisions in their area. Right now, that information is simply not good enough. We urgently need to improve it.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/25/our-online-efforts-to-boost-local-democracy

Media Monkey: Martin Sorrell, Rupert Murdoch and Jeremy Irons

According to the “Rules of Engagement” small print at the back, “we exclude Rupert Murdoch”, the chairman of the paper’s parent company, “as he is a US citizen and based in America”, although these rules also state that even foreigners who merely possess “strong links to Britain” are included. Turn to the top of the chart and you oddly find at No 3 music-to-metals magnate Len Blavatnik, likewise a “US citizen”, likewise an owner of luxury residences in New York and London, and someone – like other non-Brits on the list – with less strong links to Britain than the ultimate owner of three of its national newspapers and Sky. Among those also deemed eligible, with real or theoretical residence abroad evidently not disqualifying them, are the Monaco-based Barclay brothers at No 12 and Viscount Rothermere (who reportedly has non-dom status) at a surely disappointing No 117. Richard Desmond, a rare instance of a British and British-based press baron, comes between them in 48th spot, his £2.25bn estimated fortune more than twice Rothermere’s £1bn.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2016/may/01/martin-sorrell-rupert-murdoch-jeremy-irons

NDM

NUJ accuses Vice UK of 'old-fashioned union-busting ruse'

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/27/nuj-vice-uk-old-fashioned-union-busting-ruse

Vice had offered to set up an internal committee rather than recognise a union for its staff members. “Rejecting calls for union recognition from their own journalists and then trying to fob them off with a Rupert Murdoch-style staff association is a pretty old-fashioned union-busting ruse that misses the point,” said Stanistreet in a statement. “It’s a shame that the company has proven so resistant to listening to its own staff and facilitating what they want: a collective voice at work.”

Is mainstream media being led astray by social media? I don't think so

Roy Greenslade

But he did make make much of an alleged “drift to desensitisation, coarseness even, as the boundaries between conventional media and ‘social’ media break down”. Note those redundant apostrophes, with more to come. He wrote:

“It was shocking to hear [at the women in media event] speaker after speaker describe the offensiveness and abusiveness they encounter on social media and the sense of helplessness at being unable to prevent it or respond effectively.

At the same time, it was striking to hear so much emphasis from editors and journalists working in social media on the speed of their responsiveness as well as the volumes of ‘hits’ and ‘impressions’ they rack up, but with little focus on the value or the importance of what is being said.

News is increasingly about the instant and the urgent, and not so much about the important or the enduring.

In this climate it is inevitable there will be poor judgment calls, with perhaps unintended hurt and sometimes unfair characterisation of people and organisations that come into the news agenda.

And it is not possible to ring-fence these new media in such a way that they don’t influence more traditional media. All, from newspapers to radio programmes to television stations, are finding themselves caught up in the whirlwind that demands instant reaction, allowing virtually no time for reflection or application of critical judgment...

The internet and social media cannot be uninvented. However, if journalists and programme-makers allow the urgent and the trivial to drive out the important, and if they frequently sacrifice judgment to speed, there will be a breakdown in trust and respect for the media.”

I would guess that some critics of the mainstream press would counter that its questionable ethics - including plenty of “instant reaction”, a failure to apply “critical judgment” and the “unfair characterisation of people” - existed well before the arrival of the internet.

Misbehaviour by newspapers in particular has a long history and all of the sins he visits on social media have featured in countless analyses of ink-on-paper editorial output.

So he may be wide of the mark by blaming digital technology for journalistic misdemeanours. It is pushing it to suggest that mainstream media is being led astray by social media.

That said, he surely has a point about the need for newspapers and TV newsrooms to resist the temptation to react too hastily to online postings.

More importantly, it cannot be denied that Brady is right to point the “offensiveness and abusiveness” encountered by women. That was a major finding of the Guardian’s recent series about online harassment.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/apr/25/is-mainstream-media-being-led-astray-by-social-media-i-dont-think-so

NDM

Corbyn: Labour must use social media to fight rightwing press attacks

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/03/corbyn-labour-must-use-social-media-to-fight-rightwing-press-attacks

''It is a way of reaching past the censorship of the rightwing media in this country that has so constrained political debate for so long.'' CORBYN 

“And so we begin to reframe political debate. I’ll tell you this: some of the more traditional media in this country find it very hard to understand, when they frame all political debate around rumours that abound in the Palace of Westminster and the discussion that takes place between journalists who have very much the same ideas, same outlook, same backgrounds and same attitudes towards society. We are doing things very differently.”

SoundCloud to introduce advertising and subscriptions in UK

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/03/soundcloud-to-introduce-advertising-and-subscriptions-in-uk

SoundCloud, which with 175 million users claims to be the second biggest streaming service in the world behind YouTube, will launch a range of advertising to its service.

This will include audio ads, promoted tracks, creator partnerships as well as a deal with Global Radio, the UK’s biggest commercial radio group, for its DAX audio exchange to sell ads across the SoundCloud service.

SoundCloud, which introduced advertising to US users in 2014, will handle native advertising partnerships in-house.

The SoundCloud Go subscription service, which was launched in the US earlier this year, will allow users to opt out of receiving ads, as well as accessing an expanded catalogue of music, offline listening and other features.

''Subscriptions put SoundCloud in competition with the paid-for services offered by Spotify, which has 30 million paying subscribers, and Apple Music’s 11 million-plus.''