Media Magazine Conference

Bill Thompson - 'What has the internet done for me?'

• 1983/84 was the initial outbreak of the internet (in simple form) 

- Thompson's Internet 'positives':

• "The internet is interchangeable"
• "The internet is open to innovation and creativity"
• It can be a "dangerous place if you want to speak freely or bad about the government"
• It is a good "tool for citizenship" and "valuable for free speech but not too safe"
• It allows you "to engage with other people when they are not there" and is "a good place for engagement"
• "The network is a great place for creative expression

- Thompson's Internet 'negatives': 

• Bullying, Abuse, Extremism, Unwanted porn, Child Abuse, Fraud, Scams and Conspiracy theories 
• "Context Collapse" - main danger, where something is open to the world for everybody to see and can be taken out of the manner it was initially said in.

- Thompson's Additional Opinions:

• "The internet is designed to be hard to control" 
• People tend to "care about what people think about them online" - new digital status
• "The Dark Net" - "good place to keep journalism", "layer on top of the internet to value"

Natalie Fenton - 'Media Power and Life after Leveson' 

• "Has concerns about democracy in the UK"
• "Leaders are friends with the media, which distorts democracy"
• "A healthy media is ideal - plurality, makes our own choices"
• News media is becoming more advertising based which is where most of the money is coming in from
• "In the last 3 decades we have seen an explosion of news through TV and new and digital media, but the small business model [news] is struggling to keep up"
• "Some journalists are paid by click" - showing that institutions are starting to rely on audiences."
• "The internet gives power to 'prosumers' - people who can' create their own messages and define the world in the way they want, which leads to a new meaning of politics."
• "Corruption of Power" (Fenton describing Hackgate)
• 'Monstering' - targetting people who are weird and then associating 'bad news' with them, e.g. Chris Jeffries, innocent but targeted by news organisations (front cover shots) because of his appearance and sexuality, for the murder of a young girl - "they do it for sales"
• "Rupert Murdoch Clan" - they attend each other's "pyjama parties and events" (relationship between politics and the media 
• "Murdoch Empire" - no political party has won without the help of Murdoch
• 3 Companies control 75% of the news sales
• Stuart Hall: Role of Media in circulating 'common sense'
• "Those who have power, use it in particular ways" 
• "Look at the absence in the media - what is missing" - this is important
• "Discourse and dominant narratives: racism, immigrants - half untrue in the media" 
• "Surveillance limits freedom" 

Owen Jones 

• "The UK is one of the richest countries to have existed, yet one million in the populace are suffering" 
• "It's unfair and injustice, that so much wealth is created but kept for the elite" 
• Jones believes that the government are making it harder for young people
• "All injustice is created by people" 
• "Injustice is temporary and can be changed" 
• "We stand on the shoulders of giants"
• "There is a problem with the media, the press is run by rich media moguls" 
• "You're discriminated based upon the job of your parents" 
• "Same background journalists impact the news reported and how are they mean't to understand" news related to other ethnic/social groups
• "Media is reported by a niche group thus the reporting isn't diverse"
• Jones encourages the use of social media to express views and speak about experiences
• "The government were taking drugs" - yet a black man is 7 times more likely to be charged if found with drugs than a white man, "which isn't fair".