Music Industry - Piracy

Britons 'downloaded 1.2bn illegal tracks this year'
Online piracy is still growing, says latest BPI research
Read full article here.

Film Industry - Reality sucks in the multiplex

Reality sucks in the multiplex
Parallel universes, dream worlds, virtual paradises – movies today are full of them. Mark Zuckerberg, it's your fault

Read full article here.

BUG is on YouTube with a brand new channel. New shows in the new year...

If you haven't attaended any of the BUG shows hosted by Adam Buxton, you can now watch their BUG YouTube channel.

The show is about showing and discussing music videos and chatting with music video directors.

Illegal downloading cost UK music industry nearly £1bn this year

Illegal downloading cost UK music industry nearly £1bn this yearOnline piracy is still growing, says latest BPI research

Read the whole story here.

Audiences and moral panics... Simon Cowell as the evil one...

In the light of our discussion on audiences and those who argue that they are passive, weak and duped, it is easy to see how moral panics can be created. Believing in a susceptible audience being 'injected' implies that the audience is constantly in danger of being 'contaminated'. Therefore, juicy moral panics are created by the media such as this one:

Save our kids from The X Factor!
Phil Hilton worries that 'twisted' TV talent shows like The X Factor teach children to expect easy success, to cry at setbacks and to judge other people harshly. Is he right?

Of course, you might agree with the point made in this article but many will counter argue that this is just an over-reaction. Audiences are not THAT passive and are more discerning than what is being suggested. (Note the amount of emotive language in the article!)

What do you think?

One to follow for A2 students - Untangling the web with Aleks Krotoski

This is really interesting stuff to find out about We Media and Media in the Online Age.
Untangling the web with Aleks Krotoski

About this series:
How has the most revolutionary innovation of our time - the internet - transformed our world? What does it mean for the modern family? How has it changed our concepts of privacy? Of celebrity? Of love, sex and hate?

Recent topics:
Hate and the internet
Does the internet encourage insidious and bullying behaviour? Aleks Krotoski investigates

The internet's cyber radicals: heroes of the web changing the world.
A generation of political activists have been transformed by new tools developed on the internet. Here, a leading net commentator profiles seven young radicals from around the world

Media and Democracy - WikiLeaks backlash

Media and democracy VERY essential reading for students:
http://www.digitalpercept.com/tag/mark-townsend/

This article titled “WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers” was written by Mark Townsend, Paul Harris in New York, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg, Dan Sabbagh, Josh Halliday, for The Observer on Sunday 12th December 2010 03.00 Asia/Calcutta

A2 Media in the Online Age - 3 articles

Generation Wiki's web savvy - Institutions have yet to catch up with net natives' instinct both for sharing information and guarding their own privacy
Read article here

Facebook's 2010 trends: 'HMU', Wagner and global disasters. Another day, another end of year list – Facebook unveils most popular status updates of 2010
Read article here

Twitter's 2010 trends: From the Gulf oil spill to Psychic Paul
Read article here

Mapping Facebook friends

Mapping facebook friends: how they did it

UK top 10 video games chart

Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops is, to no one's surprise at all, still sitting at No. 1 spot on the chart

Read the Guardian online article here.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks

Live updates from this Guardian online page.

Julian Assange urges supporters to protect WikiLeaks. Read it here

BBC Good Shooting Guide - online course

If you fancy listening to some professional advice and follow the short online course (with lots of audio and video materials), then go to this page:

BBC Good Shooting Guide - online course

Then scroll down a little and click on 'Start Module 1'.

Film Industry: The end of MGM as we know it?

The famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio has been looking for a way out of their financial problems for a while now.
This is MGM Wikipedia entry.

In 2005, MGM was acquired by Sony and other investors.

Back in March 2010, it looked like Time Warner might take over:
Time Warner leads pack in race for MGM (The Sunday Times)

A few days ago, it looked like Lions Gate would be the successful in a merger with MGM:

"The details of Lions Gate's proposal were released just days before MGM creditors face a Friday deadline to vote on an alternative plan to merge with a unit of Spyglass Entertainment. The Spyglass deal would see MGM creditors, owed more than $4 billion, own more than a 95 percent stake in a company worth around half of that."

Yahoo News

However, now Spyglass Entertainment is taking over the control of a bankrupt MGM:

"The studio said MGM creditors "overwhelmingly" approved what amounts to a prepackaged bankruptcy plan, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The plan includes having Spyglass Entertainment co-founders Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum take over as co-chief executive officers, the Journal said."

UPI.com, full article here

James Bond fans now hope that production of the next film will resume...

Preparing for the Media Conference

The materials to look at before the conference have been made available and we've been asked to have a quick read ahead of the day in order to better understand the topics dealt with.
You can read them here. (You will also get a hard copy on Monday)

We have been asked to complete one short task in preparation for Julian McDougall's talk. It is to put together a pitch for a new TV Talent Show. We will bring it with us and hand it in on the day.
Here it is below:

Online media: Cleggmania and the Cowell Factor
Your task:
With a partner, or on your own:
• Brainstorm an idea for a completely new TV Talent show
• Give it a title
• Summarise it – in under 140 characters including spaces
• Be prepared to ‘pitch’ your task to the Judges Panel – and win the contract!
…………………………………………………………………………………………...................
Title of show: ...
Pitch


Number of characters: ...

Finally have a look at this video (or at least parts of it) featuring Tony Benn as he talks about this great principle - DEMOCRACY (Tony Benn discusses the history of democracy, how it has been undermined, and how it can be strengthened).

You need to understand that listening to the likes of Julian and Tony Benn is a real eye opener and treat!

Map - From Euston station to the Institute of Education:

All instructions are ON THE LETTER (see post below).

The Media Conference - AS and A2

Many of you simply must bring your EV7 and payment as soon as possible as it is making the booking process a nightmarish logistical problem.

The expectation is that you are all to attend.

If you have lost the letter, here is a copy of it below. If you have lost your EV7 form, please get one from reception.
I have already put a link to the outline of the day and the Conference details in a previous post here:
STUDENT MEDIA CONFERENCE FOR ALL AS AND A2 STUDENTS

Please act promptly. I will need to phone home this week otherwise.
Thank you.