Online and Digital media - The London Riots

London Riots

 

The London Riots took place for 5 days in August 2011. The destruction and chaos was caught on camera and captured by journalists but also by normal people on their way to work or even outside their house.

 

There were articles written about the riots by news channels such as the BBC and also by journalists from The Guardian and The Daily Mail, who had travelled to the location of the riots to get the latest updates and stories. However, the stories that came out of the newspapers and news channels were not the first ones to reach the people. It was in fact just stories and statements from locals of the area who had been affected by the riots and for most of them the riots were just happening down the road to them.

 

The first way the people of Britain heard the news about the riots was via Twitter and Facebook. Locals and people who could see the riots were taking videos and writing about the situation on the social networking sites for everyone to see. This then got people talking and asking what was really going on. This then informed other journalists and news channels of the chaos that was taking place in London and so that's how the formal broadcasting of the riots came about. However the footage and reports from the local people about the riots seemed to make the most impact, especially in the younger generation of Britain who could see what was happening on their Twitter feed.

 

The footage and videos taken by the public were the most shocking and showed the rest of the country the true extent of the riots. Mobile phone videos were used to capture the riots and without those videos the news wouldn't have spread as rapidly as it did. The world could see the blow by blow account of what was happening on all of the social networking sites, so people could keep up to date with what was going on.

After the riots had ended, many journalists tweeted the public about organising a clean-up in the area that the riots had happened. The journalists got a huge response and many people turned up to help clean up the streets of London.

 

However, the bad side to the riots and its link to social media is that the rioters organised themselves and planned the riot via Blackberry messenger. The messages were unable to be seen by the police and so the riots could not be stopped before they began. This shows the bad side to social media but also the amazing things social media can do with regards to the speed news spreads on the sites and how much young people are informed of current affairs through using the sites. I think that online and digital media is great for informing people and spreading news fast and its also the younger generations way of communicating. Therefore if you want to inform young people on a situation, then online media is the way to do it.

 

Evening News Analysis

BBC News at 6

 
• The opening sequence to the news is red graphics with the number 6 at the end of it to highlight that it is the 6 o'clock news and there is also the outline of the earth in the middle of the graphics to show that the news is from all over the world. The red graphics also makes the sequence recognisable as the BBC because the BBC 's logo is red.
• The titles are big and bold to highlight the BBC logo.
• There is a theme song throughout the sequence and there is a double bong between each news story to show when the next news story is going to be shown.
• The story with the most recency and urgency is shown first and then the stories progress in an order depending on their urgency.
• 

  There are computers and TV screens and people sitting at desks behind the presenters. This makes the audience feel like the news is really new because news is being found as the news stories are being announced.
• The presenter is male and is not introduced at the beginning of the sequence. He is dressed smartly in a suit and tie which makes the viewer feel like they are watching something important and of relevance to them.
• The news set is red to represent the BBC as their iconic colour is red and so it will be recognised as the BBC.
• There is a seperate sports correspondent and also other presenters that the main presenter talks to mostly in live locations to make you feel like the news is even more recent than it is. You get to see the news whilst its happening.

News Story - The Daily Mail

Has Miley gone too far? Cyrus strips to nude latex bra and hotpants to perform lewd dance with Robin Thicke at MTV VMAs

• Celebrities including Nick Cannon and Brooklyn Decker took to Twitter to blast Miley's performance
• Rihanna and One Direction seen looking visibly stunned in the audience

This is a recent news headline from the Daily Mail website, Miley Cyrus' risque performance at the VMAS that has caused huge controversy in the media world. As I was looking through the recent stories on the website I noticed that most of the stories are about celebrities and their recent whereabouts. These celebrity stories are not of very high currency to the Daily Mail on their own, unlike a breaking news story that the BBC would run. However the amount of stories like the one shown above that the Daily Mail publish is huge, so even though they may not be of interest to people for very long, its the quantity of the stories that gives them their value.
This story is of a well known child star who is trying to find to find her feet in becoming an adult in the music industry. People are interested in her personality and this piece has uniqueness because people want to read about her and how she's changed from the clean cut child star we all know her as.
The website also show the most recent and breaking news stories at the top of the list to the side of the homepage. This means that the first news stories that you will read will be the most recent ones giving the stories high recency.
Most of the news shown is based around celebrity culture or fashion. The stories are not really of high urgency and are more for the viewers entertainment.