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Watch this youtube clip of John Oliver talking about net neutrality. This was in 2014. Has anything changed? Read The Wired's guide to Net Neutrality below.

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Watch this youtube clip of John Oliver talking about net neutrality. This was in 2014. Has anything changed? Read The Wired's guide to Net Neutrality below.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU

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Net Neutrality: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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https://www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/

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Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. That means they shouldn't be able to slide some data into "fast lanes" while blocking or otherwise discriminating against other material. In other words, these companies shouldn't be able to block you from accessing a service like Skype, or slow down Netflix or Hulu, in order to encourage you to keep your cable package or buy a different video-streaming service.

The Federal Communications Commission spent years, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, trying to enforce net neutrality protections. After a series of legal defeats at the hands of broadband providers, the FCC passed a sweeping net neutrality order in 2015. But in December 2017, the now Republican-controlled FCC voted to jettison that order, freeing broadband providers to block or throttle content as they see fit unless Congress or the courts block the agency's decision.

Net neutrality advocates have long argued that keeping the internet an open playing field is crucial for innovation. If broadband providers pick favorites online, new companies and technologies might never have the chance to grow. For example, had internet providers blocked or severely limited video streaming in the mid-2000s, we might not have Netflix or YouTube today. Other advocates highlight the importance of net neutrality to free expression: a handful of large telecommunications companies dominate the broadband market, which puts an enormous amount of power into their hands to suppress particular views or limit online speech to those who can pay the most.

Most large broadband providers promised not to block or throttle content ahead of the ruling, but all four major mobile carriers began slowing down at least some video content before the FCC had fully repealed the rules. Net neutrality advocates worry things could get worse. A broadband provider might, for example, allow some companies to pay for priority treatment on broadband networks. The fear is that, over time, companies and organizations that either can't afford priority treatment, or simply aren't offered access to it, will fall by the wayside.

The History of Net Neutrality

Columbia University law professor Tim Wu coined the term "network neutrality" in a 2003 paper about online discrimination. At the time, some broadband providers, including Comcast, banned home internet users from accessing virtual private networks (VPNs), while others, like AT&T, banned users from using Wi-Fi routers. Wu worried that broadband providers' tendency to restrict new technologies would hurt innovation in the long term, and called for anti-discrimination rules.

The Bush-era FCC took a first pass at anti-discrimination rules for the internet in a policy statement in 2005. It prohibited internet service providers from blocking legal content or preventing customers from connecting the devices of their choosing to their internet connections. Under this policy, the FCC ordered Comcast in 2008 to stop slowing connections that used the peer-to-peer file-sharing software BitTorrent, which was often used for digital piracy but also had legitimate uses. Comcast sued the FCC, arguing the agency had overstepped its bounds. A federal court agreed, ruling that the FCC had failed to make the legal case that it had the authority to enforce the 2005 policy statement.

In 2010, the Obama-era FCC passed a more detailed net neutrality order that it hoped would stand up to legal scrutiny. But the agency was sued again, this time by Verizon, and in 2014 the same court ruled the agency didn't have the authority to impose net neutrality regulations on services that weren't considered common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act, like traditional telephone services.

Later that year, the FCC floated a new proposal that net neutrality proponents worried would allow internet "fast lanes." The idea drew the ire of comedian John Oliver, who encouraged viewers of his show Last Week Tonight to file comments to express their support for net neutrality. The flood of comments crashed the FCC's website. The agency eventually received 21.9 million comments on the issue, shattering the record previously held by Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction."

Then-FCC chair Wheeler eventually changed tack and decided to reclassify broadband providers as Title II carriers, though with fewer obligations than landline telephone operators. The FCC passed its sweeping net neutrality order in 2015, and was again sued by telecommunications firms. The same federal court that shot down the FCC's previous attempts at net neutrality rules finally sided with the agency, ruling that the 2015 rules were legal. An industry group appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which has yet to hear the case.

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Net Neutrality: Here's Everything You Need To Know

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Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. That means they shouldn't be able to slide some data into "fast lanes" while blocking or otherwise discriminating against other material.

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Take a look at the videos, radio shows or articles on this padlet. Add  comments, other items or start your own padlet as a research journal for this course (you get three padlets free). 

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Take a look at the videos, radio shows or articles on this padlet. Add  comments, other items or start your own padlet as a research journal for this course (you get three padlets free). 

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The BBC Radio 4's Media Show is weekly institution with expert opinion on all aspects of current media. Listen to this weeks show on the ethics of reporting terrorism or trawl through the archive. You may find something relevant to your essay!!!

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The BBC Radio 4's Media Show is weekly institution with expert opinion on all aspects of current media. Listen to this weeks show on the ethics of reporting terrorism or trawl through the archive. You may find something relevant to your essay!!!

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dv9hq

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This is the programme about a revolution in media.

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See what is happening in the world of media right now. Scroll down to look at the different sectors (Television, Digital Media ect...). See if you can find other resources that analyse the media in such a manner.

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See what is happening in the world of media right now. Scroll down to look at the different sectors (Television, Digital Media ect...). See if you can find other resources that analyse the media in such a manner.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk/media

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Media news, opinion and analysis | The Guardian

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Media news, opinion and analysis from the Guardian

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Explore Digital News Reports Interactive guide to compare media behaviour and opinion in different countries.

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Explore Digital News Reports Interactive guide to compare media behaviour and opinion in different countries.

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https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/interactive/

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This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 75,000 online news consumers in 38 countries including South Africa for the first time. The report focuses on the progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, the impact of populism, the shift to private messaging apps, and the rise of podcasts.

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Check out Digital News Publications Trends and Predictions report from 2020.

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Check out Digital News Publications Trends and Predictions report from 2020.

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https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/publications/2020/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2020/

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This year's report adopts a new format which highlights the views of digital leaders on the key issues facing the news industry and combines this with five forward-looking contributions from the Reuters Institute. The main purpose is to provide useful insights for the year ahead and to identify the most important media trends.

The last ten years were defined by the twin technological disruptions of mobile and social media, which fragmented attention, undermined advertising-based business models, and weakened the role of journalistic gatekeepers. At the same time, social and political disruptions have affected trust in journalism and led to attacks on independent news media in many countries. The next decade will be defined by increasing regulation of the internet and attempts to re-establish trust in journalism and a closer connection with audiences. It will also be rocked by the next wave of technological disruption from AI-driven automation, big data, and new visual and voice-based interfaces. All this against a backdrop of economic and political uncertainty which will throw up further challenges to the sustainability of many news organisations.
But how do media leaders view the year ahead?
* Most industry executives say they are confident about their own company's prospects but are much less sure about the future of journalism. Local news provision is a key concern, alongside fears about declining trust and attacks on journalism by politicians.

* The majority of respondents (85%) think that the media should do more to call out lies and half-truths, but some worry that this might not be enough as more politicians around the world pick up Donald Trump's media playbook, undermining mainstream media and using social media to push messages directly to supporters.

* Publishers continue to bet strongly on reader revenue, with half (50%) saying this will be their main income stream going forward. Around a third (35%) think that advertising and reader revenue will be equally important, with just one in seven (14%) pinning their hopes on advertising alone.

* The power of tech platforms remains an issue of great concern for most publishers. But there are mixed views on regulation. Publishers feel that interventions by policymakers are more likely to hurt (25%) rather than help (18%) journalism, with the majority feeling that it will make no difference (56%)

* It looks set to be another big year for podcasting, with over half of our publisher respondents (53%) saying podcast initiatives would be important to them this year. Others are looking at voice and turning text articles into audio as a way of capitalising on the growing popularity of audio formats.

* We're likely to see more moves by news organisations to personalise front pages and pursue other forms of automated recommendation this year. Over half of our respondents (52%) say these AI-driven initiatives will be very important this year, but smaller companies worry about being left behind.

* Attracting and retaining talent is a major worry for news organisations, especially in technology areas. Less than a quarter of respondents say they are confident about keeping data scientists and technologists (24%) compared with 76% for editorial staff. Tech companies and consumer brands can often offer higher salaries, more job security, and a culture within which they can do their best work.

* Publishers and broadcasters say they have made big strides over gender diversity in the newsroom, with three-quarters (76%) believing their organisation is doing a good job. However, they rate themselves less well on geographical (55%), political (48%), and racial diversity (33%).
On the cards in 2020 ...
* More websites will demand registration details in return for content this year. Collecting first-party data will become a key focus for publishers, following reduced cookie support from leading browsers and tightening privacy regulations. But this risks putting further barriers in the way of casual news users.

* Elections around the world will be another chance for purveyors of misinformation and disinformation to try new tactics, including AI technologies, to overwhelm platform defences. The role of platforms will be increasingly politicised, with direct attacks and accusations of bias from prominent politicians.

* Better, more immersive, feature-rich headphones (e.g. AirPod Pro and similar devices) will prove the big tech hit of the year and give a further boost to audio formats.

* 5G networks will continue to roll out in cities around the world this year, though handset availability remains limited. Ultimately 5G will enable faster and more reliable smartphone connectivity, making it easier to access multimedia content on the go.

* Transcription, automated translation, and speech-to-text text-to-speech services will be some of the first AI-driven technologies to reach mass adoption this year, opening up new frontiers and opportunities for publishers.

This report is supplemented with the following essays:

This year will see southern European media houses leaning more into subscription. In Spain, El Mundo has already started to charge for premium content, with El País set to follow early in 2020. It is already asking readers to sign in (for free) to read opinion and weekend features in preparation for the change. This is a major shift of direction for publications that until recently have pursued a scale-based strategy (which has sometimes led to accusations of clickbait and low-quality journalism).
Payment options at El Mundo
Other regional chains such as Vocento and Prensa Ibérica have established paywalls in most of their titles, while the independent sector is strengthening membership and or donation options.

What to Expect in 2020?

Crumbling cookies? Publishers will be pushing aggressively ahead with registration and log-in strategies following data privacy regulation and tightening restrictions on cookies by anti-ad-tracking browsers like Safari and Firefox. First-party data will be at a premium going forward but this is likely to further benefit platforms like Google and Facebook, which have hundreds of millions of authenticated and logged-in users. By contrast individual news publishers may struggle to persuade consumers to keep logging in. Expect more publisher alliances, like NetID in Germany and Nonio in Portugal, to counter this trend.

More consolidation. Declining margins in the face of falling readership and growing platform power have already led to a series of mega mergers, leading to new questions around plurality and concentration of ownership. US-based regional newspaper chains Gannett and GateHouse Media combined forces in November to create a conglomerate that will own around one in six daily titles in the US. Vice acquired Refinery 29 and Vox Media bought New York Magazine in eye-catching deals that create both scale and complementary audiences. In the UK the group that owns the Daily Mail added the i newspaper to a stable that includes the Metro freesheet - giving it around 30% of the national newspaper market. Troubled regional publisher JPI Media is up for sale, likely to be bought by Reach plc or Newsquest, and national broadsheet the Daily Telegraph is also rumoured to be on the market. In the past many of these mergers have destroyed value, so the focus is likely to be on keeping editorial propositions distinct while integrating back-end systems like technology, data, and ad tech.

Editorial partnerships. With publishers realising that they can't cover every option, they are increasingly looking for partnership opportunities. In the recent UK election, Sky News teamed up with Buzzfeed News to help tap into the social conversation. In return Buzzfeed got access to brand exposure with a much bigger audience. In podcasting, partnerships are the order of the day, with Gimlet working with the Wall Street Journal and Slate and The Economist getting together to produce the Secret History of the Future.

Subscription avoidance. With more publishers after our money, people will encounter more and more paywalls, and consumers will be increasingly aware of how to get around them. Most people are willing to subscribe to only one or two digital sources of news, but might still be interested in accessing more. Loopholes around incognito browsing are increasingly being closed by registration strategies, but sophisticated paywall blockers are emerging that can open up all but the most secure websites. Consumers will also become savvier about looking for special deals at renewal time.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, 'Building the Business We Want'
Eduardo Suárez, 'Making Readers Pay'

1.2 Post-Truth Politics and the Journalistic Response

The UK election was yet another example of politicians playing fast and loose with the facts, avoiding journalistic scrutiny, and denigrating the media. 'It's been the most shallow, mendacious and frustrating election I can remember and a bad advertisement for democracy,' declared veteran political analyst Peter Kellner. The UK's independent fact-checking organisation, Full Fact, said the six-week campaign saw 'inappropriate and misleading campaign tactics that we hadn't seen before'. These included an official Conservative Party Twitter account impersonating a fact-checking organisation and editing footage of a Labour politician to make it look as if he couldn't answer a question about the party's Brexit policy.

The media integrated fact-checking into coverage and scrutinised politicians wherever possible, but these TV interviews and debates are watched by fewer and fewer people. Politicians are increasingly trying to bypass the media and convey messages directly via social media. Boris Johnson declined an invitation to be interviewed by the BBC's toughest interviewer Andrew Neil and hid in a fridge to avoid another TV interview. Channel 4 replaced Johnson with a melting ice sculpture when he refused to turn up for a leader debate on climate change. In the wake of these challenges, the Tories briefed journalists that they would review both Channel 4's broadcasting licence and the funding mechanism for the BBC.

In our survey, 85% agreed with the proposition that the media should do more to call out lies and half-truths, but it is not clear that this approach cuts through with audiences, and it may even be hardening criticism of the media from both left and right.

As more politicians around the world pick up Donald Trump's media playbook, these dilemmas will become more acute in the year ahead. The media have become more robust in aggressively fact-checking since the events of 2016, but a number of publications that run these teams told us they fear this is not having 'any impact on large parts of the public'.
To what extent do you agree with the following statement: The news media should do more to call out misleading statements and half-truths by politicians. N=223
But responses are not obvious and the news media often don't help by sometimes or often repeating or amplifying lies and misleading narratives. Even among those who try to challenge falsehoods and blatant spin, publishers worry that devoting time to fact-checking can divert resources and attention from other journalistic endeavours. Others say that there is often a fine line between 'calling out a statement and perceptions of partisanship', which may undermine trust with readers, listeners, and viewers. The media might also take note of our own research which shows that the public often feels that politicians (and other public figures) often don't get a fair hearing and that the media takes an overly negative view of events. Some hope for a more nuanced response than just calling out politicians in the year ahead:
Meera Selva, 'Journalism under Fire'

We certainly need to offer fact checks and reality checks. But we also need content which explores good faith politics, what might be working, how policy develops and makes a difference. Otherwise we will push our audiences to disengage and distrust politics even more.
-Mary Hockaday, Controller, BBC World Service

I'm always optimistic about the industry - but this year I worry more about reader fatigue and news avoidance than I ever have before. Clearly this is a problem for democracy and debate, not just for the industry.
-Sarah Marshall, Head of Audience Growth, Conde Nast

The issues of disengagement and news avoidance are a growing concern for many executives. Countering cynicism and negativity is likely to become a more important theme for journalists in the year ahead.

Journalists are as critical of tech platforms as they are of politicians when it comes to misinformation and disinformation. In this year's survey they are damning in their verdict about platforms' attempts to clean up the problem. Less than one in five (17%) gave Facebook credit for their efforts in the last year, despite it removing billions of accounts, stepping up funding for fact-checking, and increasing transparency around political advertising. YouTube rated at just 18% in a year when it has promoted reputable sources around breaking news events and introduced new information panels flagging misinformation. Google search rated marginally better at 34%, after changes to its algorithms that have surfaced more original and local journalism in results. Twitter scored 41%, possibly due to their recent stance on banning all political advertising on its platform.
Platform Responsibility
But the overall message from publishers is that these efforts are nowhere near enough to combat the scale and scope of the problem.

Our survey also reveals the different approaches between Europe and the US in terms of where the limits of free speech should lie.

It is hard to separate the responsibility of platforms from the wider tensions in society that are fuelling these trends. And without clear guidance on the limits to free speech Silicon Valley companies are increasingly being asked to make more editorial judgements on which content should be removed or demoted. Whatever they do, it is hard to see platforms pleasing publishers or politicians in 2020.

What to Expect in 2020?

Platform regulation bites. In some countries (e.g. the UK) we are likely to see a new technology regulator this year with powers to oversee an enforceable code of conduct for the biggest players, such as Facebook and Google, and new rules to give consumers more control over their data. But issues around free speech and elections will be much harder to regulate. Politicians will largely duck these challenges again in 2020.

US election focus. Social media will be in the spotlight in the run-up to the November presidential election, with coordinated campaign activity and increasingly vocal accusations of platform bias from the right as well as some voices on the left. Expect more smears against candidates and attempts by domestic actors to create coordinated campaigns across networks - and for arguments to rage about whether false or misleading political messages should be fact-checked or given less prominence. Closed groups on Facebook and WhatsApp, where it is harder to monitor and rebut false information, will become an increased area of focus.

1.3 Platforms and the Relationship with Journalism

Our digital leaders survey shows publishers remain more positive about Google and Twitter than Apple, Facebook, Snapchat, and Amazon when it comes to initiatives to support journalism. Over half of respondents rated Google as average or better but all other platforms attracted more negative than positive sentiment, and there is a considerable amount of cynicism about underlying motives across the board.

To what extent do you think that the following platforms have done enough to support journalism? N=221
*these figures are low partly due to large number of don't knows - 13% for Apple, 26% for Amazon, 38% Snapchat, compared with just 2% for Google and 3% for Facebook.

Google's higher score is reflective of the large number of publishers in our survey who are current or past recipients of Google's innovation funds (DNI or GNI), and who collaborate with the company on various news-related products. Facebook's lower score may reflect historic distrust from publishers after a series of changes of product strategy which left some publishers financially exposed. In the last year, however, Facebook has stepped up its commitment to journalism, with several new product initiatives as well as a commitment to invest around $300m in journalism-related initiatives over the coming years.

The overall sense from our survey, however, is that publishers do not want hand-outs from platforms but would prefer a level playing field where they can compete fairly and get proper compensation for the value their content brings.

Policymakers continue to talk about different kinds of intervention to help the news industry. These include enforcing the EU's new copyright directive, often referred to as the 'link tax' because it requires platforms to pay for unlicensed content that appears in aggregated news services. The process is a direct result of lobbying by big publishing houses but got off to a rocky start in France, the first member state to implement the directive, with Google opting to display less information in search results rather than set a costly precedent. With publishers turning to the courts and both sides digging in, the only guaranteed winner this year is likely to be the legal profession.

More positively, the EU has already taken other action to help news organisations, including allowing member states to exempt digital publications from VAT, while a number of governments around the world are looking at issues of transparency and excessive fees in the digital advertising market. As we have documented in a recent report, policymakers have a range of actionable options if they want to create a more enabling environment for independent professional journalism, including steps to protect media freedom, enhance the sustainability of the news business, and help the industry and the profession work towards its digital future.

Whether policymakers will take such steps remains an open question but in our survey publishers feel that interventions are more likely to hurt journalism (25%) rather than help it (18%), with the majority feeling that it will make no difference (56%).

What to Expect in 2020?

Facebook's News Tab goes global. As this rolls out beyond the United States, we can expect more arguments about who should be included and how much publishers should be paid. Perhaps the bigger question, though, is whether consumers will show any attention to a walled garden full of tried and trusted news brands. Our own research suggests news is more of an incidental part of the Facebook experience rather than a destination for news, and it may be hard to shift those behaviours. Mark Zuckerberg's publicly stated goal is for tens of millions of users - just a small percentage of Facebook's 2 billion global user base.

Controlled off-platform news. Facebook's news tab is part of a wider trend, with platforms looking to create trusted and curated environments for news rather than mixing it with user-generated content. YouTube have started to inject trusted brands into the feed when big stories break and Google's carefully selected news index does a similar job for AI-driven products like Discover. We're also seeing more humans involved in the process, with platforms hiring editors to manage the nuances.

1.4. Diversity and Talent in the Newsroom

In the last few years, the industry has woken up to the lack of diversity in newsrooms and the difficulties this creates in representing societies fairly and accurately. Much of the recent focus has been on gender, following the #MeToo movement, the exposure of pay gaps in the UK, and deep-seated sexist attitudes in French newsrooms. But there has also been soul-searching after Brexit, Donald Trump, and the Gilets Jaunes protests about the lack of political diversity in journalism and the failure to understand concerns of those outside the big cities.

Our publisher respondents say they have made big strides over gender diversity, with three-quarters (76%) believing their organisation is doing a good job. However, they rate themselves less well on diversity from non-metropolitan areas (55%), on political diversity (48%), and on racial diversity (33%). Critics will argue that these relatively high figures reveal complacency amongst news executives and that much more still needs to be done.

Within these averages we can detect significant regional differences, with Scandinavian publishers much more confident about gender diversity than publishers in other parts of Europe. Overall, women were much more sceptical about the rate of progress than men:

Others report progress at more junior levels, but with editorial decision-making often still in the hands of men:

Portuguese media is very gender balanced ... except when it comes to editors in chief.
-Catarina Carvalho, Executive Editor, Diario de Noticias

There was widespread recognition in our survey about the need to expand recruitment beyond liberal urban elites. Digital-born brands in particular have used remote working to help increase diversity, but in countries like South Africa remote working is harder to pull off and the economics often don't stack up:

A recent RISJ report on diversity and talent concludes that journalists must reach out to audiences that are becoming more and more diverse, while newsrooms need to be made attractive to new entrants who have to be convinced that the news business has a future.

Our survey shows that publishers feel this is going to be easier in editorial areas (76% confidence) than in data science/technology (24%), or product (39%). Here, there is intense competition with tech platforms and consumer brands who can often offer higher salaries, more job security, and a culture within which individuals can do their best work.

Despite the general confidence over editorial retention, there are some hot spots. The Athletic, when it launched its sports subscription service in the UK, hoovered up some of the best national and regional talent, reportedly doubling the salaries of many reporters in the process. Another difficult area is audio, where there is a fight for on-air talent and the best podcast producers, with publishers and broadcasters competing with tech platforms like Spotify and independent studios.

We are less confident about younger editorial staff (below 30). They tend to drift toward podcasting and pure digital players and away from more text-based newsrooms.
-Troels Jørgensen, Digital Director, Politiken

Overall, many publishers are holding on to the hope that the 'excitement of working in media and being able to have a positive societal impact' will continue to attract talent even when pay and material conditions are better elsewhere.

What to Expect in 2020?

Initiatives to increase diversity. Some news organisations have started to impose their own targets for gender balance in terms of contributors. The BBC's 5050 project started as a grassroots project with 500 teams joining voluntarily and the vast majority of these (75%) hitting these targets.

More software tools to help measure diversity. Elsewhere, online sites are being increasingly supported by software tools that give real-time readouts for editors. We're likely to see more external monitoring of media performance this year as with this gender gap tracker of the Canadian media (currently showing an over-representation of male contributors in top outlets). Expect these tools to start to illustrate lack of diversity in other areas too.

See also
Lucy Kueng, 'Handling Inter-Generational Tensions in News Media

1.5 New Golden Age of Audio, but Where's the Cash?

It looks set to be another big year for podcasting, with over half of our publisher respondents saying they would be pushing various types of podcast initiative this year. Our recent report on News Podcasting and the Opportunities for Publishers found that the success of the Daily from the New York Times - and growing interest from blue-chip advertisers - was encouraging publishers. We identified 60 daily news podcasts in five countries, the majority of which started in the last 18 months - and more are on the way. The Times of London is one of many that will launch a daily news podcast in 2020. Others are investing in chat/interview formats or documentaries, with Le Monde, for example, recently releasing three new podcast series adapted from investigative articles.

Bigger audiences, better measurement, and easier access have combined to change the economics of news podcasting. In turn this is encouraging publishers to invest in creating more quality content and platforms to invest in better distribution and monetisation, in a virtuous circle of growth. Publishers see podcasting as a chance to attract younger audiences, build habit, and bring in additional revenue.

In the US podcasting revenue is projected to grow by around 30% a year to reach over $1bn by 2021, but elsewhere revenues have been slower to build and, despite the clear audience opportunity, many publishers are still holding back:

The problem [with] audio is the difficulty of monetisation, since advertisers are currently not investing in Spain.
-Vicente Ruiz Gómez, Managing Editor Digital, El Mundo, Spain

Audio and voice feels increasingly important but we're still some way from generating enough engagement or revenue to provide any sort of return on the not inconsiderable investment required to do it to any reasonable standard.
-National publisher, UK

Subscription-based organisations are holding back for different reasons. There are few opportunities to make premium audio work - and little platform focus in this area. Meanwhile broadcasters have no option but to invest in a range of audio-on-demand options to protect their market position and to attract younger and diverse audiences. Public broadcasters are experimenting with new on-demand audio for voice devices, developing short bulletins and trialling interactive formats. The BBC is investing hard, along with NPR, ABC in Australia, and Swedish Radio (SR), but there is huge concern that platforms will use this content to build their own businesses in this area.

This year we'll see further tension between broadcasters and platforms, with 'content boycotts' and a greater use of windowing strategies where content is released first on broadcaster apps.

The international roll-out of Google's audio news aggregation service, and Spotify Drive, which mixes music playlists with short news audio content, could be another flashpoint. Broadcasters fear their direct connection with audiences will be lost in these aggregated services.

Print publishers have less to lose, though many remain wary about repeating past mistakes:
Q10. There are new opportunities opening up in audio and voice with growing audiences and advertising revenue, to what extent will the following initiatives be important for your company in 2020? N=217
What to Expect in 2020?

Podcasting beyond the English language. Much of the action so far has been confined to the US and a handful of English-speaking countries, but this is set to change. Brazil is now the second largest market for podcasting in the world, according to some measures, and will be a major focus for both Google and Spotify this year. Spain and France are also seeing strong audience growth and the development of independent podcast studios.

Audio articles as standard. Improved technology is enabling new opportunities for publishers in quickly reversioning text output into audio. In Canada, the Globe and Mail is one of the first publishers to use Amazon Polly, a text-to-speech service that sounds far more natural to the human ear than previous versions. Subscribers can listen to selected articles in English, French, and Mandarin and choose their favourite voice.

In Denmark, 'slow-news' operation Zetland provides all its stories with a (human-read) audio option. Around 75% of all stories are now listened to rather than consumed via text (pink block in chart below) - perhaps a sign of things to come for other publishers. Meanwhile in Brazil the newspaper Estadão has teamed up with Ford to create a human-read daily audio service for Spotify. Each part of the newspaper has its own album, each news story has its own track. Many publishers see connected cars as a new opportunity to reach audiences and audio as a key way to deliver journalism in the future.

Platform wars? Apple's dominance over podcasting is being eroded by Spotify, which has invested $500m in improving discovery and acquiring original content. It has doubled its market share in the last year in many countries and is looking to become the dominant platform for podcasting within a few years. But expect Apple to fight back this year, while podcast specialists like Luminary in the US, Sybel in France, and Podimo in Denmark and Germany, are all vying to become the 'Netflix of podcasting'.

1.6 Doubts Emerging over the Role of AI in the Newsroom

A recent report from the LSE revealed myriad ways that AI (or at least machine learning) is already being deployed in journalism, at the same time as highlighting the ethical challenges that lie ahead. The report set out the different ways that AI is being used in (1) newsgathering, (2) production (including different kinds of newsroom automation), and (3) distribution/recommendation.

In our digital leaders survey we can see that most focus this year will be on creating more effective recommendations (53% saying very important), followed by commercial uses such as using AI to target potential subscribers and optimise paywalls (47%), and ways of driving greater efficiency in the newsroom, such as using AI to assist subbing or improve the consistency of tagging (39%). Only a minority of publishers felt that robo-journalism (12%) or newsgathering (16%) would be important areas to explore this year.

Some publishers make a clear distinction between editorial and non-editorial uses of artificial intelligence. The Times (of London), for example, uses the slogan 'written by humans, curated by humans, distributed by robots' to help focus its efforts. This year it will be extending its AI-driven recommendation engine, James, from emails to a wider range of web and app-based recommendations. Publishers have started to experiment with electronic editing assistants such as Tansa and Grammarly to automate some subbing tasks:

At the moment it is not at the stage where it can do the whole job but it can certainly do 80% of the legwork.
-Chris Duncan, MD Platform Partnerships, The Times and Sunday Times

Scandinavia-based publisher Schibsted has gone further, delegating some curation tasks to AI-driven algorithms, with semi-automated front pages for titles like Aftenposten and VG. The aim of its 'Curate Project' is to replicate the workflow of front-page editors to 'free up time for more creative tasks'. Though some respondents worry that AI could be used by unscrupulous owners to drive further job cuts, most were optimistic that it would ultimately benefit journalism.

For others, AI is opening up new opportunities. The BBC has experimented with automated language translation, and improved synthesised voice technology in developing its Japanese video service, though the live output is currently produced manually. News agencies are focused more on turning financial and sports data into automated stories, expanding the speed and range of their output. The BBC used similar techniques to publish 689 semi-automated local stories in just a few hours on election night (December 2019) while the Guardian published its first automated story on Australian election funding in 2019. News agencies and business publications like Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal have been using AI to quickly produce stories on company earnings and are looking for other ways to drive commercial benefits of data at scale:

We are at the forefront of automating news stories for machine-driven trading. We are also an industry leader with our propensity paywall, that can adjust to the likelihood of a reader converting to a subscriber.
-Edward Roussell, Chief Innovation Officer, Wall Street Journal

Despite general optimism, there were also significant concerns revealed in our survey.

Smaller publishers worry that they could be left behind due to the complexity, expense, and scarcity of skills: 'We do not have the technical capacity or budget to cope with AI to the extent we would like,' says Esther Alonso Rodríguez, Marketing and Development Director at eldiario.es in Spain.

Others fear that lack of understanding in the boardroom will lead to an over-estimation of the capabilities of AI today. 'It's great for transcription, and translation, but still hopeless at actually writing stories,' says a senior editor who has experimented with these technologies. 'This is like asking about the impact of spreadsheets. They are useful but don't really change the fundamentals.' Others warn that the industry should be careful about 'distracting itself with trends' when it should instead be aligning technology solutions to core strategy.

What to Expect in 2020?

AI-driven fake news. 'AI has the potential to boost disinformation campaigns as the 2020 election cycle in the US ramps up,' warns a senior executive from one of the biggest and most respected national news brands. AI could make it easier to produce junk news in text, audio, and video and such potentially low-quality and misleading content masquerading as professionally produced news could further reduce trust in journalism.

Bigger focus, better reporting of AI. The application of AI and the implications for privacy and democracy will be a defining issue not just of 2020 but of the next decade. But many worry that the technology will run ahead of our ability to shine a light on the way these systems are being programmed or used. Our own research finds that most news reporting treats AI as a novelty and struggles to explain the more immediate and pressing implications. There are signs that this could change this year with more news organisations (Tortoise Media) making AI a pillar of their coverage.
Q11. To what extent will the following uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) be important to your company in 2020? N=218
1.7. Summary

This will be year when journalism looks to regain relevance and confidence in a fragmented and uncertain world. Buffeted by economic and political pressures, media companies remain on the backfoot, but across the world we also see many positive examples of fearless journalism and business innovation.

The shift to reader payment, clearly signalled again our digital leaders' survey, is in full swing and will extend this year to countries as diverse as Spain, Hong Kong, and Argentina. Companies there will be hoping to emulate and learn from the success of large and small publishers in the US and Northern Europe who are focusing relentlessly on keeping readers/viewers happy and are beginning to talk about news as a 'growth business' again. But reader payment is unlikely to work for all and will require deep commitment over time as well as new skills and processes.

With more high-quality journalism disappearing behind registration barriers and paywalls, the democratic dangers may also become more apparent in the year ahead. The fear is that serious news consumption will be largely confined to elites who can afford to pay, while the bulk of the population pick up headlines and memes from social media or avoid the news altogether.

Our survey shows that some publishers are looking to tackle these deep-seated engagement problems though solutions journalism, events, and accessible formats like podcasts. More diverse newsrooms will also help to broaden the news agenda and modernise presentation. But gaining and keeping attention without compromising on quality (and trust) remains the key challenge for the news industry.

Against this background, artificial intelligence offers the possibility of more personal and relevant news services, as well as more efficient ways of packaging and distributing content. But platforms will need to play a role too - especially in helping publishers reach new and diverse audiences. In this regard, the growth of content licensing via the Facebook News tab and Apple News+ is an intriguing development that will be fascinating to watch, despite widespread industry cynicism. For Facebook in particular this initiative will be critical as it looks to win back trust from publishers.

More widely, publishers remain resentful about what they see as unfair competition from platforms and tech companies. With regulation looming, we're likely to see publishers pushing their rights harder than for many years, even as most of our respondents are sceptical that policymakers will actually help publishers, and as some platforms seem to be considering how important news actually is for their main products and services.

At the same time, the overwhelming mood from this year's survey is one of quiet determination not to be distracted by the latest innovations but to focus on delivering long-term value for audiences. There is no one path to success - and there will be many publishers that do not make it - but there is greater confidence now that good journalism can continue to flourish in a digital age.

Postscript

Once again, thanks to all those who have contributed to this year's predictions and to those who completed our digital leaders' survey. We'd be delighted to hear from you if you have comments or suggestions for next year at:

reuters.institute@politics.ox.ac.uk

Survey Methodology

233 people completed a closed survey in December 2019. Participants, drawn from 32 countries, were selected because they held senior positions (editorial, commercial, or product) in traditional or digital-born publishing companies and were responsible for aspects of digital or wider media strategy. The results reflect this strategic sample of select industry leaders, not a representative sample.

Typical job titles included Editor in Chief/Executive Editor, CEO, Head of Digital, Head of Innovation, Chief Product Officer, Director of Multimedia ,etc. Just over half of participants were from organisations with a print background (54%), around a quarter (26%) represented commercial or public service broadcasters, more than one in ten came from digital-born media (14%), and a further 6% from B2B companies or news agencies. 32 countries were represented in the survey including the US, Australia, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, and Japan, but the majority came from European countries such as the UK, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, Poland, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.

Participants filled out an online survey with specific questions around strategic digital intent in 2020. Around 95% answered most questions, although response rates vary. The majority (80%) contributed comments and ideas in open questions and some of these are quoted with permission in this document

About the author

Nic Newman is Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, where he has been lead author of the annual Digital News Report since 2012. He is also a consultant on digital media, working actively with news companies on product, audience, and business strategies for digital transition. He has produced a media and journalism predictions report for the last 12 years. This is the fifth to be published by the Reuters Institute.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the input of 233 digital leaders from 32 countries, who responded to a survey around the key challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.

Respondents included almost 50 editors in chief, almost 40 CEOs or managing directors, and 30 heads of digital and came from some of the world's leading traditional media companies as well as digital-born organisations (see full breakdown at the end of the report).

Survey input and answers helped guide some of the themes in this report. Many quotes do not carry names or organisations, at the request of those contributors.

As with many predictions reports there is a significant element of speculation, particularly around specifics, and the report should be read bearing this in mind. Having said that, any mistakes - factual or otherwise - should be considered entirely the responsibility of the authors.

Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism with the support of the Google News Initiative.
Base = 233 Digital Leaders surveyed, 32 countries, 29 November-31 December 2019

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Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2020

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This year's report adopts a new format which highlights the views of digital leaders on the key issues facing the news industry and combines this with five forward-looking contributions from the Reuters Institute. The main purpose is to provide useful insights for the year ahead and to identify the most important media trends.

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Who owns the British Media. Check the link and see if you can see any patterns.

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Who owns the British Media. Check the link and see if you can see any patterns.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom

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Twelve daily newspapers and eleven Sunday-only weekly newspapers are distributed nationally in the United Kingdom. Others circulate in Scotland only and still, others serve smaller areas. National daily newspapers publish every day except Sundays and 25 December. Sunday newspapers may be independent; e.g. The Observer was an independent Sunday newspaper from its founding in 1791 until it was acquired by The Guardian in 1993. Many daily newspapers now have Sunday editions, usually with a related name (e.g. and The Sunday Times), but are editorially distinct.

UK newspapers can generally be split into two distinct categories: the more serious and intellectual newspapers, usually referred to as the broadsheets, and sometimes known collectively as 'the quality press', and others, generally known as tabloids, and collectively as 'the popular press', which have tended to focus more on celebrity coverage and human interest stories rather than political reporting or overseas news. The tabloids in turn have been divided into the more sensationalist mass market titles, or 'red tops', such as and the Daily Mirror, and the middle-market papers, the Daily Express and the .

Most of the broadsheets, so called because of their historically larger size, have changed in recent years to a compact format, the same size as the tabloids. The Independent and The Times were the first to do so. The Guardian moved in September 2005 to what is described as a ' Berliner' format, slightly larger than a compact. Its Sunday stablemate The Observer followed suit. Both The Guardian and The Observer now use the tabloid format, having done so since January 2018. Despite these format changes, these newspapers are all still considered 'broadsheets'.

Other Sunday broadsheets, including The Sunday Times, which tend to have a large amount of supplementary sections, have kept their larger-sized format. The national Sunday titles usually have a different layout and style from their weekly sister papers, and are produced by separate journalistic and editorial staff. All the major UK newspapers currently have websites, some of which provide free access. The Times and The Sunday Times have a paywall requiring payment on a per-day or per-month basis by non-subscribers. The Financial Times business daily also has limited access for non-subscribers. The Independent became available online only upon its last printed edition on 26 March 2016. However unlike the previously mentioned newspapers, it does not require any payment to access its news content. Instead the newspaper offers extras for those wishing to sign up to a payment subscription, such as crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, weekend supplements and the ability to automatically download each daily edition to read offline. The London Economic is another example of a British digital/online only newspaper, however, unlike The Independent it has never run a print publication.

Most towns and cities in the UK have at least one local newspaper, such as the Evening Post in Bristol and in Cardiff. Local newspapers were listed in advertising guides such as the Mitchell's Press Directories.

They are not known nationally for their journalism in the way that (despite much syndication) some city-based newspapers in the USA are (e.g. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times). An exception to this was the Manchester Guardian, which dropped the 'Manchester' from its name in 1959 and relocated its main operations to London in 1964. The Guardian Media Group produced a Mancunian paper, the Manchester Evening News, until 2010 when along with its other local newspapers in the Greater Manchester area it was sold to Trinity Mirror.

Papurau Bro ('Area Papers') are Welsh language newspapers produced nominally monthly (typically 10 issues a year with a summer break) which cover the news in a small area - a town, group of parishes, one or a few valleys, etc. - with a circulation of perhaps a few thousand each. There are between 50 and 60 Papurau Bro which cover the whole of Wales, plus the Welsh communities of Liverpool and London. Papers are frequently named after local features, connections, crafts, etc., or in dialect ( clebran, clecs, clochdar, and clonc; all imply 'gossip'). The first papur bro ( Y Dinesydd) appeared in 1973 in Cardiff, and the following decade saw the establishment of most of the others. Much of the work of producing the papers is done voluntarily (aside from the printing), although financial support is given by Bwrdd yr Iaith ( Welsh Language Board). Some of the papers listed may have ceased publication.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

Several newspapers in languages other than English are published in Britain, for immigrant and expatriate readers. Newspapers, both national and local, in Arabic, Bulgarian, Bangla, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Urdu, and other languages are published.

Desi Xpress - The UK's only national Asian entertainment weekly tabloid newspaper

Lanka Tribune - fortnightly newspaper for British Sri Lankans

Nigerian Watch - fortnightly newspaper aimed at the Nigerian community in the UK

The Irish World - aimed at Britain's Irish community

Eastern Eye - weekly newspaper for British Asians

The Cricket Paper - Friday paper summarising the week's cricketing news and action

The Football Paper

League Express - Monday paper covering all Rugby League news, results and fixtures

The Non-League Paper - Sunday paper summarising the weekend's non-league football action and the week's non-league football news

Racing +

Racing Post - daily horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting newspaper

The Sports Journal - Friday paper looking back at the weeks sporting news

Wisden - Weekly paper covering cricket news, articles, results and fixtures & other cricket related stories

Student newspapers include:

Student Times - free national student newspaper

The Tab - national tabloid-style student news website

Viscount Camrose. Brutish Newspapers and their Controllers (1947) online, ownership of all major papers in 1947

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List of newspapers in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

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Twelve daily newspapers and eleven Sunday-only weekly newspapers are distributed nationally in the United Kingdom. Others circulate in Scotland only and still, others serve smaller areas. National daily newspapers publish every day except Sundays and 25 December. Sunday newspapers may be independent; e.g.

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Watch the trailer for Liz Garbus's 'The Fourth Estate' documentary that analyses the reporting of the New York Times and the changing news cycle. Check out the documentary.

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Watch the trailer for Liz Garbus's 'The Fourth Estate' documentary that analyses the reporting of the New York Times and the changing news cycle. Check out the documentary.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0HC66Sgtg4

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The Fourth Estate 2018  Official Trailer  SHOWTIME Documentary Series

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Watch this YouTube clip about how polarised media is driving and shaping our perception of reality.

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Watch this YouTube clip about how polarised media is driving and shaping our perception of reality.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxXceCj0koQ

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How politically polarized media is driving our alternative realities

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Look at how new forms of (digital) civil society are mobilising young people such as The Harry Potter Alliance (Fandom Forward)

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Look at how new forms of (digital) civil society are mobilising young people such as The Harry Potter Alliance (Fandom Forward)

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https://fandomforward.org

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For over 15 years we've turned fans into heroes as The Harry Potter Alliance. Now we're entering a new era as Fandom Forward.
The Harry Potter Alliance was founded with a simple idea: what if fans used their passion and creativity to make the world a more loving, equitable place? That idea has driven hundreds of thousands of fan activists to do exactly that, and the world is demonstrably better for it.

But this place we've built? It doesn't belong to just one fandom. No singular story can hope to represent every time, every question, or every lived experience. This movement is for anyone who believes in the power of stories and the communities that love them to change the world. It's for everyone, and our name should reflect that. So on June 8th, 2021 we officially changed our name to Fandom Forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already rising tide of disinformation campaigns and fear-based, ultra conservative leaders whose message is grounded in white supremacy and oppression of people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ people. It's an onslaught that has led the United States and much of the world to high levels of division, disinformation, and trauma. We desperately need a revitalization of civic imagination, and we know fan activism can rise to this challenge.
The stories we love bring us together, but the story of our world? That's up to us.

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For over 15 years we've turned fans into heroes as The Harry Potter Alliance. Now we're entering a new era as Fandom Forward. The Harry Potter Alliance was founded with a simple idea: what if fans used their passion and creativity to make the world a more loving, equitable place?

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Look at what waronwant.org are doing to promote human rights and fight poverty. Join the cause and help the fight against global inequality.

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Look at what waronwant.org are doing to promote human rights and fight poverty. Join the cause and help the fight against global inequality.

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https://waronwant.org

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Take a look at Henry Jenkins Blog and read his vision for a more inclusive digital society. 

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Take a look at Henry Jenkins Blog and read his vision for a more inclusive digital society. 

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http://henryjenkins.org

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See how comedians are using their craft to raise awareness. Watch routines by Hasan Minhaj and Francesca Ramsey. Think about how comedy works as a critical device for society.

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See how comedians are using their craft to raise awareness. Watch routines by Hasan Minhaj and Francesca Ramsey. Think about how comedy works as a critical device for society.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSmibKMwHWI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUhbZdvtzcw

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"Well, That Escalated Quickly" with Franchesca Ramsey | Black America

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Every week we've been looking at the morning papers. Take a look at this mornings and see if you can spot the different choice of content and ideologies at play. Also look at the types of advertisers that use different publications and what that might say about the people who read them. Can you compare these to other examples from your own countries. 

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Every week we've been looking at the morning papers. Take a look at this mornings and see if you can spot the different choice of content and ideologies at play. Also look at the types of advertisers that use different publications and what that might say about the people who read them. Can you compare these to other examples from your own countries. 

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https://news.sky.com/story/mondays-national-newspaper-front-pages-12427754

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You can watch our Press Preview with broadcaster and political commentator Salma Shah, and columnist and broadcaster Steve Richards in the video above.

See you again on Monday night for a look at Tuesday's papers.

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You can watch our Press Preview with broadcaster and political commentator Salma Shah, and columnist and broadcaster Steve Richards in the video above. See you again on Monday night for a look at Tuesday's papers.