Your Own Media Consumption

• Where do you get your news from in a typical week?

• Note down EVERYTHING.

• Now try and rank these from MOST important to LEAST important to you

Local News

To understand the difference between local and global news.

To be able to relate this to global theory

Why is local news still so important to us?

• McMillin 2007

• The cultural and social implications of global market strategies are important. We must examine globalization processes from the ground, from the level of lived experiences.

Papers delighted as corporation scraps plans to deliver local news on the web

• Mark Sweney and Caitlin Fitzsimmons• The Guardian, Saturday 22 November 2008 • A controversial plan to create a £68m online video network of more

than 60 local BBC news websites was in effect scrapped yesterday. • Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, told the corporation's

management, led by the director general, Mark Thompson, that it would be better to concentrate on improving the quality of existing services.

• In a "public value test" the trust found that the rewards of such a BBC video network could not justify spending the licence fee funds or the "negative impact on commercial media". Separate scrutiny of the plans by the media watchdog Ofcom also found against them, finding they would have a "significant negative" on commercial rivals and could cost those businesses 4% of annual revenue.

Pressing problems

• While newspapers have seen off the threat of the BBC's £68m local video websites, their problems remain immense.

• Against a backdrop of falling advertising revenues and economic downturn, dozens of local papers have closed this year and many more are vulnerable.

• The BBC's plans were a concern - the Newspaper Society said the 65 proposed sites would have competed with about 100 websites of some of the UK's best-known papers.

• However, Richard Hitchcock, an analyst at Numis, said publishers were not as worried about the BBC plan as they were about the "bigger picture" of a "sustained cyclical consumer downturn on top of the major structural problems of the online migration of audiences and advertising".

• Enders Analysis estimates that UK newspaper ad revenues could fall by up to 21% next year and remain in decline for the "foreseeable future".

Cambridge News and Saffron Walden Reporter

• Who owns the newspapers?• Research particular story patterns on both the websites. • What needs does the local news fulfil? (refer to your

theories and think AUDIENCE)• What role does the local newspaper provide the local

community? (Ext – is there a difference between that and BBC/Al Jazeera)

• How do they make money?• What news do they prioritise over others? (give examples)• Has the internet been a help or hindrance to them? (give

examples)• How are the stories presented by the newspaper?

Extract from Media Trust• This solution can only be a positive for the wider media industry: the BBC’s recent

Strategy Review emphasised their commitment to becoming a “catalyst and connector” within the Public Space. It also spoke of making partnerships the BBC’s “default-setting” for most new activities. We have long believed the BBC should take positive action to increase the range of services, viewpoints and engagement accessible to communities and citizens. Consequently, we believe the BBC could play a vital role in setting up and resourcing such hubs – especially in mentoring and training staff, and promoting attachments and secondments. The BBC and the dominant commercial newspaper groups will all benefit from, in turn, being fed new energised news stories, revitalising their content through strong local competition.

• The importance of independence cannot be overstated. Media Trust is concerned about the emergence of Local Authority newspapers and ‘news’ websites. This direct control of the local news agenda is not only undemocratic but an unsustainable and ineffective use of taxpayers’ funds. This solution [creation of media hubs] puts local news back where it belongs: in the hands of local people.

• Along with match funding from local authorities (a small fraction of their current £450m* spend on communications), from Big Lottery and from local community foundations, the hubs would provide a new source of dynamic local news content, freely available to all media. They would drive the vision of the “Big Society”. They would hold local powers to account – the new GP fund-holders, local authorities, parent-run schools and post offices – and encourage local participation in decision-making and democracy. Transparency is meaningless without free and easy access to information and the means to test, challenge and debate it.

Return to your question

• What impact does the increase in global media have on media production?

• Now come up with some CONTRASTING points from before using LOCAL NEWS as your example.

Homework

What impact does the increase in global media have on media production?

Write the essay