Media In The United States of America

Though the USA likes to pride itself of on it's freedom, in the media industry there is little for those wanting to expose the truth. The USA should be an ideal place to be able to report truth, but as many have found, (Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julien Assange.) it really is not.

Through my research I discovered the USA's media market is a place for the rich and the ruthless rather than the adventurous and brave. The main stay of the market is gobbled up by under ten huge corporations, vertically integrated as to cut out excess costs. In terms all this does is drive business' who have fought for years to keep their name in the game to bankruptcy. Lovefilm, a revolutionary platform of watching media was driven out of business by the corporations creating their own platforms, rather than working with Lovefilm. When Lovefilm did go bankrupt, Amazon swept in to take the royalties and assets.

The news division of the media is concise. The majority of main stream news is owned at the top by a huge corporation who can plough their own agenda through these platforms they now own. Fox news is a staggering example of this. Fox produces a strange right wing format of programming with little care for factual accuracies and peoples feelings. Instead of host an intelligible debate, Fox prove their points by overloading the studio with 'experts' who share the same agenda as fox and ganging up on the one guest who doesn't. It teaches any Children watching that the way to win an important argument is to lie and to shout.

This is killing the roots of the journalism profession in America. Investigative journalism is becoming harder to practice, and less desirable to practice. Local news is filled with garbage stories aimed for who exactly, no one knows. Country-wide news is essentially a shouting match with little important being discussed. This leaves America in a scary position, the youth who will be soon to vote will know essentially nothing about politics or on how to make an informed decision on how to vote.

The examples of whistleblowers over such recent times show us that America is not a place of freedom. Especially if you wish to expose the truth when it is morally right to do so. The lesson this displays to the rest of the world from such an influential power is terrible.

Unfortunately these problems stem from the USA's reluctance to govern how much of the market can be owned by one singular company. There is little alternative view available on television or radio, but the internet has helped over the last fifteen years in a resurgence of alternate media. I plan to explore how alternate media can survive in the modern US media market and world-wide. 

Below are the accompanying slides from my presentation.

Media in France

France has one of the largest populations in Europe with around 66 million people living in the republic [1]. The capital city, Paris, is in fact the 5th most populated city in Europe [7], while also ranking 6th in ‘Top 10 Richest Cities In The World 2013’ [8]. Furthermore, as of the 2012 May elections, the current President of the country is the ‘Socialist Party’ leader François Hollande. One of the most interesting concepts around the electoral system in France is their unique governing system implicated; the elected President appoints a Prime minister (in this case Manuel Valls), with who they will share their granted executive powers with [along with the cabinet]. This system is referred to as ‘semi-presidential’ governing and is only used in 28 countries around the world including Russia.

Semi-presidential system countries [http://chartsbin.com/view/12813]

Though currently the French media is not strictly regulated by the government, there are laws that prohibit certain aspects of the constitutional right to ‘freedom of speech’. These prohibitions are essentially when one infringes another individuals right or promotes hate upon a particular "ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion" [9]. Therefore, much like the American constitution amendments and laws have been passed, e.g. Gayssot Act. Furthermore, the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel) are in fact a regulatory body that deals with electronic sources of media violation (TV and radio mainly). They are often an advisory body, but can be the cause of censorship.

According to figures, the French Media industry is responsible for around 14.8% of Europe’s total industry valuation. Unsurprisingly, France’s media worth is set to rise by 11.6% from $40.4 billion to $45.4 billion by 2018. 

Much of the French media is dominated by broadcast & cable TV and the publishing sector (41.4% + 41.1%), together responsible for 82.5% of the market [2]. This kind of domination has resulted in huge media companies making a large profit, for example ‘Vivendi’; the biggest entertainment organisation in France. The revenue for this particular company was $27.44 billion in 2013 [4]. 

Figures showing decline in revenue for Vivendi
[http://www.statista.com/statistics/194506/global-revenue-of-vivendi-since-2006/]

However, recently figures suggest that the media companies revenue has decreased meaning that sales within the media has. Since 2010 Vivendi has lost around $6.7 billion of annual revenue [4]. These declining figures tend to be consistent throughout the media in France, with ‘Le Figaro’, the largest national selling newspaper, supporting the trend recently having their worst circulation figure of the last decade [330,952 compared to 366,690].

Essentially, the cause of these declines throughout the French media could be due to the recent technological advances that have exploited new platform’s undermining the media’s use. The internet is beginning to present opportunities that are easier and faster than what the media can produce. Simplifying it; the internet has a huge penetration and accessibility in comparison to the media and in particular news organisations. France has a internet penetration rate of 83.3%, which is larger percentage than any French newspaper currently has [10]. 

In conclusion the media organisations within France have begun to acknowledge illegal piracy and the huge accessibility the internet offers to the public. Therefore, much like Facebook has done (harnessed the power accessibility offers, evident in 25.5 million people having accounts on Facebook in France) the media has now switched focus to online content. 

Norway and the Media

Despite not being a member of the European Union, Norway is situated in Northern Europe. Its capital city is Oslo and, for a fairly large country, it has a small population. It sits at just 5,136,700 - in comparison, the UK is half the size in terms of landmass and has a population of 64,000,000. Norway has a monarchy - King Harald 5th is the current sovereign - although, much like the UK, its government is tasked with the running of the country, and its laws are made in parliament. Ranked as the most prosperous country in the world [1], for six years running, it also has one of the lowest unemployment rates, with just 2.6% of its people not working.

Norway [ picture taken from http://www.pointsandtravel.com/]

Norway is not only one of the best places to live, it's one of the best places to be a journalist. In the 2014 Reporters Without Borders [2] report, which charts press freedom worldwide, Norway ranked 3rd, placing only behind Finland and Holland. It's a country that takes its media freedom - both for journalists, and from journalists - very seriously. The Norwegian Media Authority is the watchdog, tasked with keeping the country's media in line. Additionally, most of the country's publications are signed up to the PFU, the Norwegian Press Complaints Committee, which is a set of editorial guidelines much akin to the UK's newly-implemented IPSO.

Press Freedom Map [picture taken from http://rsf.org/]

In terms of printed media, Norway has a wide variety of newspapers [3], ranging from the tiny Osterdolen (circulation of 826) to the country's largest publication, the Aftenposten (circulation of 214, 026). It even has a small number of Sami-only newspapers, printed in the language of the country's indigenous people. The government offers a lot of assistance - it hands out production grants, with more money being allocated to the bigger papers, and doesn't tax the papers' publication. Like most other countries, newspaper sales are falling - in 2003, the tabloid Verdens Gang reported a circulation of 380,000, and in 2013 its circulation was just over half that, coming in at 164,430.

This decline is indicative of the general shift to online news. Norway is ranked 5th in the world for smartphone usage [4], and many people are choosing to access new on the go as opposed to purchasing a paper. Many publishers have successfully gone online, with some discontinuing their printed editions. There are even some highly successful online-only news outlets - the Oslo Times is Norway's most popular news source, of all the printed and online publications.

Norwegian newspaper stand [picture taken from http://i.usatoday.net/news/]

Television in Norway is also hugely popular, with many popular channels on air. The NRK, effectively Norway's BBC, owns most of the more popular ones, with NRK 1, 2 and 3 enjoying 42% of the total viewership in 2012. Programs are often aired in English, with Norwegian subtitles, given that English is the main language for most of the population. Norwegian TV is kept in line by a strict set of regulations - for example, adverts selling products to children and adverts seeking to politically influence people are explicitly illegal.

Other forms of media, such as radio and social media platforms, also enjoy a large amount of success in Norway [5]. The country's Facebook penetration - the population-to-user ratio - is the highest in the world, at 61.1%. Additionally, LinkedIn, widely considered the best platform for journalists to publish on, is among the top in terms of usage, with its 25% considerably higher than most other countries (the UK only has 9% penetration). This demonstrates Norway's thriving media culture, with many of the more blogging-orientated sites seeing more use than those of a social nature.

Social media conference [http://www.marismith.com/]

Media, of all forms, is thriving in a country which is enjoying considerable success in most areas. Online growth is likely to continue, and, with newspaper sales evening out, the print press might see gains in the near future. It may even rise to second or third on the Freedom Index, as it has seen more growth in recent year than either of the top two. It would seem that the future is bright, for not only the writers and media, but Norwegians of all kinds.

______________________________________________________________________________

[1] Guardian, European countries dominate in global prosperity rankings
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/nov/03/european-countries-dominate-in-global-prosperity-rankings

[2] Reporters Without Borders, 2014 Press Freedom Index
http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php

[3] Circulation of Norwegian newspapers
http://medienorge.uib.no/english/?cat=statistikk&medium=avis&queryID=190

[4] Google, Mobile Planet
http://think.withgoogle.com/mobileplanet/en/

[5] Social Users in Norway smile for Snapchat and Instagram
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Users-Norway-Smile-Snapchat-Instagram/1010534

Media in Somalia

Media in Somalia 

Somalia, a country in Africa with the capital, Mogadishu. Mogadishu has been bearing scars of decades of fighting. The country has been usually involved in civil war. It is comprised of a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia was created in 1960 when the two territories merged. Since then its development has been slow.

The region remains flawless with no effective administration or institution in place.

Federal government of Somalia, the first permanent central government was formed in the start of the civil war but due to the absence of power residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution consisting of civil, religious and customary laws.

The main few regions in Somalia are: - Somaliland , Puntland and Galmudug who emerged for the process of decentralization. Radical group such as Al-Shabaab battled with the groups for the control over the country. 

The media environment in Somalia varies significantly from region-to-region, with different conditions in the unstable parts of Somalia. 

Somalia’s new provisional federal constitution, adopted by the National Constituent Assembly in August 2012, provides, Freedom of Speech. However due to violence in the country, journalist face restrictions on the reporting in practice. No freedom of information to guarantee access. Many cases are resolved outside the court either according to Xeer (customary law) or Islamic law. 

Somalia is considered having the most literate in Africa anda country where power has overtime been abused more constantly. Media has been used and misused; often to manipulate, control and inflame tension, hate and conflict. This shows the media’s role in shaping Somalia’s present and future. 

Without a central government since 1991; making it the longest running instance of complete state collapse in postcolonial history. This development is been driven by the evolving role of business groups, traditional authorities and civic groups.

Al-Shabaab means the youth and has been banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK They are building a media empire and creation chaos in Kenya. Though they use social media; they have been a group always against and killing journalist and shutting down the media outlets in Somalia.

The Somali government recently shutdown two independent radio stations, accusing them of inciting violence among Somali’s. 

Latest news from the BBC – Blast near airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, linked to the Al-Shabaab. 

Journalists in all regions receive no or low pay. Many media outlets prefer to hire cheaper, less skilled workers the ones who ask for more pay are threat to be replaced.

At least six journalist and media workers killed this year with continuing reports of further targeting and harassment.

No doubt; journalism is in deep trouble in Somalia along with the media; but this is one of the country where journalist have risked or resisted more in the face of appalling attacks. Many people fled but they still have a large number and some even say that they would rather die defending the freedom of Somali media.

Training on human rights, good governance and to fight forthe truth and being the right source for the people. 

Journalist need to learn their rights because some of the media owners do not know the laws of media and some of the journalist don’t know the ethics of journalism and thus people have faith that one day this country will be a land of opportunities.