Why is Big Data is important for Journalism?

News media through the use of specific computing methods to analyze big data can deepen the news narrative and make accurate judgments on the facts, make predictions and reports on the future, meet the user’s customized information requirements, make the data visualization and interactive. Lewis & Westlund (2014) deem that with the evolving of big data will have a significant influence on journalism’s way of convergence and delivering information.

Driven by big data, various media organizations have set up data news departments to meet new opportunities and challenges. Research on data journalism is also growing. When news media collide with big data, the understanding that has been formed first is that big data provides the news media with information that is not the final result, but a clue to finding results.

Support effective crawling of tens of thousands of news per day

Quickly and accurately track and collect thousands of online media information, expand news clues, increase collection speeds, and ultimately acquire pages that need to was collected. There are few omissions, and the integrity of web page collection content is over 99%.

Support intelligent extraction and review of required content

News media sites use big data platforms and technologies to enable journalists and related data analysts to more quickly, timely, and accurately intelligently extract and review data, save on the cost of reporting, and receive more significant attention. Provide the most timely news reports to the audience.

Quickly populate lots of news data information.

In the context of content affecting the amount of news media readings, coupled with the limited attention of people, it determines that users will only choose useful information content according to their habits and preferences. Then the news media adopts big data technology to make up for this. On the one hand, we can quickly have a significant amount of news and data information, and at the same time we can classify people according to their preferences, and filter out content with high attention to filing reports.

Realize the integration of Internet information content collection, browsing, editing, management, and release

Faced with the massive amount of information on the Internet, news media are eager to obtain valuable news information from themselves. It is vital that this information be easily and quickly available. If the original manual collection method is adopted, it is time-consuming and labour-intensive and inefficient. In the face of more and more information resources, labour intensity and difficulty can be imagined. Therefore, news media sites use big data platforms and technologies to achieve the integration of Internet content collection, browsing, editing, management, and publishing.

 

Reference:

Seth C. Lewis & Oscar Westlund (2015) Big Data and Journalism, Digital Journalism, 3:3, 447-466, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2014.976418

 

 

Why the Webcast become more popular now?

What is the difference between webcasts and other video content?
1. Real-time capability
2. Audience participation.
3. Diversification.

1. Real-time capability

The essential characteristic of webcasts is real-time capability. Live broadcast means that it is not edited. Thus, all the information is first-hand, unpredictable and consistent. The audience hopes to obtain the real message of events or a program. It’s similar to why the people are more interested in gossip news. Because of the people consider that the gossip news is more close to the fact.

2. Audience participation.

Through webcast, the audience can do what you can’t do in real life. Because of webcast eliminate the distance between the anchorman and audience. For example, the viewer can stand in the home and enjoy in a music festival.

3. Diversification.
From the earliest meet the single needs of some users to the present all kinds of development, everything. Why the Internet broadcast will be self-evident.

Why do people listen to the radio? Why do people watch TV shows? Why do people look at variety shows? Why do people listen to experts? When the webcast covers all the media content, it’s hard to fire.

Here’s How Big Data is Changing Business Model

What is big data? There have been a large number of books introduced, in short, through the collection and analysis of the big data of customer’s behaviour, the company can get useful information from it.

In fact, the basic principles and operation methods of big data are not so complicated. On the beginning when computer technology was not yet so advanced, it has already appeared in other ways. For example, in the absence of the concept of big data, street vendor hawkers already knew its essence. If it was a hawker selling umbrellas, they might pay attention to the weather forecast before they could make money when it rained.

The car rental company Hertz operates in hundreds of countries around the world. They receive tens of thousands of customer consultations every day. It does not include many of customer feedback from online sources such as questionnaires, e-mails, and text messages. However, by using the big data, they not only reduce the time needed to process customer responses but they also successfully extract information that was previously unavailable. Tarleton (2010) states that “the content providers are positioning themselves to users, clients, advertisers and policymakers, making strategic claims for what they do and do not do.”

For example, they found out from the data that at Christmas time, many people would fly home from New York, and relatively speaking, the demand for car rental in New York would be reduced so much that they would be able to distribute the car from New York more accurately according to the distribution of past information. Everywhere, improve customer usage. If there is no data to prove, who would dare to move the car from a densely populated New York City to a less populous township?

Overall, in the application of big data, data materials are the most important assets. In the early stage, the company always focus on collecting user’s data instead of focusing on the current profit, until the successful conversion of the data into useful information. After that, it successfully seized the user’s habits and preferences and became the market leader.

Reference:

Tarleton, G. (2010). The politics of ‘platforms’. New Media & Society, 348. doi: 10.1177/1461444809342738

Open/Closed Culture, which one can match human’s demand in the future.

Open/Close culture is a general concept which practices in the various field. Open culture can be defined as a concept which knowledge should be delivered free and without limitation by rules and laws. Meanwhile, Benjamin (2016) added that Open culture can promote transparency and social inclusiveness. The result is all people should have equal opportunities to receive.

If we can understand the open culture, the Close culture is more easy to study. Robert (2015) states that because of religious, ethnic, or political nature, an organization/culture intentionally limits links with outsiders and outside communities. close culture is an isolated system which has a less communication with the external environment. 

Here is a particular example, IOS and Android. One is open and the other is close. I mention that there is an interesting point in our daily life. Some of the mobile game, the IOS user could not play together with Android’s user. That’s a real example of the gap between the open culture and close culture. 

People always thinking about which kind of culture is better. In 1985, there is a patent war on 2-cycle gasoline engine in the U.S. Then, Wiki came online in 2001. Then is Apple, as the Jobs opinion, we think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.

No matter is open culture or closed culture, it has its own advantages. For open culture, Innovation, heterogeneity and diversity. Equality of chances and transparency. For closed culture, Homogeneity of interests and consensus, Stability, Security, order and control, Individuality, autonomy and competitiveness, Compliance and free from mistakes. So which one is can match the human’s demand, that’s always a question.

 

Reference:

Goggin, G. (2012). Google phone rising: The Android and the politics of open source. Continuum, 26(5), pp.741-752.

Powell, A. (2015). Open culture and innovation: integrating knowledge across boundaries. Media, Culture & Society, 37(3), pp.376-393.

Benjamin J. Birkinbine.  (2016). Free Software as Public Service in Brazil:An Assessment of Activism, Policy, and Technology  Continuum. International Journal of Communication,pp.3893–3908.

Wuthnow, Robert.  (2013). Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future. Princeton University Press.

The filter bubble is changing our judgment.

Every day we are receiving the information from the news website, social media, and Google. Usually, we do not have a particular topic and to search the related information to read. We pick up our smartphones and click on our favorite website or click on what looks interesting. What else, we look at the Twitter or WeChat movement to see what your friends are sharing.

But did you know there is a complicated algorithmic system behind your screen? We call it Filter Bubble.

Hallinan and Striphas (2014) define algorithmic as the ‘use of computational processes to sort, classify, and hierarchize people, places, objects, and ideas, and also the habits of thought, conduct, and expression that arise about those processes’

To put it simply, based on algorithmic, the media platform can guess what information an audience would like to read. For example, when you always search shoes on eBay. Then, when you were surfing in the Instagram, some advertisement of shoes will appear. 

That does not sound bad, right?

But let’s dig deeper into this phenomenon. Many media platforms offer personalized content based on our characteristics. The result is all the opinion of an article and post is same with us. We will think that all over the world have the same opinion, and we forget that other perspectives exist.

For example, in 2016 U.S. persistent election, Donald Trump credited his social networking accounts for leading him to victory. When all your friends around you who are supporting Donald Trump. The result is most information you get from media platforms is about Donald Trump’s political view. 

One of the great problems with filters bubble is audience tendency to consider that all we see is real.  As the words by Carah (2016), filters bubble is an open-ended and responsive phenomenon. The more audience engages with the brand, the more the brand can use algorithms to attune itself to their identities.

Reference:

Carah, N. (2016). Algorithmic brands: A decade of brand experiments with mobile and social media. New Media & Society, 19(3), pp.384-400. 

Hallinan, B. and Striphas, T. (2014). Recommended for you: The Netflix Prize and the production of algorithmic culture. New Media & Society, 18(1), pp.117-137.

 

Why the brands to keep authenticity is important in a digital age?

Whatever the size of the business, ‘authenticity’ is always an important aspect in today’s digital age. The Journal of Consumer Psychology defines it as the consumers can feel that the brand is true to its consumers, and able to bear enterprise responsible and support consumers in being true to themselves.

This definition is entirely academic. Put it simply, brands authenticity means to be honest. For example, a restaurant put a glass wall in the kitchen to shows their layer transparency and integrity of cleaning. That’s authenticity.

Earlier, brands are like a producer of symbolic mediascapes and as essential actors in the creation of the material infrastructure. Brands, consumers’ perception, and firm’s input are like a one-way circulation. But now, something is changing. Successful brands could not live without a good authenticity aspect, especially in digital age. The main characteristic of contemporary media is that the brands and consumers have an equity right of communication. Cunningham & Craig explain that enough data is showing the Millennials are not so easily swayed by traditional push marketing techniques. Meanwhile, According to Holt’s word, “post-modern consumers value brands more if they are offered not as cultural blueprints, but rather as cultural resources.”

Inauthenticity will have a strong negative influence on a brand. For example, when United Airlines were facing the event of a passenger being dragged off. The enterprise publishes two different announcements in 24 hours. Those two different announcement is not only contradicted but also create distrust among the public.

Building brand authenticity is the reason why people want a reason to care.

Reference:

Cunningham, S. and Craig, D. (2017). Being ‘really real’ on YouTube: authenticity, community and brand culture in social media entertainment. Media International Australia, 164(1), pp.71-81. 

Holt, D. (2002). Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), pp.70-90.

Why is the Fake News more popular now?

Thousands of fake news appear in our daily life, especially in the online social media and news website. Meanwhile, I find that sometimes the fake news is more popular than the real news. It is a really interesting phenomenon. Personally, I consider that there are two reasons to leading this phenomenon.

 

Firstly, with the development of online media and communication technology, the way of public accessed news has a big difference than before. According to Mitchell research in 2016, there is only 12 percent of U.S. adults read the news online 20 years ago. But now, it’s 81 percent people prefer accessed news from their smartphone and laptop. Mitchell (2016) explains that news is still an important part of public life, but the delivery channel of news has an obviously changed in last ten years. So, under the current online news and social media, fake news has a quickly and conveniently way to delivery. Sender can easily to post, receiver is more easily to accessed.

 

Secondly, this current craving for fake news maybe is a historical culture. The social media know that what kind of news can attract the audience to click into their post. So the media platform prefers to create the sensational headline or fake new to attract the audience. What’s more, young people just spend little time for introspection. Meanwhile, people like to read so gossip news. So, that is one of the important reason to lead the fake news more popular now.

 

Luckily, there are more and more social media such as Facebook is starting to build a censor system which use to ban the fake news. But it is still have a far way to go.

Fans Activism survival in Chinese Internet

Because of the expansion of culture and the advance of internet technologies in China. A group of people -Fans- were appear in diversity Chinese internet platform.

In the early academic paper, the “Fan” is not an appreciative word. Sandvoss (2005) explains that the “Fans” used to be represented as crazy, dangerous, irritable, and solidarity. What’s more, Jenson (1992) noted that in the traditional media, the “Fans” always notion as pathologies and psychologically defunct.

Now, however, everything has changed. Since the birth of new media, the role of the audience has changed. The fans are not only a receiver but also a sender. Some of the loyal and active fans prefer to share their emotion toward idol with their peers. And the other would like to share the expert knowledge and skill voluntarily, such as Zhīhū and online translation communities. Meanwhile, those user-generated content is in turn affecting mass media corporations and global audiences.

In China, the user-generated content is legal or not is always a confusing.  “China owns the most sophisticated multi-layered and self-censoring structure of the internet in the world” (Meng, 2011, p.6). Therefore, it can ensure the popular culture is still subject to state control.

But, OGC wanna legal in China still has a far away to go. In 2013, lots of OGC service platform, such as Renren Video(online translation communities) were ban by Chinese censor department.

OGC should have been a democratic media platform. If OGN always under the government supervise. It will lose its activity and creativity. So how the OGN can survive in Chinese internet is worthy of study

Reference:

Sandvoss, C. (2005). Fans: The mirror of consumption. Oxford: Polity.

Jenson, J. (1992). Fandom as pathology: The consequences of characterization. In L.A. Lewis (Ed.), The adoring audience: Fan culture and popular media (pp. 9–29). London: Routledge.

Meng, B. (2011). From Steamed Bun to Grass Mud Horse: E Gao as alternative political discourse on the Chinese Internet. Global Media and Communication, 7, 33–51.

Digital Divides: Why there are still some buy the Movie Ticket at​ the Box Office

We all know that buy a movie ticket online is cheaper than the box office. But why there are still some guys will buy it at the box office?

We all know that booking your flight via the smartphone’s apps is the most convenient way. But why there are still some people will book it at the store?

Photograph  by Mahindra Comviva

Above phenomenon can be summed up in two words: Digital Divide. What’s Digital Divides? Norris (2001) explains that the different gender, regions, living environment, economic level, and country inequality will lead the regard to access to, use of, or impact of information and communication technologies.

Some young people are surprised about this phenomenon. They think to buy a movie ticket is quite easy. Just follow the guide and click some button on your cell.

Unfortunately, there are still half people don’t know how to buy anything online. You are the other half. For example in China, there are 43% of train tickets were booked online but not pay successfully. Meanwhile, there are 47% people couldn’t buy the train ticket on the counter because it is sold out.

Photograph  by Visual  Chian

Another example is from American. Sesame Street is an American educational children’s television series. One of the basic goals of publishing this program is wanna all family’s (Poor or Rich) Children can gain an elementary education. But some scholars find that there are just a small group of children from the low-income family will watch this TV show.

But one telling fact as Rubin (2010) points out that the internet use and income has a positive relationship. On the other words is the economic level is still the most significant resistance to lead digital divide.

Luckily, the global smartphone penetration of over 95%, it can obviously weaken the digital divide. It is a good trend. With the development of internet and technology, all people can have an equal platform to gain the information.

 

Reference:

Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide Archived 2009-10-24 at the Wayback Machine. Cambridge University Press. 

Rubin, R.E. (2010). Foundations of library and information science. 178-179. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

“Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012”, International Telecommunications Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013

Hilbert, Martin (2013). “Technological information inequality as an incessantly moving target: The redistribution of information and communication capacities between 1986 and 2010” (PDF). Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 65: 821–835. doi:10.1002/asi.23020.

Compaine, B.M. (2001). The digital divide: Facing a crisis or creating a myth? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

 

The Vanished Winnie the Pooh

As the internet developed, “CONVERGENCE” grew into a buzzword.

The interaction between new and traditional media was increasingly conducted in this interactive convergence media environment. For example, after at the tap of a button. You can get the food you want from the restaurants you love, delivered via Uber Eat.

Jenkins (2008) argues that the Internet is serving up convergence media more efficiently than the traditional platform. But kinds of elements such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and interests splinter the internet (The Economist, 2010).

And here I have to mention The Chinese internet because it is so particularly. Even many consider this as the Internet in China but not The Chinese Internet.

Chinese media has a well-known saying: ” There are two countries are unable to use Google, one is North Korea and the other one country.”

For political reasons, China has established a “Great Firewall” which use to ban those negative information. So in China, some sensitive words you can’t seek via the search engine. It calls Chinese ban words.

Winnie the Pooh was banned in Chinese media. Since 2013, Winnie the Pooh has become a unique symbol to represent Mr Xi. Because of some Chinese netizens mentioned that the photo of Mr Xi walking next to Former US President Barack Obama looked a lot like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. China’s censors will not tolerate ridicule of the country’s leader; even the Chinese netizens are not malicious.

The Chinese Internet has numerous restrictions because of the reasons of politics. As Yang (2012) mentioned that but it does not mean that the Chinese Internet does not have global features. It just has assumed distinctly Chinese characteristics.

Reference:                                                                                                                                               1. Jenkins, H. (2008). Convergence culture. New York: New York University Press.                 2. The Economist. (2010). A virtual counter-revolution. [online] Available at: https://www.economist.com/node/16941635 [Accessed 2 Sep. 2010].                                 3.Yang, G. (2012). A Chinese Internet? History, practice, and globalization. Chinese Journal of Communication, 5(1), pp.49-54.