Research- We media and its contents

Throughout the duration of my holiday I had to independently find information on the locally sourced media whether through social media, newspapers, other internet sources or verbally through conversation or gossip then rate them on their reliability and their origins and whether it is dependable or plausible if not made up by “trolls”. Most sources of intelligence of current affairs are skewed by personal opinion as the sharing of media becomes more democratic, this is called “we media” or "new media" as anyone is now able to post their own stories and allowed to express their opinion this means the quality credibility and reliability of said information can be uncertain, leading to virtually all news to be distrusted or in some cases not at all, such as believed in the eyes of the consume and the consumer can also be a producer leading to Tapscott and Williams theory of "Prosumers" such as citizen journalists. This can be seen in current daily events that go fairly unnoticed in the democratic sense such as YouTube which allows the free exchange of ideas news thoughts and entertainment and poll shows like most recognised the x-factor where the audience themselves decide the round winners.

 However there are major issues as people who have greater influence over the media such as Rupert Murdock owner of "Sky", "The Sun", "The Times" and finally the "Press Association" who is causing the network to, in a sense become less democratic as he control's a large majority of media as a "Big media" conglomerate . He has openly stated he can decide elections due to the fact that his opinion can be used to shape stories to have views that lean towards his ideals, his conglomerates subsidiaries would have no say in the matter but to print or display it almost giving his power a aerie propaganda feel. For example political views or opinion on migrants. This would be posted in an array of media outlets which is a rather scary and controversial though to believe that no one man has so much power and influence over peoples decisions. Even though our current free flow of ideas in our more democratic media system allows the expression of the opinions in the populous, it can be untrustworthy or purely subjective and allow people such as Murdock to gain more influence than others. By having the UK's BBC even though part of the "big media" category is a supposedly political and unbiased stature on opinions the BBC allows more reliable news feed than the newspaper or internet by having no connection or obligations to outside or opposing parties. The only politicians to openly criticise Murdock was Ed Miliband, and virtually all media shows how terrible he is so the question is who should we really believe?

I found four main pieces of info from 3 different sources this listed as first of all That a blue whale was spotted in the south coast of the UK, and came across this information when told by a friend, although the source of the information isn't necessarily a solid piece of evidence to its truth as i don't know where they acquired it from. There is very little reason for a story such as this to be fiction and no direct profits or effects to be made by even altering the story and cannot be subjective. However stories such as "man dies after cops refuse lift" is, this is because of the current Zeitgeist of hate for the police force this story could easily be manufactured or simply warped to portrait negative views, as its origin is from a local newspaper there is a chance its fabricated with no eye witnesses or statements, and if so it's had to identify if what they state is the truth. So for stories such as this that are hard for the public to believe. newspaper companies above all other media conventions seem to be battle, their opinions especially political with most having a very open generalised low brow highbrow views these would include guardian, the Sun or the Daily mail, and the paper considered for proletariat consumers stereotypically supporting the left wing parties such as labour wile vice versa bourgeois consumers papers such as the independent are stereotypically aimed at the right wing conservative parties. However currently the media of print papers are becoming obsolete some tabloid news companies even going entirely online due to the decreasing number of consumers.

Research: most famous album covers

The Beatles “Abbey Road” album cover is one of the most iconic images of the four current members of the Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and George Harrison Walking in a line over a zebra crossing in Abbey Road the theme for the cover is of funeral symbolism due to the themed clothing John Lennon is white that of a Preacher Ringo Star clad in black as the mourner, Paul McCartney wearing an old suit barefoot possibly depicting the dead finally George Harrison wearing tattered jeans and a shirt, to represent the grave digger. Besides the obvious appearance from further in depth research particularly from the daily mail’s online news feed there are smaller less noticeable indicators of death such as the cigarette in the "corpses" hand.

Nirvana’s never mind is another well-known album covers featuring a baby in a clear pool presumed to be chasing a dollar note, this has many symbolic messages to the image that gained its fame, such as the hinted iconography that perhaps everyone is helpless to money and controlled by it while also it could show the dangers that money brings, as the baby would die in this kind of situation. this suggest they're music to have a very anti-society feel while not coming across as a more "rebel" "teenage" kind of music that became popular around that era like Britney Spears. Additionally Kurt Cobain often had darker imagery and lyrics which is shown by the obviously life threatened baby in the  water so at the same time it reflects and stays true to his own perspective instead of being commercialised.

We will take lengthy consideration into these two album covers as they will help inspire us for our CD covers in both the preliminary and main task and show us that the albums can have a significant meaning through simple images which we will hope we can incorporate the theory into our own.