Alcohol adverts seen ‘almost once a minute’ during Euro 2016 games

Football supporters watching the England and Wales matches during the group stages of Euro 2016 saw alcohol marketing almost once a minute during game play, a charity has said. With French laws banning alcohol sponsorship of sporting events and alcohol advertising on television, the Euro 2016 sponsor Carlsberg replaced its brand name on pitch-side digital boards with one of its well-known slogans, in the brand’s font, Alcohol Concern said.
mediaGuardian 27/6/2016
Read More…

Facebook and YouTube ‘automatically block extremist videos’

Some of the web’s biggest destinations for watching videos have quietly started using automation to remove extremist content from their sites, according to two people familiar with the process. The move is a major step forward for internet companies that are eager to eradicate violent propaganda from their sites and are under pressure to do so from governments around the world as attacks by extremists proliferate, from Syria to Belgium and the United States.

YouTube and Facebook are among the sites deploying systems to block or rapidly take down Islamic State videos and other similar material, the sources said.
Telegraph 27/6/2016
Read More…

Will there be any good news for the BBC, C4 and the press after Brexit?

Will the BBC be forced to drop the first word of its name? Will more newspapers have to close as a result of the forthcoming advertising decline? And will people ever believe the media again? 

At the time of writing, the UK was a country divided, with a government in turmoil and an economy expected to go into freefall. Any future government is expected to be mired in questions for years to come about how exactly the UK exits from the European Union and answers about the impact on advertising, the press and broadcasting are a long way away. Yet there are clearly potentially grave consequences of Brexit for the media.
mediaGuardian 26/6/0216
Read More…

Why Miss GB’s tawdry TV sex ‘is just a new reality show low’

Reality TV was accused of hitting a new low today as former Miss Great Britain Zara Holland admitted having sex on screen was the biggest mistake of her life. Zara, 20, was stripped of her title last week after sleeping with co-star Alex Bowen on the ITV2 programme.

And on Channel 5’s Big Brother, Marco Pierre White Jr said he “did not regret” his actions after engaging in X-rated antics with Laura Carter, including asking her to choke him with a belt while she straddled him.

Today Pauline Webborn, of campaign group Mediawatch UK, said: “Reality TV has reached a new low. We know these programmes are popular with teenagers. Parents, teachers and social workers are all concerned about the sexualisation of children and we need broadcasters to take more responsibility for what is shown on programmes that attract this younger audience.”

Watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into Big Brother after receiving 634 complaints about inappropriate sex scenes. It has received 10 complaints about sex, swearing and smoking on Love Island and is assessing them before deciding whether to investigate.
ExpressOnLine 23/6/2016
Read More…

‘Insidious’ tech firms must protect children online

Leading children’s rights campaigner Beeban Kidron has labelled technology companies “insidious” for putting freedom of expression above the need to protect young people from abuse online.
The Guardian 21/6/2016
Read more…

Instagram users top 500 million

There are now half a billion active users on the photo-sharing app Instagram, the company has said, and more than 300 million people use it at least once a day, according to a story on the BBC News website.
BBC News Online 21/6/2016
Read more…

Facebook leads the way against cyberbullying, but others need to follow

This week Prince William joined the ranks of the tech-savvy royals when he attended Founders Forum, an invitation-only event for tech founders. Surrounded by the heads of Google, Facebook and Twitter, the Duke of Cambridge surprisingly picked a buzzword-free topic usually avoided at self-congratulatory events like these: cyberbullying.

The Prince said he had become “alarmed” by the rise of cyber trolls, particularly since becoming a parent, and called on social media giants to tackle bullying more actively. As a parent, he said, he was appalled at the news of teenage suicides and eating disorders borne out of online cruelty.
Telegraph 19/6/2016
Read more…

Channel 4 News barred from ‘oversubscribed’ Brexit rally

The official Brexit campaign excluded Channel 4 News from its rally on Sunday amid complaints from its chief spin doctor that he was unhappy with the tone of the programme’s coverage.
Guardian 19/6/2016
Read more…

ITV should make more current affairs content, says Puttnam inquiry

ITV should be required to make more current affairs programming in return for increased support from regulators, according to an influential inquiry into the future of broadcasting in the UK.
Guardian 14/6/2016
Read more…

Facebook’s rise as news source hits publishers’ revenues

People are increasingly heading to social media such as Facebook for news, making it more difficult for publishers to attract and make money from readers, according to an influential new report.
Guardian 15/6/2016
Read more…

Pornography ‘desensitising young people’

Most children are exposed to online pornography by their early teenage years, a study warns. About 53% of 11- to 16-year-olds have seen explicit material online, nearly all of whom (94%) had seen it by 14, the Middlesex University study says.
BBC News 15/6/2016
Read more…

Will Netflix really steal traditional TV’s crown?

The streaming service claims its impressive growth spells doom for its rivals – but it may be less revolutionary than it thinks, writes Steve Hewlett in the Guardian.
The Guardian 14/6/2016
Read more…

Is tech addiction making us far more stressed at work?

The ‘always on’ internet culture is making us more stressed at work, according to a report by BBC News. Companies are increasingly resorting to drastic measures such as restricting access to internet and email outside of office hours.
BBC News 14/6/2016
Read more…

Most 18-year-olds say young people at risk online, Unicef poll finds

Eight out of 10 18-year-olds worldwide believe young people are in danger of being sexually abused or taken advantage of online, a Unicef study suggests. The poll on unwanted sexual comments, harassment and bullying online was run by Ipsos, which interviewed more than 10,000 teenagers from 25 countries. More than half of respondents said their friends participated in risky behaviour while using the internet.

“The poll findings show just how real the risk of online abuse is for girls and boys,” said Unicef’s associate director of child protection, Cornelius Williams. “Globally, one in three internet users is a child.
Guardian 7/6/2016
Read more…

BBC urged to reject proposal to merge news operations

MPs have called on the BBC to reject a proposal to merge BBC News and BBC World News into one new 24-hour channel.
Guardian 7/6/2016
Read more…

Feminist pornographer wins right to reinstate sadomasochism website

A feminist pornographer has hailed a victory for freedom of expression after she won her appeal against an order that had forced her to take down a sadomasochism fetish website. Pandora Blake, from London, said she believed she was targeted by the Authority for Television on Demand (Atvod) watchdog because she spoke out publicly against rules on porn deemed “harmful to minors”. Now, after Ofcom ruled that Blake’s website, dreamsofspanking.com, did not fall under Atvod’s remit, she is free to reinstate its content.
Guardian 6/6/2016
Read More…

It’s lazy to blame video games for young men’s educational failures

Online video games are to blame for a decline in young men entering higher education. This is the neat claim made in a recent op-ed published by the Times under the subheading “The gender imbalance in higher education may not be as complicated as it looks”.

Emboldened by a recent report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, which found that boys were 10 times as likely to play collaborative online games than girls, the author repeats its assertion that “the gender gap in video gaming translates into a performance advantage for girls”. Not correlation, then, but grim causation: play video games, drop grades.
Guardian 6/6/2016
Read more…

Boy, 12, ‘died in his bedroom while playing online choking game

Karnel Haughton is thought to have lost consciousness and suffocated after taking part in a dangerous online craze. It is not clear whether he was playing alone or with others. The ‘game’ sees youngsters film themselves choking before posting the footage on the internet, not realising they can kill themselves or cause lasting damage.
MailOnline 6/6/2016
Read more…

Sex on the BBC is now more important than ever - but not for the reason you think

Fiona Vera-Gray, of the Centre for Gender Equal Media at Durham University, explains that it’s all part of a vicious cycle: “TV shows are becoming more sexualised because people are watching so much porn, they’re trying to keep up. So the mainstreaming of porn is influencing what’s on TV, but then what’s on TV goes back on Pornhub.”

What it all points to is a massive normalisation of porn. The lines between X-rated material and steamy scenes in a Sunday night period drama are now so blurred that it’s hard to know exactly what belongs on a 18+ website, and what should be given prime-time 9pm viewing slots.
Telegraph 5/6/2016
Read more…

Racy drama Versailles attracts 1.8m viewers – and just two complaints

BBC2’s lavish period drama Versailles, said to be the sexiest TV drama ever made, began with nearly 2 million viewers on BBC2 on Wednesday night – and prompted only a handful of complaints.
mediaGuardian 2/6/2016
Read more…

BBC’s Versailles dubbed ‘porn dressed up in a cravat and tights’

The BBC Two bonkbuster – dubbed the raunchiest show ever on British television – shocked viewers with a romp after just two minutes. Dubbed “porn dressed up in a cravat and tights”, the hotly anticipated 10-part drama featured seven sexual scenes in its first episode. The new costume drama is set in 17th-century France and tells the story of its womanising Sun King and his court in explicit detail.

However Sam Burnett, acting director of the TV standards pressure group Mediawatch UK, said yesterday: “Dressing up pornography and violence in a cravat and tights does not make it cultural.”
Daily Express 2/6/2016
Read more…