Global Media News

Clown Epidemic Spreads Like Wildfire

If you think the social media clown phenomenon was only in the United States, you are living in a bubble. Clown sightings and incidents were recently reported by The Guardian that they have made their way to England. Origins as to how this clown craze has become such a huge epidemic is believed to have been traced back to a famous movie. This famous movie was called Penny Wise. The movie was based on Stephen King's famous horror story called "It". The story was about an evil clown. However, the exact reason for the clowns appearances has yet to be determined. 

In total about six incidents of clown sightings and being chased by clowns have been reported. Just like in the United States the clowns have been reported wearing clown suits and clown masks. Social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook have been used for this clown scare/epidemic. Below is a threatening comment made by a fellow clown on one of the clown Facebook pages. Posts such as this threaten to injure or murder. However, no injuries or deaths have been reported from any of the clown incidents yet.

 

From the Ain't Clownin Around Facebook Page.

Clowns have been spotted standing on the side of streets holding a weapon (knife), have been spotted driving vans, and have popped out from behind bushes. There have also been incidents reported in which they have confronted school aged children or have even chased both adults and children down the street with weapons. For example, as reported by The Guardian

    "In Clacton, Essex, two schoolgirls were approached by a pair of clowns who asked if they wanted to go to a birthday party. The incident, which happened in Oxford Road at about 9am on Tuesday, prompted Clacton county high school to ban pupils from leaving the premises at lunchtime".

While this school prevented their students from leaving the building during the day, other schools decided to shut down.

Another example of a clown incident occurred with a 17 year old girl. The incident occurred on the evening of October 4th. The girls name was Megan. She was walking home from school until she noticed someone wearing a clown suit and a clown mask in the distance. A few seconds later she was being chased down the street. The following morning Megan posted the following Facebook post.

 

 

 

These incidents have gone way to far. Both adults and children are terrified for what is yet to come. Police in England are on the case and are currently investigating the clown sightings/incidents. Some schools have heightened their security. They have also been trying to figure out the people behind the Facebook and Twitter Clown accounts. As stated by one English police officer from The Telegraph

    "I would like to appeal directly to the people who are dressing up and carrying out these stupid acts to think seriously about what they are doing, the distress they are causing to young children is unnecessary and it needs to stop."

If anyone encounters a clown sighting/incident English citizens are encouraged to call the police at 101.

Global Media News Webcast #5: Thursday, October 6, 2016

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This week on Global Media News:

• How Do the Russian Media Cover the War in Syria?
• Finland is #1 -- In Press Freedom.
• The ABC's of the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• The German Music Industry and Streaming Media
• Social Media & Egyptian Politics: Five Years After the Revolution
• China Starts Streaming from the Court Room?
• The Rise and Fall of Internet Cafes in China

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about media, journalism and technology. 

Listen to our next webcast from the Global Media Newsroom  streaming live on Thursday, October 13, 2016 @ 10am EST.

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What Social Media Platform Takes Over Mexico?

The rise of social media has taken over the world, making it easier to share anything to the internet, and doing it quicker than ever before. But there's one website that Mexicans use more frequently than the million of other ones, and that's Facebook.

According to eMarketer and a poll they ran, 97% of people use Facebook, which is far beyond other websites used in the country. That's estimated to be 51.8 million people. Mexico is also the largest internet market in Latin America, according to BBC Profiles.

Here's a quote from Facebook Mexico CEO Jorge Ruiz Escamilla, from The Yucatan Times:

“Facebook, the most important social network in the world, now has 51 million registered users in Mexico, who each spend an average of 8 to 10 hours a month on the platform”.

Other popular websites that they use include YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. Google+ is surprisingly more popular than Instagram, compared to the United States, not many people use Google+ as a social media platform. An additional platform that we don't use often is MySpace, and people would say that website jumped off the deep end a long time ago. Other websites which we don't have or never heard of are are hi5 and Taringa!. Those rank at number 6 and 10 on the graph. This graph and information is from eMarketer

 

 

Social Media Blackouts in Uganda

In February of this year, 2016, the Ugandan government called for a total social media shut down. An article written by Briana Duggan, CNN, covers the details. The election in February caused tensions to grow. Votes were being counted and there was a ban on social media. Ugandans hoped to again swear in Yoweri Museveni for his fifth term over the past 30 years. The day voting began, “politically minded voters” were not able to tweet or update their Facebook once the government put the ban into action. President Museveni backed up the ban saying it was a “security measure to avert lies…intended to invite violence and illegal declaration of election results.” Groups of human rights activists criticized the ban and found loop holes in order to gain access using encrypted private networks. This election, as well as almost every other election around the world, was using social media as a form of debating and rallying together. The same rights groups have brought attention to the fact that due to the ban on social media the freedom of association and expression were under threat. This ban lasted for three days. 

"The Ugandan government's decision to block access to social media on mobile phones on election day is a blatant violation of Ugandans' fundamental rights to freedom of expression and to seek and receive information," said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's deputy regional director. "Without clearly defined security concerns, this closure is nothing but an exercise in censorship as Ugandans elect their leaders.”

Within the next three months, the Ugandan Government had its second social media blackout. This information now coming from an article written by Lily Kuo, a journalist for Quartz: Africa.  Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, was again elected and sworn in on May 12th 2016 for his fifth term. The only thing absent during the ceremony was the buzz of opinions, comments, and photographs on social media. The day prior to the inauguration, the communication regulator for the country, blocked access to social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. This ban was claimed to be for “security reasons” as posted by Radio Free Buganda.  

“The government knows that Museveni was not rightly elected by the majority of citizens… thus, it fears that citizens might organize online and cause an upraising [like] the Arab-spring,” said Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala, chief executive of Unwanted Witness, a Ugandan nonprofit that advocates for freedom of speech."

This is an all new focus for the Ugandan government’s “restrictive attempts” to manage the media. Within the same month of the election, the authorities had also placed a ban on media outlets so they could not report live on anything that had to do with the opposing part of Yoweri Museveni. In a more violent perspective of these restrictions, many journalist, more than a dozen, were arrested or beaten if they attempted to ignore the ban. Social media is now being seen as an extremely powerful tool in order to control the country’s views on everything. They control was they can send out and what they can receive, subconsciously altering their view of the world around them. 

 

 

 

The Embrace of Social Media in Brazil

Social media around the world has been welcomed with open arms. Being able to communicate with family, friends, as well as work associates has made the use of social media fun, and effective. However, a country that is a heavy user of social media, and is not well known as such, is Brazil.

To put this in laymen's terms, Brazil loves social media, and their use of sites like Facebook, Twitter, among others. The most popular site by far is Facebook. According to an emarketer.com article from June of this year, Facebook was found to be the most popular. With that, from a report on Brazilian social media from sprinklr.com, 10% of the world's total time spent on social media comes from Brazil, which puts them in second, only behind the United States. After seeing that, one could say that Brazil is one of the world's social media powerhouses. 

What this means is that social media has made it's way down to South America, and the world will be able to be easily connected. With more nations continuing to use and embrace social media, nations around the world will be able to communicate much easier. 

Why Journalists Aren't Convinced on Using Social Media in Serbia.

Serbia, a European country just formed in the last 20 years, has a media system that is undergoing transformation, which is proving to be slow, incoherent and incomplete according to EJC, The European Journalism Centre. The media was sharply divided into two camps: regime-controlled and independent. However, journalists still face issues regarding freedom of expression on social media platforms and the validation of using it altogether.

Statista, a leading statistics company on the internet tells us that back in 2014, 52% of the population in Serbia used some form of social media. Certain that since then, the number may have increased, journalists throughout Serbia are hesitate about using social media as a professional tool.

First, it is evident that media owners, editors and superiors disagree with consenting journalists to publish or report freely without consequences from the government. The Guardian points out “Since 2013 there have been 65 attacks on journalists in Serbia.”

SEEMPM, The South East European Network for Professionalization of Media also states “In a recent message to KRIK journalists, one anonymous Twitter account said: “who do you think you are, researching the work experience of the president of the state and the government” before offering a string of violent obscenities. Yet another account said KRIK journalists “should be lined up and shot as foreign agents in Serbia.”

These examples don’t help journalists feel safe and comfortable with using tools like social media to express opinions or reveal truths. Yet, there is another reason for the uncertainty for the use of social media, that involves the creditability of its use for journalists in Serbia.

The Media Center, an Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia explains that “news is not accepted unless reported from the field. This is an old-school approach, which implies that journalists are supposed to roam the streets until they run into a news.”

They continue to say that the “reliability and ability to check sources – is even more evident here. Someone's 'tweet' on Twitter could be correct, but it also could be completely false or a PR spin. But the internet can be viewed as any other source of information which should certainly be checked (if possible).”

While technological advances are not as advanced in Serbia compared to America, the use of social media can certainly be used for journalists but we can now recognize why it is difficult for them to accept this as a professional tool. Not only is it a challenge for them to find its use creditable but it becomes a life or death situation depending on the seriousness of the statement, which takes precedence over their profession of reporting news weather good or bad for the Serbian government.

Radio Regulations under the ABC in Australia

Located west of New Zealand and south of Asia in the Indian Ocean lies one of Britain's old colonies. With a population of 22.7 million people, Australia has become another media powerhouse to be reckoned with. Through radio, Australia relays local and national news freely compared to many other nations. Though Britain shadows over Australian economics, politics, and culture, Australia has established its' own unique media regulations in radio.

In Australia there are two broadcasting corporations that dominate radio. These broadcasting corporations are the ABC and the SBS. The ABC stands for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The SBC stands for the Special Broadcasting Service. Both of these corporations are owned and funded by the government. Without government financial support, neither corporation could function. Though the ABC and the SBS are financially supported by the Australian government, the government is forbidden from seeping in and controlling both broadcasting corporations.

Our focus for this first post will be on the ABC. As a national broadcaster, the ABC's content must be able to reach Australia's multi ethnic and culturally diverse audience. The ABC broadcasts many types of content for different audiences. These are music (Australian), education, national/local news, English lessons, regional conflicts, and sports. All content played on the radio is commercial free. This is because the ABC does not view it's listeners as consumers. They do not want to pressure their listeners into buying products when trying to find music or news. Also, though Australia's main language is English, the ABC's content cannot be conveyed strictly in English. To accommodate Australia's multi ethnic and culturally diverse audience, the content is played in seven other languages. 

The ABC is also governed by a charter which was written to promote a unified Australian identity and culture. This charter is called the ABC Charter (American Broadcasting Corporation Charter). In the charter the following requirement was established.

     "to provide innovative and comprehensive services which contribute to a sense of national identity, inform, educate, entertain and reflect Australian cultural diversity; to promote the arts ; and to broadcast to other countries programs that will encourage awareness and understanding of Australia" (ABC's Importance to Australian Life, Appendix B. ABC's Importance to Australian Life The ABC Charter).

Under the ABC charter as well Australian citizens will not be charged for using the ABC's radio services (people's taxes support it). The ABC's freedom of speech also is neither restricted, suppressed or censored. The ABC is allowed to criticize not just the media in general, but are allowed to criticize the Australian government without getting thrown in jail or fined. For more of an in depth analysis of the charter go to the ABC Charter.

 

 

 

 

Radio Regulations under the SBS in Australia

Our focus for this post is the smaller Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). While SBS reaches a multi ethnic and multi cultural audience, it reaches a greater linguistic audience compared to the ABC. While the ABC's radio content is translated in to 7 different languages, the SBS translates its content into 74 different languages. This makes SBS not a national broadcaster. Rather SBS is categorized as a language broadcaster. This is because it not only has Australian listeners. It also has listeners from other nationalities tuning in as well. With radio content being translated in to 74 different languages for its large linguistic audience the following content is played. These are sports, culture, music, arts, community/homeland news, and national/local news. In order to accommodate and have a balance of how much each language gets spoken on the radio the following regulation was established. As stated by SBS "The amount of program time for each language is guided by the size (for example, language proficiency, age, employment) and where the people who speak it live in Australia" (ABC and SBS, Australian Government Department of Communication and the Arts).

Just like the ABC, the SBS has established a charter as well. This charter is called the Special Broadcasting Service Charter. One requirement "is to provide multilingual and multicultural radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society". From this the SBS must promote ethnic and cultural awareness to meet the needs of all its listeners in their own languages. This means being able to convey content in multiple languages so the message clearly gets conveyed to it's audience across the spectrum.  By having the citizens content translated in to their native language also meets another charter standard. When translating the content in to a person's native language the goal is to make sure it's citizens improve not only their cultural skills. They want them to improve their language skills as well. Also, while presenting the content SBS must make sure more than view of a situation is presented. This is done in order to show how views of society are developing with the changing of the times and the diversity of Australia's thinkers.

From studying the ABC and the SBS both promote Australian culture while accommodating citizens from different backgrounds. While raising awareness and promoting is of utter importance they make sure they accommodate citizens from diverse backgrounds. This is done in order to balance out and give each culture a chance to be valued and given importance. Without the rules and regulations established under the ABC and SBS charter, one culture, language, ethnicity, etc. could end up dominating the Australian landscape. This could eradicate the multicultural identity that unites Australia as one and the citizens could fail to embrace the diversity that makes their nation unique.

 

Radio Regulations under the MITT in China

For this post our focus is on radio regulations in China. Radio regulations in China are characterized as strictly supervised and influential. China has used radio as a tool in order "to extend its political influence and boost its image" (China Profile-Media, BBC). They also use it to control information that appears threatening to the Communist party/Chinese government. With China extending it's political influence to more than 2,600 state owned radio stations, it cannot regulate these stations alone. To assist with radio regulations throughout the nation a Bureau was established. This bureau is called the MITT or formally known as the Bureau of Radio Regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (the State Radio Office).

Before we focus on radio regulation, an overview of how the radio regulatory organs are organized are presented in the diagram below. According to the diagram the State Council is divided in to two separate groups. It is divided in to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Bureau of Radio Regulation (State Radio Office). When combined they form the Bureau of Radio Regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MITT). Both collaboratively work to perform the same responsibilities.  For example, together these two groups control the SRMC. The SRMC stands for the State Radio Monitoring Center. The responsibility of the SRMC is radio management. While the SRMC plays a major role in assisting with radio regulation, it will be focused more in a future post. Rather, we will direct our attention back to the MITT.

Table from the "Radio Spectrum Management: Policies, Regulations, and Techniques" by Haim Mazar.

  The Bureau of Radio Regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Information (MITT) is "a national authority in charge of spectrum management in China" (Mazar, Radio Spectrum Management: Policies, Regulations, and Techniques, Google Books). The responsibilities of this Bureau in radio regulations are the following. Under the Bureau they are required to lay out radio spectrum's, to establish laws controlling radio and to make sure radio stations are following the laws, to regulate foreign affairs, to handle situations involving electromagnetic interference (when an outside spectrum tries to interfere with another spectrum), and to determine where satellites should be placed. They also establish which radio frequency belongs to which radio station, deal with radio interference investigations when an outside source is detected in their spectrum, and control civil and military affairs.

The Bureau is also responsible for controlling two levels of the radio spectrum. These levels are the national and provincial level. On the national level the Bureau puts in charge a group called the RRD. The responsibilities of the RRD is not just to lay out, monitor, and regulate radio spectrum's. They are also responsible for establishing laws pertaining to the radio spectrum, to investigate any radio interference that could pose as a threat to any of the Chinese radio spectrum's, and to develop China's image.

With the provincial level, the duties they must fulfill are less demanding. The RRD does not control radio spectrum on the provincial level. Radio regulatory agencies are responsible. While they are also required to establish laws pertaining to radio spectrum's, they are responsible for assigning which radio station gets what spectrum and gives licenses to respective stations who qualify. They also monitor the spectrum's to make sure established rules are being followed and outside sources are not interfering with Chinese radio spectrum's.

From what can be formulated the Bureau strictly regulates and monitors Chinese radio spectrum's. The Bureau makes sure no outside sources seep there way in to Chinese spectrum's. By monitoring and investigating the radio spectrum's the Bureau is making sure China's image is preserved. They also making sure no information threatens to attack the Communist party or the Chinese government. This is done by establishing regulations. By establishing regulations, the government has the upper hand in making sure no threatening information makes it's way to the people. If this information gets to the people, the Communist party/Chinese government could be at stake. Thus the Communist party/Chinese government's power could ultimately dissipate if regulations are not in place to keep both the Communist party/Chinese government and the people in their place.