‘Why and with what success are traditional media institutions adapting to the challenge posed by new/digital media?’

Summary of 4 Articles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/07/news-corp-slashing-losses-times

When Rupert Murdoch acquired the titles in 1981, he promised "to preserve the separate identities of the Time and the Sunday Times". So reducing the £1m a week running costs makes sense in order to "preserve" the individuality of both titles. Murdoch's News Corporation can handle financial loses becuase of the vast amount of assets it has at its disposal; but the small publishing companies cannot cope with losing what is to them large amounts of money, especially with a decline in the number of readers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/07/sunday-times-circulation-falls

News Story WEEK 11: Last.fm puts up paywall

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/13/lastfm-desktop-radio-service-paywall

• Last.fm, owned by CBS is scrapping radio streaming in most countries
• They are putting up a paywall on its desktop radio service in the UK, US and Germany
• The free ad-funded online streaming service is not affected
• CBS brought it in 2007 for £225 million

The electronic music industry is dominated by 2 companies, iTunes and YouTube. And with more and more people purchasing Apple products iTunes is in great demand. People are also using YouTube which although has frustrating 30 second ads on almost all videos, is free. Giving people the option to pay for something they can have free access to is bizzare. However, it is a business and it is trying to survive so I think last.fm has every right to do so. I think last.fm needs to use VEVO's strategy and create a YouTube channel with music registered to them.

News Story WEEK 10: Leveson Report

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/06/leveson-newspaper-reformed-charade

• newspaper editors want to have independent watchdog to monitor press
• David Cameron trying to push through a private deal with newspapers
• National newspapers will implement 40 out of 47 recommendations made by Lord Justice Leveson

"I would support something in law to verify that the future press regulator is actually fit for purpose. I do not believe that this can be left entirely to the owners of newspapers." - Baroness Hollins (cross-bench peer in House of Lords)

I think the press has received enough chances in the past to fix its mistakes. The expected outcome of the Leveson inquiry was for a law regulating what can and can't be published -and how information is gathered for news columns. This is what Lord Justice Leveson has recommended. Some newspaper editors are arguing that this could destroy 'free press'. This could be the case but that may be a sacrifice that has to be made to protect people's privacy. I don't think newspapers can be trusted to handle themselves after the hacking scandal. And for David Cameron trying to make a private deal, I think he is just doing it for a free promotion come the next election.

Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony

Ian Tomlinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ 

Political

• During the G20 summit protests in London in 2009, an amateur video was posted online which showed Ian Tomlinson being hit by a policeman using a baton
• This emphasises how audiences challenge authority and official version of events
• The policeman(Simon Harwood) is to be tried for manslaughter
• "Technology empowers the people, who, oppressed by years of authoritarian rule, will inevitably rebel, mobilizing themselves through text messages, Facebook, Twitter…" - Morozov (2011)
• Internet has given people a powerful tool to communicate with each other
• As more and more governments are harnessing the power of the internet, 'We Media'(web 2.0) is not strong enough to allow people power to succeed
• The internet has loosened official control but has not stopped it

Zoo Visits and Laughing Babies

Trivial

• In their research into YouTube, Jean Burgess and Joshua Green (2009) found that 42% of the clips they analysed were uploaded by fans rather than the traditional media companies themselves. 
• Last two years this percentage will have increased, as YouTube has become a medium of ‘catch up’ distribution in the UK, for Channels 4 and 5.
• Burgess and Green conclude that there are two YouTubes; they argue it is ‘a space where these two categories [traditional media and home video] co-exist and collide, but do not really converge’ (41).
• Even as we become used to watching television programmes on computers, mobile phones or music players, we still experience it as television.

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

Tim O'Reilly in 2005 defined Web 2.0 as a medium that allows audiences to become producers of media texts.As anyone with an internet connection can create and publish text (User Generated Content) it has increased the need for gatekeepers. And with more of the world getting connected to the internet, more gatekeepers are needed with increasing threats of terrorism and hacking. The internet has increased pluralism; it has provided people with a platform to voice their opinions. Another advantage of new and digital media is that it “interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”(John Gilmore) therefore, it allows pluralism to flourish .The views and ideologies of political leaders and governments can now be challenged through the internet, by the internet. As Al Gore called the internet “Exciting and revolutionary” and went further to say it has had a “more profound impact than the printing press.”  Since 1991, from when the first website went online, ¼ of the world is now online and this number is expanding.  As Tim Bernes Lee said ‘let the people be free’ and this is exactly what the internet has provided, freedom. Many everyday things can now be done online for example banking (97% of bank transactions are done online in Estonia). New and digital media has provided the globe with a “New World Currency.” The web collapses distances.

However, with so much freedom there must be flaws.  New and digital media has created a digital divide, the digital haves and the digital have nots.  Lee Sigel, New York writer and cultural critic, called the internet a “double edged sword”.  The web has provoked Al Qaeda & Taliban to use shock tactics as a form of propaganda. 90%of the market is Microsoft who pressurised company's to have computers with windows software preinstalled. This has shown that the online world also has a hierarchy like the real world with websites such as Google and Face Book dominating the online market. The freedom given to the audience has decreased with sites like Wikipedia now having admins to restrict and police what users post up on Wikipedia. The accuracy of information online has also caused a concern; Andrew Keen compares the people posting information on the internet to “a million of monkeys on computers”.   It is difficult to take information off the internet, someone once said… "You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool." The growth of new media has caused piracy to increase in both the film and music industry with sites such as Napster playing a major role in the increase.

Notes on Debate Article

• Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible people have an equal say in decision-making
• The digital revolution and Web 2.0 have given users (i.e. us – because we are no longer just audiences) the opportunity to communicate ideas globally through the use of social networking
• The uprisings in Egypt and Libya couldn’t have happened without the use of Twitter and Face book, with young people using social media to bypass the old regimes and organise demonstrations
• Instead of waiting for the story to be edited and mediated by news organisations with their own ideological motives, we had access to a huge range of points of view, direct and unmediated (Michael Jackson)
• Blogging is another way that the media are becoming more democratic
• The iconic video footage of the attack on the Twin Towers on 11th September 2001; the first hand reports from the Iran uprising – increasingly we are reporting and recording the news (citizen journalism and UGC)
• Citizen journalism can provide eyewitness accounts and subjective angles on stories to complement the work of professional news organisations
• We do seem to have entered a new age when audiences are producers and the traditional power structures are being forced to listen
• In the age of Media 2.0, ordinary people are no longer mere consumers of media, but also producers
• The term ‘Web 2.0’ seems to have been coined by the digital marketing entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly back in 2001
• There’s a danger of a kind of technological determinism here – the idea that technology will bring about revolutionary social change, in and of itself
• “Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media élite… now it’s the people who are taking control.” – Rupert Murdoch (2006)
• The two richest and most profitable global media corporations are now Google and Facebook
• Many well-known services – not least Twitter and Facebook – have struggled to find ways of ‘monetising’ what they do
• Marketing is now mostly ‘user-generated’ and ‘interactive’

Virtual Revolution Part 2 Notes

• Paypal founder Peter Theil
• Paypal handling $60 billion in 2008
• "New world currency"
• web links extremists --> Al Qa'eda - use shock tactics (propaganda)(portable homeland)
• Estonia - 97% banking transactions done online
• April 2007 riots caused by governments proposal to move Russian statue to new location
• Cyber attack --> denial of service (bombardment of traffic causes lack of access)
• "web collapses distances" - Virtual Revolution
• "Cyber-Balkanisation"
• The Great Firewall of China
• China 253 million online
• 30,000 people police the web in china (BBC and New York Times blocked)
• 50 cent army online - 300, 000 post articles in favour of the government
• "One is guiding" "One is blocking" - Yeng
• "We change our tools, and then our tools change us." - Jeff Bezos (Ceo of Amazon.com)
• "The net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" - John Gilmore
• Iran banned Twiiter and it was used to spread news
• "More profound impact than the printing press" - Al Gore
• "The internet is just the word passing around notes in a classroom." - Jon Stewart
• Haystack - Software invented by Austin Heap
•  "You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool." - Unknown

Letter to Rupert Murdoch

Dear Mr Murdoch,

Having built a huge media empire with subsidiaries which include hugely successful  well-known publications such as the NY Times and The Times, you know what audiences want. However, I believe that you decision to charge readers to view news content on your sites is not a smart business moves. It is predicted that 2 major titles in the UK will close down by 2014, and since you own most of them you have the most to lose. Understandably, you primary aim is to make money but your decision to make your readers pay to read The Times since 2009 is not the way forward not just for your newspapers but all of them. Ask yourself, why would readers opt for subscriptions on a platform which provides free news? I would suggest a more subtle way of making money such as advertising like you do with Sky. Maybe intergrate citizen jourlism into your websites as social networking sites like Facebook and microblogging sites like Twitter promote these kind of stories and since the audiences they have a far larger than what you are getting, you could utilize peoples reliability on them.

Thank you 

News Story WEEK 9: BBC/Newsnight

http://www.businessinsider.com/british-politician-vows-to-sue-tweeters-who-accused-him-of-sex-abuse-2012-11

Lord McAlpine will sue tweeters who said he was a child abuser after Newsnight falsely showed his name midst its attempts to regain BBC's intergretiy following the Jimmy Savile's case.
                          
                            "It would be as pointless for a defamed man to sue Twitter because of a libellous tweet as it would be for a stabbing victim to sue a kitchen shop because it sold his attacker the knife." - Roy Greenslade (Guardian Journalist)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1024/breaking13.html

George Entwistle, along with other BBC staff involved will give evidence at a Newsnight inquiry as to why they aborted investigations of Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse case

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-21/new-york-times-chairman-says-scandal-hasn-t-made-things-easy-.html

Mark Thompson the former BBC Director General, now Chief Executive Officer at the New York Times has received sympathy from the NY Times Chairman who has claimed the scandal going on at the BBC at the moment "hasn't made things easy" and that "Mark is a good man".

I think the way the BBC dealt with the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse case was wrong. Instead of being apologetic  the BBC tried to go after other outside the organisation accusing them of similar actions. I also think George Entwistle should not be paid his full year's salary after he chose to quit. Contractually, he is only entitled to six-months worth of pay. As this is tax payers money and we have been witnessing cuts in the public sector, it is not fair that a well paid man (whose tenure as BBC Director General lasted only 54 days) who will probably go on to another well paid job receives double of what he was supposed to get.

News Story WEEK 8: YouTube Songwriters Only Receive $40 for 1 Million Views

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/13/youtube-songwriters-payment-copyrights 

"Their only option is to look at their royalty statements in an attempt to figure out how much each service pays, and trust that they've been paid correctly and fairly. As I've reported, in the case of YouTube, songwriters could only conclude that the rates the company pays are ridiculously low, at about $40 (£25) per million streams (if the song was written by a single writer)."

• sales of records, radio play and movie or ad soundtrack accounted for professional songwriters income.
• songwriters only get 15% of royalties from iTunes sales
• Independent labels make around £1000 per million views

I think $40 per million views is not enough for songwriters. The case of rich controlling the media can be brought up as suggested in Marxist theory; companies like Vevo take majority of the revenue. And YouTube itself will take its cut of the profit before giving some to Vevo. I think laws may need to be brought in to give more power to songwriters.

News Story WEEK 7: ASA Blocks Car Ad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/14/toyota-grand-theft-auto-ad


Toyota's Grand Theft Auto-style car commercial has been banned by the advertising watchdog after it ruled that it glamorises reckless and dangerous driving.

• multimillion pound ad stars a computer animated character driving like he's in a video game
• ASA say it encourages reckless and dangerous driving
• Toyota have replied by saying the ad is clearly set in an animated environment
• Banning came after ASA recieved 2 complaints from YouTube viewers

I think the theory of hypodermic needle could apply here but I don't think the ad is as influential as ASA claim it is in encouraging drives to drive recklessly. The reckless driving part is clearly animated and when the character emerges into the real world, he drives safely.

This is what an ASA representative said:

"Because we considered the ad portrayed speed, and the way the car could be handled in a manner that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible and condoned dangerous driving,"

News Story WEEK 6: Regulations To Be Publish By Leveson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2012/nov/08/free-press-very-well-whom

'Lord Justice Leveson is poised to issue his report on regulatory reform of the press in the wake of the disturbing disclosures arising from the phone-hacking affair which led to the closure by Rupert Murdoch'

• National Union of Journalists defends situation of free press
• Lord Justice Leveson to publish report on regulatory reform of the press, concluding the Leveson enquiry
• Ex-Mirror editor Roy Greenslade has backed reform

Following the hacking scandal which conveniently came during the period when Rupert Murdoch was trying to gain a majority share in BSkyB, I think press reform was inevitable. Some of the disgusting cases such as the Millie Dowler incident were voice mail messages were actually deleted, cannot be forgiven. The possibility of such incidents I think should be eliminated by enforcing regulations on the power of the press. Free press shouldn't be an excuse to evade people's privacy just to be the first newspaper to publish a story. I also thought Piers Morgan comments regarding what he said was not unethical behavior when he gained illegal access to Heather Mills' voice mail messages highlighted the arrogance the press have. 

5 Recent UGC/Citizen Journalism Examples

ARAB SPRING

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/26/arab-spring-egypt?INTCMP=SRCH

MUAMMAR GADDAFI

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/25/muammar-gaddafi-buried-libya?INTCMP=SRCH

IAN TOMLINSON

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault

LONDON RIOTS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2011/aug/09/at-home-with-the-london-riots?INTCMP=SRCH

HURRICANE SANDY

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/02/sandy-new-york-untold-tragedies?INTCMP=SRCH

Newspapers: The Effects of Online Technology

• UK's daily newspapers have lost 2.25 million readers in the last 10 years
• Revenue for newspapers has fallen by about 20%
• In the next 10 years, one or two of Britain's biggest daily newspapers predicted to close down
• "the world is changing and newspapers have to adapt" - Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp
• “The internet has given readers much more power.  Everybody wants choice and thanks to the personal computer, people are taking charge of their own lives and they read what they want to read or what they are interested in and young people today are living on their computers.  The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt to that.” - Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp
• “These days journalists rarely break the story, most compelling pictures come from eyewitnesses, and not from journalists.  Curating news is as important as news gathering, because citizen journalism is not a fab or an intriguing addition to traditional journalism, but here to stay.  Social media is the news gathering of the first report..... Passive audiences are gone forever.  Today, media owners need to embrace the ‘digital conversations’ with their new, activist, audiences.” - Chris Cramer, Global Editor of Multimedia at Reuters (business news)
• "news revolution"
• citizen journalism

1. Ignoring Signs of Change: Prior to the introduction of the internet in the '80s, newspaper executives ignored signs of change like competition from real time news networks

2. Dismissing unconventional competitors: chose traditional formats while some titles were publishing on terminals, television, Internet, and periodicals. Most decided not to change

3. Experimenting too narrowly: Some newspapers did spot the rise of digital technology early and experiment with alternatives.  However, most of these companies limited the scope of their experimentation to replicating their paper offering on-line rather than encouraging audience interaction.

4. Giving up on promising experiments too quickly: Promising business models take time to become successful in many cases and the process entails many setbacks.  Some newspapers did not give new ideas time to build.

5. Embarking on a ‘crash course’: Many institutions felt they were not embracing technology quickly enough and pushed for mergers which did not work.

Traditional Paper-based Form	Online News Site
Has a purchase price.  Is not free	Has predominantly free content
Can only be accessed from newspaper vendors	Can be accessed anywhere with internet access
Can be easily marked or destroyed	Content remains even if portal of access is destroyed.
Usually target a specific audience base	Also target specific although a bit more varied
Costly to produce; paper, printing etc.	Not as expensive but still costly to run; servers, maintenance staff plus journalists etc.
Costly to distribute	Cheap to distribute
Offer limited news stories which are not copy and pasted. Ability to archive physical copy but takes up space.	Can offer countless news stories at any one time plus the ability to archive stories, although many of these news stories are simply replications or re-workings of main news stories and may be cut and pasted news stories from other mainstream news sites.
Only print version of story available	Only version of story available but option of printing it
Cannot be updated immediately and regularly	Can be updated immediately and regularly
Is not interactive	Can be interactive
Cannot allow audience immediate feedback/ citizen journalism	Allows for immediate audience feedback and citizen journalism
Can offer in-depth analysis and comment but is limited by space.	Varied options for expansion of topic matter.  In depth editorials and comment.

Audience Gratifications of The Guardian website.

Feature	Audience Gratification
Long-running chat boards	Allows the audience a chance to interact with the other users who have similar interests, giving them credibility for raising, helping with or even participating in the discussion
Network of weblogs	Individual blogs a collected together and published on one main blog discussing similar topics
Leaving comments on articles	Can make an audience feel powerful by creating the idea that they are challenging the news institution’s values
Readers can access articles online, on mobile devices through RSS feeds or on eBook readers.	Gives the audience the power to keep up to date with the latest updates from their subscribed websites without having to use most of their internet usage. Keeps audiences up-to-date with current affairs.
Varied selection of categories in easy accessible genre areas	Allows the audience to chose what they want to read
Images	Makes audiences associate the image with topic being discussed.
Podcast	Keeps audiences up-to-date with discussions they may have missed on TV or radio.
Access to paper-based content	Provides easily accesible content without having to wait for it to load.
Dating sites/ personals	Achieve success through the use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

News Story WEEK 5: Google Pledges to Lower Piracy Search Results

'The government is to review Google's pledge to downgrade illegal filesharing websites in its search results, after entertainment groups accused the internet giant of dragging its feet over the issue.'

• illegal filesharing sites are still ranked high for mp3 music downloads
• they were warned by the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt that laws would be brought in if Google did not do anything about the issue

I think that gatekeeper should target the websites themselves and not Google as it is merely a search engine. From my point of view, Google doesn't really encourage illegal downloading; if the illegal website wasn't there or was blocked like Pirate Bay, then Google links wouldn't lead anywhere. As large as it is, I don't believe Google should be forced to spend their money on removing some links.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/05/google-downgrade-piracy-sites-review

Audience theories

WWW: A well balanced, clearly written essay, with some well chosen examples and quotations.

EBI: Lacks reference to media theory: write a paragraph that references Marxism/cultural imperialism and some audience theories.

Marxism is a political and economic theory by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that elaborates the practice of communism. In media, it is the rich controlling the rest by using media. This also relates to Pareto's law where top 5% of websites account for 75% of traffic. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power through diplomacy and military power. Cultural imperialism is the theory of achieving imperialism through the use of cultural tools such as mass media, film, TV etc. Cultural imperialism can be used as an example in the Arab springs where mass media was used in the form of social networking. the hypodermic needle theory and two step flow was also used in the arab springs where the protesters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/04/the-return-of-marxism

Hypodermic needle - the intended message is accepted by the viewer/reader
Two step flow - people with access diffuse media content to others
Uses and gratifications - people are not helpless victims of mass media

News Story WEEK 4: Frankie Boyle racism case

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/15/frankie-boyle-jokes-libel-mirror?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

• Frankie Boyle sues Mirror Group Newspapers because they labelled him a racist
• Article published (in July 2011) for making jokes about the war in Afghanistan on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights
• Jokes were played in court as evidence

Here is the joke in question:

"A bomb went off in Kandahar today, killing two British servicemen, three UN relief workers and a whole bunch of Pakis."

Prior to this, he made a comment about Britons negligence towards the death of others. 

I think the joke is offensive and if a Pakistani complained, I would understand but they didn't. It was a British journalist who the wrote the article. I think there is always that one person who reacts angrily when a joke is said on TV like the joke Jeremy Clarkson made on the One Show where he said public sector workers should be 'executed in front of their families' for striking. I think people have to understand that they are just jokes and if you don't like them, you can always change the channel. 

The Rise & Rise of UGC Homework

• What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

A citizen journalist is a member of public who plays an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information. New media like social networking as well as the mobile phone have made citizen journalism more common.

• What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

The Rodney King beating which sparked the LA riots in 1992 was one of the first example to be generated by an ordinary person. The amateur video was used in a national news report.

• List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

Responses on social network sites

• What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

A professionally shot footage requires permission to be taped.

• What is a gatekeeper?

A gatekeeper is someone who controls access to something

• How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

They have had to deal with an increase in hacking, the prevalence of proxy servers.

• What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

Their job is threatened as the amount citizen journalists out numbers professional journalists.

News Story WEEK 3: Facebook Tax Avoidance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/10/facebook-uk-taxes

• Facebook HQ based in Ireland
• Only pay taxes in Ireland
• Don't pay UK taxes because they are registered in Ireland

I think this is wrong even though most big companies use this technique of having their headquaters abroad. Amazon for example is officially registered in Luxemborg because its tax percentage is lower than the UK even though it operates under a UK domain. I think there should be a law over whether companies can use tax avoidance techniques because this is not illegal although it is unethical.

News story WEEK 2: Facebook hits 1 billion users

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/facebook-hits-one-billion-users-1360594

1 in 7 of the worlds population now uses Facebook each month. This comes after a difficult few months since Facebook's IPO on the New York Stock Exchange

News story WEEK 1: Iran blocks access to Google

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/23/iran-block-access-google-gmail?intcmp=239

Iran has blocked access to Google and Gmail in order to stop uproar from an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube. 

In this instance, I think Iran is right to block access because  it prevents violence in the country or at least reduces it. I also think Google should have taken the film down in the first place which is said to have caused the death of the US Ambassador in Libya. 

YouTube.com

Who owns the site?

The man in charge at YouTube is Salar Kamangar, he is the CEO and senior vice president of video at Google. 

Do they also own any traditional media businesses? 
No

What other internet sites do they own? 
Don't owner other site but partners with other Google subsidiaries like Blogger and DoubleClick (advertising)

What is its revenue? 
Not stated but expected to be $3.6bn in 2012 financial year, same as Netflix subscription revenue

What is its overall worth? 
Not stated but estimated to be around $2bn

Research five key facts about the institution. 

1. Pareto principle applies because 30% of videos uploaded account for 99% of views. (2011)
2. Had more that 1 trillion views in 2011
3. Founders were former PayPal employees
4. Domain, youtube.com activated February 14th 2005.
5. Brought for $1.6bn by Google in November 2006

Find three quotes (with references) about the institution.

--

List the key info provided on the company’s corporate homepage.

--

Post up an infographic about the company.

 About YouTube

Top 10 Media Companies

1. Apple - Founded April 1976, worth $546bn, revenue $108.25bn. Run by Tim Cook (CEO)
2. Microsoft - Founded April 1975, worth $273.5bn, revenue $73.72bn. Run by Steve Ballmer (CEO)
3. General Electric - Founded 1892, worth $213.7bn, revenue $147.3bn. Run by Jeffrey Immelt (CEO)
4. Google - Founded September 1998, worth $203.2, revenue $37.91bn. Owned and run by Larry Page.
5. Amazon - Founded 1994, worth $84.2bn, revenue $48.07bn. Owned by Jeff Bezos.
6. Walt Disney - Found October 1923, worth $77.4bn, revenue $40.89bn. Owned by Bob Iger.
7. News Corp - Founded 1979, worth $49.5bn, revenue $33.41bn. Owned by Rupert Murdoch.
8. Time Warner - Founded 1990, worth $34.8bn, revenue $28.97bn. Owned by Jeffrey Bewkes.
9. Viacom - Founded January 2006, worth $25.7bn, revenue $14.91. Owned by Sumner Redstone
10. CBS Corp - Founded 1927, worth $20.5bn, revenue $14.25bn. Run by Leslie Moonves (CEO).

Guardian Article Summary

1. Take the long view

"So it is with us now. We're living through a radical transformation of our communications environment. Since we don't have the benefit of hindsight, we don't really know where it's taking us. And one thing we've learned from the history of communications technology is that people tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies — and to underestimate their long-term implications."

2. The web isn't the net

"The most common — and still surprisingly widespread — misconception is that the Internet and the web are the same thing. They're not. A good way to understand this is via a railway analogy. Think of the Internet as the tracks and signalling, the infrastructure on which everything runs. In a railway network, different kinds of traffic run on the infrastructure — high-speed express trains, slow stopping trains, commuter trains, freight trains and (sometimes) specialist maintenance and repair trains."

3. Disruption is a feature, not a bug

"The answer lies deep in the network's architecture. When it was being created in the 1970s, Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, the lead designers, were faced with two difficult tasks: how to design a system that seamlessly links lots of other networks, and how to design a network that is future-proof. The answer they came up with was breathtakingly simple. It was based on two axioms. Firstly, there should be no central ownership or control – no institution which would decide who could join or what the network could be used for. Secondly, the network should not be optimised for any particular application. This led to the idea of a "simple" network that did only one thing – take in data packets at one end and do its best to deliver them to their destinations. The network would be neutral as to the content of those packets – they could be fragments of email, porn videos, phone conversations, images… The network didn't care, and would treat them all equally."

4. Think ecology, not economics

"To an ecologist, this looks like an ecosystem whose biodiversity has expanded radically. It's as if a world in which large organisms like dinosaurs (think Time Warner, Encyclopedia Britannica) had trudged slowly across the landscape exchanging information in large, discrete units, but life was now morphing into an ecosystem in which billions of smaller species consume, transform, aggregate or break down and exchange information goods in much smaller units – and in which new gigantic life-forms (think Google, Facebook) are emerging. In the natural world, increased biodiversity is closely correlated with higher whole-system productivity – ie the rate at which energy and material inputs are translated into growth. Could it be that this is also happening in the information sphere? And if it is, who will benefit in the long term?"

5. Complexity is the new reality

"This is a challenge, for several reasons. First, the behaviour of complex systems is often difficult to understand and even harder to predict. Second, and more importantly, our collective mindsets in industry and government are not well adapted for dealing with complexity."

6. The network is now the computer

"Here was a transition from a world in which the PC really was the computer, to one in which the network is effectively the computer."

7. The web is changing 

"But in fact, the web has gone through at least three phases of evolution – from the original web 1.0, to the web 2.0 of "small pieces, loosely joined" (social networking, mash ups, web mail, and so on) and is now heading towards some kind of web 3.0 – a global platform based on Tim Berners-Lee's idea of the 'semantic web' in which web pages will contain enough meta data about their content to enable software to make informed judgements about their relevance and function."

8. Huxley and Orwell are the bookends of our future

"Aldous Huxley believed that we would be destroyed by the things we love, while George Orwell thought we would be destroyed by the things we fear."

9. Our intellectual property regime is no longer fit for purpose

"In the analogue world, copying was difficult and degenerative (ie copies of copies became progressively worse than the original). In the digital world, copying is effortless and perfect. In fact, copying is to computers as breathing is to living organisms, inasmuch as all computational operations involve it. When you view a web page, for example, a copy of the page is loaded into the video memory of your computer (or phone, or iPad) before the device can display it on the screen. So you can't even look at something on the web without (unknowingly) making a copy of it."