1. Global Information

2. Where do you get your news from?  Do you buy newspapers? Do you read their online version?  Do you read any weekly magazine?  Are there any websites you visit on a regular basis?  TV?  Free press?

3. The press  18th century important newspapers were born (The Times, The Observer)  Growing sensationalism  The Daily Mail 1896  (Jack the Ripper 1888)  New techniques of news gathering (News agencies)  Reuters, Associated Press  http://www.newscorp.com/ http://www.newscorp.com/

4. Infotainment Journalism has always entertained as well as informed. Had it not done so it would not have reached a mass audience. But today, say journalism critics, the instinct to amuse is driving out the will, and depleting the resource, to report and analyse in any depth. Obsessed with a world of celebrity and trivia, the news media are rotting our brains and undermining our civic life. Hargreaves, Ian. Journalism Truth or Dare? Oxford: OUP, 2003.

5. Mainstream media  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1038758.stm#m edia http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1038758.stm#m edia  Broadsheets  Tabloids  Magazines  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1217752. stm#media http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1217752. stm#media  http://global.nytimes.com/?iht http://global.nytimes.com/?iht  http://english.aljazeera.net/ (BBC-trained journalists) http://english.aljazeera.net/

6. Much of this electronic discourse gave voice to dissidents that would have previously gone unheard. And for increasing numbers of people the diversity of information on the internet highlighted the narrow priorities of the mainstream news agenda. […] So while the invasion of Iraq seemed precision-made to suit the voracious demands of global TV news networks - Hollywood media centres, embedded reporters and night-vision footage of POW rescues - the war also saw millions of people go online to see a very different war unfold. Alexander, Alistair (2004) “Disruptive Technology: Iraq and the Internet” in Miller, David (ed.) Tell Me Lies

7. Grassroots  Blogs  http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/  http://salampax.wordpress.com/ http://salampax.wordpress.com/  http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/ http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/  US news aggregation websites  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (liberal) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/  http://www.drudgereport.com/ (conservative) http://www.drudgereport.com/  Reporters without borders  http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20 http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20  Forums  http://www.rheingold.com/community.html http://www.rheingold.com/community.html  Mailing lists  http://mail.monabaker.com/mailman/listinfo/palmem_monabaker.com http://mail.monabaker.com/mailman/listinfo/palmem_monabaker.com

8. What happens to language? News is a representation of the world in language; because language is a semiotic code, it imposes a structure of values, social and economic in origin, on whatever is represented; and so inevitably news, like every discourse, constructively patterns that of which it speaks. News is a representation in this sense of construction; it is not a value- free reflection of ‘facts’. (Roger Fowler, Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press )