Title:

Media

Publish Date:

September 2011

ISBN:

978 1 86168 601 5

Covering Ages:

11 to 14 years

Issue Description

We live in a society which is saturated with media. The average British adult spends almost four hours per day watching television and 35% of all adults claim to use Facebook every week. Meanwhile, the WikiLeaks website, increasing use of social networking sites and the recent phone-hacking scandals have raised debates about freedom of speech, privacy, press regulation and national security. This book looks at media usage trends, the emergence of new technologies and the rise of social media. It also looks at privacy and regulation.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper articles, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.

Price:

£5.95

Quantity:

Key Facts

• About 75 million national newspapers are sold every week, which are read by about 70 per cent of the adult population. (page 1)
  
  
• More than 90 per cent of people over 15 years of age (46.3 million) listen to the radio at least once a week. (page 2)
  
  
• Television is the dominant medium for all adults in terms of average hours consumed per day (3.7 hours per day). (page 3)
  
  
• 16% of all adults and 34% of 15- to 24-year-olds use their mobile phones to access the Internet each week. (page 4)
  
  
• Across most countries, the desktop PC is still the most popular device used to access the Internet at home, followed by the laptop. But in the UK the opposite is true, with laptops being the most popular device used to access the Internet at home, used by 69 per cent of Internet users. (page 5)
  
  
• Men spend nearly an hour more per day using media than women – an average of seven hours 33 minutes per day compared with six hours 38 minutes. (page 10)
  
  
• A weblog or blog is a website which maintains frequently updated and ongoing entries or posts. (page 12)
  
  
• The Office of Communications (Ofcom) controls the statutory regulation of commercial television and radio stations in the UK. (page 19)
  
  
• The Editor’s Code aims to protect the rights of the individual and the public’s right to know. For this reason, many clauses are covered by exceptions on public interest. (page 20)

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: Media Issues

The UK media, Media and communication trends, UK consumers revealed as early adopters of
new technology, TV, phones and Internet take up almost half of our waking hours, Real life versus reality TV, Blogs, bloggers and blogging, Twitter adds 100 million new users in 2010, Websites and iPads – which way now for newspapers?, Activities.

Chapter Two: Media Privacy and Regulations

Just what is privacy in the era of Google and Facebook?, Regulation and self-regulation of the media, What is WikiLeaks?, Selling your story – words of warning, Phone hacking: three weeks that made a revolution, Activities.

Key Facts
Glossary

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