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JUNE 11 Aside from the political ramifications of this weeks UK General Election, the results also lead to another significant conclusion: large chunks of the mainstream media are increasingly out of touch with popular opinion.

For decade upon decade, it has been widely taken as a simple truth that the media possesses two important powers: the ability to know what the general public is thinking about any given matter, and the ability to influence or even control those opinions and beliefs.

Major newspapers, television networks and radio stations have always been portrayed often self-portrayed as a great, sprawling, pernicious and all-knowing entity, granted with almost sinister powers to manipulate the minds of normal people.

Whatever the media said, the nave masses would lap it up. And precisely because people would believe anything they read, saw and heard, the medias owners, editors and prominent journalists were able to more or less tell people what to think.

In British politics, these magic powers reached their peak in the 1992 General Election, when Labour party candidate Neil Kinnock was expected to win and end 13 years of Conservative rule under Margaret Thatcher and then John Major.

But on the morning of the vote, the countrys top-selling and staunchly Conservative newspaper, The Sun, lambasted Kinnocks plans to increase taxes by publishing a front page which dramatically stated: If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.

Suddenly, the tide turned in Majors favour and he claimed an unexpected majority, with millions of voters apparently induced to change their minds by The Suns impactful headline to the extent that the newspaper subsequently claimed sole responsibility for the outcome with another grammatically challenged headline: Its The Sun Wot Won It.

Twenty-five years later, recent elections suggest the power of the media to predict and control political events appears to have evaporated.

Britains Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May returns to 10 Downing Street in central London on June 9, 2017 after making a statement following the as results of a snap general election. Newspapers like The Sun supported her campaign and predicted wrongly as it turns out that she would win by a landslide. Picture by AFPThat became very evident this time last year, when the UKs European Union referendum shocked absolutely everybody by resulting in a victory for Brexit, leaving the entire range of the British media and opinion poll companies scratching their heads and wondering how they had got it so wrong.

This week has been similar, albeit less dramatic, as bungling Prime Minister Theresa May suffered the humiliation of losing her majority in an election she had been tipped to win very easily.

The media certainly tried to help her. Both The Sun and the countrys second-biggest selling newspaper, The Daily Mail, both strongly supported May during the build-up to the election and also launched a series of smear attacks against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had been dismissed as a no-hoper even by many members of his own party.

But Corbyn confounded expectations by gaining more votes than any Labour leader since Tony Blair in 1997, increasing his partys share of the vote by 9.8 per cent their biggest increase from one election to the next in more than 70 years.

And so The Daily Mail, which greeted Theresa Mays call for the election by predicting a whitewash with the boisterous headline Crush The Saboteurs, was forced to meet this weeks results with an almost apologetic back-track, admitting the election was Mays Gamble That Backfired.

Once again, the UKs two top-selling newspapers got it horribly wrong. Whats going on? Why has the medias power dissipated?

The answer is social media. Until recently, traditional media provided the only widely-available means of finding out about the wider world. If you wanted to know what was happening outside your immediate environment, you had to read a newspaper, watch television or listen to the radio.

In the last 15 years, however, those methods for the dissemination of information have been utterly dismantled and replaced by personalised channels such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter and the result is communicative chaos.

Now, nobody knows what the people think because the people can think whatever they like and share those thoughts with whoever they like, and it all takes place completely under the radar of mainstream media, who have quite simply lost control.

Last year it was revealed that Facebook and WhatsApp process more than 60 BILLION messages per day. Thats an impossible amount of data to keep track of, never mind to attempt to control or influence.

Concurrently, media sales are dropping through the floor. Many local newspapers have been forced out of business, and even long-established national titles are fighting for survival: The Sun, for example, has seen its sales nearly halved from more than 3 million daily copies to 1.6 million in just seven years.

The industry is having to evolve rapidly, but even the biggest and best media organisations are struggling to keep up. Earlier this year, Americas top-selling paper, The New York Times, addressed its own crisis by publishing an extensive report into its plans for surviving the digital revolution, admitting: We must change the way we work.

Despite the transformation, there is still a place for quality journalism because the greatest strength of social media the fact that anyone can say anything is also its greatest weakness.

Facebook et al are tremendously democratising methods of communication, giving a voice to people who previously did not have one.

But they also provide so much content it is just impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff: with so many opinions and analyses and predictions out there in cyberspace, how do we know which are well-informed and reliable, and which should be ignored?

This is where traditional media can take the lead, but not simply by pushing any narrative and expecting the public to buy it.

As this weeks UK elections again showed, the media world has changed. And unless agenda-driven newspapers like The Sun and The Daily Mail change with it, they probably dont have any future at all.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

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UK media misses highlight changing world - Malay Mail Online

Three days after the attackers of the Sitapur triple murder case are still at large despite the crime being caught on the camera; Uttar Pradesh (UP) Director General of Police (DGP) Sulkan Singh on Saturday asserted that the law and order situation in the state was under control.

Speaking to the media in Lucknow, Sulkan Singh was answering the questions related to the recent communal violence in Saharanpur and the triple murder case of Sitapur.

Responding to a question asking about the progress Up Police has made in Sitapur murder case, DGP Sulkan said advised the media to keep not mix and keep crime and law & order as separate things.

Sitapur murder case dates back to June 6 Tuesday night, when the armed assailants on a bike shot dead three people of the same family outside his house in civil lines.

The unknown armed men shot 55-year-old grain trader Jaiswal, his wife Kamini, and son Hrithik, 25, at point blank range. Despite the crime being recorded in the camera, police are yet to make any arrest in the case.

Earlier last month another businessman was shot dead in Allahabad, barely 500 meters away from the police station.

Speaking of the Saharanpur violence case, DGP Sulkan Singh said that the authorities have already sent a detailed report to the Home Ministry as inquired by the ministry.

A group of Thakurs and Dalits on May 5 clashed in Sharanpur districts Shabirpur village. At least three persons were killed and several others were injured in theclash that reportedly took place after some Dalits had objected a procession of Maharana Pratap in the region.

The BJP government in UP under Yogi Adityanath is under the ire due to a significant rise in violence and law and order turbulence in the state.

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Everything under 'control', keep crime and law & order 'separate': UP DGP Sulkan Singh to media - NewsX

With Cristiano Lima and Alex Weprin

SO MUCH GROUND TO COVER, WHERE TO EVEN BEGIN? How about with Donald Trumps lawyer making headlines once again. You may remember Marc Kasowitz from his threat to sue The New York Times for libel last October. Or from his boxing on behalf of Bill OReilly during the sexual harassment scandal that cost the longtime cable news host his Fox News job earlier this year. Now, on the heels of James Comeys must-watch Senate testimony, all eyes are on Kasowitzs statement yesterday accusing the former FBI director of illegality based on Comeys leaking, via a surrogate, of details from his private conversations with President Trump.

Story Continued Below

There was at least one glaring factual inaccuracy: The public record reveals that The New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet. Not so, as Times White House correspondent Julie Davis pointed out on Twitter: Kasowitz is mistaken re NYT stories on Comey memos. We never quoted memos prior to Trump's 5/12 tweet re tapes; 1st story doing so was 5/16.

Doh! Awkward scene as Kasowitz tried to escape with no press questions, tweeted Bloomberg New White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs. He and aides stood in elevator staring at us. Forgot to push down button.

You might also remember the name Kasowitz from this: His firm is the one that sent me mistakenly, I was told a private email conversation between several lawyers (including Kasowitz) and OReilly, as the group plotted a Hail Mary pass to try and save the anchors job.

TIPS AND COMMENTS: jpompeo@politico.com / @joepompeo. Morning Media is edited by Alex Weprin (@alexweprin / aweprin@politico.com) and produced with writing/reporting help from Cristiano Lima (clima@politico.com / @ludacristiano). Archives. Subscribe.

COMEY V. NEW YORK TIMES - It was rather remarkable that Comey divulged how he leaked, through "a good friend of mine who's a professor at Columbia Law School" (later confirmed to be Prof. Daniel Richman), the contents of his bombshell Trump memo that became the basis of a big New York Times scoop on May 16. Thats perhaps what also makes it particularly interesting that Comey trashed a separate Times story from February (Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence), of which he said, in the main, it was not true.

As of last night, the Times was standing by its reporting, the basic facts of which were not in dispute. And there was no reason to think the Times would change its tune unless, as one Times insider familiar with the matter told Morning Media, the FBI or Comey elaborate.

Full statement: The New York Times has published an examination of Mr. Comey's statements today, which reviews our previous coverage and found no evidence that any prior reporting was inaccurate. In fact, subsequent reporting by The Times and other media outlets has verified our reporting as the story makes clear. Neither the F.B.I., nor Mr. Comey would comment or elaborate.

From the Times story on the matter: Multiple news outlets have since published accounts that support the main elements of The Timess article, including information about phone calls and in-person meetings between Mr. Trumps advisers and Russians, some believed to be connected to Russian intelligence. Mr. Comey did not say exactly what he believed was incorrect about the article, which was based on information from four current and former American officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was classified.

GOOD RUNDOWN OF THE MEDIA RELEVANCE OF COMEYS TESTIMONY: A Leakers Admission: How the Media Covered, and Factored Into, Comeys Testimony, by Sydney Ember and Michael Grynbaum in the Times. An interesting point from the piece: It is highly unusual in Washington circles for powerful officials to admit to being the source of a leak. But the reality, veteran journalists say, is that such leaks are a day-to-day occurrence -- perhaps even more so during the Trump administration.

TAKES:

-- Margaret Sullivan: Flawed: yes. Fake: no. And, sometimes, extremely useful. That was the portrait of the mainstream news media that emerged from former FBI director James B. Comeys appearance Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. At various times, Comey portrayed journalists as getting the story wrong. Yet much of Comeys testimony reinforced or confirmed the bulk of the reporting that has dominated the news.

-- Paul Farhi: Something happened on Thursday that hardly ever happens any more: The news media stopped and collectively focused on one event. There was no other story in this otherwise fragmented news world; James B. Comeys congressional testimony was it and only it.

-- Hadas Gold: Former FBI director Jim Comeys testimony on Capitol Hill either completely vindicated President Donald Trump or further implicated him. That depends on which media is reporting the story. That mainstream outlets and conservative outlets would focus on different aspects of the testimony isn't entirely surprising, but reflects the extent that conservative media is backing Trump when even some Republican senators are condemning his handling of Comey.

SOUND BITES:

-- As an editor, when I tell a reporter I hope he'll do something I expect him to Deride &ridicule me in private and ignore me. [Gene Weingarten]

-- NB: Intriguing Comey had memos leaked to NYT in May given contempt he now expresses for NYT's reporting back in February. [David Folkenflik]

-- Can't recall a public figure ever explaining how he leaked a story [Ron Fournier]

-- Hearing didn't get to another reported detail in memo -- Trump urging Comey to consider jailing journalists for publishing classified info. [Michael Calderone]

-- Marc Kasowitz is wrong about leaks. Congress passed numerous laws to protect whistleblowers. We encourage whistleblowers to leak to press. [Rep. Ted Lieu]

JAMES COMEY, STUDENT JOURNALIST - via The Chronicle of Higher Education: Trying to maintain a veneer of neutrality while investigating a potentially explosive topic, James B. Comey found himself at the center of a fight between a brash antagonist and a group of rank-and-file professionals desperate to protect themselves and their institution. The year was 1980, and Mr. Comey, the future director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was a student journalist at the College of William & Mary. Years later, after the release on Wednesday night of his sworn testimony to the U.S. Senates Intelligence Committee, several people would applaud his prowess as a storyteller. But Mr. Comeys work at The Flat Hat, the colleges student newspaper, received far less applause that fall semester. More: The Story of James Comeys Most Explosive Investigation -- in College

TODAYS DAILY NEWS FRONT PAGE WAS GETTING A LOT OF ATTENTION LAST NIGHT - Its a picture of Trump with the word LIAR overlaid on his mug. Its a strong and damning cover with a critical point of view, but at the same time, its still notably more even-handed than the newspapers swashbuckling anti-Trump crusade of 2016. If you look at the display copy, the News is not calling Trump a liar, per se, but rather, LIAR refers to Comeys explosive accusations. (If New York tabloid Kremlinology is your thing, theres lots more where that came from in my feature from March: An anti-Trump tabloid pulls back.)

SIDENOTE: THE DAILY NEWS IS DOING A FICTIONAL TRUMP E-BOOK - Its written by News columnist and New York tabloid veteran Gersh Kuntzman, and its called, COUP! Mike Pence and a skeet-shooting pothead, Rick Perry's dance leotard, a waterboard and Ivanka save America from Donald Trump. According to the promo copy, which was shared with Morning Media: Using the Constitution's obscure 25th Amendment, Pence secretly convinces a majority of cabinet members to overthrow the 45th President, setting off a hilarious battle for power that culminates with a civil war, a President in exile and a new Trump brand rising like a phoenix from the ashes. Available for download in the Kindle store on Monday, $3.99 a pop.

MUST READS:

-- Comeys devastating indictment of President Donald Trump [POLITICO]

-- 5 Clues James Comey Just Left Behind [The Daily Beast]

-- What it Feels Like for a Woman and James Comey [W]

-- Security Breach [Harpers]

-- Oldest Homo sapiens bones ever found shake foundations of the human story [The Guardian]

REVOLVING DOOR:

-- The Atlantics newest contributor is Face the Nation moderator and CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent John Dickerson, who will write regularly for print and the web. His first piece landed right as James Comey began testifying on the Hill: Donald Trump Is an Impossible Boss.

-- Glamour has signed Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker as a contributing editor covering Washington and politics. Per the mags announcement: Building on the brands long history of political coverage, Parker will be responsible for bringing top politicians and coverage of important policy issues to Glamours pages.

OREILLY BACK ON TV - NewsmaxTV. Hat tip, Jim Rutenberg: O'Reilly appears on Newsmax, which has been open about wanting to hire him post-Fox. You can watch the video and read the accompanying article, O'Reilly: I Should Have Fought Back Like Sean Hannity, here. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy told us last month that he thinks very highly of OReilly and would be very open to working with him.

BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK RELAUNCH SET FOR JUNE 15 - A Bloomberg rep revealed the street date to Morning Media last night, while declining to give us any specifics about what the makeover will entail. We have, however, confirmed one change: BWs quirky back-of-book Etc. section, which is chock full of culture, fashion and lifestyle goodies, is going away. (I was a regular Etc. contributor when it first launched with the initial Bloomberg-ified redesign of 2010. RIP.)

SOUNDTRACK: The Clash, Straight to Hell

EXTRAS:

-- Accused Intercept leaker Reality Winner pleaded not guilty and was denied bail. [CNN]

-- Al Jazeera says it came under cyberattack yesterday. [AJE]

-- Interview: Ezra Klein Explains it All [WWD]

-- Witnesses are being cross-examined in the ABC News pink slime lawsuit. Heres Eriq Gardners latest dispatch from Elk Point, South Dakota. [THR]

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Morning Media- POLITICO Media

Home > Games > A Remote Control I Desperately Needed: We Review PDPs PS4 Media Remote

The PlayStation 4 can do a lot of great things, and one of those things is play DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Owning a PS4 eliminates the need for many media players if you manage the drive space properly. Something that the PS4 doesnt come with that it sorely needed was a remote control. I dont care how the button scheme is set up, theres just something about controlling my movie through a game remote that doesnt feel right. Working with a regular remote control most of my existence mad eme want a proper remote.

Thankfully the people at PDP have the ability to license awesome gear with Sony, which led to them creating the PS4 Media Remote. This remote control is about 1/4 inch slimmer than a standard iPhone or Android phone and barely ways more than a few ounces. The black design, the colors, and the button setup are made to look like a PS4 controller morphed into a standard remote, so it looks and feels like it belongs with your system.

The buttons themselves have a soft touch, like a smoothed over felt material that makes it very easy on the fingers. All the buttons work with the system currently in place with the PS4 remote, only designed better when it comes to actual play settings. The remote connects to your PS4 the same way the controller does: Bluetooth. It doesnt take a lot to set it up, but the remote does disconnect after 30 minutes of inactivity, so you may end up pushing the logo button a few times when watching stuff. The batteries (AAA) are easy to replace and the back half of the remote slips onand off like a charm.

There isnt a lot to say about the remote because it serves a simple function for media playback. Butit takes a lot of the unnecessary button scheme mess that you have to work with on a game controller and turns it into a simpler design. It honestly is something that the PS4 should have come with long ago on its own, and its confusing why Sony didnt bother to do it in the first place. If you wants a lot of media or have stored media files on your PS4, this is a must-own. Dont think about it, just get it.

(Last Updated June 9, 2017 3:03 pm )

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A Remote Control I Desperately Needed: We Review PDP's PS4 Media Remote - Bleeding Cool News

EDINBURGH Teams of journalists have been hard at work sifting through a massive bank of emails linked to the involvement of the Gupta family in South African government and business. As investigative reporters with amaBhungane and the Daily Mavericks Scorpio piece together correspondence to build the case that President Jacob Zuma is deeply corrupt, other editorial teams are analysing the findings. #GuptaLeaks is undoubtedly the most important release of confidential information in years because the state capture campaign by Zuma and his friends in particular the Gupta family is undermining the economy and unravelling South Africas fragile democratic system. Sadly, senior ANC figures are still not finding the courage within themselves to take a stand against the rot. With the law enforcement agencies corrupt and captured, too, it looks like it is going to take a court challenge from a civil society organisation to get the wheels of justice turning. Here is a snapshot of the latest findings to emerge from #GuptaLeaks Jackie Cameron

Staff Writer

The Gupta family has ambitious plans to seize control of the media sector, but has failed in its attempts to buy into Primedia. This emerged as journalists with amaBhungane released more details contained in a treasure trove of confidential #GuptaLeaks emails.

Owning their own newspaper and TV station was only the beginning of the Guptas plans. Leaked emails show that they hoped to build up a South African media empire and to do so, considered at one stage or another buying the Mail & Guardian, a portion of Independent Media, and Primedia, says amaBhungane.

Oakbays Vim Rajbansi elaborated on the plan: We merge with Primedia and list together [on the stock exchange] in 3 years.

AmaBhungane journalists ask whether Rajbansi exaggerating the level of interest in the proposal to impress his Gupta boss because Primedia denies engaging with the Gupta organisation in connection with a deal.

The board of Primedia never considered a transaction with the Guptas, Primedia CEO Roger Jardine said on Tuesday. I am not aware of any discussions between a director or shareholder of Primedia with the Guptas or their representatives, reports amaBhungane.

A partner at London-listed Bell Pottinger, Victoria Geoghegan has made it her business to undo the work of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and other freedom struggle stalwarts to build up the Rainbow Nation following decades of conflict and hardship in the apartheid era.She has worked closely with Duduzane Zuma, one of President Jacob Zumas sons, as she has developed a race-baiting strategy to grab the attention of the grassroots population who must identify with it, connect with it and feel united by it. Victoria Geoghegan is also behind smear campaigns to get South Africans to hate independent journalists who have shone the spotlight on corruption in order to help shore up support for Zuma. Bell Pottinger has been paid handsomely for this work by a Gupta entity.Read here for more.

Its probably no surprise that ANC leaders continue to turn a blind eye to the vast body of evidence that President Jacob Zuma is in politics for himself and an army of sycophantic friends. Still, it was disappointing to learn this week that questions about the recently leaked emails purportedly showing ties between government, President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family, were shut down by ANC NEC member Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakulaat an important meeting. She said the matter really has nothing to do with our work as the peace and stability committee.Mapisa-Nqakula has nailed her colours to the mast at a time when it is abundantly clear that you are either with #Zupta or against #Zupta. Read here for more.

Now heres something we bet you didnt know about Iqbal Surv,the controversial boss of the Independent group. As it turns out he was deep within the bosom of #Zupta for quite some time. In fact, the Surv and Gupta families were so tight that Iqbal Surv was a guest at THAT lavish wedding linked to the airforce landing scandal. Whats more, Surv threw his weight around and did a bit of Gupta name-dropping to work his way into a more luxurious suite.Read here for moreon how Surv and the Gupta brothers were as thick as thieves.

Read more here:
Exposed! Gupta plans to control Primedia, build media empire ... - BizNews