'We media' and democracy- Gabriel Judkins

As someone who has never really been  interested in watching the news channels or checking the BBC website for the latest news having knowledge about what is currently happening in the world around me is something that is not too common and throughout the summer this has not changed at all. There are very few ways in which news is available for me to view on an ordinary day. An example of this being news shared on social media feeds , such as Twitter and Facebook, that I happen to notice as I scroll through them and another being YouTube . As someone who enjoys watching videos on YouTube on a daily basis, I stumbled across a YouTube Channel a few years ago called 'Phillip Defranco' where the presenter, Phillip Defranco, talks about news around the world and what his views on these stories are. From watching a few of his videos a came to the realisation that I agree with many his view points on the stories he commented on and soon became someone who I would watch on a daily basis. He is also a very entertaining presenter, which is a change from the usual news reported. The only disadvantage to this channel is that many of the news stories he comments on are from the USA , because that is where he lives, which means that I don't pick up on many of the major British news stories . I believe that this is a very reliable source to get my news from as the majority of the news stories that he talk about comes from the mainstream media outlets as well as the fact that if he were to report on false news, he would be easily caught out (he currently has 3.4 million subscribers on YouTube) and could possibly loose viewers/subscribers. Plus he is a reporter who usually backs up his news with sources in his videos.

Throughout the summer a number of particular news stories have stuck with me that were brought to my attention through 'The Philip Defranco Show'. One of these stories was the news about a girl convinces her boyfriend to commit suicide via text messages. In this show it talks about how a young man named Conrad Roy was depressed and was considering suicide and decided to turn to his girlfriend for help. But, instead of getting help his girlfriend he ended up committing suicide. This was due to the fact that she actually convinced him though messages which were found on their phones after the police went through all their text messages between each other. She is now facing involuntary manslaughter charges and could face up to 20 years in jail. This news story was something that I did not see reported on the social media's that I occasional check which was strange due to the fact that news as awful and disturbing as this is usually shared all over the place. This is probably due to it being this news story based in the USA and may have not been picked up on by British media. However, this news story was reported on the major USA networks which was how it was brought to the presenters attention. My thoughts on this story were very much like the presenters- disgusting and evil. The woman who committed this crime deserves the prison time she receives.

Another news story I found out about over the summer was yet again through the 'Philip Defranco Show'. This news story involved the shooting of a news crew live on air where a the camera man and the journalist (who was on her last day on the job) were both killed. Luckily the person who was being interviewed survived but the attacker fled and later committed suicide. The attacker was later found out to be an ex-employee of the news station .This story was also shared all over social media which was where I saw it for a second time and was covered by every major television news channel in the USA and even in some of the UK's most popular news papers. The video from the cameraman's point of view has also been uploaded and shared across social networking which has allowed for even more people to gain knowledge of the situation. This was yet another new story I awful and disturbing however as the culprit committed suicide there is no justice being served which for me is something that is quite frustrating.

The final news story I cam across over the holiday was something that I originally came across on my twitter feed but I was then later informed on the story by the 'Philip DeFranco Show' which was the story of Usain Bolt being ran over by a cameraman on a Segway. Luckily, no one was harmed in the incident but the video captured of the incident did make a very funny viral video that was shared all over social media. Even the 'Big Media' picked up on it and was covered by all the main news channels/news papers. For me this was one of the funniest videos that I came across over the summer holiday and served as something funny to come out of the news compared to some of the earlier news stories.

Phillip Defranco's YouTube channel is a perfect example of what Dan Gillmor (the author of 'We Media' and democracy) said about how news and media its because of the increase in democracy. The increase in democracy has allowed people to post their own news stories, ideas of the story and their opinions.This could, however, lead to people setting up their own channels and completely making up fake news stories and misinforming  people. But for now this change has made it very easy for news stories to be passed around and allows people to become more aware of the world around them as well as making it easier to keep up to date on current events.