Ministry of Sound UK Vs. Downloaders Pt. 2: The Internet Strikes Back

Actual Screen grab of failed Minstry of Sound website 5.10.10 @ 5.44pm

http://www.inthemix.com.au/news/intl/48214/Ministry_Of_Sound_UK_vs_downloaders_Pt_2_The_Internet_Strikes_Back

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/ministry-sound-attacked-after-filesharing-ultimatum/

This news story is an update to an older story that previously ran on the website. This story is extremely relevant, and timely to the users of the inthemix, and while the content is trivialised in a humorous way, it still has an important message. As this story is part of an ongoing issue, it creates further depth, with its placement on the website developing the issue. The hyperlink to the original story is given, and this older story also includes another hyperlink to an even older story connected to the issue. This creates a network of stories related to the issue, building a stronger story.

As with many stories presented on inthemix, the journalists have used humour to convey meaning, by presenting the news in a sarcastic and ironic way. While the angle of the story does allow for humour, the journalists are able to do this, as they are disseminating news that was originally broken from another source (these sources are always quoted). While this is not an original news story, it allows the journalists to present the facts and also include opinions that reflect the general attitude of the website and users. The ability to do this is facilitated through the online medium, which proliferates the redistribution of news. News in an online medium evolves through dissemination and redistribution through comments and the incorporation of new opinions interacting with new, rather than initially breaking the story (although for many users of this site, this will be how the news is broken). This helps online news stories evolve, and helps journalists to redistribute news that is suited to selected audiences. This story reflects this process of development.

In contrasting the two news stories (the original source as quoted by ITM and the ITM version), it is important to look at the context of the story’s environment and how this affects its presentation. While ITM is specifically dance music news related, and with The Ministry of Sound record label being dance music focused, I think the story works better on the ITM website. The Daily Swarm is focused on general music news, and while the story still works well on this site, it is more specifically suited and relevant to the users of ITM.

The layout of the story on The Daily Swarm is very weak and disjointed, it does not flow easily, and is not presented well (it looks very cheap and the layout has a cut and paste feel, which fails to maximise the opportunities of an online environment, despite the picture accompanying the story is much stronger than ITM). As with ITM this story was developed from an older story. The content however is very basic and devoid of opinion, and like ITM, this story has been taken from another electronic dance music website (hence the literal cyt and past feel of the layout which appears to be how the news story was constructed), which appears to be the original online source http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=12519 (the news on this site is also presented with less opinion and humour than ITM, focuses only on facts. The layout is stronger than The Daily Swarm, although in comparison to the IMT, its weaker. The ITM presentation of news is much bolder and fresher. The colour scheme, layout, font size, picture use and headline position convey stronger presentation of news in an online medium).

While there is a lack of multimedia across all sites telling this story, this could be due to lack of relevant available material. However, with MoS being a dance music label, and on the story being on dance/music news website, film clips of recent MoS tracks could have been incorporated. Any music on a music news website would work.

The story is strongest on the ITM website, with clear layout and a consistent flow of information, with strong use of hyperlinks.