Why ownership pluralism still matters in a multi-platform world

This chapter examines the effects of changing technology on landscapes of media provision and consumption and considers whether the greater choice made possible by digital technology and changing patterns of consumption obviate the need for special interventions to restrict media ownership for the sake of pluralism. News Corporation's bid for BSkyB in 2011 clearly exemplified how, not least in times of technological change, patterns of ownership are shaped by economic and strategic factors. Digitisation has encouraged greater cross-sectoral convergence providing an extra spur towards strategies of diversification and multi-platform expansion in the media industry. Even so, and despite the transition to a more web-connected era, as this chapter argues there remain good grounds for concerns about the power wielded by dominant media organisations in relation to production and circulation of news, ideas and cultural and political values within contemporary societies

Investigating the Rotational Phase of Stellar Flares on M dwarfs Using K2 Short Cadence Data

We present an analysis of K2 short cadence data of 34 M dwarfs which have spectral types in the range M0 - L1. Of these stars, 31 showed flares with a duration between $\sim$10-90 min. Using distances obtained from Gaia DR2 parallaxes, we determined the energy of the flares to be in the range $\sim1.2\times10^{29}-6\times10^{34}$ erg. In agreement with previous studies we find rapidly rotating stars tend to show more flares, with evidence for a decline in activity in stars with rotation periods longer than $\sim$10 days. The rotational modulation seen in M dwarf stars is widely considered to result from a starspot which rotates in and out of view. Flux minimum is therefore the rotation phase where we view the main starspot close to the stellar disk center. Surprisingly, having determined the rotational phase of each flare in our study we find none show any preference for rotational phase. We outline three scenarios which could account for this unexpected finding. The relationship between rotation phase and flare rate will be explored further using data from wide surveys such as NGTS and TESS.Comment: Accepted main Journal MNRA