Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case. What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this? How did new and digital media create a different story? What does the police officer's subsequent aquittal suggest about the power of new and digital media?
The traditional view on a case like this is that the policeman involved in this incident would get away with what they have done and it is backed up in the text in which Blair Peach in 1979 there was a similar case in which the policeman got away with a similar incident. The new and digital media created a different story due to introduction of user generated content in which people can now film events happening and this happened as this case was seen and uploaded on YouTube and as a result the policeman had to suffer some consequences. Even though he got done for manslaughter he still got away with it showing that the police will still get away with stuff and if we try to question their judgement we could be seen as breaking the law.

2) What does the author argue regarding whether hegemony is being challenged by Web 2.0? 
The author argues that some of the social networking sites may be corrupt. For e.g. Yahoo displaying Nazi images which is seen as wrong in France, also with social networking sites supporting Arab springs for e.g. and may be getting in the viewers minds and brainwashing them.

3) In your opinion, does new and digital media reinforce dominant hegemonic views or give the audience a platform to challenge them?
I believe that digital media does a bit of both. It is hegemonic in that people comments can be censored and can be reported and in that we think we have power when it really is an illusion especially from the bigger companies such as Google. However on the other side we can challenge audiences in that we now have blogs, social networking and also YouTube in which we can give our own opinions. With e media becoming the dominant platform it gives us more power in people would rather go on the internet or YouTube rather then reading newspapers.