Who’s taking control this year? Google, BBC, Facebook, or even North Korea?

The media industry lives in strange convergent times which are only set to get stranger in the year ahead

From YouTube to Facebook – will video be the one to watch in 2015?

It may be the era of the television mega-indie, commercial radio is ready for a BBC showdown – but print is still being pressed, say our experts

Snapchat reveals $485m of funding at a reported $10bn valuation

Lawsuits, leaked snaps and regulatory scrutiny haven’t put investors off messaging app as it finally starts making money from ads

The best iPhone apps of 2014

From SwiftKey and FireChat to Replay Video Editor and Silent Text 2: the best new iPhone apps that the App Store had to offer this year

What were your biggest technology stories of 2014? Open thread

Have your say on the big themes of 2014, as well as The Interview, Facebook censorship in Russia, TaskRabbit and more

Instagram purge costs celebrities millions of followers

The photo-sharing app has upset high-profile users by cracking down on spam accounts and bots, with Justin Bieber hardest hit

Welcome to the future of advertising, where the word digital is redundant

In a world where everything is digital, our obsession with the divide between non-digital and digital media is limiting marketers thinking

Ofcom report identifies emerging ‘generation gap’ in young people’s TV viewing

Media regulator highlights shift in viewing habits as people aged 16-24 move away from traditional platforms and online consumption grows

Should Apple censor games differently to music and books? Open thread

Have your say on Papers, Please controversy, as well as YouTube music, the visual web, a ‘Spotify for news’ and social media complaining

Facebook has likes. Instagram has hearts. Twitter’s got faves. But Flickr had them (and me) first

Erin McCann: Yahoo may be ‘ruining’ the photo-sharing site again, but as my Flickr friend says, ‘it really just comes down to feelings’

Study finds social media use beneficial to overall health of elderly

Report studied elderly and vulnerable people in UK and Italy using Skype, Facebook and other social media tools

The Guardian view on the freedom of the internet: it’s under attack around the world

Editorial: The net is a powerful weapon, and governments don’t want it in the hands of their critics

Instagram now has 300m users sharing 70m photos and videos a day

Facebook-owned app reveals plans to add verified badges for celebrities and brands, as well as crackdown on spam accounts

How sport dominated social media in 2014

If you were on Facebook or Twitter this year you will have heard a lot about the World Cup and the Champions League – while watching people douse themselves in ice-cold water