Unit 1: Industries, Texts and Audiences

Introduction

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This blog provides a guide to help you complete unit 1. You should use the guidelines to help you structure your essay. This blog includes various resources and links to a variety of websites.
Students must send their essays by simplyclick and make sure they have studied the marking and assessment codes (below).
Students must also ensure they reference, use quotes and create a bilbliography using the guidelines below.

Referencing

Students must not copy from websites under any circumstances. Copying other peoples work is plagiarism and any examples of plagiarism found in student essays, will result in an unclassified grade.

Students must ensure that they create their own work using their own research. If a student is using information that they have found on a specific website they must reference that website. (This does not mean students can copy and paste and then reference the work.)

Students should reference their work by using footnotes. Footnotes can be inserted by clicking on insert and then footnotes (mac)
Insert - reference - footnotes (pc)

Quotes

You must leave a line before and after your quote and ensure that the quote is in bold.
After your quote you should put the author and the website in brackets;

'Aston Villa are the by far the most sophisticated football team in the premiership' (Martin O'Neal, www.avfc.co.uk)

Bibliography

You should list all the websites and books you have used in alphabetical order at the end of your essay.

Marking and Assessment

Make sure you check out the marking grids to see what level you are working at!
(Click to Enlarge)

Good Luck!

1.1 How the media industry is structured

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Lesson Powerpoint

In this opening section of the unit, you will be expected to look at a specific media industry. In turn you will be expected to provide an analysis of the industry and how the industry is regulated with regard to content and ownership.

This opening section of the unit is broken down into 4 main areas which are listed below.

Students should use the information below as a guide to completing section 1.1, this section should be a minimum of 1500 words and a maximum of 3000 words.

When undertaking this unit, students are expected to present research results in a relevant format in addition to their essay. This may include graphs, charts, audio/visual recordings etc;

1. Different types of media organisations within the area chosen for study and the scope and objectives of their operations.

The Media is made up of many different industries, film, TV, music, new media, advertising and many others. Your job is to choose a media industry and investigate what types of companies make up that industry.
You should formulate an overview of your chosen industry, include charts, graphs etc and try and make the overview as detailed as possible.

The Big Six Media Organisations
Media Ownership

Television:
The TV industry in Britain
Public Service Broadcasting
British Television
The BBC
ITV
Channel 4
Channel 5
Sky TV

Film:
Hollywood Stu dios
Independent Film
Bollywood
Film Studios
Production Companies

Music:
The Music Industry
Future of the Music Industry
The Big Five
Labels and Publishers

New Media:
What is new media?
AOL
Google
Yahoo
Does Google own the world?

2. Patterns of ownership - who owns what, how and why the patterns change and why it matters.

Does it matter who owns what?
Is ownership of the media something we should be concerned about?

These are the kind of questions you should be addressing in this section of your essay.
Most of the information you need on a daily basis, is supplied for you by the media. You may read a newspaper, watch the TV, listen to the radio or log on to find out what is happening in the world. There is so much happening in the world, who decides what is relevant? What is newsworthy?

This information is supplied to us by media companies, who make these decisions on our behalf, they can help create a window to the world but are they in control of what we see when we peer out of it.

British Media Ownership
Concentration of Media Ownership
Who owns ou r opinion?
Who controls what we watch?

Each industry is different but in recent times it appears that fewer companies are owning more media and this must have an effect on specific industries and the content they provide for us to consume.

Your task is to explain who owns what in your industry and why it matters....

Check out the selection of films below to find out more about cross ownership of the media the effect it can have......

The Murdoch effect....

The Music Industry....

The future of new media...

3. Regulating and governing ownership and content in the Media.

Each section of the media is regulated by a governing body but who are these organisations? How were they formed? What do they do? How do they regulate the industry?

In the last section we looked at who owns what in the Media and why it matters, is there anything being done to assess the nature of media mergers and challenge these oligopolies?

The competition commission replaced the board for monopolies and mergers and looks into possible mergers, seeking to ensure that industries in Britain remain vibrant and diverse.

The commision is currently looking BSKYB and their proposed acquisition of 17.9% of the shares in ITV plc. (See below)

Why do you think this proposal is being looked at?

In the US there is a similar organisation called the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC have been involved with a number of high profile media mergers over the years.

One of the biggest media mergers in recent years has been the Time Warner merger. This merger received an awful lot of bad press and many people believed that it should never have been allowed to happen. Find out more about this merger below.

The AOL Time Warner merger
FTC Approves Merger
Merger under fire

Regulation of Content:

Media texts are created to be seen or heard by society and can change, inspire, revolt, excite and shock people. It is important that industries are regulated so the public are protected, or is it?

Many industries have independent regulatory bodies:

Ofcom PCC BBFC FCC

Music is a little bit more complex. Music lyrics and album covers are not covered by Ofcom, like music on televison and music videos. The websites below will give you an insite.

http://njnj.essortment.com/musicindustryb_rccy.htm
http://www.nku.edu/~issues/music_censorship/laws.htm
http://website.lineone.net/~foxy282/censorship_of_music.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_music

Another complex industry when it comes to regulation is the US Film Industry. The industry self-regulates itself. With major companies not wanting to upset their audiences, major film studios tred very carefully. Often films are only released in certain states in the US, as these states are seen as being a little more liberal than others. Find out more below:

Film Censorship in the US
The Hays Code
The US Rating System

Regulation of the internet is the most complex of all. The internet is fast becoming the most popular form of media and we the public, are not only users but creators. The internet has become the new public space, so how can we regulate it?

The debate will go on!

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39146696,00.htm
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0144730220071102

AOL's advert very cleverly asks the viewer to consider if the internet is a good thing or bad thing. Could they lose customers by airing an advert like this? What do you think?

1.2 How a media company is internally organised

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Lesson Powerpoint

Click on the image to the left to acces Skillset' interactive storyboard, describibg the process of production in the film industry.......

1.The Process of Production

Your first task is to look at the process of production in your industry or if possible within a chosen organisation .

Every media text must go through a process of production but what happens during these processes?

Each industry is different although a common thread in the production process may be observered across different industries.

Film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking
http://www.northern.edu/wild/th100/flmprod.htm

TV:
http://www.peakvisiontv.co.uk/pvtvpreproduction.htm
http://www.esrcsocietytoday
http://www.finecutfilms.com
http://www.cybercollege.com

Music:
http://www.davidduckworth.com/process.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_producer

2. Hierarchical Structures and Job roles. (See section 3)

Who does what in a media company, or indeed as a freelance team working on a project?
In this section, you need to show these different roles and the hierarchical structure of a workforce. In other words, who does what and who is in charge?
Above is an example of the kind of chart you are looking to create, concisely explaining the structure of a company or workforce.

In addition to this you must choose 2 or 3 of the roles that have you documented in your chart and create case studies of particular roles.

http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/accounts/
http://www.skillset.org/tv/jobs/
https://jobs.bbc.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/industry/

3. Various Job Roles
Jobs in the Media can be divided into two categories, 'creative' and 'non-creative'.
From producers to caterers jobs in the media can be very different.
You need to document the different roles and divide them into the two categories.
Present this information however you feel appropriate.
This section could be completed in conjunction with section 2.

Jobs behind the scenes
Jobs behind the scenes cont...
Job Profiles
Working in the Industry

4. Job structures in the Media.
How are people paid for what they do in the media? What kind of contracts are they working to?
As you have found out there are many different types of jobs in the media and due to the nature of these roles, there are many different ways of being paid for what you do. Many people work as freelancers in the media and some work on short-term contracts. Many specialists in the industry only work when work comes along, work may not be regular but over certain periods of time.

http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/print.html

Journalists roles have changed, as technology has changed. Journalists can now work from anywhere and don't neccessarily have to work from the office. A laptop will allow certain types of journalists the freedom to carry out there work from anywhere. With the advent of the internet, it is also important that content is created regularly and uploaded instantly.

There are hundreds of jobs in the media and many different conditions of employment.
What about your industry?

Getting work in TV
Getting work in TV history programmes
Getting work in documentaries
Getting work as a director
Getting work as location manager
Getting work as a producer
Prosthetic Designer
Jobs in the media
BBC Jobs
http://www.skillset.org/film/

5. How do you forge a career in the media?

So if you want to work in the media, where do you start? Choose a job role in your chosen industry and reseach the relevant career pathways and work-experience.

What courses are available, from AS courses to Post-Graduate courses?
Which universities specialise in media related courses?

Working in the media
Courses and Careers
http://www.skillset.org/careers/

Click on the icon to the left for an example of courses at Westminster University

1.3 How media texts are constructed in relation to their audiences

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Lesson Powerpoint
Click above to look again at the class presentation.

“Today's audience knows more about what's on television than what's in life.”

Larry Gelbart quotes (American Writer, Producer and Actor, b.1928)

Why are audiences important?

Without them - why would media texts be created?

1. The Target Audience..

A producer always needs to assess what the target audience is for the text that they are producing.
The target audience is seen as a collective but an individual who is stereotypical of a person from this collective is always in the back of producers mind. (See class presentation)

Try and think of a stereotypical member of the target audience for the text you are studying.

What are the social positions of the audience members?

Consider how the following may effect the way an audience interact with a media text and why it is important that media producers are aware of their audiences demographic.

Self image: How does the audience member feel she or he is viewed, as a result of identifying with and even buying into an identity that is linked with a media text, or series of texts?
ie; being a trekky, a goth, an emo etc;

Gender: Does being a male or female mean you are attracted to particular genres?
Are people drawn to texts that they feel their gender should be drawn to?
(For example, men and war films or women and heat magazine)
Who decides that particular sexes should be attracted to particular texts?
Do media producers aim specific texts at specific genders?

Age group: Should age make a difference? Think about the questions stated above and relate them to age..

Family: What is a family audience?
What type of texts appeal to family audiences?
As far as producers and marketeers and advertisers are concerned, why are 3,4,5 people even 6,7,8 better than 1? (Just ask the CEO of Disney)

Class: What's class got to do with it? (Refer to table below)

Does being part of a certain class mean you are attracted to particular genres?
Are people drawn to texts that they feel their class should be drawn to?
(For example, The Telegraph or the Sun) Have a look at the final section of the movie below...

Who decides that particular classes should be attracted to particular texts?
Do media producers aim specific texts at a specific class?

Nation: Does nationality make a difference, have a look a the questions posed for class and gender, do they apply to nationality?
Why does US television travel so well?
Do producers try and appeal to our national and cultural identities?
Why are period dramas so popular in Britain?
Why are wacky game shows so popular in Japan?
Do producers have to concede that audiences can be xenophobic and racist?

Ethnicity: Once again, consider the questions posed in earlier questions when related to ethnicity.

Religion: Why must producers be aware of the different religous denominations that are present in their target audience?
How might the glorification of sex and violence be received by certain factions of different religions?
It is only recently that on screen kisses have become part of Bollywood films!
The media often tackles the difficult task of representing religion and people who are intrinsically linked by religion, why is this a risky process?
Why was Borat not released in some cinemas in the Southern states of America?
Why did Spielberg have to think carefully about the production, content and advertising of Schindler's List?

Education: Does your education play a role in the way you receive and interact with media texts?
Do media producers shape texts to be aimed at educated, or less educated people?

Politics:

Lawless Britain: Hoodie Hell
Brand new documentary series investigating the alarming increase in violence and crime on UK streets, beginning with a look at the groups of young people whose lives centre around anti-social behaviour.

People of what particular political persuasion might be interested in this documentary? Is this linked to class?
If you knew this documentary was being broadcast on Bravo would it effect your answer?
What about if it was being broadcasting on BBC 4?
Why is it important for some media institutions to be apolitical?

Location (geographical & local): Is where you live important in the eyes of media producers?
If so why?
Is it linked to gender, family, age, class, ethnicity, religion, education, wealth, politics?
The world is a smaller place because of the advancements in technology, how does this effect the make-up of audiences and all of the categories above?

2. The audience as a market place...

Media producers and marketeers think beyond the initial consumption of a media text by an audience.
Media organisations aim to build relationships that last, encouraging audience members to buy into the product, both mentally and physically.
Disney are the masters at building this type of relationship with their audiences, this is sometimes known as disneyfication.

‘High School Musical’

Movie – DVD-stage show – ice show
CD - Stationary – Karaoke
Sticker Album – lunch boxes
Dance Mat – Dolls – clothing
Sing a long showings - competitions

Marketing is a big part of the media industry and to market to an audience, organisations must know their audience.
How do the producers of your media text, know their audience? And how do they create an interactive relationship, that could have some longevity?

Think about: Websites, blogs, posters, radio programmes, tv programmes, DVD's, singles, albums, live albums, special editions, directors cut, making of, fanclubs, clothes, toys, ornaments, memorabilia, interviews with the star vehicles, documentaries, theme parks, lunch boxes, bed spreads........................

3. Counting Audiences

Film:
Figures based on box office receipts. [tickets sold, then DVDs bought/ rented
[Subtract production costs to find profit = success] Box Office Figures
Print:
Circulation [copies read]
Audit Bureau of Circulation http://www.abc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=nav/abc&noc=y
Radio / TV:
Viewing figures. Sample of population, viewing/listening habits monitored for 7 days.
Broadcast Audience Research Board BARB
Radio Joint Audience Research: BARB
Music: Traditionally always measured by singles/album sales. The internet has had a big impact, there are now download charts which can be monitored but there are also many files sharing sites, which cannot be monitored. Music Sales
New Media: Monitored through number of subscriptions to specific websites, or by the number of hits on websites. Again difficult to monitor but important to advertisers who want to know the size of their audiences. Monitoring Hits

4. Audience Theories

There are many theories which try and understand how audiences interact with the media but they are all only theories. They seek to try and understand the types of relationships the media has with its audiences and how they are formed.

Hypodermic Needle Effect
Suggests media is capable of ‘mass manipulation’
Audience believe what they see
Gullible audience:
War of the world s (1938 radio broadcast)
April fools – BBC Panorama spaghetti tree!!!

Two Step Flow Model
Paul Lazarsfeld & Elihu Katz

Mass media information is channeled to the "masses" through opinion leadership. The people with most access to media, and having a more literate understanding of media content, explain and diffuse the content to others.

They pass on their opinions and interpretations.

Uses & Gratifications
Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz
Audience has a set of needs that are met by the media.

Diversion
Surveillance
Personal identity
Personal relationship

Reception Analysis
Text is not passively accepted - audience interpret meaning based on individual cultural background or life experience.

Programme is encoded by the producer and decoded by the audience.

Opositional / negotiated readings

Stuart Hall – CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Birmingham)

Audience Theories
Audience Readings:

Dominant / Hegemonic:
Reader recognises and agrees with preferred reading.
Oppositional:
Reader recognises but rejects preferred reading (for cultural/political/ideological reasons)
Negotiated:
Reader accepts, rejects or refines elements of the programme due to previously held views

5. How do the media represent us?

Representation:

Do the media suggest to large audiences that x or y character is typical of that group, and therefore that the whole group should be viewed in certain ways?

Stereotypes

Negative / Positive
Coronation Street / Eastenders
Cultures - corner shop owners
Sean – Camp
Battersby family.
Hugh Grant:
Notting Hill, 4 Weddings & a Funeral, Love Actually.

Representation in the media
Studying represenataion

See what Stuart Hall makes of reprsentation...

1.4 How Audiences Use Media Products

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Aida in Action!!!

All media texts are constructed carefully. Nothing is there by accident. The media present things in the way they choose.

All media texts attempt to ATTRACT US by grabbing our attention in some way. For example, in a film this could be the title sequence, including loud sounds and fast moving action. Media texts then need to keep our INTEREST by using persuasive techniques and language. They might also use enigmas to keep us puzzled so that we carry on watching/reading/listening. They try to appeal to our DESIRES, as suggested by the Uses & Gratifications theory. This says that we all have four basic needs.

Diversion (the need for entertainment)
Surveillance (the need for information)
Personal Identity (the need to check out our own lives)
Personal Relationships (the need to share with others)

Media texts can satisfy these needs in many ways. These use many LINES OF APPEAL to draw us in – you can find these at www.mediaknowall.com in the advertising section, but they don’t only apply to adverts.

Finally, media texts try to get us to take some ACTION. This might be to buy a product, ring a phone number, tune in next week, visit a website etc… Very often they do this by telling us how urgent our actions are…. ‘sale ends Friday’ etc….

Different media texts have different signifiers to use. Audio-Visual Products (film, TV, radio, websites) use VISUAL, VOCAL, MUSICAL AND SONIC signifiers.

When you want to talk about the visuals (pictures), cover as many of the following as you can :

People
Location
Objects
Dress
Camera shots, angles, movements
Editing
Lighting
Effects
Graphics

When you want to talk about the voices, consider the following :

Volume
Accent
Tone
Speed
Pitch
Microphone (include any effects that may have been added)
Words (the actual words being used … may be significant)

When talking about the music, think about :

Is it a music bed
What is the tempo like?
Is it diegetic or non-diegetic sound (diegetic sound is sound that is part of the plot – can actually be heard by the actors). Non-diegetic sound is ‘outside’ the story, for example music beds/incedental music)

The other sounds include :

Silence
Ambience – background sounds
Actuality – sounds from the event, played on their own to set the scene.
Sound effects – can be either diegetic or non-diegetic.

Print Products rely on use of IMAGE, VISUALS AND COPY (writing).

When talking generally about the images, consider :

Size
Angle
Colour

You can cover everything about the visuals by using the above list (plodcamedleg)

The ‘copy’ means the writing. Consider :

The fonts – serif or sans serif?
The words – why are certain words used?

So… now you can identify the actual signifiers but how can you talk about them? It is no good just listing them. You must say how they are used together (create the mise-en-scene) to create certain representations for the target audience. What are the connotations of these signifiers? The following words can help you to cover important media areas, but you don’t need to use them in any specific order. Tick them off as you use them in a piece of writing.

Preferred reading – the actual meaning intended by the producer of the media text.
Primary/secondary target audience.

Juxtaposed/juxtaposition – how and why are opposites placed together (eg. light & dark)
Anchor – how is the meaning fixed, or is it?

Connotation – what is suggested by the signifiers?

Mode of address – the style of the text (comic, serious, formal, informal, direct, indirect)
Polysemic – not anchored or fixed, but open to many different interpretations

Enigma – a puzzle to keep us involved

Single/Multi strand – how many storylines the text has….

Representation – the ways in which people/places/events/reality are presented to us (positive, negative, biased, realistic, stereotypical…….)

Genre – it is always a good idea to say which genre you are looking at. (sci-fi, horror, news etc…) Every genre has its own conventions (typical things that always appear)

Include a mention of Vladimir Propp’s characters – hero, villain, helper, damsel in distress
… and Todorov’s narrative structure – equilbrium (balance in the story), disruption (upset) and resolution (the way in which the puzzle is sorted out).
You might also want to talk about how images have been cropped to change the meaning.

REALISM
‘Verisimilitude’
‘Generic verisimilitude’
‘Cultural verisimilitude’

A text with a high level of verisimiltude, is a text that is realistic in comparison with real life, as we know it. Many gernres cannot form representations which are 'real' as they are founded in a genre which by its very nature is 'unreal' . A text can however be realistic to the conventions of a genre, for example Science-Fiction, this is called generic verisimilitude.
A text can also have a high level of cultural verisimilitude. This is when a text portrays a particular culture in a way that is recogniseable as a realistic representation of a specific culture.

A detailed breakdown media language