Q: What is the difference between a consumer based media regulation system and a citizen based regulation system?

A consumer based media regulation system is giving the people what they want, the audience makes judgement themselves about the kinds of media they want for their consumption. Whereas a citizen based regulation system is a system which gives a positive form of media which is better for the wider audience.

Q. What impact did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation?

The 2003 communications act was designed by the then labour government to modernize the UK’s regulatory systems and help the television industry. The Act promoted independent television by requiring the BBC and Channel 4 to commission more content from smaller production companies.

The replacement of the British Standards Commission (BSC) and the Independent Television Commission (ITC), The Act significantly diluted the public service requirements of television broadcasting.

Q. What is the drawback of a self-regulated system?

There are some needs which may not be met, so niche audiences aren’t catered for. Some editors are sensitive to the needs and taste of their audience.

Institution orientated factors effect larger companies like BBC and Channel 4, in which they are obliged to provide citizen-based content as a result of their broadcasting license agreements.

There isn’t any proper guidance which is created outside of companies, so they can follow different guidance rules, which create their own specific audience due to the specific guidance due to that company.

Q. How do you regulate media content and organisations on a global scale?

In order to regulate media content on a global scale there needs to be globally set rules and standards which would be followed by all media companies, this allows for guidelines to be followed. There needs to be different regulations for the different media types. E.G for newspapers there should be rules and regulations stating that they cannot interfere with news stories or manipulate the truth to gain viewers, and if any media regulations are broken there should be punishments. This would deter anyone else wanting to break the regulations.

How will you use media language and media representations in order to create a product that meets the requirements of the brief, would appeal to the target audience and also reflect the appropriate media industry? (Maximum 400 words)  

Be specific about the ways in which you will use aspects of media language, media representations, target your audience and reflect the appropriate media industry for your chosen brief. 

I intend to create a music video which is a release to be used as a promotional scheme for an upcoming tour/gig for a band playing in the UK. The music video will also be used as a promotional scene for a headphone manufacturer. I intend to have an intended audience of people who enjoy the genre of metal music but also those who own motorbikes as the product I will be promoting are headphones for your motorbike helmet. This doesn’t limit the audience through age but through music taste and whether they ride motorbikes or not. I will be using mise-en-scene and props in order to create a better understanding of the setting and make the audience more interested in the music video and the song which is being played and the product which is being shown through the music video.

For my music video I will look at how other videos use props such as motorcycles in their videos, I will use a range of angles and camera techniques such as depth of field in order to create the best aesthetically pleasing view point for the audience.

For the magazine I will be promoting the band in their upcoming tour, in which the video will promote one of their tour locations. But will also show an interview with the band members. I will be using the genre of the music in links with the magazine and target the same audience. I will be basing my ideas of an already made and popular metal magazine

Jungle/exotic background

‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ – implies men want women

The photo implies that if men have good hair they’ll get attention from a lot of attractive females

Holding a gun – masculinity? Hunting? Tiger Skin

Man – Fully dressed/T-shirt + trousers

Women – short/crop tops + short skirts (Male gaze (Male oriented advert)) – Link to Tomb Raider (minimalistic clothing)

Semantic field of masculinity

• Masculine scent
• Made by men
• Grooming

‘Made by the men’ – Implies because it is solely made by men, it is better

Jean Kilbourne

She is a public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is internationally recognised for her work on the image of women in advertisement.

She talks about how both men and women are sexualised in adverts but are sexualised differently. Women are shown to be sexual objects and men are taught to see women as sexual objects

B.F Skinner – Operant Conditioning (Behavioural Science)

The notion of free will is fiction. “The fiction of free will”

Actions are shaped by controlling the environment

Schedule of reinforcement

Propaganda vs Persuasion

Harold Lasswell – Propaganda technique in the world war (1927) – The brew of ‘subtle poison which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers….knocked them into submission’

Shoshana Zuboff

The age of surviving capitalism

• ” a major segment of the emerging behaviour control technology is concerned with conditioning, through which various forms of persuasion are used to stimulate certain types of behaviours while supressing others”

Individuality & Personal freedom v Behaviour modification

• “Technology has begun to develop new methods of behaviour control capable of altering not just an individual’s action but his very personality and manner of thinking”

Cambridge Analytica – Alexander Nix

WHO, SAYS WHAT, THROUGH WHAT CHANNEL, TO WHOM, TO WHAT EFFECT

Who – Will Hazell

Says What – People want schools and nurseries to be open during second lockdown, says poll

Channel – The i

To Whom – centralists (due to political and general viewpoint of The i)

With what effect- To inform the readers about others viewpoint

Shannon and Weaver – 1949

Developed Laswell’s model to Transmission model of Communication. This included elements such as noise, error, encoding and feedback.

Paul Lazarfeld – 1950(ish)

He developed the Two Step flow model of communication. The role of key individuals in society all of whom are capable of exerting an influence on the process of communication. This makes it subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change.

Audiences are active not passive. Audience consumption is based on consideration of what others think.

Uses and Gratifications – 1960’s

1. information / education
2. empathy and identity
3. social interaction
4. entertainment
5. escapism

 Rather than categorising the audience as passive consumers of messages, either directly from source or from opinion leaders.

& Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954)

It argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires

1. Physiological – Breathing, food, water, sex.
2. Safety – Security of body, employment, morality.
3. Love/belonging – Friendship, family, sexual intimacy.
4. Esteem – Self-esteem, confidence, achievement.
5. Self-actualization – morality, creativity, spontaneity.

George Gerbner – 1970’s

Cultivation theory – “television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources” – (television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other)

Stuart Hall – 1980’s

The theory of preferred reading.

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Clay Shirky – 2000’s

Instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective?

Says there are no audiences, but individuals – not the same but target each one for their needs.

A position which allowed us to produce our commentary and communication on the outside world, while still maintaining the ability to comment, feedback, accept or deny

Althusser developed a theoretical concept called the Ideological State Apparatus, it is used to describe the way in which society is constructed. They form our individual subject identity, for example our friends and family influence our values. It is a structure in which we are full of ideas, values and beliefs. It is all to do with things that construct who we are, which include friends, family, school and also the government.

The editor of the Daily Mail (Geordie Greig) has previously been an editorial director of The Independent, The I, The Evening Standard and The Mail on Sunday. This shows that Greig has worked for newspapers of different political stances, The Daily Mail as right wing and The i as a more centralized political stance. Greig would’ve had to adapt his viewpoints and political stances based on which company he was working for. Greig had supported the UK remaining in the EU in 2016 as editor of The Daily Mail, but then shifted his stance in supporting May’s withdrawal agreement, he then doubled back on himself and was said to have steered The Daily Mail in a pro-remain direction.

This shows that newspapers are part of a ruling elite, whose main aim is consensus (to agree) in other words, Greig is going along in what his proprietors want. The Ideological state apparatus are fixed and are non-interchangeable – they are slowly shaping the publics viewpoints and identity in order to benefit themselves.

• The daily mail is a British daily middle-market newspaper published in London in a tabloid format
• It was founded in 1896
• It is the UK’s highest-circulated daily newspaper
• Day-to-day editorial decisions are made by a team led by the editor Geordie Greig

Geordie Greig

• Greig was appointed editor of the London Evening standard in Feb 2009
• In 2010 appointed Editorial Director of The Independent, The independent on Sunday, The I and the Evening Standard
• In 2012 appointed editor of The Mail on Sunday while remaining a director of The I (Independent Print LTD) and The Evening Standard
• Greig supported the UK remaining in the EU in 2016 as editor of The Mail on Sunday, but then shifted his stance to supporting Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. He was considered to have steered the Daily Mail in a pro-remain direction

Legal Action

• In April 2007, Hugh Grant sued the Daily Mail after claims about his relationships with his former girlfriends in 3 separate tabloids, these were published in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. Grant said he was tired as they were ‘publishing almost entirely fictional

Curran – liberal free press

• The market based press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public
• Wartime regulation was blamed for preventing new publications from springing up to make changes in public demand
• The assumption that ‘anyone’ is free to start a new paper has been an illusion ever since the industrialisation of the press
• The emergence of sub regional monopolies in which all or nearly all in ‘competing’ local morning, evening and weekly papers were owned by the same group
• They drew attention to four underlying problems. High entry costs render the press less accountable; the growth of chain ownerships limits press diversity; wider businesses entanglements weaken the press’s claims to disinterest; and the recurrence of market failure undermines those processes which are said

3 types of media ownership

Capitalist media – owned by corporations

Public service media – in the public interest to help inform

Civil society media – citizen control and independent (Hospital Radio)

Habermas

Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems.

Curran & Seaton

The idea that media should have the right to be exercised freely.  It is used as a defence for public service broadcasting and the impact that social media has on the audience.

Chomsky

Manufacturing Consent. The political economy of mass media. This book was released in 1988. The authors try to propose that the mass communication media of the US are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance in market forces.

Ownership: mass media firms are big corporations and are often part of even bigger conglomerates, their goal is profit and they will push for whatever guarantees that profit. 

Advertising: exposes the role of advertising. As media costs a lot more then consumers pay, advertisers fill the gap and pay for audiences. 

The Media Elite: the establishment manages the media through the third filter. Elite news companies have the resources to ease the news-gathering process. 

Flak: flak refers to the negative commentary to a new story or journalist. Flak includes lawsuits, complaints, petitions, and government sanctions. 

Anti-Communism and Fear: this filter still operates; it mobilises the population against a common enemy (terrorism etc) while demonising opponents.