What: It is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the UK.
Who founded it: Val McCalla (until 2002), Taken over by Jamaican Gleaner Company is 2004. Publisher = GV Media Group Limited.
When was it founded: 30th August 1982 based in London.
Target Audience: The circulation of the paper peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.
Available: In a paper version by subscription and online and turned monthly in 2019.
Genres included: News / Sport / Lifestyle / Entertainment / Competitions / Opinion / Faith / Black British Voices / Video / Publications / Jobs and Galleries.
Statistics:
Theorists:
Jurgen Habermas:
David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting.
Clay Shirky’s “Newspapers and Thinking he Unthinkable” is a great summary of the threat the newspaper industry faced from online competition, but you probably already know Teen Vogue is no longer available as a glossy magazine and Oh Comely sold its last copy in 2021. Inevitably, The Voice moved from weekly to monthly editions.
Exam Question:
Media producers must respond to changing social and cultural contexts to maintain audiences – (25 marks) – The Voice and Teen Vogue
Media products are shaped by the economic and political contexts in which they are created. (25 marks) – The Voice and Teen Vogue)
What: It’s a strategic life simulation game where Players can control their Sims (custom characters) to satisfy their wishes, and let them complete different kinds of actions. The game runs in real-time, and takes real time to complete actions.
Who made it: Developed by EA Mobile and later with Firemonkeys Studios. The Sims FreePlay is a spin-off from the hugely successful Sims franchise first published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2000.
Targeted at: Ages 12+. The Sims franchise has demonstrated there is a strong and lucrative market in female gamers as Will Wright (Game Designer) described it as a ‘doll house’. Furthermore, both twitter and facebooks accounts display more female sim characters specifically younger sims than young male sims, as well as the large amount of both pregnant sim characters and children being present.
When released: IOS: December 15th 2011 / Android: February 15th 2012 / BlackBerry 10: 31st July 2013 / Windows Phone 8: 12th September 2013.
Statistical Data for Sims Freeplay:
The game has seen 200 million downloads since 2011 – remarkable success.
Notes:
The video game was banned in China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt due to the possibility of establishing a homosexual relationship. – governmental control
Theorists:
Baudrillard: when it comes to postmodern simulation and simulacra, “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” = As the game is still being updated to present since being released on iOS to begin with in 2011 and tries to imitate real life – simulation of real life events.
Exam Question:
Media effects theories argue that the media has the power to shape the audiences thoughts and behaviours. (25 marks) – Tomb Raider / Metroid / Sims Freeplay
Target audiences for video games change because of the historical and economic contexts in which they are produced. (25 marks) – Tomb Raider and Sims Freeplay
What: An American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003 and includes stories about fashion, celebrities, health and well-being, identity, TV/Movies, politics and style. Its the sister publication to Vogue.
Who: Targeted at teenagers and owned by Conde Nast.
When: Launched in February 2003, last print was on November 2017.
Quote/Motto: “We educate, enlighten, and empower young people, arming them with all they need to lead stylish and informed lives.”
Statistical Data for Teen Vogue:
Total Footprint: 14M Followers (Social)
45M Video Views (Video)
12M Unique Users (Digital)
Audience Highlights: 2x more likely to reach fashion and beauty influential/industries.
3.4x more likely to be women 18-24
$9.3B spent on fashion
Article 1:News
“Kim Kardashian Now Owns a Piece of Princess Diana’s Wardrobe” – By CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE – Jan 29th 2023
About: Kim Kardashian bought Princess Diana’s ‘The Attallah Cross’ at an auction in London on 29th 2023.
Theorists: 1) Paul Lazarsfeld (People form their ideas from opinions like influencers and those with a high reputation.) This links with article 1 as as people may be influenced by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian which may cause them to base their style of life around her.
Article 2:Politics
“Teens Are Being Sent to Louisiana’s Angola Prison and Held on Its Former Death Row” – ByYASMIN CADER – Jan 20th 2023
About: Teens/children who are mostly black have not been convicted of a crime but adjudicated as “delinquent” are being moved to Louisiana’s Angola Prison with inhumane facilities in an adult brutal prison.
Theorists: 1) David Gauntlet (David Gauntlet expresses how every individual has their own way of representing themselves whether that is around people or by themselves through 4 different identities. Fluidity of identity, which is the ability to change how to see/view the world, yourself and actions can link to this article as it could change the political views and perception of the world to younger generations which may cause audiences to change their identity. 2) Clay Shirky (Argues that in order to change society and issues, mass communication tools should be placed in the hands of audiences for wide-scale change. This links to this article
AI (Artificial Intelligence): The development of computerised systems which are able to perform activities and tasks which a regular human can do as well as performing like a human being.
the transformation of social interaction (audiences);
the transformation of individual identity (audiences and representation);
the transformation of institutional structures (industry); and the changes in textual content and structure (language).
The transformation of audience consumption
The way media has changed across the decades:
Speed
Access
Storage
Alex Krotoski
The idea of how our minds process information is interesting, with the suggestion that we do not think in a linear or sequential way, but associatively and sensorily, so that information is linked to patterns, consequences, almost like nodes of hyperlinked information.
TOPIC
NOTES
The Printing Press (Gutenburg) in the Medieval period mid 1400’s
Impact of new technology in South Korea as a result of promoting greater digital interaction (speed, connectivity, spread etc)
On-line / digital connection stats
– Average amount spent on social media in 2022: two hours and 27 minutes, a day in 2022 – Facebook leads the world in monthly active users, with all four of the top four apps, followed by TikTok, Amazon, Twitter, and others in 2022. 2.93 billion active users. – Average of 8.39 hours of 13 to 18 use social media. – In 2021, over 4.26 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost six billion in 2027 – China, with 1,021 million users, is the country with the most social media users as of 2023. India ranks second with 755 million, and the United States makes it to the third spot with 302 million users.
– The Dunbar number suggests that connectivity for individuals, communities or groups is typically 5 o 6, with an upper limit of 150. – So who benefits from greater connectivity? Companies, organisations, institutions – ‘small elites dominate’ (Andrew Kean)
– An American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and journalism.
B.F Skinner
– Skinner believed that free will was a illusion and that actions of humans were dependent on consequences of previous. This is the theory of reinforcement.
Pastiche – A work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist. Usually based on true events / work.
Parody – A work of art, drama, literature, music or architecture that imitates/copies another work with ridicule or irony. Usually making a mockery out of a piece of work.
Bricolage – The construction of a piece of ‘art’ created when things available or around you.
Intertextuality – Seeks and theorises links and connections between media texts and textualized social life. ‘Suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts.’
Referential –
Surface and style over substance and content –
Metanarrative –
Hyperreality – The inability to be able to know what is real or what is fake and the idea that reality is not actually real.
Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – The idea that reality is not real and is masked by something else such as a copy of reality.
Consumerist Society –
Fragmentary Identities – The idea that people can switch between multiple personalities or act like a different person.
Alienation – The state of being disconnected or detached from the world.
Implosion – The realism / realisation of what will happen or could happen.
Cultural Appropriation –
Reflexivity –
Postmodernism – The sense that there is little meaning and truth in the world. It is different from traditional structures such as a meaning towards something where as society, is now moving towards uncertain structures, with little meaning and truth in the world.
JeanBaudrillard:
French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist.
Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality.
“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” – Simulacra and Simulation Book 1981
In 1959, Richard Hoggart (Uses of Literacy) noted the shift in modern societies particularly the impact on our ‘neighborhood lives’, which was ‘an extremely local life, in which everything is remarkably near‘ (1959:46). As John Urry comments, this was ‘life centred upon groups of known streets’ where there was ‘relatively little separation of production and consumption‘ (2014:76).
Word / Characteristic
Reference to film (Existenz / TLBIYLV / Memento)+ CSPS(Metroid / Maybelline / Tomb Raider / Newsbeat / Ghost Town / Letters to the Free)
Pastiche
– Existenz:
Parody
– The Love Box in Your Living Room could be seen as a Parody. For example, in the documentary, British children were taken to the “blue Peter garden” to get terminated by Doctor Who Darleks this was specifically at 21:38. A further example which proves the documentary is a parody is through the distinction that the actor for John Wreath is not actually him, this was shown all throughout the video.
Bricolage
Intertextuality
Referential
Surface and style over substance and content
Metanarrative
Hyperreality
– Existenz: The film makes it hard for the audience to distinguish which layer is outside of the game and which is inside the game. – Tomb Raider: – Metroid:
Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’)
– Existenz: Within the film there are multiple times and layers when the characters are in a game or acting like they are in a game. This goes back to Baudrillard theory that we live in a copy of the real world through human experience. – Games immerse their users to separate them from reality – Tomb Raider: – Metroid:
Consumerist Society
Fragmentary Identities
– The Boss Life (Maybelline): The celebrities acting within the advert have fragmented identities and lives as they will act different in the real world compared to when they are promoting the mascara/makeup. – Existenz: – Memento:
Alienation
– Memento: Lenny (the main character) is oblivious to the world and does not know if people are telling the truth and what the truth actually is.
– Ofcom regulates BBC therefore regulates Newsbeat. Government gives regulative guidelines to Ofcom. – The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the BBC’s objective (BBC Charter).
– Regulated by the Federal Communication Commissions (Regulate media across the United States)
Ownership
– Owned and produced by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) – TV license fee
– Owned by CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) which is owned by Paramount Global.
James Curran (Power and responsibility)
– ‘Independence poses a serious threat to political institutions’ – Pg 134 meaning that the independence of the BBC is threatening political institutions such as the government.
– “profit-driven motives take precedence over creativity” meaning that CBS creates the idea of a massive panic to produce a large sum of money over the idea of making a good entertainment. CBS are in for the money making scheme rather than an entertainment scheme.
Jean Seaton
– ‘Commercial broadcasting is based not on the sale of programmes to audiences but on the sale of audiences to advertisers’ – pg 126 – meaning broadcasting requires advertising revenue to maintain programming and they are designed to attract ‘economically affluent audiences’, meaning audiences who want to buy the product that are promoted, although the BBC does not have adverts. The BBC does not want to chase big fantasy stories, this proves they seek to inform audiences on international and national information rather than entertain.
– Seeks to entertain with stories rather than inform audiences.
Noam Chomsky
Paul Lazarfeld (Two-step flow communication model)
– Two-step flow communication model is most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn are influenced by the mass media. (People form their ideas from influencers and those with a high reputation.) – An example of this is Prince Harry and Kate the Princess of Wales promoting mental health through Newsbeat. This impacts audiences as opinions leaders like the royal family are helping others. (11th October 2022 – Prince and Princess of Wales take over Radio 1 Newsbeat on World Mental Health day)
– Famous author Orsen Welles reads War of the Worlds, to share their message of entertainment.
Jurgen Habermas (Transofrmation of the Public Sphere)
– He states that a variety of factors have affected the way people share their ideas and social issues willingly and freely. -Transformation of the public sphere. – The BBC (when making money) re-invests back into the company to make it better, adapt it and sticks to their charter tighter. (Inform, entertain, educate)
– CBS sticks to making a profit rather than creating better content for their audiences. They do not transform the public sphere as CBS do not share knowledge and news, but only entertain.
The War of the Worlds was an episode of the radio series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air”, this was a radio series of live dramas which were created and hosted by Orson Welles in the United States and was originally released on July 11th to December 4th 1938.
“The War of the Worlds” was specifically a Halloween radio episode which was performed and broadcasted live at 8pm until 9pm on October 30th 1938 and ran for 60 minutes (1 hour).
“The War of the Worlds” episode instigated panic by convincing members of the public that specific events were taking place such as a Martian invasion although the episode only had few listeners so this did not become a global panic.
According to Wikipedia, 6 million people heard the episode and caused 1.2 million to be frightened and disturbed. Although 30 minutes into the show before its first break, people still believed this.
The episode was broadcasted over the CBS (Columbia Broadcasting company Radio Network. This radio network provided news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States and is owned by Paramount Global. CBS Radio was launched in 1927.
Theorists:
George Gerbner: Created the Cultivation Theory and suggested that the theory’s key proposition is that “the more time people spend ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television.” and this links to War of the Worlds as most of the audiences who listened to the radio drama episode believed the stories which were mentioned causing the watchers to become disturbed and uncomfortable. I feel the main section which may have started the belief of the live drama was when producers interrupted the music to announce an important message e.g alien invasion from Mars (First announcement at 3:38)
Stuart Hall developed the Theory of encoding and decoding and created ‘The Encoding/decoding model of communication’ which is a theoretical approach of how media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted. In terms of War of the Worlds,
Harold Lasswell: Created the One step-flow of Hypothermic Needle theory which suggests that media explores information in such a way that it injects in the mind of audiences as bullets which causes different reactions to the media messages.
The storyline, whether its predictable and easy to read or unpredictable and harder to read and the writing of the story.
The style of clothes and makeup and the quality of props.
The picture quality.
Camera angles
Themes
Definitions:
Broadcasting – Targets a large audience (mass media products)
Narrowcasting – Targets a small audience (niche audience)
Populism – The idea that media products follow what their audiences enjoy and love.
Paternalism – The idea that media products follow what is good for their audiences.
The BBC:
BBC was made in 1922, 51 years before Newsbeat.
The first director general of the BBC was Lord John Reith.
Ethos of the BBC:
Lord Reith developed the 3 components of the BBC: 1) Entertain 2) Educate 3) Inform.
Grace Wyndham-Goldie explains changing nature of modern communication, essentially by transforming time and space through technology.
British culture was centred around the BBC.
Theorists that can be linked to the BBC:
Habermas: The BBC correlates to the transformation of the public sphere as this is where there is sharing of knowledge and ideas, which the BBC expresses and informs the UK of international news as well as national news.
James Curran(talks about power and responsibility) says ‘Independence poses a serious threat to political institutions whose control over broadcasting should be strengthened’ – Pg 134 That the independence of the BBC is threatening political institutions such as the government.
Jean Seaton explains ‘Commercial broadcasting is based not on the sale of programmes to audiences but on the sale of audiences to advertisers’ – pg 126 – meaning broadcasting requires advertising revenue to maintain programming and they are designed to attract ‘economically affluent audiences’, meaning audiences who want to buy the product that are promoted.
CSP: Newsbeat
Facts and Figures:
Newsbeat is the BBC’s radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network.
Newsbeat is edited by Danielle Dwyer.
More popular with older groups like millennials with 63% than Gen X with 42% and Baby Boomers with 34%.
The original release of Newsbeat was in 10th September 1973 to the present day.
Runs for 15 minutes and its country of origin is the United Kingdom.
BBC Trust claims Radio 1 targets people who are aged 15-29. However, RAJAR suggests the average listener is actually 30.
Newsbeat is a multi media production which consist of radio, news and video as well as behind the scenes of the radio (The way the camera angles are presented and the videos are performed).
Transmitted live over digital audio broadcast most weekdays at 12:45 and 17:45.
Newsbeat is owned by the BBC.
Media Industries:
BBC is regulated by the government as audiences are unable to listen to the radio station and their news unless you have a TV license.
Newsbeat uses multi media products to advertise and present their website through social medias such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Media Audiences(Relating to Newsbeat):
Stuart Hall is represented through his reception theory as the producers appeal to their listeners through influencing their audiences opinion (Framing) through his 3 types of audiences. Dominant (Those who accept): Teenager and young people who listen or watch online, taking Newsbeats information and believing/accepting it. Negotiated (Those who argue): The audience which listens/reads but then disagrees with some things. Opposition (Those who reject): The audience which entirely REJECTS what newsbeat has to offer.
Newsbeat appeal to younger generations of 15 to 29 years of age through their story contexts and presentation. On the stories page of Newsbeat, their stories are based around tik tok, education and celebrities such as the rapper and singer known as Stormzy, and other stories which may interest young audiences.
Younger audiences have different consumption patterns to the older generations (younger gen through phones and older gen through TV)
Possible Exam Newsbeat Questions:
Assess the extent in which institutions and audiences play a key role in a product you have studied. (Newsbeat) 20 marks
How does Newsbeat attract their target audiences? (9 marks)
Oh Comely is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement.
Oh! was launched in 2010.
Last magazine was September 2021.
Company went bankrupt due to COVID-19.
Comely means attractive and pretty meaning women are not sexualised, making the magazine unconventional.
The magazine is very simplistic, artistic and has an aesthetic appearance to it.
Men’s Health is what you can become where as Oh! is what you are.
The magazine is very feminine and aimed towards women to start to get to know themselves rather than wanting to be someone else.
I feel that the messages on the side promote positivity and motivation as well as the celebrity Vin Diesel positioned in the centre of the magazine to 1) attract audience 2) Promote motivation for men.
The choice of colours are seen as a stereotypical masculine colour.
Vine Diesel is the dominant signifier.
I feel the magazine is reactionary because typically when we refer to health / fitness, we think of slim and muscular bodies.
The stance that the model is standing is a way to ‘flex’ / show off his biceps and triceps.
The school of life produced a video called ‘How to be a man’, while this is not an academic theory it nether less presents two versions of musicality, ‘the warm man’ and the ‘cool man’, it is possible to identify these two versions in men’s health, thus supporting Gauntlets notions of fluid, negotiated, constructed identity. For example, on page 2, he is represented as a ‘Cool Man’ as he has his arms around a women’s naked stomach and page 60 he is a ‘warm man’
Stats of Men’s Health
In February 2022 Men’s health magazine issued 23,077 digital copies and 66,734 print copies. (26% of the total amount of copies made were digital and 74% were print)
Largest audience of the Men’s Health magazine from April 2019 to March 2020 are adults over the age of 15 with a total of 1,816 and the second largest audience were men with 708 results. The least amount of audience was within women although 365 women bought the product. The reach was lower among households with children, with 391 thousand readers from this demographic reached by the print title or its website during this period.
Men’s Health magazine had an average monthly reach of around 1.8 million individuals in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020.
Men’s Health is the largest men’s magazine brand and the number one source of information for and about men.
Has 25 print editions in 35 countries around the world.
21 million readers across its social and digital platforms.
Women’s Health gained 7,239 more copies sold than Men’s Health which was 89,111 and Women’s Health which was 96,350.
Facts of Men’s Health Magazine
Men’s Health was launched in Australia in 1997.
The categories of Men’s Health is fitness, nutrition, sexuality and fashion.
The magazine is based in New York City
Men’s health joined ABC on the 12th April 1995
Men’s health is owned by the media company Hearst UK
Hearst Magazines Digital Media is home to magazines from industries in fashion and lifestyle properties.
Heart owns other global leaders in health and wellness which include Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Bicycling and Netdoctor.
