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The Voice

The Voice

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Owned by Gleaner GV media group Ltd

It was a fearlessly campaigning newspaper with a voted leadership past.

It has a very tiny team, it’s leadership has shot up since it ended up on the AQA syllabus.

The Voice newspaper is “committed to celebrating black experience” and aims to deliver “positive change” by “informing the black community on important issues”. With its news stories, in-depth interviews, opinion pieces and investigations, The Voice remains “Britain’s most successful black newspaper”.

In the voice there are no published figures but it appears that they have a tiny forming of audience. This is not a product that its reaching its target demographic.

David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting. No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money. However, the social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.

The shift in the publishing from print media to digital formats has been dramatic. 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.

The publishers promote their content on various social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Most posts will direct you to the main website, but The Voice will also retweet and share posts from other institutions to increase the level of engagement with their primary audience.

Although this connection and level of interactivity is expected by digital natives, an older audience might still prefer the feel of print between their fingers.

The Voice will struggle to be heard by an audience who prefer the quick and easy comment culture of social media rather than long-form journalism.

Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants. Newspapers, such as The Caribbean Times and West Africa, kept the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries. The Voice was different. It wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain.

The Voice continues to construct a positive profile of the black community.

The homepage and category pages contain a collection of links to the news stories making the headlines. Inspired by social media feeds, such as the Instagram and Twitter interfaces, the use of cards is a very popular convention in website design. Each card includes a thumbnail signifying the key themes of the post, a category link, and a headline. These excerpts act as enigma codes which encourage the reader to find out more.

Media Language

The Voice uses codes and conventions to influence meaning. They value black people and like to make them feel superior and strong and independent. They bring racist issues and discrimination problems to the light to relate to their specific audience.

  • They use images of mainly black people to get their views and values across and to attract their target audience. They also have quite a colourful site to show support for ‘coloured’ people and present it in a much more positive term. The images used are often not photoshopped and are natural which gives a real view of people which could better relate to their audience.

The Voice uses semiotics to create a narrative of constructing the world. By presenting content of mainly black people suggests that the world is becoming more diverse and it is not based on only white people in the media. Black signifies diversity. Colour signifies race and mainly black people. The title The Voice signifies the voice they give to black people.

The Voice presents its genre conventions of news website to present their news values. They use informative news but only on one feature to show what the media misses, black news.

They use the images of black people to construct a strong and independent of black people in the world and their growing success.

Media Representations

The choice of online product provides a wide range of representational issues. These include the representation of the target audience – black Britons – but also the selection and construction of news stories and their subjects. The analysis of representation will build on work done in the analysis of visual images and can be used to explore target audiences and ideological readings.

  • The Voice constructs a Black British identity in The Voice and do not generalise them to only black nations.
  • The media producers are encoding black news as black superiority for the audience to decode the importance of black lives and normalises them.
  • By including various types of content whilst maintaining black people subverts the stereotype of black thugs and promotes black people in a more positive way.
  • The stories presented show that black people are successful.

Media Industries

The Voice is a commercial media product but could also be seen as fulfilling a public service through its targeting of an ethnic minority audience. The website also demonstrates the way that news institutions have had to respond to new technology through The Voice’s bi-media presence and use of convergence.

  • The Voice provides a case study for the specialised nature of media production, distribution and circulation within a regional and national context.
  • The Voice doesn’t use multiple digital platforms yet it can be easily accessed on the internet through phones, computers or even ipads/tablets.

Media Audiences

The Voice provides an example of clearly targeted, primary audience through demographics of ethnicity, race and age which should encourage the study of issues of identity. Related to this would be a discussion of the changing relationship between producers and audiences – is there a need for media aimed at specialised audiences in the context of audience as producer? Shirky suggests that due to new technology everyone gets a say in the media and The Voice supports this as they attempt to give black people a voice in the world and get their specific audiences views across.

  • The Voice’s specialised audience is black people, more specifically, black Britons.
  • They successfully target them by producing content that they can relate to.
  • They follow the cultural stereotypes yet go against all negative stereotypes that the media may have placed on black people. (Hall)
  • The Voice produces quite unique and specific content which is very relatable to the audience and also gives them a voice.

Social, Political, Cultural and Economic Contexts

The Voice as an institution has historical and cultural significance in its origins as the UK’s first newspaper aimed specifically at a black British audience, dealing with relevant political and social issues. The website continues this function but is perhaps considered more mainstream and less political than in the past. The economic context can be explored through a consideration of the nature of the production and distribution and move to online content to reach a wider audience and attract advertisers.

Sims

Sims Freeplay

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Media Audiences

Main target audience are female casual gamers age 18-40. People who are more into hardcore gaming.

One of the reasons people may enjoy playing sims is the feeling of “playing god” and being in control, you can choose where they live, how they look, what they like, who they want to be friends with, etc. This allows audiences to create the virtual reality they want as they can create a family of their own.

This may appeal to caring side of audiences, for example maternal feelings in female players as characters can have babies and you can see them grow up, reflecting the virtual reality into their own lives.

This allows creativity to be explored as you are able to build like Minecraft which allows audiences to do what they like. This allows audiences to be creative and experiment with building and design choices.

Sims gives us the impression of escapism as people who choose to play sims can be offered the sense of a utopian dream world. The trailer of sims free play allows us to look into how we can create our dream life and dream home. This offers audiences a fantasy escape from their boring lives.

Creating your character isn’t the main part of sims as you can create characters or situations they can identify with, for example they can form their perfect love interest or make them famous and allows them to gain attention, etc.

Audiences may enjoy being able to experience things in a safe detached way. For example, people can die in your game or come to harm but it gives you the feeling that nothing will happen in their own real life.

There are many players who might find the game cathartic as they can experience situations that are exciting via the game, as the game allows them to explore different ways on how to play with the sims free play. This permits audiences to vent their own frustration or feelings in a safe way through the use of cathartic experiences.

There is a big diverse of players who may enjoy the diverse range of characters options, so you can choose a male or female characters or ethnicity, or be straight or be part of the LGBTQ community. Producers responded to audience requests for aspects such as more skin colours, more hair types, pregnancy, etc.

The game is very simple and doesn’t need that much experience to play it. It is reassembly self explanatory. However, many audiences would like the mobile nature of the game. For example phones and tablets are increasingly popular ways of playing games.

The game is free to download and is appealing to many audiences, which makes it popular. However, there were some audiences who believed that there was too many in app purchases and that it was too hard to enjoy the game fully without spending money. This makes some audiences annoyed as they wouldn’t want to keep spending money to gain access to more upgrades. Generally there are some audiences who enjoy hacking games and often share these tips online.

Media representation

Sims can be a diverse game where you can create hundred of different options including gender, age, ethnicity, eye colour, hair colour, personality trait etc. This means the representation in the game is not fixed, and almost infinite in terms of diversity and peoples choice.

Unlike other media products, video games (particularly sims) allows audiences to shape the representation themselves. Many video games offer only a couple limitations of playable characters and they are often straight, white men. Sims free p[lay offers this diverse choice of choosing which kind of character you want to play, different ethnicities and your sexuality.

The representations in this game might be seen as more liberal and diverse than in others. The game offers a much broader range of skin tones, hair types, and accessories than other / previous games.

However, due to the game being set, some people can manipulate the game which doesn’t allow for players to officially make their sims intolerant, players can manipulate the game options to create intolerant worlds.

In terms of gender, their is lots of interests of women in their trailers looking for love and having babies, although the game offers a variety of choice for representation, the marketing shows common gender stereotypes. Women as shown taking on domestic roles of childcare and men are shown playing sports and working. However, the game does allow players to challenge gender stereotypes. For example, you can choose to play as a female characters for their sims does not limit their options in terms of clothing, hair style, or facial hair. Therefore you can manipulate the wide range of gender identities to be expressed by players although they still only have two genders to choose from on official options.

There is also a simulation that the game is designed to mimic reality in many ways. They try to keep the game as similar to real life as possible, their are elements such as morning sickness that add to to the realism of the game, the idea of verisimilitude.

There are many tasks that reflect the tedium, of real life, for example cleaning.

Sometimes players can feel immersed into the world of the games because of how realistic it feels. The graphics are low and it is not a real world. It removes some of the verisimilitude, as the game does not feature miscarriage or abortion so removes some more serious aspects of real life.

The game is game entertaining and fun and light-hearted, therefore they are trying to keep it real and pleasant.

Media Industry

Sims is published by 2 companies, EA mobile company and Firemonkeys studios. They are both subsidiaries of electronic arts. EA has a reputation for big budget triple A games that have had a huge success so many have pre-sold audience of fans.

EA mobile has over 800 staff in the US just to work on mobile gaming. EA mobile has 9 office around the world, reflecting the increasing popularity of mobile and casual gaming. EA has nearly 10,000 staff, 44 studios across 20 countries and nearly £6billion income each year.

A company called Maxis originally developed sims game and began the franchiser, and they recognised the potential and brought in Maxis in 1997 which is a horizontal integration.

The game has been successful as over 200 million have download the game. Distributing games digitally via things like the app store, is much cheaper than “hard copy” distribution eg discs.

However mobile gaming presents its own unique costs and difficulties for developers , sometimes mobile gamers have to constant update to cope with update releases for mobile operating systems. This is to make sure free mobile games can releases updates to keep audiences playing the game and making in app purchases. For example, add pets, more buildings etc.

Hesmondhalgh talks about minimising risks and profit, if you keep updating the game is a great way of maximising profits. Applying Sims to a mobile app and making it free allows more profit to come in and minimises the risk.

The VSC used the PEGI rating system to award the game a 12 rating. It has mild horror or fear themes, mild sexual content and nudity and mild alcohol, tobacco or drug references. This is likely because the players can put their SIMS in a variety of scenarios such as drinking, kissing, sex etc.

However, considering how it is easy for players under 12 can access the game, it has issues with regulation. It is difficult to regulate and online game because what is legal or socially acceptable varies from country to country and yet the game is distributed online where global players can access it. Particularly is Asia it is banned, due to LGBTQ characters and relationships.

Audiences were the ones who suggests pregnancy as being a desirable game feature which helps form a connection with the audience, to attract more audiences.

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New media vs Old media

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NEW MEDIA
OLD MEDIA		COMMENT OR EXAMPLE
Active involvement
		Passive involvement

Two-way conversationOne-way conversation
Open systemClosed system
TransparentOpaque
One-on-one marketingMass marketing
About MeAbout You
Brand and User-generated ContentProfessional content
Authentic contentPolished content
FREE platformPaid platform
Metric: EngagementMetric: Reach/ frequency
Actors: Users / InfluencersActors/ Celebrities
Community decision-makingEconomic decision-making
Unstructured communicationControlled communication
Real time creationPre-produced/ scheduled
Bottom-up strategyTop-down strategy
Informal languageFormal language
Teen Vogue

Teen Vogue

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Media Audiences

Primary audience is teen and young adults.

Teens would find small quantities of text, with large pictures, and simple headings, easy to understand.

Articles reflect teenage nature of many audiences. For example, Andrew Tate has made a big impact on young teens and has influenced them to act differently towards women. On the political post of Teen Vogue, they published ‘Andrew Tate and the “Manosphere” Show How Far Hating Women Can Get You’. This post talks about how Andrew Tate’s popularity is a sign of feminism under attack. There is also another post relevant to Andrew Tate where he is detained on Human Trafficking Charges.

These articles also give multiple references to TV shows about teen characters, e.g. Ginny and Georgia as it recently released a new season, which helps to engage teen audiences.

In some articles the use of slang and abbreviations indicate they are targeting young audiences as this is more engaging than formal words.

The references to other media texts are focused on female centred products, suggesting a mostly female audience, e.g. ‘original mean girls Amanda Seyfried is “very open” to joining “mean girl: The musical” movie.’ The caption says ‘please’ suggesting that as well as teenage audiences that its mainly female audiences in this online magazine.

These articles target women by rackling issues such as feminism, rights, sexual assault and oppression, such as the talk about Andrew Tate where he has been accused of misogyny, sexual assault and rape.

Although they target a lot of the female audience they also target trans or non binary audiences, suggesting that the gender of the target audience is not simple and is more diverse. For example, ‘FIFA banned players LGBTQ + solidarity symbols at the world cup’, however many European teams walked back to wear rainbow armbands during the global soccer competition on November 23, 2022. This allows the gender audience to be quite broad.

You can argue that teen vogue allows older audience to interact with their media as they have a Facebook page with over 5 million followers and many adults use Facebook rather than younger audiences. This illustrates how adult audiences may be drawn to a site which offers the more liberal and diverse and political content that many online and print magazines aimed at adults fail to offer.

In teen vogue there is a claim of diverse ethnic audience that is targeted by featuring articles about issues such as racism, oppression, culture, etc. For example, ‘myths about Muslim Women Debunked’ where it can influence a large amount of content about people from minority ethnic backgrounds, that would engage a similar audience who are often used to being under or mis represented in the media.

Another example is that these articles can offer informative and educational content about a variety of political issues and events such as ‘ the climate emergencies we’re not playing attention to.

To interact with their audience and to reach out to more people they post on a bunch of social media such as Instagram, Facebook, twitter, which helps to engage active audiences.

Media Representation

This magazine has the title Teen Vogue so it clearly is aimed at young audiences. The website shows quite stereotypical interests for teenagers so there is a lot of interest in popular culture, movie, singers, etc.

However, there is a challenge of representation towards young people as they talk a lot about politics, where they are being educated and curious about the world. For example, their is a post about “should your employer be able to stop you from getting a new job” where the site represent young people in positions power, as activists demanding social change. This can also present how people are being successful and achieving, having the potential to be powerful people.

Older adults can also be represented in a more negative light. For example as failed politicians, racists, unsuccessful, etc. In the website we can see a guy called George Santos who apparently lied about his real identity and that he was a fraud at age 19 all the way to his 30’s. This allows you audiences to portray themselves as more positive and older audiences as negative people.

There are many other online magazines that often show women in quite sexualised or domestic ways. The focus in those magazines is often on beauty and bodies. Teen vogue’s pages do not seem to focus on body shape, dating, dieting, etc. Very few women are sexualised on the site. Therefore, this suggests women as being less sexualised and more independent and non reliant on others. For example, Miley Cyrus who is back with the self love anthem of 2023 can be shown as important, powerful, successful, inspirational, etc.

Teen vogue doesn’t avoid important information to do with women such as misogyny or depression. They talk about women’s rights or things that are normal that happen to women, such as having a period, the need for feminism, or sexual harassment. Women are represented as having multiple issues to face. This allows the website o be realistic rather then idealised.

Bells hooks can be linked into the online magazine as they seem to be feminist and fighting against patriarchal oppression and encouraging a particular female audience to recognise the misogyny and the patriarch and to fight back against those issues. The site pays tribute to bell hooks after her death in 2021 whish shows that they tendered to agree with her ideas about how women and in particular black women, are typically represented. They called her the black feminist artist where she shaped a generation of black feminists.

David Gauntlet can be linked with teen vogue as gender is represented in a diverse “non binary” way, with pages showing multiple types of identity. They show a broad look on how female present themselves where it is hair, or different style, or type of gender they see themselves, or behaving in different ways, so there is quite a diverse rage of identities.

The site is primarily aimed at young women and men are often represented in less favourable ways. Men are often represented as being linked to violence, misogyny, the patriarchy like Andrew Tate. However you can argue that there are men who can be seen in a more positive way in general, this usually occurs to attract the younger audience.

The site represents LGBTQ+ people, including issues they face and struggles they have. In addition the representation of LGBTQ+ people are very positive and diverse.

Main mainstream media texts sometimes fail to embrace black hair, and it is often simply straightened or not featured at all. The website shows love and support to them and makes sure they are represented equally as everyone else.

The website draws attention to the post colonialism era and the impact it had and still is having on people from different ethnic backgrounds. The site clearly represents the issues of white privilege.

Media Industry

It is an American print magazine where a range of other international versions grew from that, however it has been declining rapidly over the years and brands started reducing the advertising as they were buying in print magazines, resulting in massive revenue drops. Teen vogue ceased being a print magazine and in 2017 they have become an online only site. This means they can still keep uploading on online until they reach their target audience, this is also useful as this reduces their overheads like printing and distribution costs.

The magazine is made by Conde Nast. They are a large and global conglomerate. They first begun as a spin off magazine to their existing vogue magazine. It was created to try to engage younger readers and push them towards the vogue brand which helped to increase profit.

Conde Nast is an even larger conglomerate as they are owned by advance publications. They are massive and global and have been around over 100 years. Teen vogue is just one of multiple print and online brands created by Conde Nast.

Conde Nast is diversified working within entertainment, technology, advertising, retail, restaurants, etc. This help[s to reduce risk by adding more opportunities for revenue. The current editor in Chief is Versha Sharma of Indian immigrants, she is a successful political writer, who could impact upon the content she wants in the magazine, as well as the way she wants articles to tackle certain issues.

Since becoming an online magazine, teen vogue have grown rapidly, more recent figures since filming, suggest online visitors are about 8 million a month.

The political ideologies of Teen vogue are evident in their articles which although are factual are mostly anti republican / Trump and pro Democratic.

Teen vogue has the image that they like to push boundaries where they are seen as more rebellious and controversial opinions and values, which makes it unique. For example, people who worked in sex work professions, articles about abortions, which could be shocking.

Social media is very popular for teen vogue and reflects the rising trend of converged online technologies. This is more engaging for a modern audience online. The use of social media is to push traffic to their website as this will help them to increase their advertising revenue.

Teen vogue also promote across a wide range of social media to both engage audiences and earn further revenue through monetisation. A lot of videos online, which helps them earn more money, they had a virtual online event during lockdown which helped to keep audiences visiting the site. To target more audiences they have snapchat as a lot of young audiences have the app, the posts usually offer interactive content such as polls and quizzes.

Sometimes companies have to self regulate in order to maintain their reputations. For example, in Teen vogue they had a homophobic and racist by previous editor in Chief Alexi McCammond, who was discovered to tweet homophobic and racist content on twitter. A lot of audiences were quite negative about this and Teen Vogue were forced to take action to maintain the reputation of their company.

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Essay Structure

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Suggested Essay Structure?

Remember to focus on key issues around new media – privacy, knowledge, understanding, education, friendship, behaviour, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, politics, economics, employment, war, conflict, food, the environment, space, science (essentially social change)

  1. Overview: New media always creates change (printing press, telegram etc)
  2. Q: so how has recent technology changed (society, individuals, organisations, ideas, beliefs etc etc)
  3. CSP 1 – show knowledge of CSP
  4. characteristics of new media (in reference to CSP 1)
  5. theoretical / conceptual analysis of new media (loop theory, network theory, Dunbar number, McLuhan, Krotoski)
  6. Critically thinking about new media (Baudrillard, McLuhan, Krotoski, B. F. Skinner, Zuboff, Lanier – are all essentially critical of new media technologies. But Gauntlett, Shirky, Jenkins are all very positive about new media technologies)
  7. CSP 2 – show knowledge
  8. Draw parallels and conclusions
  9. Suggest future pathways / developments

Some themes and discussion points from Great Hack:

Independent investigations into data mining, along with whistle-blower accounts of the firm’s impact on Brexit, led to a scandal over the influence of social media in political elections.

The Exchange of Data

Search for Truth

Behaviour Management

Propaganda / Persuasion – The master manipulators didn’t go after people whose minds had been made up; they went after on-the-fence folks referred to as “the persuadables.” Using the collected data, Cambridge Analytica set out to create fear to achieve the results of the political parties that hired them.

Regulation

New Media, Uncategorized

New Media

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CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION

Social interaction is the process by which we act and react to those around us.

Our identities, the ways we see and represent ourselves shape how we communicate, what we communicate about, how we communicate with others and how we communicate about others. Hence identity, representation, culture and difference are all central to a Social Psychology of communication.

  1. the transformation of social interaction (audiences);
  2. the transformation of individual identity (audiences and representation);
  3. the transformation of institutional structures (industry); and the changes in textual content and structure (language).
  4. The transformation of audience consumption

There is a type of control happening through the years that let the people absorb what type of media they would like to consume. There is time shift between how the media allows the new technology to develop where they collect ideas on how to let if flow easily. There is some that are direct flows whereas you can see someone multi flow.

  1. Time
  2. space
  3. speed
  4. control
  5. Rate
  6. Access
  7. Quantity
  8. Non linear
  9. Calibration
  10. Advance
  11. Quality
  12. Opportunities
  13. New money
  14. Storage
  15. Retrieval

ShareActiveCreativeHost
example or commentExample: It is easy to upload pictures and share on social media
StoryRe-connectPersonaliseStream
example or commentExample: BBC tell daily stories of what is happening in the worldExample: Connect to Wi-Fi
ExperienceStoreScaleImmerse
example or commentExample: You can store memories on your phone or computer by taking pictures and uploading to a drive
InterfaceLiveAdaptBinge
example or commentExample: Can go live on a varies of different platforms including news reporters.Example: Can be more usefulExample: In the old days you would have to wait for each episode every week, now you can watch Netflix and watch the series all in one day
ConversationRe-performCirculateEndless
example or commentExample: You would normally have a physical conversation in the old days whereas now you can call someone and have a conversation through there

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication” 

A way of understanding ‘technological determinism‘ the idea that it is the tool that shapes us, rather than us who shape the tool. – Marshall McLuhan – The Medium is the Message

McLuhan adopted the term “massage” to denote the effect of numerous media in how they ‘massage’ the human sensorium.

By playing on words and using the term “massage,” McLuhan suggests that modern audiences enjoy mainstream media as soothing, enjoyable, and relaxing. However, the pleasure we find in this media is deceiving, as the changes between society and technology are incongruent, perpetuating an ‘Age of Anxiety’.

Consider a future device . . . which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.” – Vannevar Bush 

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. Krotoski also looks at the network effect, ‘the constant loop of digital information’ (Krotoski), which create a loop of action/reaction which allows for (companies to predict?) future action. This is an important concept for understanding how and why business masquerade their operations as personal interactions, which often appear to be ‘free’, but which can actually generate great reward.

TOPICNOTE / COMMENT
The Printing Press (Gutenburg) in the Medieval period mid 1400’sthe impact of new technology
Impact of new technology in South Korea as a result of promoting greater digital interaction (speed, connectivity, spread etc)mental health
internet addiction? Choices made?
‘A world without consequences’
‘Senses over meaning’
On-line / digital connection stats
Theodore VailThe Network effect
Norbert Weiner Loop TheoryLoop Theory – predictive behaviour
But is behaviour shaped and altered through networking and digital communications (pushing / pulling)

Issues around privacy and individual psychology (mental health / wellbeing) and the environment

Virtual worlds / virtual identities (hypperreality, simulation, implosion – Jean Baudrillard)

(Judith Butler ‘gender performance / David Gauntlett, Anthony Giddens etc ‘fluid & multiple identities’

The
Robin Dunbar – The Dunbar NumberThe 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)
Clay Shirkyhow our networks shape culture and vice versa, he is pro-technology as he believes new technology is share and to connect and develop.
Vannavar Bushassociative not linear thinking
the demise of long form reading

So changing rules for logic, rationality, truth, understanding, knowledge.
Baudrillard implosion (a culture imploding in on itself rather than expanding and developing?)
Tim Berners–Leethe inventor / creator of the World Wide Web – developed and given to everybody for free?!! Why? What did he hope it would achieve? Is he satisfied or disappointed with how it has developed and made an impact on society?
Marshall McLuhanThe Global Village – ‘a sophisticated interactive culture’
The impact on political and economic decision making
Conclusions, suggestions, reflections and predictions

A self hour site 24 hour movement guideless they recommend how many hours online from 2018 you should be 2 hours maximin online.

One thousand hours of people spend 2 hours on Spotify.

In 2021 report that jersey is number 1 for in connectivity for fastest online in the global.

Skinner

Skinner theorized that if a behaviour is followed by reinforcement, that behaviour is more likely to be repeated, but if it is followed by punishment, it is less likely to be repeated. Positive behaviours should be rewarded positively. Negative behaviours should not be rewarded or should be punished. 

Zuboff – Google and Facebook invented and transferred surveillance capitalism into “a new logic of accumulation”.

Moving Image, Narrative, Postmodernism

MEMENTO: Narrative and Postmodernism

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Refer To:

Narrative (How it is structured)

Action – Place – Time

Exposition (Beginning) – Climax (Middle) – Denouement (End)

Peripeteia – The turning point in a drama after the plot moves steadily to its denouement. Anagnorisis – When you discover the true identity of the character, or true nature of the what they had planned. Catharsis – shows emotion of an audience through a character or characters.

Types of orders: Linear – In order of how they occur, how the story unfolds Chronological – Could include flashbacks as it doesn’t tell the story straight through from beginning to the end Sequential – When many moments connect to each other (location or time) forms a distinct narrative unit

Equilibrium – Everything is balanced Disruption – When the problem is happening New equilibrium – reaching a resolution

Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)

uses STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories (e.g. hero, villain, helper, victim, false hero, princess, dispatcher)

Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)

Creates a dominant message (ideology) of a film. However, as mentioned previously, the way in which individual students / audience members decode specific texts, is also contingent on their own individual ideas, attitudes and beliefs

Roland Barthes (Proairetic and Hermeneutic Codes)

Proairetic code: action, movement, causation. Hermeneutic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development. Enigma code: the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised – which encourage an audience to want more information.

Postmodernism

Pastiche – it imitates an artistic style of another person’s work. Parody– when a performance imitates and is used for a comic effect. Bricolage – ‘do it yourself’ the creation of work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available. ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’. Intertextuality – it seeks the connections between media texts and social life. It 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. In other words. Hyperreality – This happens when you can distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. For example, in the movie we can not tell which is the movie or the game that is happening. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – it is where the model mimics the operation of an existing system that provides evidence to make decisions for process changes. The simulation of total mediation without meaning. Their are many layers of the game so we can many different copies that is perpetrated from the real world. Alienation – when you reject a person’s position of former attachment / becomes isolated from their environment or from other people. A form of separation or distance.

The process of fragmentation is a key element of POSTMODERN CULTURE. The notion of separating, splitting up and dividing previously homogeneous groups such as, friends, the family, the neighbourhood, the local community, the town, the county, the country and importantly, is often linked to the process of fragmented identity construction.

Surface and style over substance (Postmodernism)

‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture‘

the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’, part of the postmodern condition’

There is no ‘real‘ – just a collection of fragments. We are free to construct ourselves.

There is not truth in history; memory cannot be relied upon as evidence for knowledge. People who claim to know the truth can’t be trusted.

Jean Baudrillard

The media makes everyone a consumer – audiences have a limited relationships with authentic meanings.

Authenticity is impossible to find or keep as the hyperreal world of modern media is so encompassing and so incessant, Baudrillard tells us the deluge of messages offered have limited significance. Cultural products in postmodernity construct throw-away messages, forgotten almost as instantly as they are consumed.

Media proliferation has resulted in an implosion of meaning through the simultaneous presentation of oppositional truths.

The postmodernism age is marked by the dominance of advertising as a media form. Baudrillard suggests that media blending has resulted in the construction of fictionalised reality.

As a result, contemporary media forms have blurred fact and fiction to the extent that, Baudrillard argues, audiences can no longer tell them apart.

Notes

PostModernism

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What is postmodernism?

Postmodernism is when individuals copy each other to form a similar version of what they are trying to portray and change into a more different style to form a different truth.

Definitions of Key terms

  1. Pastiche – it imitates an artistic style of another person’s work
  2. Parody- when a performance imitates and is used for a comic effect
  3. Bricolage – ‘do it yourself’ the creation of work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available. ‘involves the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’
  4. Intertextuality – it seeks the connections between media texts and social life. It 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. In other words 
  5. Referential
  6. Surface and style over substance and content
  7. Metanarrative
  8. Hyperreality – This happens when you can distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. For example, in the movie we can not tell which is the movie or the game that is happening.
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – it is where the model mimics the operation of an existing system that provides evidence to make decisions for process changes. The simulation of total mediation without meaning. Their are many layers of the game so we can many different copies that is perpetrated from the real world.
  10. Consumerist Society
  11. Fragmentary Identities
  12. Alienation – when you reject a person’s position of former attachment / becomes isolated from their environment or from other people. A form of separation or distance.
  13. Implosion
  14. cultural appropriation
  15. Reflexivity

Postmodernism works in terms REITERATION, so in the example of The Love Box in your Living Room it is a reiteration of the documentary work by Adam Curtis. 

The process of fragmentation is a key element of POSTMODERN CULTURE. The notion of separating, splitting up and dividing previously homogeneous groups such as, friends, the family, the neighbourhood, the local community, the town, the county, the country and importantly, is often linked to the process of fragmented identity construction.

 Rather than forming mass centres of communal, shared living, such mega-cities often create more isoloation, more individualism, more fractured and alienated individuals struggling to survive and keep alive.

For many this is reflective of the new global economy (globalisation), which has created a high polarized class division between the rich / the really super rich and the poor / underclass (ie the really, really poor) made possible through the rapid increase of new forms of technological developments.

As such, another characteristic of POSTMODERN CULTURE is the emergence of FRAGMENTED COMMUNITIES.

slavoj zizek says postmodernism is a sham, that it’s really just modernism in disguise.

Fredric Jameson is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism, in the expression of a new phase of capitalism.

The desire to consume just for the sake of consumption (ie there is no real need to consume more) creates a society that focusses on surface and/or style over substance.

Surface and style over substance

 ‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture‘

the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’, part of the postmodern condition’

As Shuker notes, two points are frequently made about music videos: ‘their preoccupation with visual style, and associated with this, their status as key exemplars of ‘postmodern’ texts.’ 

Alongside their similarity to adverts (essentially the music video is a commercial tool to sell music products) ‘making them part of a blatantly consumerist culture‘. And of course, the ‘considerable evidence of pastiche, intertextuality and eclecticism‘

This links to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s proposition that postmodernism holds an ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives‘, those overarching ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs that have held us together in a shared belief.

Notes, Research, Revision

Comparison between ‘war of the worlds’ and ‘newsbeat’

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THEMENEWSBEATWAR OF THE WORLDS
OWNERSHIPBBC, (PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING) GOVERNMENT, BBC BOARD (TRUSTEES) DIRECT GENERAL , FIRST BEING (LORD RITHE),MULTIMEDIA, CROSS MEDIA, TRANSNATIONAL TRANSGLOBAL, NOT A MONOPOLY, THERE IS A CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP SMALL NUMBER OF FANS WHO OWN TV AND RADIO EVEN THOUGH THEIR ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT STATIONS. I THINK THE BBC COMES FROM A LEFT WING LIBERTARIAN IDEOLOGY.PRIVATE COMPANY, TRANSNATIONAL, IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP E.G. A COUPLE OF COMPANYS THAN OWN A COUPLE OF CARTERS. VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTERGRATION.
HABERMASTRANFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE, MEDIA IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING WITH THE BBC KEEPING UP. BBC INTWENTIONS TO ENSHRINED IN THEIR ETHOS TO INFORM, ENTERTAIN AND EDUCATE. DOESN’T MAKE A PROFIT. THEY PUT SOME MONEY BACK INTO THE PROGRAMME AS HABERMAS EXPLAINS THE NOTION OF TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC. IT IS PATERNALISTIC.PRIVATE BUSINESS’S ARE AIMED AT MAKING A PROFIT. THEY TEND TO CARE MORE ABOUT PROFIT RATHER THAN THE PUBLIC SO THEY ARE MORE CONCERNED WITH ENTERTAINMENT THAN EDUCATION. COMMERCIAL ETHOS IS NOT IN THE SPIRIT OF HABERMAS.
CHOMSKYCHOMSKY TEACHES THE CAPACITY TO LEARN AND USE LANGAUGES AS THEIR ARE STRENGTHS AS HUMANS GROW AND DEVELEOP WHICH LINKS WITH NEWSBEAT AS THEY ARE TRYING TO ENTERTAIN BUT INFORMING THE AUDIENCE FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT. FOR THE WAR OF THE WORLDS THEY ARE INFORMING THE AUDIENCE TO MUCH WITH KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING RATHER THAN ENTERTAINING THEM. THIS IS BECAUSE DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT LANGUAGE UPON OTHERS AND FIND IT EASIER TO REACT CALMLY AND DISTUINGISH WHAT IS TRUE OR NOT. THIS IS KNOWN AS UNIVERSAL GRAMMER.
REGULATIONOFCOM, BBC CHARTER GOVERNED BY PARLIAMENT , LICENSE FEE REGULATES BBC AS WELL. BBC/PSB ETHOS TO ENTERTAIN, TO INFORM AND TO EDUCATE (REITH), NEW TECHNOLOGY MEANS BBC FACES MORE COMPETETION.FEDREAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AS REGULATOR FOR PRIAVTE BUSINESS WHICH IS NOT REALLY IN THE PUBLIC INTERESTS.
AUDIENCE (ACTIVE/PASSIVE)NEWSBEAT ENCOURAGING ACTIVE ‘USES AND GRATIFICATION’ MODEL PERSONAL NEEDS ESCAPISM, ENTERTAINMENT, SELF ESTEEM AND SOCIAL NEEDS. INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE WORLD, CONNECTING WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS AND COMMUNITY. WAR OF THE WORLDS RAISES DEBATE AROUND AUDIENCE AS PASSIVE OR ACTIVE ( E.G. LASSWELL, LINEAR MODEL OF COMMUNICATION LIKE A HYPODERMIC SYRINGE) E.G. WITHOUT THINKING OR REFLECTING ON WHAT WE ARE TOLD.
AUDIENCE (LAZARSFELD)THE 2 STEP FLOW / OPINION LEADERS HOW WE GRAVITATE TO PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE SAME IDEAS AS OURSELVES. SO THE BBC IS AN UNBIASED, INFORMED OPINION LEADERR ( E.G. BBC CHARTER FOCUS ON IMPARTIALITY, ACCURATE, TRUE.ORSEN WELLS UNREGULATED OPINION LEADER. IF AUDIENCE SEEKING FACTS OR TRUTH ABOUT SPACE AND WAR THEY WOULD SEEK OPINION LEADERS FROM GOVERNMENT OR SCIENCE.
AUDIENCE (HALL)THE BBES IS ALSO THE WORLD’S LARGEST NATIONAL BROADCASTER WITH A HUGE INFRASTUCTURE, SUCH AS CAMERAS, STUDIO SPACE, LIGHTING RIGS AND PORTABLE PRODUCTION UNITS SITUATED ACROSS THE COUNTRY. IT IS CERTAINLY HAS THE NECESSARY MEANS OF PRODUCTION TO INVESTIGATE THE ISSUES AND DEBATES HITTING THE HEADLINES SO EDITORIAL DECISIONS HAVE TO BE MADE ON WHICH STORIES SHOULD FEATURE IN THE NEWS PROGRAMME.
THE RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION REFER TO DIFFERENT CREWS INVOLVED IN THE PROGRAMME.
HALL IS DRAWING ATTENTION TO HOW MESSAGES ARE ENCODED BY THE PRODUCER, NEWSCASTER, CONTENT EDITOR, CAMERA OPERATOR AND OTHER TECHNICIANS WHO HELP BROADCAST THE NEWS. ACCORDING TO HALL’S RECEPTION THEORY, THE MESSAGES BEING ENCODED AND THE SIGNS USED TO DELIVER THIS INFORMATION WILL BE INFLUENCED BY THE PRODUCTION PROCESS. 		PREFERRED READING: AUDIENCES UNDERSTAND THAT THIS BROADCAST IS CONSTRUCTED AND IS AN ADAPTATION FROM THE BOOK.

OPPOSITIONAL READING: AUDIENCES BELIEVED THE PODCAST WAS REAL AND THEREFORE REACTED NEGATIVELY.
SEATONSEATON MAKES US AWARE OF THE POWER OF THE MEDIA IN TERMS OF BIG COMPANIES WHO OWN TOO MUCH. COMMERCIAL SEATON ALSO MAKES CLEAR THAT BROADCASTERS SELLING AUDIENCES TO PRODCUTS NOT AUDIENCES TO PROGRAMMES ( E.G. NO ADVERTS ON BBC) THEREFORE BBC NOT CHASING BIG EXAGGERATED STORIES. NEWSBEATS SEEKING INFORMED CITIZENS WHO WANT KNOWLEDGE. SEATON TALKS ABOUT RISE AND INEVITABLE NEED FOR COMPETETION WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES WHICH PROVIDES MORE ENTERTAINMENT FOR WIDER AUDIENCES. TARGETS MAINSTREAM SEEKING AUDIENCES.
THE ALLUSION OF CHOICE – “CHOICE, WITHOUT POSITIVE DIRECTION IS MYTH, ALL TOO OFTEN THE MARKET WILL DELIVER MORE – BUT ONLY MORE OF THE SAME. “
CURRANJAMES CURRAN WRITES ABOUT THE IDEAS THAT UNDERPIN THE LIBERAL FREE PRESS, BUT MUCH CAN APPLY TO TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAN) WHICH IN TURN CONNECTS TO ETHOS TO PSB.CONECERNS ABOUT COMMERCIAL INTEREST OF BIG COMPANIES (PRIORITISING PROFITS OVER SOCIAL CONERNS), CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP ALTHOUGH NOT MONOPOLIES, THE SMALL NUMBER OF BIG COMPANIES IS NOT GOOD FOR COMPETITION, DIVERSE RANGE OF VOICES (PLURALITY) AND AUDIENCE CHOICES.
GERBNERCULTIVATION THEOYR SUGGESTS TELEVISION INFLUENCES ITS AUDIENCE TO THE EXTENT THAT THEIR WORLD VIEW AND PERCEPTIONS START REFLECTING WHAT THEY REPEATEDLY SEE MEANING TV IS CONSIDERED INDEPEDENTLY TO THE WAY PEOPLE PERCEIVE SOCIAL REALITY AND WILL HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCES ATTITUDES AND VALUES. GERBNER WOULD STATE THAT THE AUD8ENCES THAT BELIEVED THE BROADCAST ARE LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN FREQUENT LISTENERS OF THE RADIO. THIS IS BECAUSE HIGH – FREQUENCY VIEWERS OF TELEVISION ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO MEDIA MESSAGEES AND THE BELIEF THAT THEY ARE REAL AND VALID.