Background: Mobile Gaming

• The videogames industry has changed massively since the emergence of the smart phone and app store distribution model.
• Mobile gaming has changed the audience demographics for gaming and brought the industry into the mainstream.
• The app store model means tech giants such as Apple and Google are making significant sums from mobile gaming but mobile hits can still earn developers millions.
• Angry Birds made developer Rovio $200m in 2012 and broke 2 billion downloads in 2014.

The Sims FreePlay

• The Sims FreePlay is a spin-off from the hugely successful Sims franchise first published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2000.
• The game is a strategic life simulation game (also known as the sandbox genre). 
• The Sims FreePlay takes the game on to phones and tablets and uses the ‘freemium’ model that makes money via in-app purchases.
• The game has seen 200 million downloads since 2011 – remarkable success.

The Sims FreePlay: Audience

• The Sims franchise has demonstrated there is a strong and lucrative market in female gamers.
• When The Sims was first pitched by creator Will Wright he described it as a ‘doll house’. 
• The development company Maxis weren’t keen because ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play videogames’. EA then bought Maxis, saw potential in the idea and one of the most successful ever videogame franchises was born.
• Expansion packs available for The Sims FreePlay reinforce the view that the target audience is predominantly female.

Participatory culture

• The Sims franchise is one of the best examples of Henry Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture.
• Since the very first game in the franchise, online communities have created, suggested and shared content for the game.
• ‘Modding’ – short for modifications – is a huge part of the appeal of the game. Modding changes aspects of the gameplay – anything from the strength of coffee to incorporating ghosts or even sexual content.

For this CSP, all four aspects of the Theoretical Framework must be explored. These are language, representation, industries and audience.

Media Language

The language of Teen Vogue can be easily analysed through it’s print covers and website. It adopts the layout and fonts from its sister website and magazine, Vogue.

Media Audience

“Teen Vogue is the young person’s guide to saving the world. We aim to educate, enlighten, and empower our audience to create a more inclusive environment (both on- and offline) by amplifying the voices of the unheard, telling stories that normally go untold, and providing resources for teens looking to make a tangible impact in their communities.”

“Target audience is young ages 16-24 and are well educated. They are intelligent and like to keep aware of what is going around in the world.”

Although the brand name suggests a teenage audience, the typical Teen Vogue reader has evolved in recent years. The move to more political content has broadened the appeal and changed the genre – young women now expect more from their media.

The ‘Campus Life’ section in Lifestyle also suggests an older readership. However, the audience is still interested in celebrity content and beauty – which Teen Vogue addresses by featuring the ‘opinion leaders’ (two-step flow) of social media.

Media Industries

Teen Vogue is owned and published by Condé Nast, an American media organisation that publishes around 20 magazines including Vogue, GQ and Wired. The company targets a wide range of different audiences – 164 million consumers across its brands.

In March 2018, Condé Nast announced the launch of Influencer Platform Next Gen, a digital campaign that links advertisers and content creation. The goal is to “connect to a new generation of audience”.

Although Teen Vogue has been creating headlines for its political content in recent years, it is also an important part of the fashion industry. Both editorial content and advertising is designed to create a strong desire in their audience for products featured. This links to Condé Nast’s role as a major media company interested in maximising profit.

Some argue that Teen Vogue’s more diverse coverage offers a form of public service through its political coverage. But are features criticising capitalism hypocritical when the brand is owned by a media giant like Condé Nast?

To start off with I would like to prioritise the notion of CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION as a way of thinking about NEW MEDIA which can be linked to the key ideas of a media syllabus. For example,

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

In summary, this could be described as the changing nature of symbolic interaction and a lot of the work on this blog is essentially discussing this concept.

Impacts of New Technologies:

1. Pastiche – An imitation of another’s style
2. Parody – An imitation of another’s style, with comic effect
3. Bricolage – Something constructed from a large range of aspects
4. Intertextuality – The relationship between texts, especially literary ones
5. Referential – Containing nature or reference to illusions
6. Surface and style over substance and content
7. Metanarrative
8. Hyperreality
9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) 
10. Consumerist Society
11. Fragmentary Identities
12. Alienation
13. Implosion
14. cultural appropriation
15. Reflexivity

Postmodernism: Where all ideologies and realities are questioned

• Broadcast “programme” on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Asian Network.
• Launched on September 10th 1973 in response to the launch of a network of commercial radio stations across the UK.
• Target audience is young people aged between 15 and 30.
• The fifteen-minute programme is broadcast at 12:45 and 17:45 during the week. Short bulletins are also heard throughout the day on three stations on the half-hour with extra bulletins broadcast at peak times.

Example Essay Questions:

1. To what extent can regulators shape the output of media texts? Refer to the Close Study Product Newsbeat to support your answer.
2. How convincing are the arguments for and against the regulation of radio broadcasts? In your answer, you should refer to your Close Study Product.
3. Explain why producers of radio programmes are using new digital technologies to distribute their texts.
4. “Media audiences always respond to media products in the way that producers intended.” Referring to the Close Study Product Newsbeat, to what extent do you agree with this statement?
5. It has been argued social and cultural contexts influence how audiences respond to radio broadcasts. How far do you agree with this statement?
6. Explain the influence of economic factors on the production and content of radio broadcasts.
7. To what extent does Newsbeat meet the requirements of its public service broadcasting remit?
8. Explain how Newsbeat targets a youth audience through the use of new technologies.
9. How do Radio products challenge the social and cultural contexts they are created in? Refer to close study product Newsbeat in your answer.