UNIT 6 LO : How Media Producers Create Products for Specific Audiences

Unit 6 LO2 Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences

 For this task the magazine i will be analyzing is the well known magazine called 'New scientist'

 You need to analyse a magazine title and decide
:how the target audience is identified for the magazine
:define the magazine as niche, mainstream or alternative
:how the magazine publishers present and layout the magazine to that target audience (discus use of content, pictures, fonts, captions)
:identify any codes or conventions used in the magazine (linguistic, visual, symbolic, technical)
 
Task 1
Analyse The codes and conventions that magazines use
: visual: pictures and imagery used in the magazines    give examples. i.e. live shot of football games in four four two magzine or pictures of men holding fish in Angler magzine
: lingusitic: the language the magazine uses based on it's target audience the language used in GQ will be different form the language used in Kerrang give examples.
: construction of content: articles, features, anything that is written about in the magazine. 
: layout and selection of content: words, images, colours, fonts, captions  You can make comparisons between similar magazines Hello & Womans Weekly have similar content etc
 
Choose a magazine to analyze, it can be any title you like,  a magazine you read often is probably a good idea.
 
You'll mainly need to analyse the cover and contents page but you can highlight any other points about the magazine that help
 
Task 2
Construct a short survey for at least two people about your magazine that 
: Hypothesizes the magazines target audience i.e. do you think that asian brides magazine is aimed at 10-15 20-30 or 30-40 yr olds
Use a mixture of Quantative and Qualitative questions. Write questions that will help you establish what you think the target audience is for your magazine.
 
: How is the target audience identified i.e use of focus groups, audience panels, trialing and testing, reviews, complaints
How do magazine publishers use these methods to define and refine their target audience. GIVE EXAMPLES You can use the National readership survey to help you  
 
Task 3
Put your findings into a powerpoint presentation that explains the findings of your research questionnaire. 
You can use a lot of the research you have done for Unit 6 to help explain the findings of your research questionnaire. There are opportunities to link your findings to different audience theories (hypodermic etc) and different types of audiences active and passive.  
 

The effects of shoot-em up games on 16-18 year olds

Task 1

There is a lot of controversy these days about video games being too violent and that they have a negative effect of people as it can influence their behavior. i am going to see if this is true and collect research to prove my points.

What is the gratification theory?

The uses and gratification theory is an approach that states that people seek out and find specific media to satisfy needs. The gratification model believes that there is so much content available that no one will miss out on anything and that people will choose what kinds of media they want to view. It also states that audience is not passive.

This means that people do not mindlessly believe whatever they see and different people are interested in different content. This theory looks into how and why people tend to choose media.

This theory can be broken up into 4 types

1. Diversion

This is when audiences try distracting themselves from real like by indulging media. An example of this would be heavy RPG style video gamer's which create another life on an online platform and spend a lot of time playing as that character in order to escape real life.

2. Personal relationships

Consuming media makes the audience feel like they are part of a community, which other is part of. one example of this would be fans of a popular TV show which would talk about it and feel a mutual relationship with others they discuss with, this is a reason why friends would recommend films or TV shows to other friends so that they will have a subject to talk about and strengthen relationships.

3. Personal identity

This helps the audience confirm identity and personal tastes, which society deems appropriate for them. An example of this would be certain individual such as a young school child watching Saturday morning cartoons or a politics teacher watch the BBC show question time. This is because they are interested in such content and the society they live in deems it appropriate.

4. Surveillance

The need to know what is happening. This means the audience is curious of what is happening around them and would like to stay informed by such media as News channels and gossip magazines.

What is the hypodermic needle theory?

This theory suggests that media information is powerful and direct and suggest that media information is injected straight into the brains of a passive audience. it also suggests that we as an audience all think the same and respond to media messages in the same way. This means that the audience believe everything the media tells us with giving it second thought and it goes directly against the gratification theory.

This theory was developed in the 1920-1930's after analysis of WW1 propaganda where it seems that the public would believe straight away in what the media has to say.

WW carter of the Paynefund study of influences of film from 192-1932 said, 'we see that as an instrument of education it...can profoundly affect the patterns of conduct of children'. This tells us that children were very easily influenced by the media and that it can have a long lasting effect of their psyche.

In later years people started to doubt this theory's reliability, but then in 1938 the war of the world’s broadcast supported this theory. the broadcast was a radio broadcast that warned listeners an attack of earth was in progress, it said that Maritain’s had landed on earth and a modern army of 7000 had a crushing defeat were only 120 had survived against the invaders.

this broadcast created mass hysteria and people genuinely believed it to be real, if fact people reported to have seen objects in the sky and Martians. This case study shows that people believed information by the media straight away without having second thoughts, supporting the hypodermic needle theory.

Even till this day case studies can be seen where the hypodermic theory is supported, for example mass hysteria when a celebrity death is falsely reported or this news headline which many believed without second thought.

'Grand theft auto lead teen to kill' (fox news February 16th 2005).

The difference between the conscious and sub-conscious mind

The human brain is an amazingly powerful organ; it can detect the slightest changes in touch, sight and smell. The brain processes day to day information with our conscious mind and subconscious mind together.

The conscious mind takes precedence to our sensory information and directs the way our sub-conscious reacts and understands the world we live in and then stores it.

We use our conscious mind to make daily life decision, for example what you are going to wear, your daily routine, what you are going to wear. It’s also there to allow us make decisions, answer questions, pay attention, focus and reason.

The sub-conscious mind controls our breathing, our reflexes, our habits etc. it’s able to process information and stores it in our brains forever. It’s not something we normally notice that is why it is called the sub conscious.

An example of how our brain works would be a child learning how to ride a bike. The conscious mind will process information about how to keep balance and how to coordinate the body. But the sub conscious is what remembers how to ride the bike and stores it in our brains, and then the next time the child ride a bike the muscle memory (sub conscious mind) is at work. Without the sub conscious a regular activity would be like learning it from scratch every time you do it, you will not be able to speak a language, you will not know how to walk, and you may even forget how to breathe.

                                                     

Task 2

Produce a questionnaire

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
 
 1. How many hours do you spend a week playing video games?

[1-3]           [4-6]          [7-9]          [10+]

 2. Do you play shoot'em up style video games?

[yes]        [no]

3. Would you describe yourself as an aggressive gamer

[yes]        [no]

4. Do you prefer games with violence involved?

[yes]        [no]

5. Do you believe the graphics of damages and injury are accurate video games?

[yes]       [no]


6. Do you believe video games influence you mentality?

[yes]        [no]

QUALITATIVE QUESTIONS

7. What is your opinion on shoot'em up video games? 


8. What kinds of emotions do you feel when you play shoot'em up games?


9. What do you think of violence in video games?


10. Do you think Shoot'em ups have any impact on your behavior? Please explain you answer.




TASK 3.
results.

The questionnaire i made was handed out to nine people all aged between 16-18, this is because these are the people that the question at hand targets. For fair results i asked both girls and boys, the results are collected before. As you can see i collected both qualitative and quantitative research so i could have a range of different results from my survey.






Quantitative questions.


Question 1.
How many hours do you spend a week playing video games?

As you can see from my results everyone who took my survey do play games, five out of nine people claimed that they only play for a little while each week. The other four people said that they played a lot more, one person in fact played 10+ hours a day. this shows that gaming is defiantly popular to this group of people.


Question 2.
Do you play shoot'em up style video games?

This was surprising as i expected more people to play shoot' em up games. These results support the gratifications theory in the fact that there is enough media around for the public to ignore one type of media and find something which suits them better.



Question 3.
Would you describe yourself as an aggressive gamer?

 These results are very interesting as they are very similar to question 2. This is very interesting as most of the people who do play shoot' em up also answered that they would describe themselves as aggressive gamers. this very strongly supports the hypodermic theory.

Question 4.
Do you prefer games with violence involved?

Here the result are more or less equal, and does not support either theory well, perhaps if there was a larger number of people questioned there would be a more solid result.


Question 5.
Do you believe the graphics of damages and injury are accurate video games?

Here the results are pretty equal but this goes against the hypodermic needle theory because it states that the media has full power over the public and that all people think the same way about the media. according to the my results people have equally different views.


Question 6.
Do you believe video games influence you mentality?

The results here were very strong as the majority believe it does not influence their mentality. this goes against the hypodermic needle theory but then again due to the sub-conscious minds of the people asked they may not notice if it is having an effect on them.

 Now we will be looking at the qualitative questions and the results that the people answered.

 Question 7.

What is your opinion on shoot' em up video games?

My results show that many people do not mind the shoot' em up video games and many described them as 'fun'. One person claimed it helps them think tactical and helps them concentrate, this shows that shoot' em up games can also have positive effects from shoot' em up games.

Question 8.

What kinds of emotions do you feel when you play shoot' em up games?

 For this answer there were mixed results, some people said they felt frustration and anger whilst other claimed they felt excitement and happiness. One even said 'I want to kill everyone and win :)'

This goes against the hypodermic needle theory as it shows that many people have wider views. We are able to see this because of the qualitative research allows the subjects to answer in more detail about what they think in their heads.  

Question 9.

What do you think of violence in video games?

This question had so many different results; some people said 'I can be violent in the game because I can be in reality'. This shows that people understand that it’s only an in game thing and that it does not apply outside the virtual world. Another said 'it makes video games more fun to play', both of these support the gratification theory, in specific the diversion type as it shows people like to indulge in media to get away from real life and are able to do stuff like shoot a gun in a game which they are not allowed to do in real life. 

Questions 10.
Do you think Shoot' em ups have any impact on your behavior? Please explain you answer.

People replied with such statements as 'No, because it is just a game'. People do understand that it is just a game and are not influenced as heavily as the hypodermic theory claims that people are. One person even went as far to say 

'No, i have a mind of my own'. This clearly supports the gratification theory and another said the only effect it had was to make them think more strategically.

Conclusion

From my research and the questionnaire I have come to a conclusion that the gratification is the theory, which applies to society. Although I have come to this conclusion i still believe that both theories are accurate, but the gratification theory is the right theory for the day and age we will in where there is plenty of media for everyone. The hypodermic needle theory i believe is also accurate but is very out dated, it was more accepted when media wasn't as diverse and people were not as media savvy as they are now. A lot had change and there are aspects of both theories but the gratification theory is defiantly the more dominate.

Unit 7 Understanding the Creative Media Sector (Mrs paradise)

4.         What do these industries have in common? Film, Television, publishing, interactive media, games, radio, photo-imaging, advertising, animation *

What all these industries have in common is that they are part of the creative media sector; they specialize in using words, sounds and images to connect with massive audiences. These industries are full of people who think and work very creatively and that know what appeals to the mass audiences, there are also many technical specialists who are very skilled people in making ideas come to life, these people can often operate the equipment needed to make a media product. These industries are also made up of people who can organize and manage the companies, people like production managers, marketing specialist, PR groups and financial managers. 

5.         Explain the structure and ownership of your chosen three sectors of the creative media industry.

The structure and ownership of a creative media industry can vary depending on (sector and) the size of the company. An example of this would be the big film company Pixar which has many departments dedicated to aspects like animation, advertising, budgeting, merchandise etc normally they handle all aspects of the production from within the company. 
On the other hand you have smaller companies like Metrodome which rely on third party companies to do certain jobs for the company.

Normally these media companies are contacted by other companies which need work done for them e.g. advertisements, print based work, DVD etc.

• ·         The first step is that when a client needs work done they will contact many creative media companies to invite them for a briefing of the job,
• ·         After this the companies which respond to the invitation (usually fewer than the amount invited) come and pitch their ideas to the clients. In the pitches they will go through a concept, ideas, cost and other requirements.
• ·         Once the pitches are over the client will choose a company which they like and then progress into the commission phase, usually the commissioning phase is sucsessful and the client hires the company.

Okay, now that the client has chosen the right company and have gone through the commissioning phase the following steps are followed out

•     Consultation 
•   Design 
• Production
•   Delivery
•   payment

6.         Where does the money come from? Look at the 3 creative media industries that you have chosen and identify which of the following methods of income generation apply to each: 

 The three creative media industries i will be speaking about are the film, video games and TV industries.

Television 

 TV companies have more than one way of funding themselves an example would be of  the BBC which is a TV super company and is recognized around the world. One way the BBC fund themselves is through the TV license fee which people in the UK pay to watch TV. Commercial broadcasters on the other hand receive there funding by selling advertising slots on their network, other companies will pay to have their adverts shown and the more popular the time slot the more expensive it is for the clients.

Film

In the film industry they are usually funding by a large company putting in the funding because they believe the product is worth it. A Hollywood studio would put money into a film, which will return money once it is on sale. Normally these projects cost a lot of money and are a long term investment. The way these companies gain a profit back are in ticket sales, DVD releases and sometimes merchandise as well.

 Games

The video games industry are funding in different ways depending on size, large video game giant such as EA are self sufficient and can fund themselves with the profit they receive from other projects. EA release massive games including many in the sport genre like FIFA, the sales from these games are massive plus EA charge audiences for an online pass if they want to play online. Smaller companies usually look for outside funding and although they may have money to start off with they do sometimes require outside funding, games generally make money from copy sales, DLC's and also merchandise.

7.         What are the ethical constraints facing the media sector? In particular focus on the three industries you have chosen to research. *  

Ethical constraints are very important to these creative media industries because their audience are very big and range a wide number of people; they need to make sure they respected people’s sensitivity and work responsibly. 

There are a lot of trouble when it comes to this matter because a lot of people may get offended by content which the creative media industry have created, an example of this would be the video game Mortal kombat which people thought was very violent and not suitable to play for younger audiences.

There are codes of practice, which are in place, which help, define such issues; the BBC editorial guidelines cover these aspects.

• Trust (the BBC trust works independently to insure the BBC is regulated correctly)
• Truth and accuracy
• Impartiality (being able to tell a story with out taking sides or being biased)
• Editorial integrity and independence (they can not support their own interests or agendas

ETC are at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-editorial-values-editorial-values/

 

8.         What are the legal constraints facing the creative media industries that you have chosen to look at? * 

 

The law is always very important and is in place to make sure everyone knows their responsibility within the law, this applies equally to producers, employees and even learners and work experience staff.

Here are a few laws, which all media industries must follow:

• Libel law (you can be sued if you broadcast or publish content, which is untrue and will have a bad effect on their reputation.
• Discrimination legislation (discriminating people from different races, ages, gender in content made by the creative media industry)
• Obscenity 
• Data protection (storing certain information about people with out their permission is illegal)
•  

 One example of a media industry breaking this law is the very well known 'news of the world phone scandal'. This is where News of the world tapped into celebrity's phones to discover information about them. This was breaking the data protection law and they have been prosecuted, the trail is still on going.

Copyright is also issue where you are not allowed to use another work without their permission, there have been many cases where this has been broken. One case involves a rapper Vanilla Ice when he used Queens and David Bowies 'under the pressure' at the start of one of his own works. He did not license or credit the original and due to this he was threatened with legal action. Copyright infringement can only be perused if the original makers decide they want to press legal action. 

9.         Who is responsible for regulating the media sector? How are your chosen industries regulated?  

Video game

PEGI is the official regulator for all games published in the UK; they provide a system where age ratings are used to regulate games. Anyone below the age rating cannot purchase the game. They will also look at games and decide what rating it will be suitable for different ages.

Films

The British board of film classification independently regulate the film and video industry in the UK, similarly to PEGI they regulate films by age rating on terms on suitability.

TV

The Television industry is regulated by the British academy of film and television arts (BAFTA). They regulated and support the TV, film and games industry.

10. What are the regulatory issues facing the Media industries that you have chosen? * Explain some of 

 In the creative media industry there are many different kinds of regulating issues, which companies will face. Here are a few of them:

•  Piracy - It today society where everyone has a good understanding of how computers and the Internet works means that piracy is a big issue. The film industry is one that feels the effects of piracy heavily as films can easily be downloaded online, this means that the media industry lose money because people can get the product for free. 
• Protection of intellectual property - This is very similar to piracy, it involves giving credibility to the producers and recognition of their hard work. 
• Impartial, accurate and fairness - The audience of these media industries are entitled to the truth, they have the right to know that the information they get is correct and accurate. 

All of the points above apply to all three industries I have chosen to talk about which are TV, film and video games.

11.        What are the employment opportunities and job roles in the media sector? *  

 There are an abundance of jobs in the creative industries, not every job within requires you to have to do creative jobs. This sector is very competitive and involves a lot of hard work, many jobs also overlap and different title can mean different roles. 

• animators
• developers
• artist
• designers
• directors
• editiors
• production magagers
• engineers
• programmers
• runners
• researchers
• journalists
• modeller
• presenter
• scriptwriter 
• and many, many more.

 here are some jobs for a Video games company:

 Here are a few jobs for the film industry:

Here are jobs available for the TV industry:

12.        How would you apply for and secure jobs in the industries that you have chosen? 

The first thing to do when looking for a job in the creative media industry is to find jobs which interest you, it always better to have a job you will enjoy. 

Now you need to Write a CV, your CV is there to sell your self to the employers, you must make yourself stand out and mention all relevant experiences you may have which will help you in in the creative media industry. Remember to make sure your CV is well presented, has good grammar and self yourself well, a CV is what employers will see first about you, first impressions are very important in this sector.

After doing so find advertisement for these jobs, with these advertisement there will be application packs and processes in order to get the job.

 For each job take notes on:

•  What the job involves
• The skills and qualifications needed
• Where the job is based
• The rate of pay
• Whether it is freelance or a permanent job
• If you need a portfolio, show reel etc.

 You should also try and get first hand experience in these sectors even if it means doing work for free this will be valuable, so try getting work experience, job shadowing or practicing yourself. Employers would rather hire some one who knows what they are doing already than a newbie.

If you are lucky enough to get the job then congratulations, but now you have to secure the job. Also if you are doing well you can go onto other jobs in the media industry that you may enjoy, you can get promoted and you can also make future contacts.

Here is a list of stuff you need to do to keep your job

• Be reliable
• Be punctual
• Ability to work as a team member
• Ability to use initiative
• Ability to take direction
• Ability to work under pressure 
• Ability to meet deadlines

13.        Create your own digital portfolio and CV in a web format, we will use a blog site for this but start by creating a CV in word and pasting it into the box below. Also, create a list of work that you think should be included in your portfolio, eg computer games, film, music video, audio guide etc. * 

 In your CV you should include all qualifications, work experience, relevant work you have completed over the last 2 years. You can also include personal work that is relevant.

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