Section 6- Be able to evaluate legal, ethical and regulatory issues associated with media products

Legal, ethical and regulatory issues

5 films with violent content:

• Django Unchained- rated 18- contains strong bloody violence- In one scene, a fight to the death occurs between two slaves, including a brief suggestion of an eye being gouged and arms being broken, ending with a man being killed with a hammer. 
  The film also contains some strong language and racist language, reflecting the period in which the film is set.

• Green Street hooligans- rated 18- Contains very strong language and strong violence
• The Dark Knight- rated 12A
• Fight Club- rated 18
• Deadpool- rated 15

The media effects debate- The academic and social debate as to whether media has a negative impact on its audience members. The many academic viewpoints and theories regarding the effects of media on audiences can be divided into two main arguments; passive audience theory and active audience theory.

Passive Audience- A collection of academic viewpoints that stress that the audience are unable to reject media messages and are subject to negative effects from the media they consume.

Hypodermic Syringe model- 

Cultivation theory-

Desensitisation- The idea that prolonged exposure to violent images numbs the effect of them. The more you become accustomed to violent images, the less likely they are to have an impact on the audience.

2. Moral Panic- When the media creates fear in the population over an issue that appears to threaten or harm normal social order.

Examples where media products have been blamed for causing problems in society-

• Killer Clowns from the Purge.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/19/creepy-clown-craze-has-left-their-real-counterparts-short-of-wor/

• Call of Duty linked to four teenagers deaths

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10857984/Call-of-Duty-linked-to-four-teenage-deaths-coroner-warns.html

• The Simpsons predicted US Ebola outbreak in 1997
  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2786966/How-The-Simpsons-predicted-US-Ebola-outbreak-1997-Episode-shows-Marge-offering-sick-Bart-children-s-book-Curious-George-Ebola-Virus.html

Do Video Games make people violent?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33960075


Active Audience- The argument that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved, often subconsciously, in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts.

Uses and Gratifications-

Reception Theory-


Legal and Regulatory issues

1. Media Regulators- The control or guidance of media content by governments and other bodies. This means media production and consumption are monitored. What do the following organisations do? what are the codes and classifications they have set out?

1. BBFC- The BBFC is the UK's regulator of film and video, providing age ratings such as U, PG and 12A. They are a designated body so have legal powers to rate, and sometimes cut or even reject works. They also age rate some online material.
2. IPSO- The Independent Press Standards Organisation is the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. They hold newspapers and magazines to account for their actions, protect individual rights, uphold high standards of journalism and help to maintain freedom of expression for the press.
3. ASA- The Advertising Standards Authority is the self regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. Its role is to "regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK" by investigating "complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing", and deciding whether such advertising complies with its advertising standards codes.
4. Ofcom- Ofcom is the UK's communications regulator. They regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms and mobiles, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate.
5. PEGI- Pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games' boxes.

Censorship- When speech, public communication or other content is considered objectionable or harmful by regulators and is then cut or edited from media products.

Classification- The decision made about the suitability of a media text for a particular age range after content has been viewed by regulators. The classification will be in the form of an age certificate (film and video games) warning signs (music, video games or broadcast time, tv, film). 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/13/bbfc-rewrite-horror-rules-woman-black-complaint-gore-sexualisation

User-generated content: Content created by non- professionals who then distribute their work online.

Section 5- Analysing Audience Research

Analysing Audience Research

1. Market Possibilities- The ways in which institutions believe their brand or product can expand into another medium as a cross-media product or spin-off. 

• TV Programme
• Merchandise such as T-Shirts or Mugs
• Sticker Book
• Posters
• Website with up to date features and news revolving around the football world

Match Of The Day have their own cross- media ownership of TV programmes, websites and magazines. They broadcast highlights of football matches from the top division in English football late at night, most Saturday nights. The first highlights show broadcasted on the 22nd of August 1964. They also have a spin off show called Match Of The Day 2 which started in 2004 to show highlights of any top division english football games that are played on a Sunday. This provides viewers with the opportunity to watch highlights of all games from the weekend. They have also combined a website with an online magazine where they can catch up on the latest news and transfer rumours, play games, enter competitions to win prizes, watch player and manager interviews, play fantasy football with your friends and subscribe to the magazine where you can buy 1 for £1 currently or you can buy all the magazines from this year which is 49 magazines for £87.75 which is 25% of currently. They also have actual magazine copies that you can buy in stores at local newsagents.

Analysis of FourFourTwo

Analysis of FourFourTwo

• Readership- The most important consideration when publishing each issue of the magazine is the amount of people that will read it. The readership trend in the UK from 2006 to 2015 increased dramatically and by the end of 2015, the magazine was read by an average 469 thousand readers per issue. https://www.statista.com/statistics/288454/fourfourtwo-magazine-readership/
• Circulation- In 2015, the FourFourTwo magazine had a circulation of 52 thousand copies.https://www.statista.com/statistics/288817/fourfourtwo-magazine-circulation-trend-uk/
• Price- 12 issues • 12 months • £3.34 per issue- £40.08 per year
• Format/Content- The magazine is split up in the following sections: First Section, Upfront (from about page 25 to 60), Features (usually from page 60 to 125), Planet Football (includes a report from James Richardson).
• Conventions-http://www.slideshare.net/PC4812/magazine-conventions-14720003

Section 5- Purpose of research

Purpose of research

1. Product Reach- how many people that will be able to access the product.

• Circulation- The number of people who purchase a print product.
• Readership- The number of people who read a print product as part of second hand consumption.

2. Audience feedback- When the audience provides a media producer with feedback about a product or brand.

• Gap in the market- the identification of a group of potential customers who are not yet purchasing a product or the realisation by an institution that there is a need for a new type of product or brand.

3. Competitors- Media institutions, products, brands which are direct rivals against each other.

Link to Personal Interview as part of my primary research for my magazine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Qw4x_pL7A

Primary Research Results- Survey

Secondary Research

Secondary  Research

There are 41 different types of football magazines across the world, each one with their own unique style talking about issues across the footballing world. One of the most popular football magazine is FourFourTwo who got their name from the formation, which is considered to be a basic, trustworthy and standard formation in English football. They have regular presents who regularly contribute columns to the magazine. Past columnists include famous names from the world of football such as; Brian Clough, Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce, Robbie Savage, Henry Winter, David Platt, James Richardson, Michel Salgado, Diego Forlan, Booby Robson, Steve Bowles and many many more. Haymarket published FourFourTwo's 200th edition in February 2011. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FourFourTwo

This magazine has many different features, such as; ranking the top 100 players in the world this year, analysis of games, talk about gaming (football games like FIFA or Pes), Interviews and stories from those involved or previously involved in football, a talent spotter section where they scout future talents of the game and many more quality content.

This magazine has very good customer satisfaction with outstanding reviews. One person gave it a 5 star review and said "Four Four Two is fantastic, it's the best football magazine I've read. Every issue has great interviews with the biggest personalities in football, whilst their special features comprehensively cover the biggest issues in football today. Definitely recommend it to any football fan." Another person who was pleasantly surprised gave it a 5 star review as well and said "Comprehensive British football coverage, with a surprising depth in its global analysis. A must read."

The most important consideration when publishing each issue of the magazine is the amount of people that will read it. The readership trend in the UK from 2006 to 2015 increased dramatically and by the end of 2015, the magazine was read by an average 469 thousand readers per issue. https://www.statista.com/statistics/288454/fourfourtwo-magazine-readership/

In 2015, the FourFourTwo magazine had a circulation of 52 thousand copies.https://www.statista.com/statistics/288817/fourfourtwo-magazine-circulation-trend-uk/



Section 5- Be able to evaluate research data used by media institutions

Evaluate research data used by media institutions

Primary Research- Primary research is new research, carried out to answer specific issues or questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups.

Secondary Research- Secondary research makes use of information previously researched for other purposes and made publicly available. For example; Internet, Books, Journals, Magazines, Newspapers and Television.

Quantitive Data- Quantitative data is information about quantities; that is, information that can be measured and written down with numbers. Some examples of quantitative data are your height, your shoe size, etc.....

Qualitative Data- Qualitative data is typically descriptive data. Qualitative data includes virtually any information that can be captured that is not numerical and is more opinion based.

Circulation- The number of people who purchase a print product. 

Examples of qualitative and quantitive questionnaires:

Types of examples that are media related: Reviews (Qualitative), Box Office, budgets and fan ratings (Quantitive).



Primary Research Advantages- Accurate information and you acquire everything that is relevant to you and the questions that you ask.

Primary Research Disadvantages- It is expensive to collect the data, and it often takes a long time to process the information.

Secondary Research Advantages- It is very quick because all the research is done for you and it is not very expensive. 

Secondary Research Disadvantages- It can be inaccurate as the information could be false and the data may not be specific to the researchers needs and you may not find what you're looking for. 

Quantitative Advantages- Can allow for greater objectivity and accuracy of results. 

Quantitative Disadvantages- Results are limited as they provide numerical descriptions rather than detailed narrative and opinions.

Qualitative Advantages- 

• Provides depth and detail : Looks deeper than analysing numbers and results by recording attitudes, feelings and behaviours.
• Creates openness: Encouraging people to expand on their responses.

Qualitative Disadvantages

• Usually fewer people studied: Collection of qualitative data is generally more time consuming than quantitative data collection and therefore unless time, staff and budget allows, it is generally necessary to include a smaller sample size.

Analyse the ways a media product of your choice targets a specific audience

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them is a new film inspired and written by the author J.K. Rowling who also wrote and helped direct the Harry Potter franchise. The Imaginary entity would have already been put into place when pre-production happened and before the film came out as all the millions of Harry Potter fans would be the primary target audience because Harry Potter is loved by millions of people and all those fans would want to see J.K. Rowling next phenomenon. The movie is brining the book to life just like Harry Potter did so if it is just as successful, it will bring in many fans who love magic and are a fan of fantasy and the supernatural genre. They would also target people who read the book because when reading, you imagine what it would be like if you see it, so if what people are imagining is brought to life, people would want to go and see it.

This film would target a mainstream audience full of people who like films to do with magic and use escapism through this film as a way to make it seem real. Although the idea of a mainstream audience is a large group of people who watch a certain genre for pleasure and enjoyment and as a hobby, There millions of Harry Potter lovers who are overjoyed at the idea of a prequel to the phenomenal series that J.K. Rowling also produced which makes the public feel surreal and excited for her next project. The age rating for Fantastic Beasts is 12A so the general demographic is a smaller audience then if it was a PG where younger children would be able to watch it even though it isn't appropriate for their age group. Also it is quite technical and some people over the age restriction struggle to understand the the concept and type of language so younger children would struggle as well.

Magazine poster

Unit 1- Section 4- Audience Theory

Audience Theory

Uses and Gratifications- Blumer and Katz, Denis Mcquail

Denis Mcquail (1972) discussed four theoretical audience pleasures:

1. Surveillance – our need to know what is going on in the world. The News/ Documentary 
2.  Personal relationships – our need for to interact with other people. Sports/ Reality TV/Dramas
3.  Personal identity – our need to define our identity and sense of self. fashion programmes/Soap operas
4. Diversion – the need for escapism, entertainment and relaxation. Superhero programmes

Unit 1- Section 4- BARB/RAJAR/NRS

BARB/RAJAR/NRS

What do the letters stand for in each of these companies?

BARB- Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.
RAJAR- Radio Joint Audience Research.
NRS- National Readership Survey

Which industries does each company provide audience research for?

BARB- BARB is owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and the IPA ( Institute of Practitioners in Advertising).

RAJAR- BBC, Radiocentre and IPA

NRS- Ipsos Mori and RSMB

How does each, conduct audience research?

BARB- In order to estimate viewing patterns across all TV households they fit meters into TV's to find out audience sizes.

what audience demographics are included? 

BARB- All individuals aged 4+ are measured and reported by BARB. Within this, a user may look at any age group they wish.

Example of each companies most popular products-

BARB- Strictly come dancing on BBC1 had the most views in November according to the figures that BARB collate.

Why do you think this product is popular?

BARB- A lot of people like Dancing and singing so it is quite mainstream show. It also features celebrities that the audience like. Finally, the public love a competition and competitiveness shown on TV.

Section 1- unit 1- Horizontal and Vertical integration

Horizontal Integration

• A production company expands into other areas of one industry. It is shared across.
• The company can develop in a particular area of production or they can buy out another company that deals with these areas.
• Example- Casino Royale: Casino Royale was mostly made by Sony. Sony owns companies such as Columbia pictures, however other companies were involved in the production such as Eon Productions (production) and MGM (production and distribution). This means that Casino Royale used horizontal integration because it expanded into other companies during the making of the film.

Vertical Integration

• The production company has complete ownership of the production, distribution and exhibition of the film. It is all passed down. They receive all of the profit- Brand identity.

EXAMPLE - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Walt Disney Productions

Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Distribution (Buena Vista)

       Walt Disney DVD/Bluray                 Walt Disney Toy Store                             Disney Land

Section 1- unit 3- 3 different narrative theories

Laura Mulvey (1975)- Objectification of Women in the media

• Voyeurism: Erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object
• Presence of women solely for the purpose of display
• Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of viewers gender. 
• Voyeuristic treatment of female body in ‘male’ videos - use of dancers as adornments to the male ego.
• The inclusion of women for display is a staple element in music video's - across all genres 
• Women connote to be looked at and are the object of the male gaze.
• A test called the Bechdel Test is relevant to this theory because it is about woman having a role in film and TV other than being directly linked to the male characters. It tests whether films have at least 2 female characters in it who have a conversation about anything other than the other male characters. This links to the male Gaze theory as it suggest that in a lot of film and TV, women have nothing better to do then talk about the male characters.

Rick Altman Genre Theory (1999)

Genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures'

Emotional Pleasures - The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.

Visceral Pleasures - Visceral pleasures are 'gut' responses and are defined by how the film's stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'.

Intellectual Puzzles - Certain film genres such as the thriller offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or being surprised by the unexpected. 

Vladimir Propp's Analysis of Folk Tale (1920's)

Propp analysed a whole series of Russian Folk Tales in the 1920's and decided that the same events kept being repeated in each of the stories, creating a consistent framework. His seminal book, Morphology of the Folk Tale, was first published in 1928 and has had a huge influence on literary theorists and practitioners ever since.

Propp extended the Russian formalist study of language to his analysis of folk tales. He broke down the folk tales into the smallest possible units, which he called narratemes, or narrative functions, necessary for the narrative to exist. Each narrateme is an event that drives the narrative forward, possibly take it in a different direction. 

Section 1- unit 4- Understanding the target audiences of media products

Classifying audience

Mainstream- The ideas, attitudes, or activities that are shared by most people and regarded as normal or conventional OR An audience that consumes a product that appeals to a wide range of age groups and cultures.

Niche- A small select group of people that have a unique interest OR The audience of a specialist interest media product that may only appeal to a small number of people or those that fall within specific demographic profile (for example, ethnicity or age).

What is an audience?

An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text. 

Why are audiences important?

Without audiences there would be no media. Media organisations produce media texts to make profit- no audience= no profit. The mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audiences in different ways and stay profitable.

Impact of new technology on audiences

Old media which used to have high audience numbers must now work harder to maintain audience numbers. Digital technology has also led to an increasing uncertainty over how we define audience, with the general agreement that a large group of people reading the same thing at the same time is outdated and that audiences are fragmented.

Fragmented audiences

The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets. The aim is to hit as many people as possible/ sell more copies/ generate a larger audience. But measuring that audience becomes hard. 

How do institutions continue to make money?

• Free apps always have adverts, unless you pay to remove them.
• Websites and search engines work hard to target you with ads whilst you consume ' free online' versions of your media product
• These adverts are carefully constructed and selected for the primary audience for each text
• With newspapers, printing less copies and switching to online distribution can reduce production cost

Mainstream

NICHE

Demographics- Measurable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level.

Psychographics- Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics.

Family Fortune- E

Golf magazine- A

Business section of newspaper- B

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/demographicsandpsychographics-131122150256-phpapp01/95/demographics-and-psychographics-8-638.jpg?cb=1385132778