Diversity and Creativity

Diversity and creativity in the media - Curran and Seaton
Woman Magazine - owned by IPC
Assassin's Creed - Ubisoft (huge company that owns many subsidiaries
The Times - Owned by News UK which is owned by News Corp
Adbusters - reverts the theory as it is anti-mainstream and creative and subversive

Conglomerates and monopoly:
-Having a monopoly mean domination of media industries
-If the focus is on creating profit, generally conglomerates don;t take risks with the media products they produce 
-This often results in limited variety, creativity and quality

Curran and Seaton - 'anti monopoly media regulation is need not only to maintain fair competition but also to prevent the distortion of democracy'

Public service broadcasting = intended for public benefit rather than commercial benefit.

A diverse media landscape = public service broadcast produce content without the sole intention of profit. Resulting in a more varied range of content across multiple media industries.

Late Night Woman's Hour - Hygge

Late Night Woman's Hour

• Came from Woman's Hour - 1960's
• Niche audience 
• Very intellectual

How does LNWH abide by OFCOMS regulatory framework:

-"Ensure a wide range of services and a wide appeals is available"
LNWH is specifically produced for a specific audience of women but covering a wide range within that.

-"Maintain plurality in broadcasting"
The BBC ensures it's internal plurality by avoiding bias. In LNWH Lauren Laverne as anchor will never stress an opinion that one point of view is right or wrong.

-"Protect audiences from offensive or harmful material"
LNWH originally broadcast at 11pm meaning that the content would be appropriate to the more mature audience listening a this time.

-"Protect audiences against unfairness or infringement of privacy"
Th BBC is careful to give limited details of public contributors on LNWH and any information will be given with their specific consent.

Create a pen portrait of a typical target audiences for LNWH.

Pen Portrait:

Age: 
25-45

Gender: 
Women


Class: 
Upper/Middle

Social status: 
British hardworking mothers


Cultural Capital: 
Intellectual ideas = high cultural capital

Interests/Lifestyle: 
Feminist

Radio

How have digital platforms changed the way we consume radio?

• First form of broadcasting, then television was invented but more for entertainment rather than news.
• Today, apps are available to consume radio 
• Radio podcasts are available to purchase/download online and are also available for free on platforms such as youtube. This allows flexibility for audiences.
• Accessibility has changed where people can catch-up on radio shows and do not have to make time to listen to specific radio live.
• DAB Digital radio compared to FM has a lot more available to audiences as it has increased the amount of stations allowing for niche programming encouraging more listeners
• Cross platform - the combination of visuals with audio output and availability of radio through television platforms. Remains appealing to modern audiences EG, watching radio podcasts on youtube.

Regulation in Radio

Localness guidelines 

Legislation requires Ofcom to secure that local commercial radio stations provide an appropriate amount of:

• programmes including local material; and
• locally made programmes

Radio and TV in the UK is broadly self-regulated - up to the host to say what they want, which is much more relaxed.

LNWH is broadcast after 9pm

Public service broadcasting = intended for public benefit rather than commercial benefit

Pluraity

-Includes multiple topics, opinions

-Inclusive = gives voice to a wide range of ideologies

-Balanced coverage

-Media product exhibits and gives voice to a wide range of ideological perspectives

-The BBC is a public service broadcaster = this means it's aim is to 'inform, educate, explain'

OFCOMS regulatory framework:

-"Ensure a wide range of services and a wide appeals is available"

-"Maintain plurality in broadcasting"

-"Protect audiences from offensive or harmful material"

-"Protect audiences against unfairness or infringement of privacy"

Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation Research

Initial research

Draw up a detailed pen portrait for the target audience for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Think age, gender, class, lifestyle, cultural capital…

Pen Portrait:
Age: recommended age 18+, realistic age 12-25
Gender: typically male
Sex: heterosexual
Class: working, middle
Lifestyle: typically school students, spend free time gaming, not much social life, other than online gaming with other gamer friends.
Cultural Capital: Generally people that won't care about how they dress/act/speak to others, or how they present themselves.
Ethnicity: This release of the game may appeal more to people of ethnic origin due to the difference in main character being a black female, which may share significance for the players.



Find eight pieces of promotional material related to Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. These may include the following:

• Posters
• Banner ads
• Promotional trailers
• Videos of events
• Fan produced media (example let's plays)
• Reviews
• Print adverts
• Merchandise, including soundtrack CDs and T -shirts

These promotional materials can be taken from 

• The initial 2012 release for the Playstation Vita (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation)
• The 2014 multi-platform re-release Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD, or
• The upcoming remaster

Poster/Print advert:

How does this appeal to the target audience?

• Creates enigmatic codes, through mystery in facial expression, blurred background that brings out the subject matter in foreground, lighting, and use of emotive language, eg, liberation.
• Use of a female character figure would typically appeal to young males who admire the female figure in an objective way.
• Posters are an effective mode of promotion as they are simple visual products that are on display out in public to a wide variety of audience.

Banner ads:

How does this appeal to the target audience?

• Creates proairetic codes where weaponry is presented suggesting violence, fighting, and action. This is enforced by the costume of metal armour and stance that the character holds.
• These are a specifically effective mode of promotion as they typically appear digitally online, which will appeal to gamers, or technologically involved people.

Trailer:

How does this appeal to the target audience?

• Gradually building music creates enigma code, and excites audiences through enhancing the action of the trailer.
• Representation on ethnic minority background which is empowered by the rise of the character, and the success of the player(you).
• Produced in a way that makes it like a film trailer, containing a narrative that will appeal to people that have maybe uninteresting lives, that want to find excitement in playing games.
• Video form promotion is effective as gamers are often online, and up-to-date on releases of videos and clips. It is also effective as it combines video, text and sound techniques which are powerful promotive tools.

Fan produced media/Reviews:

How does this appeal to the target audience?

• Fans, that are similar to the audience will give trusting advice/review that audiences will agree with. 
• Fans could reveal codes, secret techniques that audiences may not yet know about.

Study Cases recap

Wateraid visual advert(2016):

This charity advert reverts the normal conventions of charity adverts. It uses themes of hope and happiness to advertise the outcomes of the charities work rather than the issues that exist and are trying to be avoided. The costumes and settings of the advert create a clear link to dry and hot less economically developed countries who are suffering in poverty, which are contradicted with the binary opposite of happiness on the facial expressions, lighting, colour and sounds of the advert. The gradual build of diegetic sound, from one soft singing voice, to a symphony of singing voices creates a massive impact on emotion and feeling to the advert and almost creates an enigma of suspense for audiences to be excited to help. The collaborated singing gives a sense of teamwork. The advert factual and powerful due to the lexis however the mode of address is much less challenging and accusing of a normal charity advert and is more positive and influential.

Tide print advert:

Kiss of the Vampire Poster:

The horror genre usually uses paradigmatic iconographic features like blood, gore, abandoned settings, horrified facial expressions, distorted body language and references to paranormal activity. Specifically vampire sub-genre uses more features like bats, castles, capes and dripping blood.
The poster uses a z-line so that people look at the poster in a certain way. The first thing the audience is drawn to is the title of the film. It then follows to the images of the characters and then to the names of the people featuring in the film down below. This makes a pattern of the significance of each feature to the poster.
The capitalised , serif font of the title creates connotations linked to the vampire film genre with its 'wooden' styling(referencing the vampire coffin) and the blood dripping from the V's 'fang'. 
The use of a painted main image is highly conventional of films of this period- the fact it is in colour makes us see it is a modern telling of an older story.
The gloomy grey, black and brown colour scheme reinforces the film's dark scary conventions while the red is used to highlight the attacking bats, the vampire and the blood- all visual signifiers of the genre.
It also uses the innocent colour of peach to present the 'damsel in distress' characters; their dresses are a symbolic code for the weaker woman character that is to be saved from danger, and it's tight fitting sexualises the womans body. Here, a gender stereotype is formed, making the female character vulnerable and the male character mostly in power.
Suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires(emphasised by the "kiss" of the title) and the fait of their two victims (Barthes Hermeneutic Code). 


Formation - Beyonce(2016) and Riptide - Vance Joy(2013):

Producers have constructed ideologies and viewpoints with in their music videos to explore and identify how to present individuals(celebrities) and social groups in different ways. 

In the music video Formation by Beyonce, it encodes a viewpoint where the artist takes an almost goddess-like role due to her success and power, as well as her attention and awareness to world issues. When Beyonce is shot in a scene on top of a sinking police car, she is literally put above law, and seen as something higher to her fans and audiences. This creates an enigma code(Barthes), as it raises questions and makes the video more of a mystery as audience want to know why these scenarios have been applied to this video. As a result, media publicity is drawn to the crisis in New Orleans as this celebrity has the power to do so. Additionally, the ideology of Beyonce's almost 'sacred' portrayal is enhanced through the mise-en-scene of the video, for example, slow motion and birds-eye camera angle techniques, along with her angelic body language and facial expression. 

On the other hand, in Vance Joy's video, Riptide, it forms an unusual link by presenting viewpoints on the oppression of women through themes of horror. This is done through the use of displaying paradigms typically from the horror genre, eg. dark lighting, horrified facial expression, graveyard settings, a gun and dragging bodies across the floor. This is met by features of the video that comply to Van Zoonens theory that womens bodies are used to sell a product aimed at a male heterosexual audience. For example, the video includes a shot where an unidentified woman undresses facing away from the camera. This is enhanced by a lower floor camera angle, as if audiences are watching and the subject doesn't know. I think producers have done this to create the ideology that the objectification of women is a subject that is almost horrific to think about and this is why they have made this representation.

Furthermore, Beyonce's music video, formation reveals many viewpoints and ideologies that explore conflict which consequently creates binary oppositions(levi-strauss). An example of this could include the contrast between white and black culture and how it is interestingly represented in the Formation music video. This is because the white culture is performed through the costume and setting of the video eg. suit and tie, big ancient houses, maids, children in white dresses and bonnets, however the cast of the video are all of darker skin colour taking on the typically 'white' social qualities. Another contrast could be the re-representation of 1950's New Orleans fashion conflicting with the modern video that displays issues that New Orleans faces today. This applies to Halls theory as he believes representations exist through repetition and remix of media trends.

To conclude, music videos are a method of creating multiple representations of different individuals/groups so that viewpoints and opinions and messages can be put across to the audience. 

Daily Mirror and The Times set text (10/11/2016):

THE TIMES:

Headline lexis: Man held after baby dies 'in attack on twins'. Giving the title 'man' , makes the murderer anonymous and mysterious. It also creates enigma and makes audiences want to know who this 'man' is. The verb 'die' sounds cold and intrusive, as it is explaining the murder of a child. Attack on twins gives the story a narrative and sounds like a title to a story. This gives a basic idea on what the advert is based on.

Selection of Images:

The only image used includes a low angle shot of police entering the crime scene.

DAILY MIRROR:

Headline lexis: Man held after toddler dies in hammer attack

Use of 'toddler' makes the victim sound even more vulnerable and innocent, giving the story more tragedy. 'Hammer attack' sounds violent, and the producer has jumped to conclusions on how the murder happened just to make the story more tragic.

Selection of Images: The use of an image where the victim looks upset creates more emotion and sensationalistic characteristics to the news report. An image where the potential murderer looks content makes audiences think that murderers can look like an average person, and you can never know who can capable of doing such a thing.

Layout: This news story is considerably larger in size in comparison to the times report, maybe because the story evokes emotion, tragedy and scandal which is more common of a tabloid newspaper. 

In what ways can media products incorporate viewpoints and ideologies? (Talking only about these articles)

Media language can be used to incorporate viewpoints and ideologies. For example, in the Daily Mirror article, emotive language is used to describe the victim to enhance his vulnerability and innocence. This gives the story more tragedy, and consequently giving a viewpoint in which the children are in danger. This language creates ideologies based around the murderer. "Hammer attack" gives connotations of violence and makes the murderer sound more brutal as the murder weapon is mentioned. 

Barthes codes are also used to create enigma in the headline. The unidentified suspect makes audiences suspicious and want to know more. 

Straight Outta Compton(2015) and I, Daniel Blake(2016):


Late night Woman's Hour:


Assassin's Creed: Liberation(2012):


Humans(2015) and Les Revenants(2012):

The Sci-fi genre based series Humans, demonstrates many binary oppositions within the text. The most significant opposition lies between Man vs Machine. There is a constant tension between all of the human and synth characters. For example, initially we only see Anita's feet, in the mesh 'delivery bag', claiming she is an object to be bought and sold. This is our first impression of the synths, in a scene where a family 'buys Anita'. The non-diegetic music however, suggests a heart-beat rhythmic sound that represents the birth of Anita when she is programmed and started-up. This contrasts with objectification themes as the synth is so human like that it is presented to be alive.
Producers have used these themes to maybe reflect the on goings of today's world, and how technology has overtaken society. This explores how humans revolve around the use of electronics, and makes audiences ask the question, have we become cybernetic organisms.

Genre is essential for both audiences and producers alike. It is a way of categorising media texts. This allows the audiences to identify what type od media product to select based on their own expectations and prior knowledge. Genre is also important to producers, as it allows them to specifically target audiences, and thus ensure profit. Conventions are the building blocks of genre, acting as a crucial signpost.
Les Revenants takes a more challenging, subversive approach to genre convention. Rather than being categorised into one or two genres, it's a text that encompasses many - a fluid, post-modern drama that embodies genre hybridity, polysemy and the complexity of modern day media. In this response I will be discussing the genre conventions within the text, how they have been developed to work and change genre convention.
Las Revenants is encoded with meaning from a variety of genres, it forms a complex ideology that challenges genre convention. Arguably the text reflects both horror and supernatural genre conventions, it is an enigmatic drama that makes references to both French poetic realism and the avant-garde, as well as embodying iconography and paradigmatic features from the 'zombie' genre.
In the opening scene we are introduced to 'camille' through close-up on a bus, the non-diegetic music is sombre and emotive connoting the lyrical codes of French drama and poetic realism. As the bus crashes there is diegetic screams from inside the bus - reflecting horror conventions of death and mortality. Next, as the camera moves through the house there is a mid-shot of a butterfly, seemingly dead, breaking through the glass from which it is kept, reflecting paradigms from the supernatural/zombie genre. This opening uses hermeneutic code and is very polysemic, encompassing multiple meaning and genres.


Woman(1964) and Adbusters(2016):

I think that sociohistorical context has greatly influenced representations in the magazines I have studied.

Woman magazine analyses and represents a time period where women were hugely oppressed and objectified; typically they took the role of the housewife, where they would stay home to cook, clean, look after the children and wait for their husbands to come home from work. The advert with in the 60's magazine for Breeze soap is a prime example of portraying women as objects as it displays a woman fully undressed selling a product. Using theories explored by Lisbet Van Zoonen, the women's body is being used in a media product as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This means the stereotype that woman are important and significant only for their bodies and for the sole purpose to appeal to men is being reinforced by this advertisement. The subjects seductive body language and facial expression, combined with her face full of make-up gives us the impression that all women are and want to use a passive attitudes. Consequently, these aspects of sociohistorical context have influenced the representations of women and their bodies in the media today as this is where initial media trends would have formed. 

Zoella and Attitude Online:

Amazon's Best Selling games of 2018

• What demographic do these games target? Include gender, age, social group and sexuality

1. Super Smash Bros

Targets: younger, and older kids both genders

2. Super Mario Party

Targets: younger kids, minigames, 'party' both genders

3. Red Dead Redemption 2

Targets: Teenage and older boys

• What genres do these games belong to?

1.Super Smash Bros

Genre: Adventure, quest, Cartoon

2. Super Mario Party

Genre: Puzzles, minigames, adventure

3. Red Dead Redemption 2

Genre: Action

• What age ratings do these games have? (remember: the age rating for a media product rarely tells us what demographic it is actually targeting, and this is especially true of videogames!)

1. Super Smash Bros

Rating: 12+

2. Super Mario Party

Rating: 7+

3. Red Dead Redemption 2

Rating: 18+

• Who developed these games? How do these games target a local and international audience?

1. Super Smash Bros

Developer: Nintendo

2. Super Mario Party

Developer: Nintendo

3. Red Dead Redemption 2

Developer: Rockstar Games

Playing Games

Fallout 4 (Bethesda, 2015)

What is the narrative style of the game? (non/linear? Equilibrium? Disruptions?)

• Linear, you have tasks to complete that follow with more tasks.

What genre (s) can you identify? (paradigms, iconography, hybridity etc.)

• Action/adventure
• Apocalypse, you must survive and save the last people on earth
• Ruined landscapes

How are we as an audience interacting with the game?

• We play the 'hero'
• We interact with the game through making choices and talking to other characters to  gain information.

Does the game appeal to a mainstream or a niche audience? How?

• The game appeals to a mainstream audience by using a linear, action filled narrative where the player can make decisions for their character and choose how the game plays out.
• The game appeals to a niche audience as it is the fourth version release of the game, which means fans will be excited for new software and updates on the new version of the game.

What is the preferred reading of the game? 

• Narrative based, like a story
• Play gradually, where the narrative slowly unfolds and has meaning.

Dark Souls 3 (From, 2016)

What is the narrative style of the game? (non/linear? Equilibrium? Disruptions?)

• Linear narrative, chronological, quest
• Constant disruptions, eg, fighting different characters.

What genre (s) can you identify? (paradigms, iconography, hybridity etc.)

• Medieval villager action/adventure
• Genre hybridity: sci-fi, fantasy, action.
• Medieval costume/setting eg. sword and shield.
• Dark colours to create an atmosphere.

How are we as an audience interacting with the game?

• We try to resolve the constant disruption with fighting the characters and being the 'hero'.
• We get to collect items and use tools and different weapons to carry out the fighting.

Does the game appeal to a mainstream or a niche audience? How?

• It appeals to a mainstream audience by using a linear style narrative, simple to follow, where the player must complete tasks and 'fight off evil' a common and popular style narrative in action videogames.
• It appeals to a niche audience by using sci-fi/ fantasy genre paradigms, that aren't very popular with the mainstream audience.

What is the preferred reading of the game? 

• Narrative based, like a story

Regulation in Games

Regulatory Body: PEGI

What they regulate?

• Fear
• Sex
• Bad language
• Gambling
• Violence

Not a legal requirement to be the age, it is just a recommendation as to how old you should be to play the game. Cannot ID you when buying the game.

Issues with Regulation: Livingstone and Lunt

Increasing power of global media corporations, along with the rise of convergent media technology and transformation in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

Assasin's Creed: Liberation

• Published by Ubisoft in 2012 
• For PLayStation 3 and Xbox 360

How does this trailer target a specialised and generalised audience?

Specialised - exciting the already following niche audience about the updated features to the game eg. new levels.

Generalised - Suspenseful music, and incorporates a narrative, that all people can follow, something that is more accessible to the mass audience that consume less complex types of media. Using a black female lead shows that they are being progressive and unconventional that may appeal to a wider audience.

Ubisoft

1995

Title:

Rayman

Genre:

Adventure

Platform:

PlayStation

Target Audience:

All ages

Critical reception:

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the PlayStation version a score of 8.625 out of 10.

Commercial success:

It was awarded both "Best Music in a CD-ROM Game" and "Best Animation" in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1995 Video Game Awards.

2006

Title:

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

Genre:

War

Platform:

Xbox and PlayStation

Target Audience:

15+

Critical Reception:

GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score 90/100.

Commercial Success:

On October 5, 2006, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter won two out of the eight nominated BAVGA awards including, "Best Technical Achievement" and "Best Game"

2012

Title:

Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation

Genre:

Action/Adventure

Platform:

Playstation 3 and Xbox 360

Target Audience:

18+

Critical Reception:

Shaun McInnis, reviewer for GameSpot, gave the game a score of 6.5/10

Commercial Success:

In December 2015, Game Informer ranked the game as the 10th best game in the Assassin's Creed series to date.

The Videogame Industry

Videogame production, distribution and circulation:

• 1940, Edward Condon recreates traditional game 'Nim' on computer. 
• 1950, Claude Shannon creates basic guidelines for programming a chess-playing computer in article.
• In 1972 the world's first home gaming console was introduced

Japanese arcade bom:

• Nintendo, Sega and Sony Computer Entertainment were some significant brands that came from Japan.
• In 1978, Taito created the first wide selling video game, Space Invaders that took off world wide.
• Namco produced the world wide famous game PacMan in 1980 that became one of the highest-grossing video games of all time. Namco also produced Galaxian in 1979 and Rally-X in 1980.

American Arcade boom:

• The video game arcade would not have happened without Nolan Bushnell who in 1971 created Computer Space, the first commercially sold, coin operated video game. At the time was considered a failure but changed the industry forever.
• When Warner acquired Atari, the game-maker was a small part of its overall business, but by 1982, Atari made up 70 percent of its revenue. 
• Atari created Asteroids(1979), Missile Command(1980), and Centipede(1981).

The 1980's videogame crash:

• known as the Atari shock in Japan
• a large-scale recession in the video game industry occurred from 1983 to 1985.
• Revenues peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent). 
• Causes of the crash include a flooded console market, where there were too many products being released for the limited audience. Competition was also created with home computers, where people can play games at home rather than playing in the arcade.

Differences between American and Japanese games:

• Typically, the games that sell best in America are ones in the genre of war, or shooting games.
• Japanese games that sell best are more colourful games containing fantasy and quests.
• Japanese video games often deal with themes related to the horrible cost of war, the danger of authority, and the value of relationships in times of crisis. Whereas American videogames concentrate more on glorifying war themes, and putting authority on positions of violence. This may be because of the history of war in each of these countries.
• Some examples of bestselling videogames in Japan include: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokémon, Yokai Watch, The Legend of Zelda, Mario.
• Some examples of bestselling videogames in America include: Halo, Uncharted, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty

Controversies surrounding representation in videogaming:

• Tomb Raider represents a controversy with gener as the character you play in the game Lara Croft, wears tiny shorts and small tops that show off her feminine figure. Producers made this character choice as most of the players (being heterosexual males) would enjoy the view of their character from behind while playing the game. 

How do videogames represent specialised industry?

• Interactivity
• Huge expenditure of resources
• Much higher RRP (£50+)
• Significantly longer length
• A dedicated, 'core' target audience
• Games developed for specific hardware, or released multiplatform.