Drew's A Level Media

Tide Print Advert The advert uses hyperbole in the form of emotive and exaggerated lexis to help sell the product. For example, "Tide's got what women want!". Additionally, inclusive and friendly lexis is used in conjunction to the main image of a woman hugging a box of Tide in order to build the impression that the product is a friend that helps you around the house. It also builds a relationship between the target audience of the product (working class housewives aged 30+) and the product itself. This is also evident withe the direct address with the line "no other product will get your product as clean as tide!" meaning that it is targeting the audience directly, securing that connection with the audience. In addition to this, the advert includes a dense layout with a lot of text and imagery. As well as this being typical of 1950s advertising it also suggests that the target audience has the time to read through the advert suggesting they may be unem...

Explore how Zoella and Attitude online manipulate audiences through ideology. David Gauntlett  argues that audiences are not passive, but instead construct their identities through ‘ picking and mixing ’ the ideologies of the producer in whatever way they choose. Identity is an essential concept in media studies, as we as audiences will respond to texts in a lot of different ways. Through this interpretation there is a lot of potential for the producer to  manipulate  their target audiences through ideology. Zoella and Attitude online manipulate audiences through ideology via: Representations Mode of address  Preferred Reading  Product Placement Target audience  Hyper-reality  Industry contexts  Zoella: Zoella's target audience is young (aged 12-16), white, middle class, females and she targets this group by using simplistic and typical representations throughout her channel. For example, there is no variety of ethn...

To what extent does attitude targets multiple audiences? How Attitude targets its audience of g ay men, working class, aged 25 - 50, aspirational, interested in holidays, fashion and the theatre, and with a larger expendable income than average: Gay men: Includes a 'boys' section with many close ups/medium close ups of muscular men which is stereotypically attractive for gay men. Working Class: Attracts a working class audience with gossip style, easy to read/sans serif headlines designed to spread gossip. It is a stereotype that working class audiences would like this kind of gossip content because it is similar to the style of stories that tabloid newspapers such as the Mirror include which have a large working class audience. Aged 25-50: Furthermore, attitude appeals to an audience aged between 25-50 because almost all of the people that are featured in the photographs and articles are aged in this range meaning that they appeal to this age of audience. ...

How far are the representations constructed in the set texts of Zoella and Attitude Stereotypical? Stereotype: A set of widely held beliefs/attitudes about a certain group of people or individual. Stereotypes are created when knowledge is lacking or unattainable and the substitution of thoughts and opinions are implemented. This often leads to misjudgement and unfair discrimination towards certain groups. (Stuart Hall) In media products, they have the potential to impact the mindset of audiences, often sustaining, perpetuating and creating stereotypes. Media products portray the unspoken norms of an ideology. Such products appeal to the widest audience - intellectually and globally. Stereotypes of gay men: Feminine Fashionable - conscious of their appearance Articulate More open with their emotions More friendly with female friends The representation of the LGBT community is often narrow and stereotypical. Gay men are often represented as camp, effeminate, theatrical ...

How have new digital technologies affected how the online media industry is regulated ? (15 or 30 marks) Regulation: Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt: The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk. Regulation of online media in ineffective and difficult to enforce. The introduction of social media and platforms such as YouTube means that they rely on self regulation or creators. YouTube relies on creators to regulate themselves with the incentive of money.   Anybody can click that they are over a certain age on things like catch up tv. Increasing power of tech companies. More digital convergence of industries - new forms of media making it hard to regulate. Globalised internet - VPN can be used to bypass blocks. Lack of unifying regulatory body for online me...

Stereotypically gay partners have less children than heterosexual partners meaning they would have more disposable income. Attitude website homepage: Websites encoded with meaning through their use of signs and signifiers (Barthes). Media language refers to the technical codes (layout, design, imagery etc), visual codes (colour iconography, mise-en-scene, etc) and language codes (mode of address and language style). The basic principles of print media apply in that a fundamental audience appeal is constructed from layout and design with the key fact that websites have their own conventions. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Every aspect of a media product is a sign, whether it is a shot type, camera angle, graphic, font, sound effect or any other part of media language. So, semiotic analysis is pointing out what the different parts of a media product mean. Hermeneutic: Creates questions for the audience. (withholding meaning from the audience) Proairetic: An action...

Attitude In what was does this product use media language to encode the ideology of the producer? Attitude was founded in 1994 and is the UK's best selling gay magazine. It is owned by Stream Publishing Limited. Sold worldwide as a physical magazine, and as a digital download for the iPad and iPhone via the app store, and for Android services via the Android market. Renowned for it's high profile celebrity events such as featuring Prime Ministers such as Ton Blair and David Cameron the cover as well as their first Royal cover star, Prince William. In it's first 20 ears Attitude has featured A-List celebrity exclusives that no other gay title in the world can match, including David Beckham, Madonna, Daniel Radcliffe, Lad Gaga, Cher, James Franco, Elton John. Attitude is also respected for its 20 ears of topical reporting and social campaigning. The brand includes serious features on a range of subjects, which have included the plight of ga asylum seekers and the r...

The Million Pound Selfie Sell Off Influencers let followers into lives - build trust. Brands can advertise through social media. Industry worth $4 billion and increasing. 3 billion people expected to be on Facebook and instagram. Important to make it obvious when the are presenting an advertisement. Easier for companies to sell things that could be harmful for kids (eg gambling). youTube states that videos must conform to their guidelines and if the don't the videos will be removed. This means it relies on self regulation. Regulation can't keep up with the increasing technology. Social media can further damage specific younger audiences by presenting things such as unrealistic body standards etc.

Stereotypical male representation of Alfie. As soon as the video begins they talk about him going to the gym which is seen as stereotypically male.  Furthermore, as the video progresses Zoella makes a joke that Alfie doesn’t get up out of bed easily in the morning like the dog which again could be stereotypical of the male gender as being lazy. Everything is stereotypically feminine with feminine colours such as pink as well as cursive fonts. Obviously targeted towards women. When her brother, Joe comes in he identifies that as he is a male he is unable to use the feminine products. Binary differences between Alfie and Zoella, Alfie in gym clothes whereas she is more covered up in comfortable clothes.  Shows he is the stereotypical masculine character.She uses heavy makeup to reinforce conventional beauty ideals. Suggests femininity is achieved through a specific aesthetic or look. Zoella's channel could reinforce cultural binaries through almost total exclusion of ...

Zoella - Industry and Audience Algorithm: An algorithm can be defined as a set of rules or calculations to used to solve problems and deliver a result. Algorithms are used in social media to deliver to content to the user. News feeds use algorithms to determine the content to show you based on your interests, activity and interactions on the platform. Causes issues with privacy because of the collection of all your data. Key words/terms in title to appease the algorithm. Content doesn't change as they know it works. Similarly to what Clay Shirky argues it can be argued that audience no longer exists and all that remains is a hyperreal construction forged by algorithms.  Additionally, Zoella is not targeting an audience, but is using algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience. David Hesmondhalgh: Cultural industries and online media: He argues that major cultural organisations create products fir different industries in order to maximise ...

Zoella - Audience Zoella target audience: Female  12-16 White Middle Class Zoella has targeted/gained a niche audience. How Zoella achieves a female audience: Emotive content - show appeals to a female audience via narratives that engage with subject matter emotionally. She continuously tells us how she feels about the problem she faces. Zoella foregrounds stereotypical female based activities in her presentation: fashion, make-up, relationships. Costume stereotypically female - female colour palette deployed in mise-en-scene. Use of pets and pet orientated references (stereotypical small dog for a woman). Presenter constructs a version of ideal beauty - highly stylised, lots of make-up and attention paid to costume. Intimate confessional tone to create a relatable female character. quite/passive presentation style that fits with target audience expectations and female presenter stereotypes.  How Zoella achieves a 13-16 year old audience: Heavy...

Zoella - over 13.6 million followers on Twitter and over 10 million on Instagram. 2 YouTube channels to show growth and change. Un-sexualised, innocent etc. Paradigms of vlogging and online media: Breaking the fourth wall Amateur aesthetic High-key lighting Codes of realism Single camera edit Invitation into private spaces Aspirational content Presenter POV Unscripted narrative

Vlogging/online video most influential form of media. 42% of internet users aged 16-24 said they watched a vlog within the last month rising to 50% in 2015. Synergy of online profile (links across all platforms, digital convergence). Conventions of a vlog: Aspirational, Personal identity, Identification, Unscripted narrative, Authenticity (or Direct mode of address, Audience interaction, (Clay Shirky)

What role do fans and other niche audiences play in the popularity of this product? Plan: Essay structure: Into: D efinition A rgument C ontext Paragraphs: P oint E vidence A nalysis Henry Jenkins Clay Shirky  Stuart Hall Examples of fandom Intro: Fandom: Henry Jenkins: Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise. Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers ('textual poaching'). Examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on. Rather than just play a video game or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use this 'subcultural capital' to form social bonds. For example, throu...

Fandom - Henry Jenkins  Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media product or franchise. Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. For example, forums etc Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers (textual poaching) examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on. Rather than just play a videogame or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use the subcultural capital to form social bonds. For example, through online forums like Reddit and 4Chan. Textual poaching examples: Cosplay Lets Play End of Audience - Clay Shirky Audiences are no longer passive, they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of...

Albert Bandura, Hypodermic Needle Model: The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with a desired response. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material 'shot' at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. Codes of violence in Assassins Creed Liberation: Mise-en-scene: guns etc Non-diegetic sound; sound of knives and groans. Target audience would be used to the violence in the game and as a result would accept it. The secondary audience would oppose it. Bobo Doll experiment: Thee intention of the doll is to be hit and bounce back up, the children were playing with the doll how it was supposed to be played with....

What is the narrative style of the game? (non/linear? Equilibrium? Disruptions?) The narrative style of goat simulator is non/linear as it is a sandbox game where the player is free to do what they want. Additionally, i would say that the narrative style is also disruptive as the loose aim is to destroy everything in the map. What genre (s) can you identify? (paradigms, iconography, hybridity etc.) How are we as an audience interacting with the game? Does the game appeal to a mainstream or a niche audience? How? What is the preferred reading of the game?

How is the video game industry specialised? Interactive Huge resource expenditure Much higher RRP Longer length A dedicated, core, target audience. Games developed for specific hardware, or released multiplatform. David Hesmondhalgh: Argues that companies use advertising and marketing techniques to minimise risk and maximise profit. Assassins Creed III - Liberation Published by Ubisoft in 2012 for the PlayStation Vita, with a subsequent HD re-release for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. How does the trailer target a specialised and generalised audience? Leading female character instead of a man to attract a wider, generalised audience of females as well as males - trying to increase female gamers. Representation of ethnic groups to attract a wider audience again. Typically main characters are white so the fact that the main character isn't is effective at attracting minorities that would relate to the character. Goes against stereotypes - woman being more powerf...

History of the Video Game Industry 1940 - American nuclear physicist Edward Condon designed a computer allowing people to play the first game, Nim.  Thousands played the game. 1947 - The development of the cathode ray tube was created and helped lead to the creation of the first true video games as is is the core technology behind televisions by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. 1950s - Claude Shannon wrote the first programming guidelines for a chess playing computer. 1960s - US Department of Defence created a war game, STAGE 1960s - Ralph Baer came up with the concept of playing games on the television, he completed two TV games in the 1960s. 1971 - The first arcade game Computer Space released. 1972 - Atari, Inc released Pong which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. 1979 - Leading gaming company Activision  founded. 1978-81 - Total sales of arcade video game machines increased from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million in 1981. 1982 - Electronic Arts (EA) ...

Industry Questions Only Straight Outta Compton Key Theory 12 - power and media industries - Curran and Seaton The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by profit and power. Media concentration limits, variety creativity and quality. More socially diverse patterns of ownership can cause media productions to be more varied and adventurous. Straight Outta Compton (context) It was produced by Legendary Pictures who entered partnership with Universal Pictures (the films distributor) in 2014. Universal is now owned by NBC Universal, a Comcast company. It is essential to note the film was produced and distributed by a major, vertically integrated film studio that is part of a media conglomerate is significant in terms of funding, possibilities for cross promotion and reaching a global audience. N.W.A music video: Genre: Hip-hop/rap Representation: The two groups that are presented in the music video are black and white males. White police offi...