Practice Exam Question

What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences ?

• Multi platform media
• The extinction of print based media
• The positives and negatives to technology over print
• How it benefits consumers (price, convenience etc), prosumers
• New capabilities
• Secondary advertising

IPC Media

exempler response

Exemplar response to Section B: Magazine Industry

In recent times the media industry has witnessed meteoric rise in new technologies.  The advancement of the internet, for example, as it entered its second phase enables consumers to access media in new and unparalleled ways.  For the magazine industry, this has presented both challenges and opportunities.

Print media is mostly in decline, a worry of course for producers of magazines.  Therefore they must assess just how important technological convergence is for helping their magazine to survive in the long run.

The Future Plc title Metal Hammer is a monthly rock and metal magazine, that has existed since 1994. In that time, Metal Hammer has built a reputation as a bible of both modern and traditional metal music. It’s publisher, Future, is an independent company with a portfolio of magazines aimed at niche market sectors.  As a whole, Future, has performed well in a declining market, with Metal Hammer and Classic Rock reporting increases in circulation, with Metal Hammer reaching a circulation of 50,269 and classic rock 70, 188 (ABC, Dec 08).  Perhaps Futures strategies involving technological convergence have something to do with this success.  One of their ‘pillars’ of business strategies  is to implore upon their existing convergences in order to further appeal to prosumers.  This is important; Future defines ‘prosumers’ as “young men or young-at-heart men (Future licensing.com). In general this demographic will be one of the most technologically involved, in the know about the latest technologies.  They are also, incidentally the most valuable demographics for advertisers.  In this respect, convergence is extremely important for Future and indeed Metal Hammer in retaining advertising revenue.  Advertising revenue has already fallen for Future, as they already saw a 15% drop in advertising from December 08-March 09 (futurelicensing.com, 2009).  It is therefore, vital that they use technological convergences to remain advanced enough to attract advertisers.

Metal Hammer’s target audience is a young audience, interested in music, “converging adults”, according to futurelicensing.com The National Readership survey 08, the latest available, shows Metal Hammer readers to be 64% male, average age 22.  Again, this is an audience that will be interested in many forms of media. So for Metal Hammer to maintain their loyalty they must fulfil their newly evolving needs (Uses and Gratifications, McQuail).

The Metal Hammer website is a demonstration of convergence, and has proved popular with nearly 60,000 individual visitors since starting (futurelicensing.com).  Alex’s web traffic analysis suggests that visitors are mostly male, aged between 18 and 24 and spend around 2.7 minutes on Metal Hammer.co.uk. Therefore the website has apparently targeted the right audience for Metal Hammer.  Users can interact, voting in polls such as “who has the best slipknot mask?”, giving users the sense that they are contributing to a community. They are also educated and entertained with video exclusives, Metallica Live, and Opeth on tour.  In this way convergence maintains interest in the Metal Hammer brand.  Web 2.0 allows users to submit and generate a content, so Metal Hammer has competition in that users can go elsewhere for such videos .  It is up to Convergence in order to provide the best service for users.

Metal Hammer has also had successful synergies created as a result of convergence.  On 2008, Metal hammer.co.uk encourages users to send in photos taken on their mobiles of them playing “Guitar Heroes”, combining the internet with mobile technology.  The guitar hero synergy  combined with a party sponsored by Metal Hammer at the O2 (Metal Hammer.co.uk), Podcasts have allowed content to be sent faster than ever to multi-media formats.

Indeed, distribution is an interesting issue to consider for the magazines industry.  The internet, podcasts and video channels allow readers to access their wanted content within seconds.  Where as hard copies of a magazine must be ordered or brought from a shop. Indeed it could be suggested that the gathering of content from the internet or mobile has replaced the need for buying the magazine itself, as subscriptions for Metal Hammer rose 8% from Dec-march 09 (futurelicensing.co.uk) suggesting there is not the same novelty when buying a magazine. 

However, whilst technological convergence is important for the magazine industry, publishers must consider that the extra content offered to consumers via convergences in technology, could replace the magazine itself.  IPC’s NME is an example of this as circulation dropped 24.1%, whilst its website has been praised for the amount of content on offer.  Metal Hammer has a unique community created by the interacting mode of address; ‘Join the Crusade’ and writing style filled with expletives ‘F*** You!’, readers of Metal Hammer feel a string sense of unrivalled community within the magazine.  The magazine sticks close to its ideologies of anti-establishment , avant-garde by  featuring adverts appropriate to his such as Attitude Clothing and HMV Metal, whilst the website has adverts by O2, Orange and T-mobile.

Overall techno convergence is important as consumers needs alter and change but for the magazine industry to survive they must make any technological advancements not a replacement for the hard copy of the magazine as Future have so far successfully done.  As online advertising reached 18% for future it is important.

·         explanation argument analysis

·         example

·         terminology

Magazine Exam Terminology

Web 1.0 was the first version of the Internet – a one way communication, from the sender to the receiver

Web 2.0 is what we know the Internet to be now – a two way communication between the sender and the receiver

homework

go through future of magazines senescence (youtube links) to put in my powerpoint, also you wired as an example how how magazines might develop.

revise terminology for test

highlight the marking criteria in the exemplar essay and publish post

• example argument analysis
• example
• terminology

The representation of Regional Identity

How can you Identify Regional Identity?

What is regional identity?

Regional identity is identifying a person's identity which is rooted not only in the setting of the film but also in speech, costumes etc and in the region they live in.

How can you identify regional identity?

–Setting

–Accents

–Dialogue

–Props

–Make up

–Class of characters

–Costumes

–Etc.

Shameless

The characters in the clip and represented as quite rude and chavy. This is shown through there dialogue and also there clothing. The language used and the way they are portrayed gives you this representation.

Only Way Is Essex

Straight away you can see that these characters are all about the way they look. You can tell from the fact that they are very dressed up and glammed up for the gym. They have a distinct Essex accent which can make them seem stupid, which  gives you the typical representation of an Essex person.

Made In Chelsea

These people are the typical stereotype of the high class rich. The are seen to be hanging out on boats and driving flash cars in one of the most expensive place in London. There dialogue is also the typical representation of a very rich, posh person.

Brookside

Set in Liverpool these characters are the typical stereotype of a 'scouser'. There laddish behaviours and the way the talk to each other is what we believe these people to be like in an everyday situation.

Example of Ethnicity in Hotel Babylon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG5GJQjyGo

Representation of Ethnicity

Sterotypes

• Asian people: Rich, business people, religious, have been portrayed as terrorists, good at making curry. Own cornershops. They have big families and the all live in one house with all relatives.
• Travellers: AKA gypsies, are usually Irish/foreign (Bulgarian/Romanian). We associate them with fun fairs, live in caravans, they take over peoples land/destroy it. They make a mess and steal. Lacking in education. Wear vests and jeans and slobber everywhere sometimes long hair. Excess of lynx. Women wear big dresses and hooped gold earrings. British/Irish travellers prefer to be called ‘Travellers’
• Polish people: cheap labour. Poor. Have young families. Own kebab, chicken, pizza shops. Take all of our jobs. e.g. builders

Examples of Stereotypes

•        žGypsies: in waterloo road they moved there caravans onto the school grounds, many people were unhappy and they confronted them with conflict. It caused many problems and the police got involved.
• ž       Also in the Simpsons homers house got taken over by gypsies and they had to fight there way back in and they drove them out.
• ž       These two examples only represent a small number of gypsies, but these stereotypes paint a negative picture when realistically we know they are not all bad.
• 
  
• 
  
•  žPolish people: in coronation street there were two polish girls who Carla employed. They were both illegal immigrants and one of them died so Carla had to cover it up by hiding her body. The other one, called Vicki carried on working and no one liked her. She was a good worker and she tried to make friends. People began to like her after a while and she was then treated like everyone else. žThis shows that stereotypical views can be changed.
•       ž Asian people: the Masoods in Eastenders have there own business which is typical of a Muslim family. They own a curry place and are good at making it which is a typical representation of an Asian family. They speak in a typical Indian accent.
•        žIndeed the Masoods have recently been praised as one of the most realistic "ethnic" families to ever have inhabited soap land, and certainly one of the few not to be subjected to the usual stereotypical storylines such as owning a corner shop, being subjected to racially motivated attacks, etc.
• ž       We have also seen Syed realise he is gay, this bends the stereotypical view of Muslim’s as they believe that being homosexual is wrong and it is forbidden in Islam

The 'brown' race

•      ž“Brown” is often the general term used to describe the category of South Asian races
•       žAlthough there are several countries who make up part of this geographic area, most notably Indians are stereotyped
•       žIndians are the “comic relief” for dominant white culture, including ridiculing other countries such as Sri Lanka or Bangladesh
• ž      The following clips are examples of such stereotyping in Hollywood films, mainly produced by the dominant White society 

Examples of representation of ethnicity are movies like 'Bend It Like Beckham'

•       žEmphasizes the overarching patriarchal structure of Indian people, stereotypes it, and imposes it on the characters
• ž      Again, Indian people are portrayed to be culturally backward, as compared to western sensibilities
•       žCannot escape the illusion of typical Indians – scene with commentator shows dominant culture dumbstruck if Browns do not fit into their stereotype 

Tessa Perkins

žShe said that all stereotypes have a bit of truth about them which makes them plausible. For example, she said that most terrorists are Muslim but, not all Muslims are terrorists.

¡http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivd0oXr5f-g&NR=1

¡http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhzFRoiM3Q&feature=related

žA stereotype is normally viewed negatively

Positive representations are called corrective stereotypes which is where new ideas are created about a previous group to change our view about them. 

Common representation of race 

• Typical stereotype of an Asian woman = doctors or accountantsﾉnot artists".
• stereotypes of black men being lazy, promiscuous, bad fathers and obsessed with rap".
• Black women were obsessed with how much money a man earned and were "strait-laced" compared to white women when it came to sex.
• Asian people are perceived as invaders or karate experts.
• Hispanic people as comics, banditos or gang members.
• Native Americans as savages, victims, cowards or medicine men
• People from Middle East are seen as terrorists or oil sheiks. In video games - 79 per cent of African-American males were shown as verbally and physically aggressive, compared to 57 per cent of white males.
• “On TV, black people are depicted as poor nearly twice as often as their true incidence.”
• “Black people tend to be stereotyped as criminal”
• “Black people are stereotyped as late arrivers.”
• “White people can’t dance.”
• “ Asian people own corner shops in England.”

Black people

Usually linked to black men

Crime

Living in slums

On welfare

Need help from community

Less intelligent 

Over sexual

White people

Dumb blondes

Greedy

Materialistic

Businessmen

Middle/upper class

Posh/ well spoken

Asian people

Doctors

Engineers

Mathematicians

Newsagents- small businesses – entrepreneur

Ignorant

Extremely smart people

Men are threats to white women

Insensitive

Disrespectful towards women

Magazine Institution

• Going to study a main stream and a niche music magazine
• How its is distributed and produced, promoted and sold, exhibited and consumed
• The importance's of advertising will be the main feature

Going to look at a: mainstream = IPC Media - 'NME'
                                niche = Future PLC - 'METAL HAMMER'

This will allow you to produce a comprehensive comparison between how larger and smaller institutions work.

Section B possible questions:

• How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences ?
• With reference to your chosen case study consider how important interactivity is to media institutions ?
• What has the impact of increased connectivity been on the media production, distribution and exhibition process ?

Representation of Sexuality in TV Dramas

Homosexual Men Vs. Hetrosexual Men

Homo - always checking they look okay, quite feminine in the way the are, talk like a girl, like to gossip, wear more elaborate clothes, typical jobs inculde florist, air steward, hair dresser, working in fashion

Hetro - manly job e.g builder, suit weraing (working in an office), policeman, fireman, into sports like rugby, football, positioned high up within the family, have children, look a bit more ruggid.

Homosexual Women Vs. Hetrosexual Women

Homo - male attributes, quite butch, short hair, not much makeup, baggy clothes, jobs like police women, PE teacher, Play sports like rugby, drink beer, more of a butch voice, dont wear dresses or have handbags.

Hetro - smell nice, tight clothes, very pretty, long hair, into girly things, heels, drink girly drinks like wine and cocktails, assets on show (e.g. legs and boobs).

P.E.E sentance structure

• Point - your comment about the area of representation e.g. youth is represented through digectic sound.
• Evidence - your micro element that tells us this e.g. The dialogue is colloquial.
• Explain - link the two e.g. This conforms to a stereotypical view of young teenagers, that they are rebellious in speaking their own language.

Skins Advert Notes - Age representation

Throughout the advert, typical youth stereotype is made very clear. Not only through the way that they are dressed for example hoodies and short skirts but the way they act in the pub. Excessive drinking, being loud and disruptive, not caring about anyone else in the pub. There is also the influence of drugs in the clip, atypical stereotype of youths

The comparison between the different age groups in made very clear as soon as the youths enter the pub. The older people and being calm and respectful having a nice evening but as soon as they walk in you can immediately see a difference between the behaviour of the different age groups and the way the older generation look down on the youth and judge them straight away. Almost looking disgusted at them.

Representation of Age in TV Dramas

                                   Positive                                                       Negative
Youth                       Not many worrys                                       Dependant
                                 Limited reponsabilites                               Looked down on
                                 More physically able                                  Disrespected
                                 Sociable                                                     Rude
                                 Adventourous                                            Hormonal
                                 Fun                                                             Vunrable
                                                                                                                                        

 Old people             Get supported (benifits)                             Weaker   
                                  Wise                                                             Lonely
                                  Respected                                                   Dependant      
                                  Freedom                                                                     
                                  Wealthy