Industries: Ownership and control blog task

1) Type up your research notes from the lesson - what did you find out about your allocated media conglomerate? Selection of companies: Alphabet, The Walt Disney Company, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Facebook, Viacom, News Corp, Time Warner. If you were absent or don't have the notes, research any of the companies above and find examples of all the terminology outlined in the notes at the start of this blogpost.

2) Do you agree that governments should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant? Write an argument that looks at both sides of this debate.

I believe that media conglomerates becoming too dominant in the media would have an adverse effect on smaller competing media companies who are trying to make their name in the industry. On the other hand, when multiple large media conglomerates are competing for market share, it could become an incentive to become more competitive and to produce content better than their competitors, this could prove beneficial for audiences 

Media Magazine 52 has a good feature on the changing relationship between audiences and institutions in the digital age. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM52 and scroll to page 9 to read the article 'Two Key Concepts: The Relationship Between Audience and Institution'.

3) Briefly describe the production, promotion and distribution process for media companies.

Production companies produce the content, from there promotion companies promote the said content through different mediums, from there the distribution companies get the content to the audiences.

4) What are the different funding models for media institutions?

Some funding models include:

Licensing Rights

shareholders

Views

5) The article gives a lot of examples of major media brands and companies. Choose three examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them. 

Marvel:

The article states that Marvel films contain violence and also support typical societal values e.g. Protecting the weak, sacrifice, responsibility etc.

Disney:

Family-friendly well-known media conglomerate who have managed to create a cinematic universe; which allowed mass production of merchandise and different diversifications.

ITV:

Main income source is advertisers, means that their main focus is on appealing mass audiences rather than niche ones.

6) What examples are provided of the new business models media companies have had to adopt due to changes in technology and distribution?

Music:

Musicians can no longer make money through the selling of their music so they've turned to sponsorships, live shows, and merchandise.

Film/Tv:

Mass investments into CGI technology to try and convince audiences to watch their films/shows.

7) Re-read the section on 'The Future'. What examples are discussed of technology companies becoming major media institutions?

Google:

Bought Youtube and changed how we listen to music and view media texts 

Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo:

Three major business who now all own their own TV show streaming sights

Facebook:

Have purchased the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality device.

8) Do you agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive?

With the continuous growth of social media and the internet as a primary source of entertainment, traditional media institutes are struggling to compete.

9) How might diversification or vertical integration help companies to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape? 

With the decrease of traditional income for large corporations, diversification and verticle integration can both be incredibly important to ensure the profitable growth of large businesses.

10) How do YOU see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media conglomerates maintain their control?

Social media has become the voice of the people and businesses have learned to respect the wants of the people due to it. In the past international boycotts have become a common practice against large corporations who ignore what their consumers want, and in teh future that power is bound to increase 

Audience theory: blog tasks

Audience theory: blog tasks

Hypodermic needle model

1) Read this Mail Online article about the effects of videogames. How does this article link to the hypodermic needle model?

The article states that the video games that the child was playing violent and that the videos games are directly responsible to why the youth tends to be more violent.

2) How does coverage of the Talk Talk hacking case (see Daily Mail front page below) link to the hypodermic needle model? Why might someone criticise this front page? 

The article blames violent video games and lack of socialization for the actions of a child that targeted a large corporation. As like with the previous question, it suggests that the media he had access too was a direct causation to his actions without taking into account that other factors would have an effect. The cover supports very typical right-wing ideologies e.g. "single mother was brought up as a reason, this represents the right wings idea of a typical family needing a male in order to function, right-wing mentalities are often in support of an uncontrolled private economy, this is shown by slightly making Talk Talk seem like a victim. 

Two-step flow model

1) Summarise the two-step flow model. In your opinion, is the two-step flow theory still relevant today?

I believe that the two-step flow model is especially relevant today. In today's society, fake news has become rampant due to the population's dependence on opinion leaders who shape the news to fit their agenda. With news being so easily available and with so many opinion leaders becoming bigger and bigger due to the vastness of social media the spread of biased, deformed news and media becomes even more available.

2) How does this YouTube blogger fit into the two-step flow model?

Totalbiscuit acts as an opinion leader.

3) How this this Telegraph feature on Britain's most popular tweeters fit the two-step flow model? Do you think these accounts genuinely have an influence over their audience?

These tweeters also act as opinion leaders. Depending on the size of the tweeters I do believe that these opinion leaders do have a major effect on populations as newer generations have an even stronger dependence on having their news spoon fed to them.

4) Read this BBC profile of Jamal Edwards. How does Jamal Edwards link to the two-step flow model?

Jamal Edwards is also an opinion leader due to two reasons, his online presence gives him an aura of reliability and legitness, the second reason is his position, he is at a position that many people want to be at, due to this success people who wish to be like him will listen to what he says.

Uses and Gratifications theory

1) For each of the four categories, write about one media text that fits that particular audience use or pleasure. Make sure you explain WHY it fits the category and use images or clips to illustrate your points.

Diversion: 

Lord of the rings:

Lord of the rings is set in a complete fantasy world that viewers get invested and engaged with, this acts as a form of diversion

Personal Relationships:

13 reasons why:

13 reasons why has very relatable and realistic characters, it's also set in a location and contains an atmosphere that helps create nostalgia, these factors help viewers create emotions with the show's characters.

Personal Identity: 

Stranger things are quite similar to 13 reasons when it comes to creating nostalgia, this nostalgia helps to connect with more adult viewers as they see themselves within the characters.

Surveillance: 

 The weather channel is the more direct example of surveillance as it quite literally is just a channel that gives important information.
Dependency theory

1) Do you agree that audiences have become dependent on the media? What evidence or examples can you provide to support your view?

yes, I do believe that audiences have become dependent on the media, in 2018 almost all news is filtered through opinion leaders.

2) How has the growth of new and digital technology in the last 15 years changed people's dependency on the media? Is this a new problem?

These increase on social media intake has led news to be not only more easily available but also more influential. I believe this can be both a poison and antidote to its own issue, while the fake news present can prove dangerous, it can also become a source of truth as a story and have multiple sides brought up due to its easy and vast access to audiences.

3) Reflecting on your own media use, how does your media consumption impact on your emotions? Does the media have an overall positive or negative impact on your health and wellbeing? Why?

defining whether or not the effect social media has on me is positive or negative can be difficult, I believe that social media tends to be positive for me as it helps me maintain a positive attitude and keeps me entertained, that said it could only be positive due to the fact im almost addicted to social media and a loss of social media could have adverse effects on me.

MIGRAIN: October assessment - learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

Grade - C ( 1 mark from B)

Feedback:

WWW: This is a very solid assessment: your knowledge and experience studying media text really comes through. Q2+Q4 are particularly good with detailed and insightful points made.

EBI: You are just off a B grade so you're not too far away from where we want to be but you're not in the top level yet. Written English is a factor: Too many errors for A Level!

- You also lack theory and question focus in Q1 and Q3 (particularly genre). There is clearly an area to revise.

2) Read the mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.

Q1)


3) Read this exemplar response from a previous Year 12 (a strong B grade). Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment. 



4) Did you get any media terminology or theory wrong in the assessment? Make a note of it here for future revision, including theories/terminology that you could have used but didn't.

I did not go through genre as much as i should have, I also forgot to link the theory back to the question for question 3.

5) Identify your strongest question. Why did you do better on this question?

Q4 was my best question as I was quite indepth with my thinking and tried to provide examples and evidence with my points for the question. I do still need to work on making sure I use every theory and also need to improve my written English. 

6) Identify your weakest question. Why did you score lower on this particular task?

My weakest question was question 1, I believe that the reason why it was weak is quite general, I needed to add more theory, sort out my written english, and also structuring the question better would have most likely gotten me an extra mark or two.


7) Re-write your weakest answer in full. Use the mark scheme to identify anticipated content you can add to your response and make sure your typed re-draft is a top-level answer.

Q1: 
The reveal magazine cover uses narrative theory in multiple ways, the theory of equilibrium (todorov) is used, but not in a conventional way: while most texts have an equilibrium before a disequilibrium, this text starts off with a disequilibrium. The disequilibrium in this text is the self-consciousness of Reveals readers along with the reader's lack of knowledge of what's going on with their favorite celebrities. The age demographic for Reveal magazine is most likely middle-aged mothers, the magazine has coverlines that imply within the magazine there are diets that can change your life, this is a direct usage of insecurities that the magazine's readers have about their weight, an issue common with middle-aged women, specifically mothers. This is an instance of insecurities being used to attract readers. The new equilibrium could be the advice of information that the magazine gives to the readers and how it affects the reader. Vladimir propps character theory can also be used to an extent, the heroes would be the figures within the text, the readers would be the victim, the magazine company would be the donor/helper as it provides a medium that connects the figures with the audience.



8) Email your re-written answer (7) to the next person below you on the blog list. Ask them to provide a WWW/EBI response before next Friday and then include this underneath your answer on your blog.