Comparing Newspaper genres

	Tabloid	Mid Market	Broadsheet
Stories covered	‘Someone wants somebody killed’: Hitman ‘hired by Shrien Dewani to kill bride Anni’ tells court of taxi driver phone call – a mix between breaking news, royals and celebrity gossip	Was this the moment Ebola infected its first European victim? Chilling pictures reveal Spanish medical staff cleaning dead priest’s hospital room before nurse was hit by killer disease – breaking news	Battle for Kobani sparks Turkish unrest – all kinds of news
Language style	Restricted, limited vocabulary, for anyone to read, low print to photography, use of primary colours.	A mix between the two	Advanced vocabulary, more detailed, high print to photography, niche audience.
Mode of address	Direct	Indirect and direct	indirect
Colour	Primary colours used	All colours	Basic colours used, black and white.
Type (font)	White or black, Bold, capitals,	White or black, bold	Black, Bold
Text v’s Photography	More photography than text used	A mix between the two	More text used than photography
Epistemology	Subjectivist	Mix between subjectivist and objectivist	Objectivist
Headline Style	Bold, all capital letters/underlined, short and basic	Bold, capital letters, in the middle of the front page	Bold, forms a sentence, sometimes long.
Captions/ Taglines	Short & basic	Not too long, not too short.	Long & advanced notes
Socio-economic status	Less paid people (C2-E)	For all groups (A-E)	High, successful people (A-C1)
Psychographics	Mainstream, struggler, aspirers.	Struggler, mainstream	Succeeders, explorer, reformer, resigned,
Front Cover	Logo of the newspaper is at the top, then advertisement (normally displaying a special offer) then a headline on a news story, either all in capital letters or underlined, most people would be interested in with a picture, page number just after the headline/caption.	Bold, use of capital letters and underlining on heading. Normally a free/special offer advertised.	Logo at the top, there is rarely advertisement used, there’s mostly text and there may be a picture used.

Terminology on Newspapers

Target Audience	The people that a product is aimed out, who you’re aiming towards during making the product.
Media Text	Something that accesses the media, such as: newspapers, magazines, fashion shows, computers/laptops, phones, etc.
Audience Segmentation	Different groups to put the audience in that would appeal to their lifestyle and help in upgrading their products.
Socio-economic status	Groups A-E A being the highest earning group and E being the lowest earning. Group A: Lawyers, doctors, scientists and well paid professionals. Group B: teachers, middle management and fairly well-paid professionals. Group C1: Junior management, bank clerks, nurses and ‘white collar’. Group C2: electronics, plumbers, carpenters, ‘blue collar’. Group D: Manual workers, drivers, post sorters. Group E: Us, students, unemployed, pensioners.
Psychographics	Explorer: people looking for challenges and to be unique Aspirers: people who look for a status (obsessed with image) and love trends. Succeeders: people who look for the best in life, love to be in control. Resigned: usually old people who only look for familiar brands. Seek out security. Reformers: reliable in themselves, intelligent, refuse to be the same and look for entertainment. Mainstream: know all the latest gossip, very interested in any products which are high selling, likely to have a family and are intrigued by special offers, valuing popular brands and seek security to be safe. Struggler: poor people, don’t plan for the future and seek escape from their lives.
Geodemographics	Neighbourhoods that are picked carefully and they take note of their lifestyle and the kinds of TV shows/TV channels.
Mainstream	Popular companies that use all kinds of media text to reach out to their audience and they have a large audience.
Alternative	Opposite of mainstream, they don’t use every media text and they have a small audience
Niche	A small group of audience
Mass	A large group of audience
Quantitative	Collecting your own research with focus groups, questionnaires, surveys.
Qualitative	Collecting information from interviews, discussions, which is based around human behaviour.
Focus Group	A group of people, randomly selected by a company to test out their new product and give feedback before they release their product to everyone else, so that the company can have a rough idea of what kind of audience to reach out to would be best and what improvements to make.
Codes	Codes in media are things used or done in media text to symbolise meaning, for example; Red meaning love, gore, blood, etc.
Conventions	Way of doing something, like the use of interviewee quotes highlighted in articles, for example: the black in bold text which stands out from the rest
Semiotics	Like conventions, they are the way a media text uses sound/colour/language/music and more to for a meaning. ; an owl was used to symbolise wise
Connotation	Looking deeper into the language used and what certain texts mean.
Denotation	What the audience can see on a page, in-front of them, literally.
Epistemology	Objectivist or subjectivist. The way a newspaper will start a certain news story, as there are commonly used news stories; all newspapers need to have a different way to tell the story and not something that’s copied & pasted from another newspaper.
Tabloid	Basic literature for people of all ages, more pictures than text used (low print photography ratio), restricted language. The Sun, The Mirror, etc.
Broadsheet	Advanced terms for older people, more text than pictures, (high print photography ratio) The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, etc.
Mid-Market	In between a tabloid and a broadsheet. The Mail, The express, etc.
Subjectivist Epistemology	Normally in tabloid newspapers, very bias and they post stories from the peoples’ point of view rather than the experts.
Objectivist Epistemology	Normally in broadsheets, and it’s the opposite of subjectivist; where they post the expert’s views whilst using facts & figures to support their views.
Restricted Language	Basic, common, no swearing, language that children would be able to understand and not be offended by.
Elaborated Language	Advanced, not commonly used, language that older people may know the meaning of but younger people may have never heard of.
Alliteration	When the same first letter is used for a few (normally three) words in a row. (“Peter picked the piper”)
Assonance	Like alliteration but the repetition of vowels, similar sounding words (rhyming).
Cliché	A commonly used phrase.

Active audience VS. Passive audience

Active Audiences	Passive Audiences
Think	Not engaging
What they do with media texts, how and why they use them	What does the media do to us?
People who pass on their ideas on the media	People who refuse to pass on their ideas on the media
Freewill, not forced to think or talk about the media, not used by text	Receives information the same way, the way they found something on the media would be how everyone else in this audience found it too
Do something with the media, use text for their own gratitude or pleasure	Change the channel, don’t get involved
Question	Move on with their lives freely
Niche audience	Mass audience
The uses of gratifications model	If they do ever do something within or about the media, it’s not freewill
Later theories	Earlier theories, like hypodermic theory
Customers – people who would donate to charities, get involved within the media	People who are tired of seeing charity adverts, poor people on the street and do nothing about it
Affected by the media, find their own things to do within the media	Not affected, would rather laze around instead of getting involved with the media
Will try to get involved with the media any way they can	People who start to get sick of hearing the same things being in the media, again and again like how Ebola keeps being repeated, some people made Halloween costumes and toys of Ebola.

Violence in the media notes {11/11/14}

Media violence can take many forms, the debate into links between media violence and real life violence is on-going. There have been many studies and experiments into this.
Some texts have been directly linked to real life cases of violence.
There is more violence in the media today, more channels, more choice plus developments in technology mean that is simply more scope for people to consume violence through the media.

“Movies don’t create killers, movies make killers more creative.”
Some say that the mechanism is a psychological one, rooted in the ways we learn.
Third, even those who agree that there is a connection between media violence and aggression disagree about how the one affects the other.
It’s not just young people, it’s also vulnerable.
The research into the subject often leads to conflicting results – some studies indicate there is no link while some indicate there is.
Most of the concerns resolve around children’s exposure to violence as we are more easily influenced when we are young and learn largely by observing behaviour.
The lack of the consensus about the relationship between media violence and the real world aggression has not stopped ongoing research: The fact that we can’t/can agree, doesn’t stop the research.
Research stand: Children who consume high levels of media violence are more likely to be aggressive in the real world.

Cartoons and Comedy
Laval University professors Guy Paquette and Jacques de Guise studied six major Canadian television networks over a seven-year period, examining films, situation comedies, dramatic series, and children’s programming (though not cartoons). The study found that in 1993 and 2001, incidents of physical violence increased by 378 per cent. TV shows 2001 in averaged 40 acts of violence per hour.
However many studies have shown that comedy programmes can be extremely violent but because it’s funny, because it’s a comedy, views are less influenced and affected by it.

The Bobo Doll
Studies were undertaken, there were four groups of children, one who watched a real life man hit and threaten a doll, another who watched a TV show do that, a third watching a cartoon do that and the fourth done nothing, the group who watched a real life man hit and threaten the doll, also inflicted violence on the doll and threatened it, whilst others hugged it, kicked it a bit but didn’t show as much violence as they did or threaten it.

Problems with lab experiments
They are engineered situations
Not reflective or real life
Unethical
Over the years, laboratory experiments such as these have consistently shown that exposure to violence is associated with increased heartbeat, blood pressure and respiration rate and a greater willingness to administer electric shocks to inflict pain or punishment on others.
Peer pressure, they pressured someone to shock someone in a room and the person would pretend to be shocked, only one of the people tested walked out, not shocking the person.

Field (real life) studies
A study conducted by the Kaiser family foundation in 2003 found that nearly half (47 per cent)
of parents with children between the years of 4 and 6 report that their children have imitated aggressive behaviours from TV.
However, children are more likely to mimic positive behaviours – 87 per cent of kids do so.

Music and music videos are pushing into new and increasingly violent territory.
Video games, Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman of lowa state university reviewed dozens of studies in video games, in 2001, they reported that children and young people who play violent video games, even for short periods are more likely to behave aggressively in the real world; and that both aggressive and non-aggressive children are negatively affected by playing.
Problems with video games
they are more interactive and immersive
Children have easy access to violent computer and video games, whether their parents don’t look at the age or other warnings or they borrow them from friends/older siblings.
The entertainment industry aggressively markets violent media.

Film and TV Regulations and Issues
The Watershed
BBFC
Ofcom

Incidents of sexual violence and sadism (inflicting violence for a joke) have increased over the years.
There is a lot of violence, not only inflicted by the bad guys but also the good guys and most end up destroying a lot of the buildings around them.
Less than 10 per cent of violence analysed in TV shows, movies and music videos would only have the excuse of violence being a normal, everyday thing.

Natural Born Killers (film) notes

Natural Born Killers (released on August 26th, 1994) American crime film. Two lovers (Mickey and Mallory) who go on journeys together, they’re psychopathic serial murderers who are hated on the media, always reported but haven’t been caught. Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore and Tommy Lee Jones. Eighth most controversial film of all time by Entertainment. Weekly in 2006. Achieved $61,615,296 in Box office. Written by David Veloz. Clayton Townsend produced the film. Music by Brent Lewis.

The film starts off with the two lovers camping outside in a desert, Mallory has a flashback of how they first met whilst Mickey steals Mallory’s father’s car, and he’s arrested for Grand Theft Auto but manages to escape the prison during a tornado and returns to Mallory’s house. They both kill Mallory’s parents but keep Kevin alive, go on the road together, get “married” celebrating by taking a hostage, as you do. They all have sex, Mallory goes to flirt with a mechanic, they have sex but she kills him when he recognises her as a mass murderer. During this Mickey rapes the hostage, and they continue on their journey…

Loads of death scenes had to be removed so that the Box Office wouldn’t label it as NC-17 death mark. This film was actually used as inspiration for killers, in 1995, Heath High School shooting in 1997, combine shoots in 1999. Colours are used to symbolise feelings in the film, like green lime pie, a green neon at the drugstore, and a green room in the prison were used to show that Mickey is a psycho. Coca-Cola weren’t aware of the product placement and were outraged when the film was released, making them change the way they approved product placements. The Author John Grisham was clearly against the film, and involved in the lawsuit against Stone, he was a personal friend of a store clerk who was shot and paralysed by acid on the floor which was dropped by two 18-year-olds who were watching the film. Grisham contended that, although Sarah and Ben were troubled youths, they “had no history of violence. Their crime spree was totally out of character” for them.

As for the film, itself, Grisham called it “a horrific movie that glamorized casual mayhem and bloodlust. A movie made with the intent of glorifying random murder.” In the riot scene, they used actual prisoners and gave them rubber weapons which apparently made them safe to be around. Stone chose one of the prisoners himself after learning that he was sent to prison for murdering his family with a lead pipe. There are almost no straight shots in the film. NBK’s Director of photography Robert Richardson despised the script and only took the project after being persuaded by Oliver Stone who was a close friend. Once Richardson started working on the project only bad things would follow. The story brought up unpleasant childhood memories which led to insomnia and a dependence on sleeping pills, his wife became ill during filming which nearly led to the couple divorcing, and his brother fell into a coma over the course of shooting.

Darras and Edmondson were standard American brats who loved their hard drugs and their R-rated movies. After their arrest, it was revealed that they had prepared for the trip by dropping acid and screening Natural Born Killers on a continuous loop throughout the night. No film in recent decades has stoked as much controversy as Natural Born Killers. No film-maker, if his critics are to be believed, has quite so much blood on his hands as its director, Oliver Stone. In the eight years since its release, Stone’s picture has been confidently linked to at least eight murders – from Barras and Edmondson’s wild ride, through the Texan kid who decapitated a classmate because he “wanted to be famous, like the natural born killers”, to the pair of Paris students who killed three cops and a taxi driver and were later discovered to have the film’s poster on their bedroom wall. But as the body count mounted, the reaction turned icy. Mario Vargas Llosa publicly cursed the film at the 1994 Venice film festival. David Puttnam (who had previously worked with Stone on 1978’s Midnight Express) labelled it “loathsome”.

In the opinion of the Daily Mail, NBK was simply “evil”. “If ever a film deserved to be banned,” it concluded, “this is it.” Before permitting the release of NBK in 1994, the censors insisted that Stone strip a whopping 150 shots from the film. The new version restores them all, from a loving camera zoom through a bullet-holed hand to a climactic shot of Tommy Lee Jones’s severed head on a stick.

Bibliography
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110632/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Born_Killers http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/08/johnny-cash-warmed-tarantino-to-natural-born-killers-and-other-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-film/ http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/dec/20/artsfeatures1

Audiences Notes {10/11/2014}

audience – a group of people that consume the media, suggests the people who are listening or watching. Everyone is different, may not be intending to watch/listen.
Gender
age
ethnicity
socio-economic status
psychographic profile
and lifestyle: hobbies and social interests.
Active audience: people who do something with the media, their choice to get involved, take readings on what they want to
passive audience: only observe everything

two step flow: in 1955, Katz and Lazarsfeld created the two-step flow, they produced the voting behaviour and the influence of political persuasion upon audience. “I really like this film” would make the person want to find out why they like the film so much. When someone else gives the idea to watch or listen.
Opinion leaders (anyone of importance in your life, teachers, and reviews from people) come first.
Key example: leader of The National Viewers and Listeners association.
A mixture between passive and active audiences.

Uses and gratifications theory
they’re the controllers (users) of the media, not the media using them.
Developed by Blumer and Katz in 1974.

Jeremy Tunstall: The Media In Britain
our consumption of media can be set into three different categories:
Primary: finding the product yourself, give close attention to the media text, rarely get distracted from the screen, people in the cinema.
Secondary: recommendations from someone, often have the media on in the background (music in the background, barely listening), hasn’t got full focus.
Tertiary: magazines, pass it on again to someone else, where a media is present but we’re not aware of it, only when a favourite song brings out attention to it, when it catches our eye.
Medias can switch between the three with people coming in to interrupt something, changing primary to secondary. Phone is main reason for it to change, as they would distract the audience.

Narrowcasting
paying attention to what a niche audience wants and less of what a mass audience does
narrowing down the audience
highest rated shows, tend to be ones on broadcast channel
E4 being a spinoff of Channel 4.

Stuart Hall
dominant – accept the code of text, reproduce a preferred reading (making it more easily understood by you, the code seems natural to us. Example: you watch X Factor because you love it and think it’s a lot of fun
negotiated – go along with the text but feel free to modify for preferred reading example: only watch it for some parts which interest you, pressured to watch the show
oppositional – social position places them opposite the text’s meaning so they reject the text example: don’t think the acts are talented, think it’s all a setup and just don’t believe in the show at all.

Two paragraphs on our own media examples of dominant, negotiated and oppositional
Once Upon a Time (American drama show)
Dominant: Know everything there is to know about the show, become obsessed with it, and watch behind the scenes so they can have an idea of how their favourite show is made.
Know all of the characters and are likely to have favourite character(s). Like to talk about it when they can and recommend it whoever they can. Likely to have watched the latest episode and be up to date with the show. If they saw someone hating on the show, they would defend it.

Unlike negotiated and oppositional, they get involved with the show and go beyond watching just one episode or barely paying attention to it. This show comes first to them and they would rather watch it then find something else to do.

Negotiated: Only half pay attention to the show, doesn’t watch all of the episode(s). They feel pressured to watch the show because of the amount of people they’ve heard go on and on about it.
They’ll only watch the show if they can’t find anything else to do but they would still be doing other things at the same time so they grow bored of the show and end up only watch some of it.

Unlike dominant and oppositional, they wouldn’t know all of the characters or have a favourite. They do like the show and watch some of it but they’re not obsessed with it. They’re not up to date with the series, they’ve probably barely even started with season one or watched one random episode and because they haven’t seen all of the episodes, they found it confusing.

Oppositional: Someone who doesn’t like the show, think the idea of the storyline with fairy tales coming to life is dumb. Refuse to read or listen to reviews of the show, and only believe their own thoughts of the show which would be: there being too many cliff-hangers to lure people in, every one of the characters are from a storybook, and they’re known as popular fairy tales but two characters are excluded from that and they would think that’s silly. How the characters are different from the fairy tales they’ve come from, they would believe that they need to be more like those characters in the book. Likely to be the person (hater) who is always hating on the show to people.

Unlike dominant and negotiated, they hate the show and refuse to watch it or believe any positive reviews about it, only having belief in their own negative opinions on the show.
They won’t watch it because everyone is talking about it and believe that the show doesn’t deserve the hype about it. Given up on giving the show another chance to please them, they believe the show is a waste of time.

Film Review – Scott Pilgrim VS. The World 2010

Film Review – “Scott Pilgrim V.S. the World” 2010
Known as one of the best comic adaptations to boys worldwide. An adaptation of the graphic comics that Bryan Lee O’Malley has written six volumes on, all put into one film which seems like a video game. Where the main character (Scott) collects coins, levels up whilst defeating bad guys, to impress the damsel. It’s the typical storyline where the guy goes after the girl; but there is a/are bad guy(s) who stop him from going after her. There is constantly someone or something that stops Scott (the good guy going after the girl) from being with Ramona (a modern damsel that’s trying to get away from her exes) which reminds me of the first few Super Mario video games (where Mario had to save Princess Peach from Bowser, multiple times). Although this time, the hero isn’t wearing a plumber’s uniform, and the girl he’s saving, isn’t a princess, but this isn’t the only difference to the typical storyline…

Target audience
Stereotypically, this film would be most suited for white, 13-16 years old teenage boys who love to read comic books and play video games on a daily basis; so they would’ve read/heard about Scott Pilgrim. The kind of people who go to events like comic-con, they would need the money to get tickets to these events, as well as money to buy merchandise for their favourite comical merchandise; which would class them in classes D-E. I don’t find this the best target audience, because the audience would be expected to have at least heard of the story before, but it’s impossible for everyone to have read those six volumes. However, this film does incorporate what they need from those books, and doesn’t confuse the viewers by going too fast pace, or leaving out details that helped the books make sense; of the world they were creating. It stops us from having to say “I haven’t read any of Bryan O’Malley’s work and I’ll need to read his comics on Scott Pilgrim to make sense of this bloody film.”

Mise-en-scene
There is a modern-day surroundings used which makes us believe that it’s just a normal film, but then they use traits of video games (“Mortal Kombat” being a main aspect) to step away from our normal world, the last thing we need is another “big brother”; where they try to make us appreciate that we don’t have cameras watching our every move. Instead, this is one of those films where we wish our world could be like that, without taking note of the fact that most of us wouldn’t be able to survive in those situations. Don’t we just love these kind of films?

There’s a love sword which Scott gains by confessing his love, and there’s also a sword of self-respect when he claims to fight for himself. The sword of self-respect turns out to be more powerful which teaches us that self-respect comes before love, like the old saying “love yourself before another”, how cliché. I like that they’ve shown Scott breaking away from being the hero who only cares about his love, instead we get to see him be who he is; and that the world isn’t collapsing, just because his girl was stolen. Unlike the usual video games, they don’t wear a superhero costume; they wear normal, casual (t-shirt and jeans) clothes, it signifies that they are from this time period, modern day, and it’s not a film where they fail miserably at showing that the film is set in the past, because of a clothing item being out of place.

Casual clothing is used to empathise that Scott isn’t a superhero, he is just like us, as well as the rest of the characters. We are no different to them. The film goes to show that a normal guy can save a girl, as well as having self respect. I thought all the actors done a good job, even though Scott’s mumbling was annoying, there was still a reason behind why he mumbled so often in the film, which I suppose made it a little less annoying. This being any normal reason why we would mumble (low confidence and self esteem).

As Michael Cera plays Scott, I thought he done a good job as being a normal guy; but happen to have a life similar to the video games we play at home. As the film progresses, we see Scott getting closer and closer to the girl, whilst she starts to break away from ‘the pushing people away’ phase; this is how the film shows its romantic side, by focusing on them, and showing how their relationship grows. Sorry boys and girls, but this is going to be another film where there’s a perfect relationship and they both love each other to pieces. There’s this cool scene where a guy known as ‘the talent’ talks over the music, where we can still hear the music but we can also hear him talking, which is hard to do with rock music. You’ll have to see the film to see how they do this, but it’s used to represent how good the band is, and that they’re scared they won’t be able to beat them.

Technical Codes
Thankfully, this isn’t another “Transformers 3” where the film is too fast, with too many explosions and it makes no sense, whatsoever. In the love side of this film, it sets a mood of the day being fast paced whilst the nights are slow, because he can’t stop dreaming about the girl. When the camera follows Scott’s life (tracking shot), and it’s in a normal pace, it gives a sense of realism, as well with what the characters wear (casual style).

Framing is used the way it should be, but also the way it’s expected to be used; the screen frames on the character that’s about to attack another character. Camera angles are used in the typical way where a low angle makes the character look powerful and a high angle is used for the opposite of this. Continuity editing is used, I mean don’t you just hate it when fights are dragged on for an entire episode, or there are just fights, one after another shown, you’ll be glad to know that this film doesn’t do that. The film succeeded to present the idea that Bryan O’Malley first had when he wrote Scott Pilgrim.

The film has a way of contradicting itself (juxtaposition) by making a normal person fight bad guys. When Scott collects coins; there is a “ding” noise (like you would normally hear in video games) and this is how the film uses non-diegetic sound. The soundtrack (which features a cover of the Rolling Stones’ hit song, “Under my Thumb”) is mostly used for diegetic sound; when we can see the bands playing. The lighting is natural which helps to add a sense of realism to the film, instead of one of those shows where they brighten the shots to make the stars look glamorous, it looks normal, and we’re able to see if they have any small beauty spots. The damsel changes her hair colour as Scott starts to learn more about her personality.

Pink can symbolise physical weakness; which means that she felt weak about letting guys into her life and being hurt, over and over again. This can suggest to the audience that she’s just like any one of us; she hides her feelings and pushes people away without letting them know her true feelings.

Blue can show trustworthy, alive, balance and faith. Which means she was starting to gain trust for Scott, she feels safe with him, and she’s starting to feel confident that this relationship won’t end badly… She has faith that Scott will defeat them.

Green shows envy, jealousy and evil. This can symbolise that this is the moment where one of the evil guys started to mind-wash her. He felt jealous of her relationship with Scott and he wanted to separate them so he could have her for himself. Or she could be just one of those girls who loves to dye their hair all the time, and doesn’t do it for a certain reason, but just for a change.

Narrative
Just before a battle is about to begin, the shot frames on the bad guy, and then Scott; this is also used in video games. Using a linear narrative so it doesn’t give the audience a headache by going back and forth, and in case we get bored of the main character, the film uses multi-strand narrative.

Just to annoy us, I’m afraid to say that this film has an open and closed ending in different perspectives. There could be a sequel to this film; as they use a “continue” countdown at the top of the screen. However, there is also the happy couple walking to a distant door which could be happy-ever-after.

This film has a creative way of going back to the comics that helped this film become what it is, in the way it uses flashbacks; there are comic drawings of what happened used, whilst a girl explains what she remembers from her point of view. Leaving us to wonder whether Scott will be able to defeat them or if she’ll ever get away from them. Focusing on love by showing the relationship between Scott and his girl, and how it develops, how soppy. Don’t worry, this isn’t all that the film focuses on, it also focuses on revenge; Scott gets revenge on the bad guys by defeating them for taking his girl away from him. This suggests that the film’s genres are romance, comedy and action. These are the same genres that the comic books of Scott Pilgrim contain, which may make the audience want to read the comic books.

Genre
Action, Comedy and Romance. Action would make us assume that there has to be (a) good guy(s) and bad guys that go to battle with one another, so that they would be able to gain what was taken; in this case, it would be Scott gaining his girl back. In romance, we would expect to see A LOT of kissing but thankfully, the film doesn’t involve a lot of this. Otherwise the film rating (12A) would be higher. We would expect to see all sorts of jokes used within comedy; so that they’re able to make anyone with a funny bone laugh, this film doesn’t go by this stereotype, and instead it uses immature humour; to appeal to their main target audience (13-16 years old boys). I find it selfish of them to only aim towards the target audience, but it is hard to make a film that everyone will love.

Production values/stars
The budget for this film was $60,000,000. This tells us that it was done very professionally, it will mostly be shown in the United States and Canada because that’s where it was filmed. It will appeal to families with 12 or older sons/daughters. The soundtrack was written by: Nigel Godwich and produced by: Edgar Wright, Marc Platt and Nigel Godrich. Nigel is known for being a producer of “Radiohead”, whilst Edgar is known for “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), “Hot Fuzz” (2007), and more. Marc Platt is known for “Legally Blonde” (2001), “Wanted” (2008) and many more. The main character is Scott Pilgrim, who is played by Michael Cera who has also been in films, such as: “Juno” (2007), “Superbad” (2007), and more. I haven’t seen Michael in any previous films which makes it hard to make an assumption on him as an actor, but with his performance in this movie, I can assume that he’s not that different to Scott; underneath a famous actor, he is just like us, and hopefully he isn’t stuck up.

Representation
Scott is known as a guy who can be immature, and he mumbles around people he’s not confident about; people who make him feel like he’s out of their league and he shouldn’t even be talking to them, the tone of his voice on the first moments he spent around her is when this was shown, he talked quietly and mumbled. This is how most people would act when they try to talk to someone that’s out of their league, which makes it relatable. When I first saw pictures for this film, I assumed that it must include a geek (Scott), and when I saw pictures of Roxy (one of the bad guys) I knew that this film must have been created for men’s entertainment, or by men. After I saw the film, I found out that Scott isn’t a geek, and the film isn’t just what men would like to watch, but there’s much more to the plot. When Scott has his girl taken away from him, we are positioned to feel sorry for the poor guy. Overall, this film isn’t one of my favourites, but it was worth a watch to see why boys were so interested in this film. It’s not one of those films with un-deserved hype.

Understanding the Creative Media Sector media terminology

 

Define Public Service Media (use a good research source or the media dictionaries): Public service media: a company that is publicly owned. Public service media is companies such as: BBC that are paid by the public to develop their channels. It’s illegal to not have a TV licence, this is how the BBC is paid by the public, and they’re also paid for their radio channels via radio licence. There are no advertisements in-between the programmes to help viewers enjoy their programmes more, without an annoying break every 5 minutes, but to do this, they are paid by the government and the public (by TV licence) to make the shows they produce. If a programme isn’t doing so well on viewers, then they have to cancel it.

The BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster: (Discuss this in a sentence) BBC is paid by the public and the government, to go further in their products, we give them money to be able to make developments to their current programmes. They use this money to make more shows for us to enjoy, without advertisements in-between.

 

Define what a conglomerate is: a conglomerate is a big company, like Disney, News corp, Sky, etc. They’ve taken over smaller companies to become bigger, and earn more money. Conglomerate’s basic meaning is made up of different parts (smaller companies). Conglomerates can control: what they want to show, how they want to promote it and which outlet they want to put it through.

Disney Group is a conglomerate: (Discuss this in a sentence) Disney is a conglomerate because they are one of the biggest companies in the world. With the amount of power they process, they can control the world. Conglomerate meaning a company that has taken over loads of other companies to make more money, and widen their audience.

 

Define vertical and horizontal integration: Vertical integration: Where a company takes over a company which is in a different stage to them. EG: Newspapers taking over a printing company so that they would be able to print their newspapers faster, or a film store taking over a rental store. Horizontal integration: When a company takes over another company in the same stage as them. EG: Sony taking over Nokia, they’re both phone companies and Sony took over Nokia to earn more money.

Include vertical and horizontal in a sentence: Vertical integration is where a company takes over another company that could be in a higher or lower stage (earning more or less money) to what they are. Horizontal integration is when a company takes over another company which is on the same level to them; companies do this to join together and earn more money.

 

Define private ownership in the media: Owning a company privately, an example of this would be MTV; they are allowed to show advertisements; because this is how they earn money to make more shows.

Include private ownership in a sentence: Ideal for smaller companies, so that they can earn more money through advertisements they allow to be shown through their products.

 

Define what licences and franchises in the media are: Licenses is when there is a licence protecting an original idea, like how Primark have to pay Disney to have the right to make Frozen clothing. However, some won’t be able to afford to pay for the rights, which is why we always see those small warnings at the bottom of those promotion adverts which say “*only available in certain stores”. Franchises is a collection of media whereby intellectual property is licenced from an original work of media, such as: a film, a TV programme or a video game to other parties or partners for commercial exploitation. A transmedia franchise or multimedia franchise is a type of media franchise that consists of cross-marketing across more than one medium.

Include both licences and franchises in a sentence: Licences is when other companies have to pay the original company that came up with the idea (EX: paying Disney for the rights to make “Frozen” clothes) for the right to use their logo/products to make more merchandise. Franchise is when merchandise for a certain product is made by another company, that’s not made the same company who made the product in the first place. This can be when Primark make clothes including “Frozen” pictures, which they would have to pay Disney to have the right to use.

Define what cross-media marketing is: Cross advertising – When companies use different platforms to advertise on, this includes: TV, internet, radio, direct mail, magazines and newspapers. It could be when one company advertises one of their products over another channel, owned by the same company. Cross promotion – Companies start to use special offers to intrigue people into entering a competition and possibly winning. They do this by having advertisements on their products which will make people want to find out how to win. Cross production – Making more than one type of product, within the same theme.

Find an example of cross-media marketing in the media: Example of cross advertising: When “Dancing with the Stars” is advertised on ABC to gain more viewers for the show, through another channel owned by Disney. Cross promotion: When McDonalds used monopoly stickers on particular drinks they sold, and if you collected a whole set you would win a prize of up to £500,000 Cross production: Think about how many different “Frozen” Disney products there are: calendars, bed sheets, dolls, clothing, and many more.

 

Explain what different sources of income are for a media industry – (how advertising, film makes its money) of your choice: Advertising makes money by broadening how far they can get out to people. The more popular a website becomes, the more advertisers would ask to advertise on the page, and then the advertiser would be paid by companies who are interested in getting their products/companies promoted.

Disney make a lot of income from their film-making arm. How much income did Disney make from ‘Frozen’? Find out the cost of the film, then how much it made at the box office. Deduct the cost of the film from the box office figure to find out how much Disney made from the film. Frozen’s budget was $150 million, they’ve made $1.274 billion in box offices. $1.274 billion  –   $150 million $1,124,000,000 Disney has made $1,124,000,000 (£716,257,760) from the film “Frozen”.

Bibliography
Public service media- http://www.theguardian.com/media/public-service-broadcasting
Dictionary definition – the business of supplying an essential commodity, as gas or electricity, or a service, as transportation, to the general public.
Private Service media – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privately-owned.asp
Dictionary definition – belonging to some particular person: “private property.”
Conglomerate dictionary definition – A thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together: ‘the Earth is a specialized conglomerate of organisms’
Vertical integration – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/verticalintegration.asp
Dictionary meaning – the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.
Horizontal integration – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/horizontalintegration.asp
Dictionary meaning – (economics) the integrating of identical stages in the production or marketing process under the ownership or control of a single management organization
Licence example – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windowsmedia-licensing
Dictionary definition – Authorize the use, performance, or release of (something): ‘the company expect that the drug will soon be licensed for use in the USA’
Franchise – http://www.investorwords.com/2078/franchise.html
Cross Media Marketing; cross advertising Dictionary definition – Advertising in all media including radio, TV, direct mail, magazines, newspapers and the Web.
Cross promotion dictionary definition – the cooperative marketing by two or more companies of one another’s products.
Cross production – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product
“Frozen” budget – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_(2013_film)
Earnings from box office – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/

Research on Video Games changing over 10 years

Changes Over Time	Technology Development (Latest version)	Impact	Example Company	Ownership	Company Structure
Better graphics.	Advanced technology.	Bigger fan-base Video games have become more realistic to make it seem like the players have transported to a whole new world, and it doesn’t seem too much like a fantasy.	Sony (PlayStation).	Founders: Masaru Ibuka & Akio Morita. Private ownership. Sony is a conglomerate. Also own: Sony Pictures Entertainment; Sony Music Entertainment; Sony Online; Entertainment Sony/ATV Music Publishing.	Graphic designers, writers, scriptwriters, external producer, assistant producer, creative director. Audio engineer, soundtrack artist(s), game developers, animator, games artist, lead artist Game programmer, lead programmer, level editor, technical artist                          QA Tester Publisher, marketing executive, marketing manager, product manager, project manager, public relations officer. The players.
Consoles. First console was a Brown Box.	Better materials to make the consoles. Latest console is PS4 (2013).	Most families will have at least one console. More storage to hold more games.		Founder: Fusajiro Yamauchi. Private ownership. Nintendo is a conglomerate. Also own: 1-Up Studio; Creatures Inc; iQue; Monolith Soft; NSD Cube; NERD; NSD; NTS; NTD; Retro Studios; Warpstar.
2D to 3D.	More programming for game developers.	Better graphics, seems like you’re inside the game, better experience for the players.	Sega	Founders: Martin Bromely Irving Bromberg James Humpert David Rosen. Private ownership. Sega is a conglomerate. Also own: The Creative Assembly; Relic Entertainment; Sports Interactive Atlus Index Corporation; Three Rings Design.
More handheld games.	Portable, chargeable batteries.	Players can take their handheld games on holiday without using up the whole suitcase for the different plugs.	Square Enix	Founded in 1975 as Enix, was later founded in 1986 as Square Co, and then in 2003; it was founded as Square Enix. Founder: Yasuhiro Fukushima. Public ownership. Square Enix is not a conglomerate. Also own: Square Enix Group; Taito Group; Square Enix Europe; Eidos Group; Shinra Technologies Inc.
Speakers to headsets.	Microphones and headphones.	Able to talk with people online whilst playing games together.	Capcom	Founded in 1979 as Japan Capsule Computers Public ownership. Capcom is a conglomerate. Also own: Capcom Co. Ltd.; Capcom USA Inc; Capcom Entertainment Inc; Beeline Interactive Inc.

Bibliography
Graphics in video games improving – http://sploid.gizmodo.com/heres-how-much-video-game-graphics-have-improved-over-1459079161
Job roles in video games – http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/games/job_roles
Private or public ownership – http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/162.asp
Capcom – http://www.capcom.com/
Square Enix Games – http://na.square-enix.com/us/home

Changes to film over 10 years – Time Warner VS. Disney

The effects of globalisation

• Walt Disney; more Disney Parks, so that more families are able to experience the magic that is Disney. Disney films are loved worldwide by families everywhere there’s a cinema nearby, and with the films being in more cinemas, the more people are able to see the film.
• Time Warner; known as the company who helped make the magic of Harry Potter be recreated from the stories. Appeals to an older audience, even though they’ve made films such as “Space Jam” which features the Looney Toons, that is the closest they’ve come to animation, which might make it confusing for small children. They’re also known for “I am Legend”, which is for 13 years and older. With the film being a thriller, they’re able to appeal to teenagers/older for a film to make them jump out of their seats. Which is why more and more cinemas are accepting of their films, so that more people can jump out of their seats.Timeline
  
  • 2005 was when Disney made the first computer animation in all 3D formats. Audiences stopped being interested in War and Drama films, it’s all about fantasy and finding a better life in another world now.
  • 2006 was when the first CGI short movie was completely open-source, it was different to other animation movies because 3D models were used.

  Super heroes are staring to find the bad guys as themselves, making them seem more like us.

  • 2007‘s highest grossing film was “Pirates of the Caribbean; At World’s End” with $968, 420, 425. Directors no longer need a big number of actors for different parts, they can just use costumes and a different voice and problem solved. Just look at how many different characters Johnny Depp has played over the years.
  • 2008′s highest grossing film was “Dark Knight” with $997,000,000. Big trends at the Box Offices can no longer be bought by famous actors. Even Johnny Depp couldn’t make a trend happen, the girls have stopped falling at his feet and the film “Public Enemies” was no success, have you even heard of that film?
  • 2009 was when the first movie to use realistic animation 3D characters came out, it was improved by James Cameron (director) Twitter can be both a disadvantage and advantage to films, “Paranormal Activity” used Twitter to its advantage to advertise the film, make people go see it in cinemas. However “Bruno” had a lot of bad reviews of the film over twitter, which only stopped people going to see the film. Big names in film no longer matter, just look at how much of a hit “The Hangover” was and yet, none of the star roles were played by big hit celebrities.
  • 2010 was a great year for animation and Disney, they made one billion dollars with “Toy Story 3“ ($1.06 billion), this was the first time a movie had ever made over a billion in box offices. Other animated films came just after with Tim Burton’s recreation of “Alice in Wonderland” earning 1.02 billion.
  • 2011; But Warner Brothers won’t let Disney hold that title for long, because soon after, they earned $1,341,511,219 in box offices for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2“. There isn’t a difference to many movie posters, they’ve all started using the same concept of a close-up.
  • 2012; was when Disney chose to remake famous classics like “The Beauty and the Beast” in 3D. Paramount Pictures & Universal Pictures celebrated 100 years, whilst James Bond celebrated 50 years, with their 23rd film “Skyfall“. This goes to show that spies are starting to become cool again, so has archery (with “Brave” and Katniss Everdeen in “Hunger Games”. It’s starting to become the good guy’s plan of getting caught and then defeating the bad guy as a master plan.
  • 2013; Other conglomerates wanted to bring out classic films in 3D and IMAX as will, this includes “The Wizard of Oz” , “Jurassic Park” and “Top Gun” .The highest grossing film of 2013 was Frozen, which there is still hype about today. It made $1,274,219,009.

2014
Putting movies into IMAX has only come around recently, but IMAX theatres have been around for years.
Movie trends; Interstellar, (somehow) Frozen (is still popular), Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lone Ranger, Gone Girl, Noah, Neighbors, The Interview, The Maze Runner, Divergent.
Popular sequels this year: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hunger Games; Mockingjay pt. 1, 22 Jump Street, How to Train your Dragon 2, The Hobbit: There and Back again (final), Dumb and Dumber To.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” was the highest grossing film, it made $1,087,404,499. This made it the 19th film to make over a billion in box offices, so far. Now we are able to watch films on the go, on our tablet/phone just by using an app (Amazon Prime Instant Video, Netflix, Love Film, Hulu, and many more). If we don’t want to pay for a monthly subscription, we can do some snooping online and find a live stream or a website of the latest shows/movies so we wouldn’t have to wait for them to be available to us, it’s no longer just Americans having all the fun.

On other news, Sony Pictures scraped their idea of releasing “The Interview” due to North Korea watchers finding it too offensive, and I wouldn’t blame them when the film ends with their president being burned alive…Not their best idea of comedy.

2015
Marvel has a lot of pressure on them this year to make a sequel to one of their biggest successes, Avengers. Making it the highest grossing superhero film, ever…But how will the second one do?
Disney still thinks everybody loves “Pirates of the Caribbean, and yes you’ve guessed it, they’re making ANOTHER sequel. Sounds like someone can’t get enough of Johnny Depp, until they’ve dragged a film series on for as long as they can.

Lionsgate may have some sympathy for Marvel, as they also have to make another hit sequel to keep their fan base happy and expanding. With the first Hunger Games outselling Twilight, hopefully we haven’t set our expectations too high for the end to this film series.

“Finding Nemo” – Yes it’s been almost 12 years since the first and they’re FINALLY making a sequel. First of all what took them so long? Secondly, will they make it worth the wait? Disney and Pixar are known for their amazing films, but with “Finding Dory”, they’ve been more keen to other animations and leaving this one till the last minute. Hence why there’s only “2015” on the movie posters, and no specific date.

After Disney bought “Star Wars” and have agreed to make the final trilogy together. Fans are both thrilled and outraged to hear this news – Disney fans can’t wait for them to bring out a bigger variety on their films and what way they would now lead “Star Wars” in. However, “Star Wars” fans aren’t so thrilled because they don’t want a Woody and Buzz to take over their favourite film series, and possibly change everything for the worse.

Media conglomerates

Concentration of Ownership; Disney
Market worth: 95.50 billion dollars (£61485569225.00)

• Founded in 1923.
• When Walt Disney died in 1966, his son-in-law, (Roy Disney) husband of daughter (Diane Marie Disney) took over the company, and when Roy died in 1971, Michael Eiasner took over. Walt’s son in law, Ronald W.Miller ran the company in-between.
• The Walt Disney Company is the first largest media conglomerate in the US, whilst Time Warner comes as third.
• In 2004, Disney acquired the ownership of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House
• 2005; Walt Disney Parks and Resorts releases Adventures by Disney, a Disneyland in Hong Kong opens, Robert A. Iger became president and chief executive officer, Disney was first to license TV episodes from ABC and Disney Channel series which could be downloaded on Apple iTunes store
• 2006; Disney bought the ownership of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Universal, “High School Musical” became the first full movie which was able to buy by digital download; Apple iTunes Store. Disneyland had its two billionth visitor, they owned the rights to Pixar, all their films were now available on iTunes.
• 2007; Club Penguin (a online virtual world for children) was launched
• 2009; Disney XD, a new channel of theirs was released, an official Disney Fanclub launched online, Disneynature released Earth. Marvel Entertainment was now owned by Disney.
• 2011; Disney Dream set sail. Broke land on Shanghai Disney Resort, a Disney Resort & Spa opened in Hawaii.
• 2012; Disney Junior was now available to watch in the US, Disney Fantasy set sail, and now they own the rights to Lucasfilm ltd. LLC (creator of Star Wars)
• The Walt Disney Company works as five primary units and segments: The Walt Disney Studios, including the company’s film, recording label, theatrical divisions; Parks & resorts, this features their cruise line, theme parks. Disney Consumer Products, they produce toys, clothing and other merchandising items based upon Disney-owned properties; Media Networks, this includes the company’s television properties, as well as Disney Interactive: includes Disney’s mobile, internet, social media, virtual worlds and computer games operations

Concentration of Ownership; Time Warner
Market worth: 72.38 billion dollars (£46588569689.20)

• Founded in 1990, Google and Time Warner are publicly traded companies, which could make you a part owner, as well if you purchase stock in either company
• 1920 – Time Magazine started.
• 1963 – with their research of the better ways to deliver magazines, an introduction to ZIP codes was made
• 1970-1980 – holding company for Warner Bros. Pictures & Warner Music Group
• 1972 – Kinney National Company was able to clean up financial scandal
• Owned by DC comics and Mad
• 1975 – Home Box Office was the first TV channel to broadcast nationally by satellite. Warner expanded to form a venture with American Express (it was named Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment)
• 1976 – Turner owned WTCG made the “superstition” concept
• 1978 – Warner’s efforts led by Charles A. Agemian were refused by William A. Conway, however a transaction was soon accepted in 1980
• 1979 – Nickelodeon TV network was launched
• 1979 – WTCG was renamed to WTBS
• 1981 – MTV channel was launched
• 1984 – Warner bought half of American Express and later sold it to Viacom, and they renamed it MTV networks
• 2000 – AOL purchased Time Warner for 164 billion dollars, the deal was that they own 55% whilst Time Warner shareholders still hold 45%
• 2005 – among 53 entities that donated about $250,000 to the second president, George W. Bush
• 2007 – plans of making a Time Warner cable, to sell Time Inc. and AOL off
• 2009 – Time Warner announced to make AOL a spin-off independent company
• 2010 – Time Warner made a 14-year agreement with Turner Sports Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), they will be able to manage NCAA’s portfolio and increase coverage of all 88 NCAA championships
• 2011 – Time Warner joined forces with Flixster
• 2012 – Home Box Office and DISH Network LLC made an agreement which will give DISH customers more access to HBO’s acclaimed programming, Paramount Home Media Distribution gave Warner Bros. the right for Blu-ray discs in the US, for seven movies from Paramount in the US and Canada.
• 2014 – 21st century FOX bided for Time Warner’s $85 per share in stock and cash ($80 billion total), however Time Warner’s board of directors turned it down in July. On August, FOX with drew their offer to buy Time WarnerThe concept of monopolies and oligopolies
  
  • Monopolies: you may of heard of the popular board game “monopoly”, which tears families apart; by someone owning the most properties and making others pay, just to walk by. The idea of a monopoly in media isn’t that different, when a company owns 25% or more of a market, they can be considered a monopoly. However, like the game monopoly can take eons to finish, monopolies are rare, considering they’re not allowed to become one if their idea isn’t their own. An example of an monopoly would be Apple, because Steve Jobs created iPhones and they can’t be copied.
  • Oligopolies: when companies control an area of business, these are more common than monopolies, and we visit them daily. Example: Supermarkets, such as Asda, Morrison’s, Tesco, and the list goes on.
  • With cable, there is no monopoly, only oligopoly; because every bit of cable is owned by BT, who are normally the ones fixing the cable.

  Bibliography
  

  • Movie trends – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/movie-preview-2014_n_4574656.html
  • What has changed over the years? – http://movies.about.com/od/movienews/tp/movie-trends.htm
  • 2006 in films – http://www.mtv.com/news/1546151/dark-heroes-celebrity-nosedives-the-best-movie-trends-of-2006/
  • TIME magazine top 10 – http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2011254,00.html
  • 2011 films – http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/check-this-out-hollywoods-most-common-trends-in-movies-posters/
  • MTV Movie blog of 2012 – http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/12/13/the-movie-trends-of-2012/
  • 2015 in film – https://boxofficefrontier.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/will-2015-be-the-biggest-year-for-movies-so-far/
  • Disney bought “Star Wars”, why? – http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-07/how-disney-bought-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars