June Mock Revision - Q2

Component 1B

Question: Explore the ways in which production, distribution and circulation have shaped the newspapers you have studied. Make reference to The Daily Mirror and The Times. [15]

• James Curran & Jean Seaton 
• Conglomeration
• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power. Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality. More social diverse patterns of ownership can create more varied and adventurous media productions.

• Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
• Regulation
• 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.

• David Hesmondhalgh
• The Cultural Industries
• Media producers try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration, and by formatting their cultural products (eg. through the use of stars, genres and serials)

Trinity Mirror owns Daily Mail and recently has been rebranded as 'Reach'.

• Production
• The process of making a media product. Every industry has its own forms of production.

• Distribution
• The process of making a media product available to audiences so that they can consume it, which includes aspects of marketing such as creating an advertising campaign.

• Circulation
• A count of how many copies of a media product are distributed. This can include physical distribution and subscription.

Daily Mirror is a tabloid and The Times is a broadsheet, the main difference between the two is the size of the newspapers, tabloids are more popular than broadsheets.

Broadsheets are easier to understand with middle class citizens, as the broadsheets used jargon and assumes the audience will understand the current events and the 'slang' used as it is more of a formal upper class speech.

Daily Mirror costs 50p

The Times costs £1

The price difference between the tabloid and broadsheet is double, so more middle class citizens would buy The Times due to cultural capital.

Daily Mirror is left-wing and follows the labour party.

The Times is right-wing and follows the conservative party and is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

• Technological Change
• Newspapers circulation is decreasing as more news is becoming available for free on websites so everyone is viewing the news for free on websites rather than going out and buying a newspaper.

Print-Based Media vs Online Media

• Print Based Media
• Disadvantages
• Inconvenient, have to leave your house.
• Generational issue (new generation isn't buying print based media)
• Can only see one opinion
• Advantages
• Can be seen anywhere, no battery no wifi.
• Employs much more people than Online Media.

• Online Media
• Disadvantages
• Need internet to read.
• People get made redundant as they dont need as many people.
• Advantages
• Can see many opinions in the comments section of a post.
• Allows newspaper producers to target people who do not normally buy newspapers.

IPSO regulate the newspapers, IPSO is not fit for purpose, and they can twist the rules and get away with it especially when it comes to online media. The comment section will not be regulated as citizens will use offensive comments that are discriminating others, yet they will get away with it as it is all online.

15 MARKS

Magzine 1 - Lesson 6

To what extent is Woman magazine examples of specialised and institutionalised media productions? Make reference to their distribution and circulation.

• Magazines are specialised as they target an extremely specific audience so specialised advertisers can have their product advertised to their exact target audience so they may pay a premium.

• Woman magazine is casual and friendly so it is an institution.

• IPC is a large mainstream organisation. It is part of a conglomeration.

• Other IPC titles include Rugby World, World Soccer, Angler's Mail and Family Circle.

Key Theory - Curran and Seaton - Power and Media Industries

• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power.

• Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality.

• More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create more varies and adventurous media productions.

Woman Relaunch Advert 1985

• Still about cooking and women in the kitchen 'high street cookery competition', so they haven't exactly changed their ideologies as there is still a focus on the kitchen.

• The model looks like she's more dressed up and she's going out.

• The masthead has changed, the font has completely changed was naive now its full on and it seems informal but a more gossipy mode of address.

• The competition with 4 cars, if this was in the 1960's then the idea of a women driving would not exist whereas in the 1980's its not anything much different.

• The audience is still working class so not much has changed at all, due to the clothing they've used to advertise.

• 'exciting again' shows that the 1964 edition wasn't as good and it went really downhill but now its back and its exciting again.

Promotional material from Time Inc UK's profile page for woman.

• This is selling audiences, the advertisers which would be interested in woman magazine would be the market of fitness/diet.

• The brand identity is much more different now.

Regulation of Magazines

• IPSO - Independent Press Standards Organisations

• IPSO regulating the stories and editorial content.

• By todays standards Woman would probably break IPSO's rule of discrimination as they are discriminating women by cultivating ideologies into others heads about the way that women are. 

• Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) regulates adverts.

Revising the Industry Theories

Revising the Industry Theories

• Power and Media Industries - Curran and Seaton
• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and domination.

• Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
• Transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media restrictions at risk.

• Cultural Industries - David Hesmondhalgh
• Companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.

• Cultural Capital
• The cultural resources of an individual.
• Form of hegemony.
• For example; knowledge, qualifications, art, customs and tastes.

How does the Daily Mirror speak to it's working class audience?

• The sans serif font is a typically informal font and appeals to more a working class audience.

• There is not a lot of text to read, it is mainly photo's which appeals to the working class audience as they're less highly educated readers, also they would probably lose interest quite quickly so by not having a lot of text makes it easier for them to keep focused on the story and engage with it.

• The type of writing is at GCSE level.

• The mode of address is direct, so makes the working class feel more popular.

• 'and what it means for you' - they may be unsure on politics but by telling them exactly what it means for them makes them feel more knowledgeable.

• If you tell someone they're stupid this will completely change the way in which someone sees themselves and see themselves in society.

• Using a restricted lexis is a form of control and anchorage, to keep the same audience buying their newspapers.

Key Theory - 'End of Audience' Theory - Clay Shirky

• Audiences are no longer passive: they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways.

Introduction To The Film Industry

Introduction To The Film Industry

The purpose of a media product is purely to make money because if it didn't make money then the media products can't exist. Its also to entertain people but only because they want money. Media products can also enrich our lives. Media Products can also exist to influence the ideologies of the audience, but it all comes down to money, we need to be cynical when thinking about it.

Interesting facts on the birth of film;

• First film was to settle a scientific debate, made by Eadweard Muybridge in1878.
• Films in the 1890's were under a minute long.
• Sound wasn't introduced until 1927, the first film with sound was the Jazz Singer.
• Music was usually played live.
• The first film studio was built in 1987.
• Most early films and productions were ran by women as it was seen as a women's job, as its like arts and crafts, then it became profitable so men started getting involved it and now it is a pretty male dominated career.

• Classical Hollywood Narrative

• Spacial Continuity
• The audience always knows where they are at any time

• Temporal Continuity
• The audience always knows in what order the events have transpired, and any flashbacks and so forth will be clearly signposted.

• Realistic 
• Must be realistic and must not make reference to other filmic or popular texts.

• Ultimately, barring any deliberate enigmas, the spectator should be aware what is happening at all times, and should leave the cinema satisfied with the conclusion, and there should be no doubt as to the ideology or message of the film.

Key Words;

• Studio System
• 
  
• Distribution
• Getting the product out there.

• Conglomeration
• 
  
• Vertical/Horizontal Integration
• 
  
• Production 
• Making a media product.

• Regulation
• Rules and Restrictions followed by media products.

• Digital Technologies
• Technologies made possible through computers. 
• Computer, Camera, 

• Convergence
• Where two separate media industries come together
• Eg. Music Video (Film and Music)

• Exhibition
• The showing of media products
• In a cinema or through a TV, Youtube.

More digital technology has changed the way we watch films, we can get access to films online for free, you can also download films and watch them without wifi onto your phone, same with music. 

Key Theory - The Cultural Industries - David Hesmondhalgh

• Horizontal Integration 
• Where a company buys "other companies in the same sector to reduce the competition for audiences"
• Eg. Disney bought Star Wars and Lucas Film, bought them for the money and a wider range of audience. 
• Disney also bought Marvel.
• Vertical Integration
• Where a company buys "up other companies involved in different stages of the production and circulation" 
• Completely Anti-Competition, new productions wouldn't be able to get shown in any cinemas. 
• Conglomeration
• A conglomerate is a corporation that consists of a group of businesses dealing in different products or services.
• Conglomeration is the process of a conglomerate being formed.
• Disney owns many different industries, Toys, Films, Video Games, Clothes, Theme Parks, TV, Record Labels. 

• Universal are distributions and Legendary produce the films, so theres a relationship between the two industries.

• Universal Studio's Facts
• Founded in 30th April 1912 in California US
• Have a Theme Park
• Florida theme park opened on 7th June 1990
• Jurassic World is the highest grossing film Universal have released

Key Theory - Power and Media Industries - Curran and Seaton

• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power.
• Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality
• More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create more varied and adventurous media productions.