Fandom homework

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTOPD1ZemtNSEFtzyF4ZoeY6_XVSwKVcLt2sJ0yhIrlyYG7B1AUbqdVl0WctorsdfUaQi-FQNTJ2Vmm/pub

2B Assessment Dirt Sheet - Film, Radio, Video games

Minecraft merchandise

Minecraft, Distribution, Production, Circulation and Technology

Group research from Great Baddow High School Media

Games Consoles

Brands / Companies

• Sony
• Microsoft
• Nintendo

Sandbox Game

• Construction game.
• Minecraft teaches cooperation, team building skills.
• Also teaches programming skills.

There are dangers of some video games e.g. GTA expose children to violent and offensive material. 

External companies e.g. 'Rockstar' sell their games to companies like Sony so its not exclusive to one console.

Platforms

• Broadcast - TV, online, film.
• Online
• Print
• (some games are multiplatform e.g. minecraft on console, PC and apps).

Intro To Minecraft

• Minecraft developed from a basic online Lego game. 
• Now a massive multi platform game, play on different consoles as well as books and merchandise. 
• Open sandbox, multiplayer. 
• Started as 'indie' game, (independent) bought by Microsoft for 2.5 billion 2014.
• Critically and commercially successful.
• Independent to mainstream - sold 125 million copies sold in 2017.
• Created Marcus 'notch' Perrson and developed by Mojang. 
• These were independent, separate and not influenced by a big company. 
• As small independent products become successful, usually larger companies / owners want to buy them. 

Reasons for success

• Sandbox, infinite replay-ability. 
• Platform agnostic (play on any platform).
• Co-opted by children, made a household name. 
• Fulfills human purpose to bring order to chaotic wilderness. 
• Strong social community, share ideas, open worlds as well as java code sharing so players can view each others modify worlds. 
• No genre. 

Video Games Intro

Video games - A game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer programme on a monitor or other display.

Genres

• Sport - Wii Sports
• Kids - Cooking Mama
• Fantasy - Assassins creed
• Sci-fi - Star Wars
• Action / adventure - COD, Halo
• Horror - Slender man
• Strategy / construction (sandbox) - Minecraft
• Simulation - Sims
• Puzzle solving - Big Brain academy
• MMO (massive multiplayer online game) - World of warcraft
• FPS - COD

Industry Vocab

BARB - Broadcast Audience Researchers Board

• Organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV to track the programmes they watch.
• This is useful to the media industry as it allows brands such as the BBC and ITV see which programmes are most popular and see what their audience is most interested in so they can incorporate it into more of their other shows or discontinue less popular shows and show off more of their popular ones. As well as update programmes to suit viewers tastes as public opinion is constantly changing.

Webcasting License

• If you operate a service that that streams sound recordings online e.g. radio then a webcasting license is required. Webcasting involves two exclusive rights of copyright owners : The reproduction of the sound recording for the purpose of creating the webcast programme and the communication of those sound recordings over the internet.

Technological Convergence

• As technology evolves and changes different technological systems evolve toward performing similar tasks.

Web 3.0 / Semantic Web

• A proposed development of the World Wide Web in which data in web pages is structured and tagged in such a way that it can be read directly by computers.

Internet Of things

• The interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.

Binge Viewing

• Watch multiple episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.

DAB - Digital Audio Broadcasting

• Digital audio broadcasting is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services, used in countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Traditional Media

• Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, tax press and other print publications.

Google Analytics

• Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Helps businesses understand their website viewers and customers better.

RAJAR - Radio Joint Audience Research

• Official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is jointly owned by the BBC and the Radio centre on behalf of the commercial sector.

NRS - National Readership Survey

• A joint venture company in the UK between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) and the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA). It provides audience research for print advertising trading in the UK. The survey covers over 250 of Britain's major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve. It classifies audiences in a number of ways, one of which is the NRS social grade.

Cultural Imperialism

• Critics of cultural imperialism commonly claim that non-Western cultures, particularly from the Third World, will forsake their traditional values and lose their cultural identities when they are solely exposed to Western media.

Democratisation Of The Mass Media

• Mass media today are regarded as one of the key democratic institutions which are vital in improving the quality of the electoral system, political parties, parliament, judiciary, and other branches of the state, even civil society, and safeguarding their democratic performance.

Effects Of Piracy

• Recent research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft costs the UK audiovisual industries about £500m a year.
• This reduction of revenue caused in part by piracy has also resulted in studios and production houses making less adventurous choices when it comes to films – just think of the prequels, sequels and remakes hitting screens this summer. Similarly, streaming television content illegally has a huge effect on the business.

Horizontal Integration

• The process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.

Vertical Integration

• The combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

Diversification

• Defining characteristic of media firms and products in the new millennium. There was a time when media companies concentrated on their core business, whether through management decision-making or government mandate, and when there were fewer distribution channels available to media producers.

Alternative Media 

• Media that differs from dominant or established types of media in terms of either their content, production or distribution, this type of media can take many forms including print, audio, video, internet and even street art. Examples include counter culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First Peoples television network in Canada (re branded as aboriginal peoples television network)  another example is online open publishing websites such as Indymedia. 

Independent Media 

• This refers to any form of media such as radio, television, newspapers or the internet that is free of government or corporate influence/interests. 

Difference Between Independent and Alternative Media 

• Independent media is media that is not part of a large corporation and alternative media is a piece of media with a specific point of view that is applied to its story/what its trying to express. Alternative media also doesn't share traditional views, alternative media is independent media, however independent media may or may not alternative depending on how traditional its media coverage is. 

Conglomerate

• A media company/business that is a conglomerate owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks or the internet. An example of a well known conglomerate is Walt Disney.  

GRA - Games Rating Authority

• The GRA sets game ratings that are mandatory under the UK law. The GRA is part of the video standards council which rates games using the PEGI system, games with a rating of PEGI 12, 16 or 18 cannot be sold/hired by anyone under the age of the rating. 

PEGI - Pan European Game Information

• PEGI is an age rating system used on games, they provide a reliable recommendation of the suitable age for a certain game in order to prevent minors. The age rating takes into account the content of the game and not the difficulty of the game.
  
  
  
  Mediawatch UK
• A pressure group in the UK which campaigns against publication of media content that is viewed as harmful and offensive such as violence, sex, profanity, homosexuality and blasphemy. The pressure group was originally known as the National Viewers and Listeners Association and was founded by Mary Whitehouse in 1965. 

IPSO - Independent Press Standards Organisation

• Is the largest independent regulator of the newspapers and magazines in the UK and exists to promote and uphold high standards in professional journalism, and to support members of the public in seeking redress where they believe that the Editors Code of Practice has been breached. The editors code deals with issues such as accuracy, invasion of privacy, intrusion into grief, shock or harassment. IPSO is also able to consider concerns about editorial content in newspapers and magazines and about the conduct of journalists. 

Watershed 

• The watershed was set up by ofcom and includes strict guidelines that is designed to keep children from seeing harmful material such as violence, sexual content, graphic or distressing imagery or swearing. Programmes which contain this material must be shown later in the evening when children are least likely to watch it. On free to air television the watershed runs between 9pm and 5:30am and on premium channels it starts slightly earlier than 8pm through to 6am. 

Ofcom - Office of Communications

• The UK government approved regulation and competition authority for broadcasting, television and postal industries in the UK. 

BBC charter 

• Is the constitutional basis for the BBC, it sets out the public purposes for the corporation, and guarantees its independence. The BBC's new charter commenced on 1st Jan 2017 its key aspects include...
• Ofcom to be external regulator of the BBC
• The government to provide 'guidance' to ofcom on the content requirements for the BBC
• A new 'unitary board' including four members and a chairman all appointed by the government and nine BBC appointed members to consider any complaints. 
• Editorial decisions to remain responsibility of director general. 
• The possibility of production of independent companies to exist across all channels except from the news and some parts of current affairs. 
• The national audit office to have a stronger role in looking at how the BBC spends its money. 

Synergy

• Where different media companies cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. its known as 'the strategy of synchronizing and actively forging connections between directly realted areas of entertainment'.
• New technologies support this process e.g. web, DVD and downloading. Media institution exploit various platforms to sell various products related to one film e.g. film and soundtrack and video game).

PSB - Public Service Broadcasting

• Refers to broadcasting intended for the benefit of the public rather than to serve commercial interest. Ofcom requires certain television and and radio broadcasters to fulfill certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the BBC's radio and television stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally. 

Broadcast Code

• Created by ofcom is rules and guidelines that radio and TV programmes in the UK must abide by. It exists to prevent viewers and listeners being exposed to harmful and offensive content but also ensures that broadcasters have the freedom to create challenging programmes. 

IWF- Internet Watch Foundation 

• A registered charity based in Cambridgeshire, its remit is to minimize the availability of potentially criminal internet content specifically images of child sexual abuse and criminally obscene adult content in the UK. The IWF works in informal partnership with the police, government, public and internet service providers.

Radio presentation

Radio 1 breakfast show lesson 1 from Great Baddow High School Media

Theorists

Theorists Relating To Audience

Cultivation Theory - George Gerbner

The idea that exposure to repeating ideas and representations over long periods of time can influence the way the audience views and perceives the world around them, which can lead to enforcing ideas of moral panic etc.
The idea that cultivation creates mainstream values (dominant ideologies).

Albert Bandura - Media Effects

• The idea that media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience indirectly.
• Idea audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling.
• Idea that media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence for physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour, e.g the violent behaviour portrayed in video games like call of duty. 

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall developed a theory called Reception theory that suggests audiences have different reactions to media texts like films, documentaries, newspapers and even images. These two readings are...

Preferred Reading - How the creator intended the media to be viewed by the audience.
Oppositional Reading - Where the intended meaning is completely opposed by the reader, e.g. a piece of media that might be seen as sexist or racist etc.
Negotiated Reading - A compromise between the preferred and oppositional readings, the audience understands and agrees with the text, but disagrees with other areas and has their own views on it which opposes what the creator intended.

Different viewers all have different readings of media texts and Hall believed this was based on everyone's different experiences and beliefs, which helps shape our viewpoint on different topics.

Hypodermic Syringe Model

The hypodermic syringe approach to media effects believes that there is a direct correlation between violence and anti social behaviour portrayed in films, video games, on television and in rap music. The model suggests that children and teenagers are vulnerable to media content because they are still in the early stages of socialization and are therefore very impressionable and likely to imitate what they see in the media.

Theorists Relating To Language

Steve Neale - Genre Repetition And Difference

• "Genres are instances of repetition and difference"
• "Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre"

Steve Neale is saying that a film and it's genre are defined by two things:

• How much it conforms with a genre's stereotypes and conventions. He says that a film must conform to these conventions enough that it can still qualify and be identified as a film of that genre.
• How much a film undermines the genre's stereotypes and conventions.

Roland Barthes - Semiotics (Denotation & Connotation)

Analysis of Gilette

Gilette Advert

In the Gillette advert the constant idea of success and achievement is repeated through the use of the slogan “the best a man can get” which gives the preferred reading to the audience that a man needs to have this particular product because it is the best compared to other substitutes. Furthermore, the narrative and plot of the advert which shows a man winning a football game, a man at an office job, and picking up a baby as well as bonding with his son is really versatile and therefore allows Gillette to appeal to a wider audience and different age groups of boys and men whilst also emphasizing the idea of success and winning.

The Gillette advert represents the 'all American guy' stereotype as he is able to hold a successful office job, have a great relationship with his son and is athletic by winning his football game, the oppositional reading to this advert is that the advert is very sexist towards men as they are expected to be good at sports, have a steady successful job, look after his family and be the typical 'breadwinner'.

the advert tries to appeal to all aspects of a male audience, but however does disregard homosexual and other members of the LGBT community that would use their product, and would respond to this advert by feeling as if they weren't masculine or a real 'man' as the advert suggests in the slogan. On the other hand the advert does appeal to younger athletic men who are into sports, men in office jobs and who are more conservative as well as men who have families and sons whom they can recommend the product to.

George Gerbners cultivation theory relates well to this advert as it shows how when ideas of masculinity are constantly repeated and seen by an audience it does influence how we view the world around us for example it creates stereotypes, much like the stereotype which is displayed in the advert of masculinity and real 'men'.
Furthermore Stuart Halls reception theory also ties in really well with this advert as a oppositional or preferred reading can be drawn after watching it, as the preferred shows how Gillette is the best and is used by all successful men and that is why the male man in the audience needs this product. Although the oppositional reading shows how the advert dismisses men of different sexualities and identities in society today as they suggest that they are not real 'men' and worthy of the product as they don't fit into any of these typical masculine stereotypes.