TARAN MEST 3 BLOG

Thursday, 18 May 2017

Media essay

Does your case study suggest that new and digital media have had a positive impact by offering audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies?

New and digital media has had an impact on the way products are now consumed. For example there has been a decrease in the way traditional media platforms are being viewed by a younger demographic which has caused a decline in newspapers, TV news, people watching TV, increase in illegal streams ect.

In the music industry there has been a decline in the amount of people who are buying physical copies of music albums. This can be seen through the increase in numbers of people illegally streaming. This could be argued that the consumers now have more free will and choice which is why they can decide if they want to buy the physical copy or not and this would be suggested by Pluralists. There are now apps such as Spotify that allow people to stream music rather than downloading it illegally. However although this is the case there is also a payment needed which is required for the premium membership. This is £9.99 but students are charged £4.99. This impacts the amount of downloads it receives as those who are students are more likely to be on new and digital media devices hence the accessibility of receiving music from one app. With the decrease in price it will affect the amount of physical copies sold and they're already paying monthly for an unlimited amount of songs.

Moreover, Marxists would argue that there is still control within the industry and that the ruling class still have authority. Rather than it being physical copies being sold they're still able to make money digitally which is why artists also promote their music on iTunes which may also create a large revenue. For example Beyonce released her album on iTunes before even releasing the physical copy. Artists promote this through social media and because they're opinion leaders the audience are more likely to act in a way that the celebrity is saying. This would be purchasing the digital copy as well as the physical one.

Also, due to globalisation people are now able to gain the interest of songs from other countries and genres and this allows them to access all types of music from one platform. There is no affect of the hypodermic needle model as they audience aren't seeing the same text or song over and over again. There are comment sections which allow people to give their views and opinions linking to user generated content. Pluralists would argue that this is a good thing as the audience are able to have more of a choice and because of this they can attract a large audience due to globalisation which means an increase in downloads for apps such as Spotify. For example there are now songs that have people from two or more different countries making songs together due to globalisation because of new and digital media allowing globalisation to take place.

However, media Institutions that usually promote people's albums such as record companies will have a decline in revenue due to a lack in sales of physical copies. For example this is seen with Amazon as they had lost money on illegal streaming for The Grand Tour which meant they had lost out on millions. Also in the film industry with A Field in England where they had a simultaneous release of the film on all platforms so that they didn't lose out on money through illegal downloads. Spotify is now the leading app in sales for music and there are other ways to stream music illegally through uTorrent and zips that people are using. This is due to new and digital media which affects the power that the media Institutions have and gives it to the audience instead. This is because pluralists argue that there is now more freedom amongst the audience to pick and choose what they want to do.

Audiences can now interact with apps as they can upload songs themselves. For example apps such as soundcloud allow the audience to make a song and put it online without the use of having a record label. This means that there's a change in power as the audience now have control. This means that there's less revenue for the record company as people don't need to be signed to a company in order to produce music. Marxists would still argue that this is a new way that the media Institutions have started to gain control rather than traditionally through other platforms.

In conclusion, new and digital media has had a positive impact on the audience as they're now able to have more control over what they want to do. This is because of new and digital media and globalisation has helped put this in place. However, the media Institutions are losing out on revenue and have lost control.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

MEST3 PPE - Learner Response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

Q1. How does it link to authority and trust
Link to question

Q2. Need much more explanation
How does it get the audience to agree
Wider examples
Lacks question focus

Q3. How does it link to the question

Q6. Need to introduce case studies
Lacks focus on question
Link to question
Need more detail
Link to question/NDM
Talk about decline of newspaper industry, stats, examples

2) Did you succeed in meeting or exceeding your target grade for A2 Media? If not, how many additional marks do you need across Section A and Section B to achieve your target grade?

I didn't meet my target grade and in order to do so I need to link back to the actual question by using examples of the wider media. Also, use statistics and talk about the theories of media and how they link to what the question is asking such as Marxist theory of the elite having control but are losing their power due to a decline in media.

3) Read through the mark scheme. Pay particular attention to pages 6-8 that have suggested content for each of the questions in Section A. How many of these potential points did you make? Did you successfully answer the questions? The original question paper is here if that is helpful.

Q1. Need a sophisticated in terms of analysis and use critical autonomy.

Q2. Need more examples, critical autonomy, sophisticated analysis and a wide range of media debates, issues and theories.

Q3. Sophisticated and detailed evaluation, showing very good critical autonomy.

4) Which was your strongest question in Section A? Why did you do better in that particular question? Note the number of marks each question is worth.

Question one was the better question in section A because of the analysis of the two clips and how they linked to the question.

5) Which was your weakest question in Section A? Again, try and identify why this happened. Did you misinterpret the question? Did you run out of time?

My weakest question in section A was question two this is because there wasn't enough detail and a lack of analysis. There should be more on the impact on the audience that the clips had.

6) Now look at pages 11-12 of the mark scheme for Section B - New/Digital Media paying particular attention to the suggested essay content on page 12. How many of the broad areas suggested by AQA did you cover in your Section B essay? Did you successfully answer the question?

I covered some of the areas and didn't answer the question directly. In order to gain additional marks I could've spoken about the demand of consumers changing, the role of the media before and how the traditional media platforms came out every 24hours or during specific times and not instantly.

7) Read the Examiner's Report in full. For each question your answered, would you classify your response as one of the stronger answers or one of the weaker answers the Chief Examiner discusses? Why? What could you do differently next time? Write a reflection for EACH question in the paper: Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q6 OR Q7.

Q1. Focus more on the media techniques that were used to ensure getting into the higher grade.

Q2. Refer to a wider range of media examples and answer the question directly rather than going off topic.

Q3. Better evalutaion and more analysis; also, answering the question and not going off topic.

Q6. More examples and statistics, better media analysis, more media examples.

8) Choose your weakest question in Section A and re-write an answer in full based on the suggested content from the Examiner's Report. This answer needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme. This will be somewhere between 3-6 well-developed paragraphs (depending on the question/number of marks available).

The redrow appartments are encouraging the audience to see them with a certain set of values through the actual brand itself. For example it is seen to be strong, successful for the wealthy. The advert transmits that ideology into the needs of the audience. This links to the hypodermic needle model as the advert states a belief and message which is now apart of the consumers ideology. This can be seen with adverts such as the nivea advert for men where they're presented with the stereotypical hegemonic male that highlights power.

In addition, this is also done with the clothing of the protagonist; for example he was seen to be wearing a cheap suit looking tired and scruffy. As the narrative progresses he becomes successful, has a new suit and looks the audience directly as he goes up the elevator. This links to Todorovs theory as the new equilibrium was the male being successful. This can be seen in the Peter Andre advert as towards the end of the introduction he wore a suit highlighting that transition of clothes and character.

Also, this is seen as the protagonist is in the office working but manges to escape and this highlights a change in lifestyle and the brand being able to guide you to a better life making them trustworthy. The setting is then changed to London at night and the overview of the city which illustrates power and dominance which contributes to the values that are being shown by the product. Apple products also do this as they make the upper middle class have that power and authority through their products.

Friday, 28 April 2017

Ignite presentation

Thursday, 27 April 2017

MEST3 Independent case study: New/Digital Media

Case study research tasks

The basics

Your chosen industry: Spotift

Research and answer the following tasks on your MEST3 exam blog:

Audience

1) How has new and digital media changed the audience experience in your chosen industry?

It has made it easier for people to access and stream music that they want rather than having to pay for the album you can now just pick the songs that you want.

2) Has new and digital media changed the way the audience consume your chosen product?

The products are now accessible from your phone and this makes it download or stream the songs.

3) Has the size of the audience changed as a result of new and digital media?

There has been an increase in the amount of people who are getting their music from Spotify.

4) What are the positive changes new and digital media have brought to the audience of your case study? (E.g. greater choice, easier access etc.)

Audiences now have greater choice as they can access whatever they want and it is easier to access the songs from their devices.

5) What are the negative changes new and digital media have had on your chosen audience? (E.g. quality of product etc.)

The record labels may lose out on money through album sales and artists may be less likely to produce an album as a result.

6) What about audience pleasures - have these changed as a result of new and digital media?

Increase in audience pleasures as people now have more of a choice in what they want rather than the institutions having more of the control.

7) What is the target audience for your chosen case study? Write a demographic/psychographic profile.

The target audience is a 50:50 split male and female. The age group would be around 12-55 and be apart of explorers as they're pushing away from the mainstream method of obtaining music through buying albums.
Institution

1) How has new and digital media had an impact on ownership or control in your chosen industry?

The audience has now got more ownership and control as a result of new and digital media.

2) What impact has new and digital media had on ownership in your chosen case study?

The audience can now decide what they want to listen to and download due to the control being in the hands of consumers.

3) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions produce texts?

The music is now being published online first such as Spotify for people to download rather than trying to sell the physical copy as much.

4) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions distribute their product?

Institutions now distribute their products on applications for people to download straight away.

5) How might new and digital media threaten your chosen industry?

It may cause artists to lose out sales on physical copies and the record company may also make less money as well.

6) How has new and digital media changed the way your chosen industry is regulated?

People can now publish whatever they want they don't need to be as regulated as much or follow strict rules that are given to them.

UGC

1) What examples of user-generated content can you find in your case study?

Songs on YouTube.
2) How has UGC changed things for audiences or institutions in your chosen case study?

Consumers can listen to music whenever they want and whatever songs.

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

1) What would be a Marxist perspective of the impact of new and digital media on your chosen case study?

The ruling class are still in control but are in control another way rather than having the usual control that they have on traditional media platforms.

2) How would a pluralist view the impact of new and digital media in your chosen industry?

Consumers have control and that they can decide what they want to listen to and download.

Globalisation

1) How has globalisation impacted on your chosen industry or case study?

More people are downloading songs and not buying the physical copy.

2) In your opinion, has globalisation had a positive or negative impact on your chosen industry and case study? Why?

It has had a positive effect on the consumer as they have more free will and choice. However, the artist and industry will lose out on money and may have to make this in other areas such as advertisement or memberships.

3) Can you find examples of cultural imperialism in your case study or industry? (The 'Americanisation' of the world)

People from around the world are able to upload their music online.

Social media

1) How has your industry or case study used social media to promote its products?

This is done through apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook to promote the product.

2) Provide examples of how your case study has used social media and explain the impact this would have on audiences.

Instragram advertisement and page to promote people to downloading the app.

3) Is social media an opportunity or a threat to your industry and case study?

I think that it is an opportunity as people can gain more insight of the app and this can increase sales as a result.

Statistics

1) What statistics can you find to illustrate the impact new and digital media has had on your industry or case study? For example, in news, the UK newspaper industry sold more than 12m copies a day in 2001 but in 2014 it was below 7m.

Spotify and Apple Music jumped from £254m to £419m in 12 months.

Spotify is seen as the leader, with more than 100 million users, 40 million of them paid-up subscribers to its Premium tier.

2) Looking at these statistics, what impact has new/digital media had on institutions in your chosen industry?

It has helped increase sales due to Spotify having a large number of sales and become the leader in downloads.

3) What has the impact been for audiences? These may be positive and negative.

Positive impact on the audience as they now have free will and consumer choice. They have more of a choice.

Theories

1) What media theories can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media theories and explain how they are relevant to your case study. Note: these can be ANY of the theories we have learned over the whole of Year 12 and 13.

Gramsci – change in power and that the consumers now have the the power

Pluralists - Pick and Mix, we can now decide what we want to listen to as consumers due to globalisation.

Passive audiences - consumers used to believe whatever they saw on the media and didn't doubt it but now they have the choice and free will to do as they want.
Issues/debates

1) What media issues and debates can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media issues/debates and explain how they are relevant to your case study.

Decline in traditional media platforms and people are now switching towards things that are online so people are now watching music videos on YouTube or apps instead of the radio or TV.

Illegal downloading which means that less people are going out of there way to spend money on buying the physical copy of the album.

Increase in streaming and downloads can cause a decrease in sales so there's less money for the artists and potentially a bigger loss to the record companies.
Wider examples and secondary texts

1) What other texts or institutions are also relevant to your case study? What would be good secondary texts or examples to use to support the findings of your independent case study?

iTunes being another platform for artists to release music and an example of this would be Beyonce releasing her album on iTunes before releasing the physical copy.

YouTube being another platform where there can also be the video of the song for consumers to listen to the song and this would be more of a reason for them to listen to it on YouTube. There is also membership that YouTube have to be able to listen to songs offline.

Apps that play songs on YouTube or on TV such as Link Up TV or channel AKA now have apps to increase download or sales of the songs that are being shown rather than people going to watch the video on TV or YouTube.

MEST3 Section A: revision task

Task 1: List 10 stories/debates/examples that you could use for the Identities and the Media question.

1. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/19/some-men-are-intimidated-when-women-step-into-their-magnificence

This article is about Feminism and how men are intimidated by women when they are able to exceed their gender stereotypes that they've been labelled with.

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39665711?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/911f368c-e756-4ac3-9667-ec8900ceb4ce/lgbt&link_location=live-reporting-story

A man having to leave his home due to his sexuality. The man who is gay was tortured by people where he lived. Even til this day he hasn't revealed who he is due to being frightened of what happened.

3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39689354

A patient, who has been diagnosed with a serious mental health condition, learning disability and physical health problems, has been in a hospital bed for more than 1,338 days.

4. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-men-killed-us-police-more-likely-white-men-black-lives-matter-study-a7487271.html

Those who are black are more likely to be killed than white men. This compared with 4.1 per million for Hispanic men, 2.5 for white men and 1.5 for Asian men or those from the Pacific islands.

5. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-five-million-refugees-conflict-resettlement-un-geneva-donald-trump-europe-migrant-a7658606.html

More than five million men, women and children have now fled the Syrian civil war. More than 5,000 migrants drowned, suffocated or froze to death in the Mediterranean in 2016 and almost 1,000 have already died this year.

6. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/23/north-carolina-lgbt-bathroom-hb2-repeal

The law on LGBT in North Carolina.

7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248

The London riots had targeted the youth as being the folk devils creating a moral panic around them and gave them a negative identity.

8. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37150938

British identity through the 2016 Olympics as people see their country competing or themselves as sportsmen/women.

9. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-labour-supporters-general-election-lend-me-their-vote-brexit-success-eu-tory-leader-a7706096.html

People views on voting to stay in or out of the EU and the decision that was made and people can identify themselves through the choice that they made,

10. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/apr/27/general-election-2017-zac-goldsmith-boris-johnson-brighton-tactical-politics-live

The country can identify themselves with the political party that they're voting for during the general election.

Task 2: List 10 stories/debates/examples that you could use for the New/Digital Media question.

1. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-history-censoring-nudity-automated-human-means

Facebook as a company have intervened in stopping things such as pornography to corrupt their business, they've stepped in because people may be sensitive to the content which is seen on Facebook due to age or cultural background.

2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/10/19/stephen-hawking-says-artificial-intelligence-could-be-humanitys/

Stephen Hawking has suggested that artificial intelligence would be the end of civilisation, as well as the advantages it will bring to society it will also have a lot of negative impacts to us as well. He suggests that it could be harmful economically but also in terms of our safety as humans as well.

3. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/14/spotify-uk-revenues-surge-to-almost-190m-as-mobile-subscriptions-take-off

Spotify is now the leading app in terms of getting music and listening to it. this has been done with a 44% surge in subscriptions. There's an online and offline version of Spotify, the offline one being the premium one which costs £9.99 and the online one which is free and had adverts throughout.

4. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/02/facebook-privacy-data-admiral

This article is about Facebook not wanting to protect us to a certain extent so that they can learn about us and what we do whilst we're online. This is done through the use of cookies that are left which Facebook can see and then they design out Internet experience for us specifically.

5. http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/10/technology/snapchat-vending-machine/index.html

Snapchat are now selling smart glasses with a built in wireless video recorder in it. Now those glasses, called Spectacles, are finally going on sale for $129.99. They were then listed on ebay later for $950. The glasses are used like snapchat but are able to record from the glasses itself rather than using the snapchat app on their phones.

6. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/12/8/13868826/my-friend-cayla-ique-intelligent-robot-privacy-policy

Children have had their privacy invaded without the consent of their parents because of the dolls that they've bought. The dolls have been equipped with equipment which is able to detect what is being said and recorded. There has been a number of complaints which have been sent to FTC.

7. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/dec/11/grand-tour-most-illegally-downloaded-tv-programme-jeremy-clarkson

Grand Tour is the most illegally downloaded TV programme, viewers have downloaded up to millions of copies due to online streaming. Amazon have Potentially lost £3.2million because of this as people aren't paying for the full service which they can receive for free.

8. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/dec/19/how-tv-news-failed-to-keep-up-in-2016

TV has been in trouble recently and this is because of the Internet. There has been a rapid decline in the amount of people who are watching TV news and this is a resulting affect of the introduction to social media. Social media is a more convenient scource for people who are younger as they can go out and get news whenever they're free rather than waiting around until 6 to view the news on BBC for example.

9. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/putin-china-internet-great-firewall-russia-cybersecurity-pact

China have always had a firewall which stops the people of their nation from accessing certain material online. This is seen to protect them but also blind them from what is going on around the world. Russia have also made it clear that they're not going to follow in the footsteps of China by putting up a firewall.

10. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38529437

The article highlights that cyberbullying is something that is still going on and how patents can pick up on this. One in five 13-18 year old claims they've been bullied online. A mother who had found out her child had been bullying another girl removed all of her daughters social media websites as a result. The article also discusses the different ways to prevent people from cyberbullying.

Monday, 13 March 2017

MEST3 NDM stories: updated index