Media Blog

Industry HL David Hesmondhalgh David Hesmondhalgh believes that companies need to minimise risk and maximise audiences to be successful. To do this, he suggests that a company should be vertically or horizontally integrated. Horizontal integration is where a company buys out or takes over competing companies that make similar products, which means that they can then mass produce those products, and dominate their competition and become successful; the company becomes more powerful. The profit that a company can gain by doing this allows them to have more resources and capacity to produce even more products for the audience, further making them powerful. Vertical integration is where a company buys out or takes over another company that does another part of the production process for their product. Both of these integration methods ensure that the company has a large amount of power and resources to overpower their competitors. Hesmondhalgh also suggests that companies should take advan

Pandemic, protest, and identity The pandemic has a huge negative economic impact on the UK, with industries such as catering and hospitality suffering most. However, the videogames industry thrived throughout the pandemic. The gaming population in the UK has increased by 63% during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. ● Almost 91% of respondents in the UK say they love playing solitaire. (surprising fact!) ● In 2020 there were more than 36 million gamers in the UK. Videogames began to become popular because people were bored, and looked for something to do. They also became popular as people had no other activity to participate in due to them not being able to go outside during lockdown. People realized that they could play games to socialize with their friends, so they decided to play videogames. They played videogames so that they could express their identity. It also gave people routine, and a sense of escapism. Two of these reasons that apply to Animal Crossing: New Horizons are that peo

Exam Stuff There are 5 contexts of media, those being social, cultural, political, economical and historical.  We will have to consider who or what is being represented and the context in which these representations have been shown. Viewpoints - A persons opinion or point of view. Ideologies - A  system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. Subversive - Q uestioning, poking fun at, and undermining the established order in general.

Audience and Identity Motivation model ● Action - The game has little action, and it a more relaxed game. However, there is a small bit of action, when at night a scorpion can spawn and chase you (if you get unlucky, it will bite you!). ● Social - The game allows you to visit other peoples islands and interact with them. It is an online multiplayer (requires an online subscription), but can also double as a local multiplayer ● Mastery - The game has tutorials, which helps people get better. It also has mods and turnips (a stock market) ● Achievement - The game has a lot of content, and to tackle and complete it all can give the user a sense of achievement. ● Immersion - The game gives an escape to its users, and acts as an alternate reality in which the users can live how they want. (This was essential thanks to Covid-19. ● Creativity - The game has endless possibilities and it allows the user to play it how they want, and to have no limits as to what they can do. Maintaining audiences

River Island Typically, a person who shops at River Island can be expected to be a young woman adult, based on statistics from YouGov. As a result, and from looking at their advertisement, I can infer that their target audience is upper class women. Their price range is, on average, around £10 to £100. Their brand is endorsed by the likes of Perrie Edwards, Rochelle Humes, Taylor Swift and Rihanna. River Island Adverts ● The people in the advert are being represented as friendly, and in love. It can make the consumer assume that if they wear the brand, they can fall in love. ● The prevalence of the colour pink suggests that the brand is for women, not men. ● The filter on the image can suggest that the brand promotes nostalgia, and is for people who want to be young forever. ● The ad portrays a man and a woman seeming in love, which gives the consumer the idea that if they wear this brand, they can fall in love. ● They both appear seductive, which can trap the consumer into buying the

Microsoft Acquisition Deal Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in recent days, after the buyout was finally approved.  In the UK and US, monopolies are not legal. The UK tried to regulate the deal, and originally blocked it. Now, however, they are allowing the deal.  Microsoft is doing what it usually does to grow, in which they buy out rival companies and competition to better benefit themselves; they are becoming a monopoly. Big titles they have obtained are Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and more. Buying these companies out means the Microsoft has completed Horizontal Integrations. A monopoly is when one business owns the whole industry. An example of a monopoly is Royal Mail, and their dominance on the mail industry in the UK. Another example is Google, who has a monopoly on search engines. In monopolies, there is no competition, as they control the market on their own; they can also control ideologies, and the way people think. There is less in

Dove Dove is a company which specializes in creating body-care products, such as shampoo, and soap. It is well renowned across the world as one of the best body-care companies there is, thanks to their high quality and affordable products. The target audience for their company is middle-aged to older people, as they are the people who need to take care of their body-care the most. Their advertising suggests they are more willing to target women than men, as on the majority of the adverts, a woman is displayed, and not a man. Dove's representation of Women in advertising In Dove's advertisements, women as displayed to be innocent, cheerful and most importantly, hygienic. This is important, as it plays into the stereotype that women are cleaner than men, and more happy. The femininity of the adverts represents that Dove is a women's advert, as at the time, femininity was linked to Women only. In recent years, after data from a poll found that women feel worse about themselves

Advert Analysis Miss Dior Advert ● The actor is posing as seductive to try and lure and invite the consumer to purchase the product ● The actors pose suggests that wearing the perfume makes you prettier and like her ● The actor does not look like the average consumer, this is done to again make the consumer think they will look like this if they purchase the product. ● The position of the perfume creates the idea that the actor using the perfume daily, indicating to the consumer it is of high quality. ● The target audience is white, young adult women. ● The background is white which creates an idea of cleanliness and innocence. Macro Context ● The personal hygiene market size was values at $64.4 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 5% during 2021-2026. ● Revenue in the Beauty & Personal Care market amounts to $571.10 billion in 2023. The market is expected to grow annually by 3.80% ● Personal hygiene products have played a key role in the fight against COV

Videogame Industry Context Macro ● Videogames are a younger industry than film and TC, growing through the arcade of the 70s into the home console and handhelds of the 80s. ● Consumer game software market was valued at £4.28bn in 2021. ● It has grown 11.4% in comparison to a £3.84bn total from 2019 figures. ● Spend on digital console games reduced by 5.59% to £1.65bn. This is due to lack of huge releases. ● Videogames regularly outstrip the profits of music, TV and film industries. Quiz 1. Wii Sports Resort, Tomodachi Life, Super Mario Bros. 2. Audience, Industry 3. Chang-Chi, Radio 1 Breakfast Show 4. Production, Marketing / Consumption, Distribution 5. 22 years old 6. March 2020 7. Aguchi 8. Best family game 9. 42.3 million (today) 10. 374 hours

Evolving Media - Animal Crossing ●  Animal Crossing ●  Radio One Breakfast Show ●  Shang-Chi Module Overview There are three main stages of making media, they are production , distribution  and exhibition /  consumption /  exchange . Production is making the product. Distribution  is marketing the product to the outside world. Exhibition / consumption / exchange is the consumer buying and utilizing the product. (Extra Detail Production: All Phases of designing, developing and making the media product. Distribution: This refers to all processes linked to delivering the media product to audiences both through tangible and digital media. Consumption: Explores the way in which the media product is used by audiences for pleasure but also explores the rise of user generated content across several platforms. Franchise: It is common for games and films to create a series of games linked by character, theme or even multiverse.) Making a film Name: Five Nights at Benny's ● Comedy / Hor

DVLA RAIL ● R epresentation ● A udience ● I ndustry ● L anguage Representation To represent is to show or describe people, places and events. Representation is the results of this. Representations in media can be categorized to make it easier to understand, a good example of this is CAGED. ● C lass ● A ge ● G ender ● E thnicity ● D isability CAGED representations are useful starting points for analysing media messages (they do not include sexuality, religion, regional identity or education). Sometimes in advertisements, to tick off all the boxes of CAGED, advertisers use tokenistic representation (i ncluding a poorly developed or stereotypical portrayal of a social group, usually to check off diversity in a media product) so they can use the ad without getting any backlash. It is worth mentioning you can represent through omission or inclusion. Stereotype A stereotype is a  characterization of an individual or group that has certain features. They work a symbolic codes or signs. Stereo

Advertising Lego Advert Example This advert is effective because it displays the fact that Lego can be made into anything thinkable, because it has unlimited possibilities. What's more, it portrays that if looked at from a different perspective, the meaning of something can change; again, it shows the limitless possibilities of Lego. The fact that there is no text on the advert or no pointers displays the simplicity of Lego, and that the viewer must figure out the meaning of it instead on their own. McDonalds Advert Example This advert is effective because it shows 4 McDonalds fries in the shape of a Wi-Fi logo, which the viewer can recognize because they have likely seen the Wi-Fi logo many times before. They can link their knowledge to the advert, and realize what is being advertised and from who because of fries being shown, the colour scheme being red and yellow (the colour scheme of McDonalds) and most importantly, the McDonalds logo in the bottom right. Advertising is promot