Unit 6 LO3: Understand how media audiences respond to media products‏

There are many people out there in the world who are effected by what they see in the media or the games they play. When i say effected i mean they see the world in a different light. There are many theories out there which are related to this. For example the Hypodermic needle effect is one of them. There are other theories such as Obstinate audience theory and the reception theory. The main theory i want to focus on is the Hypodermic Needle Theory.

There are theories that have an effect on peoples minds. There is a term used in the media which is called  'copycat murderers'. This is a term used by people in society who label people who have murdered in similarity to a movie or a game. An example that we could use for this is the murder or James Bulger. The two killers were also said to be have influenced by games which contain violence.

The hypodermic needle theory is when the mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on the audiences. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.  There are games such as grand theft auto which can have an effect of peoples minds. For example as it is an open world game. You have the ability to kill someone in the middle of the street for no exact purpose. Stuff like this may have an effect on an individuals mind and cause them to go and take this out on someone in the public.

Gratification theory is where media users play an active role in choosing and using the media.  Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.  The theorist say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfills the needs of the user.  Uses and gratifications assume that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their need.

Active and Passive audiences. There are two different schools of thought concerning how audiences consume media text. Those that believe the audiences are 'passive' and 'active'. Passive audience theory is where the media injects ideas and views directly into the audiences minds like a hypodermic needle , therefore, controlling the way people think and behave. Active audience theory argues that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved, often unconsciously, in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. 

Quantitative and Qualitative Questions.

Qualitative Questions:

When playing shoot em up style games, do you feel influenced/involved in any way? why?

What type of Shoot Em up games do you play?
What is your opinion on shoot em up style games? 

Quantitative Questions:

Do you play games violently orientated everyday? (yes, no)
On average, how many hours do you spend playing video games a week?
(1-3), (4-6), (7-9), (10 or more)
Do Shoot em up style games make you more aggresive? (yes, no)
Do you like violent games? (yes, no)
Do you play violent games alone? (yes, no)

I have now put together a bar graph of my results from the questionnaires that i have handed out.

1. On Average, how many hours do you spend playing video games a week?

        We can see from this graph that most of the people who have carried out my questionnaire tend not to spend much time playing video games. 

2. Do you like violent games?

From this graph we can see that the majority of the people who have carried out my questionnaire tend to like to play violent related games.

3. Do Shoot em up style games make you more aggressive? 

From this graph we can see that the majority of the people who filled out my questionnaire tend to find that shoot em up style games did not make them aggressive.

4. Do you play violent games alone?

We can see here that the majority of the people who have carried out my questionnaire tend to play violent games alone, would this have an effect on their behaviour?

5. When playing shoot em up style games, do you feel influenced/involved in any way? why?

The feed back that I recieved from this question varied. There were some people who said they felt more influenced when they were playing in a group. Some also said that they did not feel influenced at all as it is only a game. 

6. What is your opinion on shoot em up style games? 

The answers which i have received for this question has also varied. Many people said that Shoot em up style games are the real meaning to games nowadays. Without all the killing and shooting, the game would not be as fun to play. 

7. What are your views on violence in video games?

For this question, i had someone answer me saying that violence in video games is their only way to take out anger whereas they can't do it in real life. 

conclusion

In conclusion to my research i have come to the understanding that the most common theory here is the gratification theory. It is true that most people pick and choose nowadays as to what suits them. We can see that a lot of people like to play Shoot em up style games weather they are alone or in a group.

unit 7 ms paradise

Unit 7 Understanding the Creative Media Sector (Mrs paradise)

television film and game

4.         What do these industries have in common? Film, Television, publishing, interactive media, games, radio, photo-imaging, advertising, animation *

The thing all of these industries have in common is that they’re all from the creative media sector. People working for these industries are very creative people, they understand what attracts audience.

5.         Explain the structure and ownership of your chosen three sectors of the creative media industry.

The structure and ownership of my chosen sectors depend on the size of the sector, for example, a small company will get third party companies to do jobs for them, such as advertising, animating, budgeting however a big company will have there own departments within the company to work on them.

Clients will contract media companies for work they need done for them, the client will show them what the work is, and give an idea of they want it to be, companies will then give there ideas and how they will work it, this will include ideas, costs etc. If the client is impressed they will select a company and then it will go through the commission phase, once that is successful, the client will hire the company. Then the work begins, the consultation, design, production, delivery, payment.

6.         Where does the money come from? Look at the 3 creative media industries that you have chosen and identify which of the following methods of income generation apply to each: 

 television

Television companies have different ways of generating money, some tv companies generate it through TV license fees but other companies generate it by selling advert slots.

film

The film industry is funded by companies whether it be a large company or small, its a long term investment. These company will make there profit through ticket sales, merchandise, dvd releases and many other ways

Games

Games industry is funded in different ways, big companies can fund themselves because of profit they made from previous games, however smaller companies may need to look for 3^rd party to come in and fund it , profit is made from and copy sales, DLC’s and merchandise.
 

7.         What are the ethical constraints facing the media sector? In particular focus on the three industries you have chosen to research. *

Ethical constraint is a massive thing because of the wide range of people, people sensitivity need to be respected.

A alot of negatives come out in this matter, as people sometimes get offended by the content, for example games that use violence usually come in for criticism, this is usually because most of the elder audience believe it si not suitable for younger children to be exposed to violence. 

Media sectors use codes of practice to help resolve these issues using these.

.

8.         What are the legal constraints facing the creative media industries that you have chosen to look at? * 

The law is very important and it is important fro everyone to know what the law allows and what the law does not.

Here are a few laws, which must be followed in a media industry:

• Libel law
• Discrimination legislation
• Obscenity 
• Data protection
• Copyright

A famous example of a media industry breaking the law is when the news of the world tapped in to a celebrity’s phone, this was breaking the data protection law

9.         Who is responsible for regulating the media sector? How are your chosen industries regulated?  

Video game

For video games PEGI is the regulator in the uk, they use a system to regulate each game and decide age ratings, anyone below the age rating should not be playing the game and will not be allowed to purchase it.

Films

 for films the british board of film classification independently regulate it, like PEGI they decide on age ratings


TV

The Television industry is regulated by the British academy of film and television arts.

10. What are the regulatory issues facing the Media industries that you have chosen?

 Piracy - piracy is a big issue. The film industry is victim of piracy heavily as films can easily be downloaded online, media industries lose money because people illegally download it.

Protection of intellectual property - credibility to the producers and recognition of their hard work. 

Impartial, accurate and fairness - The audience of  have the right to know if the information they get is correct and accurate. 

  

 11.        What are the employment opportunities and job roles in the media sector? *  

 There is a massive variety of jobs roles in the creative industries, not every job requires you to have to do creative jobs.

• Marketing
• Sales
• promo
• animators
• developers
• artist
• designers
• directors
• editors
• production managers
• engineers
• programmers
• runners
• researchers
• journalists
• modeller
• presenter
• scriptwriter 
• HR

12.        How would you apply for and secure jobs in the industries that you have chosen? 

Write a CV, your CV will sell your self to the employers, make yourself stand out and mention all relevant experiences you may have which will help you in the role you are applying for. The CV will create an impression of you, first impressions are very important in this sector.

 For every job you apply for, research on the company, find out what the role involves, find out the requirements, where the job is located, if it is freelance or permanent and the rate of pay.

Have experience in the role you’re applying for will give you a higher chance of getting it, if you cant get a job do work experience and then apply

Once you have got the job, make sure you secure it, be reliable, punctual, a team member, take direction, use your initiative, meet deadline etc. This will secure your job.

Unit 6 LO1 Understand how media producers define audiences for their products‏.

Question 1
Why might a media institution use Qualitative research? How effective is this form of research?

In order to answer this question we need to know what qualitative research is. Qualitative research is research a person or an organisation in this case will go out to collect on their own in forms of questionnaires, panels, testing and focus groups. Qualitative research also uses features of Psycographic research is the peoples personalities, values and opinions. Psychographic research of individuals or of communities can be valuable in the fields of marketing.

Focus groups are really popular with market research so that they can test new features on their target audience. Qualitative research is effective as it gives the institution a chance to get greater quality of feedback from the audience so that the institution can get a better understanding of their product and whether it is successful or if they would have to make any changes.

We need to ask ourselves why might a media institution use qualitative research? Well a media institution might use qualitative research to gather information about their companies product from their target audiences for example Asian Bridal Magazines. Asian bridal magazine has to understand what their audience wants from it. So the magazine company may go out and get their audience to fill out a questionnaire about the pros and cons of the magazine and they may ask questions such as ' What do you like about the magazine, and why?'

There are three types of magazine classification. The three are niche, alternative and mainstream. These magazine companies may will use this research source as a way of gathering information on things they can improve on their product and what the audience like about the product. 

First of all we want to know what a niche magazine is. It is a magazine who specifically focus on one topic. An example of Niche magazines are Asian bridal magazines. The reason why asian bridal magazine is a niche title is because it is reaching out to asian woman within the range of 19-30 who are looking to get married. The reason being is that this is the age that asian women look to get married and are interested in different styles and ideas for bridal look. 

An alternative magazine is information produced to mainstream media within a given context. Alternative magazine companies such as Alternative Press magazine. It is based around indie music reaching to the age group of 17-25. Alternative magazines reach out to more of a wider audience and may want to use qualitative research to discuss the topics that are produced in the magazine. Questions may cover what they should change about the magazine to make it better for the audience. 

Moving onto mainstream magazines who will use qualitative research. Mainstream magazines are magazine companies which cover a variety of topics such as sport, general news and what is trending at the moment. Mainstream magazines are mainly produced every week. An example of a mainstream magazine is Ok magazine. The target audience for Ok magazine ranges from ages between late 20s-30 of british/american ethnicity within the middle class.

The reason as to why they might use qualitative research is due to get information on what topics they should cover in the magazine. 

Question 2.
How might a media institution create and use target audience classification. How effective is this form of research?

For those who don't know, a target audience is a particular group which a product such as film is aimed at. For example we could say who is the target audience for a cartoon series? For a question like this we need to take into consideration who watches cartoons? The answer is simple, kid with age range 3-10. 

Before any production is created media institutions need to research on audience demographics to understand who your target audience is, why your target audience behave or think what they do, how to target your audience and how you can communicate your message effectively to your audience. 

There are different age ratings for different productions for example a game production such as grand Theft auto would be rated as an 18+ game due to the fact that it contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. 

 Quantative research is a good method to use to gather research on audiences views. This is because we can get a clear example of statistics on people opinions and views. 

Question 3 How might a media institution use quantitative research? How effective is this form of research?

Some media institutions may use the forms of research as they are both effective. Qualitive and Quantative data can both be used as they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Institutions may use quantative research to get clear set of statistics to get an understanding of number of peoples views. Where as qualitative data may have an advantage as they can get an understanding of people views and opinions on a wider scale as they get to probe the people who are taking out a survey. The disadvantage of this is that the person who is taking out the survey/questionnaire could lie in their answers. 

Television companies use BARB to gather viewing statistics. This is so that the know how many people tune in to watch their programmes. This is important so that they know if their channel is running successfully and if not what changes need to be made. 

Rajar stands for radio joint audience research. It is the official institution in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. 

Nrs which stands for National readership survey is the UKs most authoritative and valued audience research. The survey covers over 250 of Britain's newspapers and magazines. 

We know what quantitative research is, but how effective is it? Quantitative research is really effective in my opinion as we get a wide scale of statistics of the questions that are going to be asked, so an institution knows the exact numbers they are looking for. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion to all the questions above we can say that understanding your target audience is a major key role in any media institution whether it be magazines, games or movies. 

Some may ask why it is important? It is because if you don't have a clear understanding about who your target audience is going to be people may be watching the wrong things that is not suitable for them. 

To understand their target audience and what their audience want they could gather information from different types of research such as qualitative and quantitative. This will widen their knowledge about their audience.

I believe the best way of classifying audiences is knowing who your product is going to be aimed at, so we want to look for a target audience and know which gender we are aiming it to. This will bring out the best research.