introduction to product

The basic elements of our ideas:

Advertising Question

Advertising Question 

Explain how representations in adverts are constructed to promote the product. Choose two of the adverts that you have studied 

 In the shelter advert there are certain representations that are effective in promoting the product. The adverts portray a variety of races, genders and ages. Therefore, by having a large range will appeal to all the types of audiences which will interest more people. The adverts are appealing to the target audience as they have used bright vibrant  colours that contrast with each other to catch the readers eye. By having the head line as big bold  writing is all over their faces shows that these people could be trapped behind something and will need our help to get them out. Such as, by donating for the shelter charity it could get people out of the bars (poverty).

The representations  in the advert that are constructed to promote the product is by using 3 totally different people, who the audience can Cleary see that they all are homeless but for different reasons. By having the people so close to the screen so the audience can just see their faces very personal as you can get a lot of emotions from peoples faces. Therefore, by having the close ups of their faces will shows the struggles and emotions that they are going through which can make the audience feel sorry for them which will them promote the product. Also, by having the colours black and red it could suggest blood and danger and therefore, living on the streets can be dangerous so, by having the fierce colours it encourages the audience to support the charity. 
The contact information is easy to read as it has been put in the colour white over a dark background. This could represent that by going towards the white writing and donating towards this charity it could turn the dark colours of black and red to white by having some life and light into their lives.

Question 2

Explain the political significance of the concept of 'press freedom' and its relationship to representative democracy. Why do you think freedom of the press is important? How much influence top you think the government should have about the things reported in the UK press?

Press freedom is significant as it gives media institutions the ability to produce stories in any political alignment that they want and also publish any stories they feel are in the public interest. This is important as it means the public can receive news stories that they need to hear, even if they damage the people's reputations. It allows all news to be given to the public so that we have all the information we might need about politics and economics as well as some celebrity stories in tabloids. Without press freedom we would live in a country with state censorship where the government controls what news we receive. This means that they could, if they wanted, only allow stories in their favour to be published. This links to representative democracy as we can see different political ideas that may not favour the government, if we had state censorship we would only see news in favour of them. The government should have no control over what is reported in UK press as we have a right to know what is going on in our country and the world.

Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation. Refer to The Guardian and The Daily Mail newspapers you have studied. (10 marks).
2. How are newspapers regulated and why do you think this is necessary?
The Government has a say of what media can be produced and media outlets have to follow a set of rules to pass through regulation. This is necessary because some media outlets might punish things that could offend a group/individual or could scare the nation into believing a particular belief or ideology. An academic idea that supports this idea is the Livingstone and Lunt Theory.

3. What examples of editorialised content would not fit 'impartial' television news (e.g. social or political opinion) from The Guardian and The Daily Mail print or online editions.

An example of editorialised content that wouldn't fit impartial news would be the Paradise Papers Story due to the contrasting headlines which clearly show their political affiliations. The Daily Mail shows their right wing ideology proposing that the Queen had been 'dragged' into the off-shore tax audiences, claiming her innocence. Whereas the Guardian used negative language such as 'controversial' and 'exploiting' connoting that the Queen was fully aware, this therefore shows their left wing ideology.

4.What examples of ownership models, e.g. The Guardian’s trust ownership and The Daily Mail’s proprietor model, could show the opportunities offered by the latter model for control by ‘press barons’.

Ownership models like the Daily mail’s proprietor model offer a prime example of how media can be controlled to influence public political views. Press barons like Rupert Murdoch, who controls most UK tabloids, can be seen to share his political opinions in each of his newspapers; this allows for an unfair opinion to be shared with the UK. 


5. How much power does the press have to shape political debate, e.g. the influence of proprietors on politicians to support policies promoting cross-media ownership or holding back from regulation.

The press can develop power through ownership of newspapers which consequently can shape political stances due to their ideologues and therefore political debate through the widespread circulation which has the power to influence politicians in their debates. The owners of newspapers can influence the editorial stance of a newspaper. Newspapers will also attempt to influence how the public vote in elections. It is important that newspapers stick to a code of conduct or rules set out by independent organisations in order to avoid this. If one large business or one singular man owns a company their ideologies can filter down into the papers. This relates to Hesmondhalgh's theory on cultural industries as DMGT (owner of the Daily Mail) also owns multiple other companies as shown above. This therefore shows the integration and conglomeration of cultural industries which follows the normal capitalist patterns seen in Hesmondhalgh's theory.


The paradise papers story coverage

Paradise papers story coverage 

Monday 6th November, the main headline covered leaked documents revealing the financial details of the super-rich. It outlined how many were allowed to keep money outside of the link in order to avoid paying tax.

The Guardian:
Media Language- has its own set logo for the four editions

'accused'- victimises the Queen, almost as though she is unaware of what is happening which makes her venerable.

'contraversal'- wouldn't be excepted from the Queen with her position in society.

'exploiting'- could be talking about the poor and how they are vunrable.

Large amount of copy- the yellow presents the paradise papers which catches the audience attention.

More stories about the current news issue to portray more evidence .

Media Industries-
negative language- 'accused' 'exploiting' 'controversial'
Left wing (broadsheet) socialist ideologies- puts interest to those involved.

Media Audience-
Left wing broadsheet newspaper socialist ideologies/ news values
This would appeal to its target audience, cause they believe this is wrong - this article presents a capitalist perspective/ ideologies.

Media Representation-
Palm trees and logos would suggest money and wealth
The wealth are always on holiday or spending money on luxury items.
This is supported by the 'money' icon logo, in the centre of the paper. This represented throughout the paper which is the idea of money.

ownership and regulation

How many organisations own national newspapers and do any companies own more than one title? 

Mirror Group - The Mirror

News International - The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times

Northern and Shell - The Daily Express

Press Holdings - The Telegraph

Pearson - Financial Times

Trinity Group - The Leicester Mercury

Both The Guardian and The Observer are sister newspapers so therefore, have the same political alignment of being left wing and produce very similar content. 

News International have ownership of the trio of The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times, and implement right wing views on each of the newspapers but their content does differ quite a bit, with The Sun being a gossip based tabloid newspaper and The Times and The Sunday Times are broadsheet newspapers, all of which are owned by News International who themselves are owned by British entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. After the negative attention the company received from the Leveson Inquiry, they subsequently changed their name to News UK. 

Considering more media industries are following the normal capitalist pattern of increasing concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer hands, this is leading to a smaller variety of opinions represented and a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity.

Ownership may be something that is a cause for concern in the UK because if one company hold too much power and owns too many popular news outlets then consumers will only be subjected to one opinion, rather than a variety like there should be. Small numbers of different owners of outlets mean that quality and creativity will be neglected when producing the news because the owners only have one goal in mind: profit.

Companies owning other media outlets:
The owner of Leicester Mercury is Trinity Mirror the largest newspaper company, they also own other newspapers like: Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday people they also own regional newspapers such as, Birmingham Mail,  Manchester Evening News and some other popular ones. 

Advertising

• What is being sold? Research company background, type of product and price.
• Who is the target audience? Explain.
• What representations are evident in the advert?
• Why have such representations been employed?
• In what ways do the adverts appeal to the target audience?
• Are the adverts successful? Explain your answer.

About old spice: 

Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice is the quintessential men’s grooming brand. With more than 70 years as an American icon, Old Spice is the authority on the male grooming experience and has leveraged this heritage to become the No.1 selling anti-perspirant/deodorant stick and body wash brand with guys of all ages. Old Spice brings authenticity, performance and confidence to male grooming and offers a wide product portfolio for today’s man, including anti-perspirants, deodorants, body washes, body sprays, after shaves and colognes. 

History of old spice:

The first Old Spice product, called Early American Old Spice for women, was introduced in 1937, closely followed by Old Spice for men in 1938. The Old Spice products were manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz. Early American Old Spice was developed around a colonial theme. When Old Spice was introduced, William Lightfoot Schultz was interested in maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme for Old Spice. Thus, sailing ships, in particular colonial sailing ships, were used as a trademark. Through continuous use and advertising, the various ships have become a valuable trademark identifying the Old Spice product for men. 

Price: Old spice price varies depending on the size and model of the deodorants, body washes and body sprays. The price range varies from £2.99- £10.99. 

Target audience: The target audience of this product is based on the age range 10-30's. This is because, the advert for this product shows an attractive man with only tight jeans on and he is talking about women and how this body wash will make you attractive. Therefore, if men see this advert and think that they want to be smelling  nice and feeling/ looking attractive towards women. Also, because the price range is quite low it it will appeal to the younger age because it is affordable. 

About Lucozade sport drink:

The product was first introduced in 1927 as 'Glucozade' by a Newcastle Pharmacist. In 1938 it was acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Beecham's and was sold to the sick as an energy drink called 'Lucozade'.

Until 1983 the product was sold as a carbonated, slightly orange-flavoured drink in a glass bottle that was sold by pharmacists. In 1978 it was rebranded as a 'pick me up' and then in 1983 it was sold as a sports drink. The company then switched to plastic bottles and sold a range of flavours.

Lucoazde is a popular sport drink used by many people in different sports. The target audience for this product would mainly be for people who do exercise on a regular basis. Lucozade is targeted at athletic people that participate in sports such as football. This is shown through different advertisements. For example, this advert targets footballers because a footballer is the focal point of the advert. The majority of the Lucozade adverts have males on them which shows the target is mainly men as well as athletes. The exception to this is the advert for Lucozade's 'Pink Lemonade' flavour which is advertised with a woman on the poster. In the advert, footballers are represented as drinkers of Lucozade. It presents Lucozade as being a healthy drink that is beneficial to athletes and makes them better at what they do.These representations have been employed in order to promote the drink positively to a wide range of people. Using a footballer appeals to football supporters and players, which is a vast amount of people.The adverts appeal to their target audience by using the face of a well-known sport's personality, this brings in customers that are fans of that personality and will therefore boost sales. I would say that this advert is not particularly successful because the majority of the advert is taken up by the face of Gareth Bale and there isn't a major part to do with the actual product of Lucozade. However, because of the colour scheme of the advert it is noticeably to do with Lucozade.

Shelter is a charity that give advice and support to people facing housing issues of homelessness. They have steam of solicitors that offer free legal advice and will attend court to help people who have either already lost their house or are facing eviction.

The target audience for the advert is people that may be or already face homelessness. This is seen where the advert gives website addresses and offers advice. However the advert is also targeted at people who are not facing either of these. It is targeted at these people so that they donate to the charity. This is made clear where the advert says 'to donate...' and gives a phone number. 

In the advert there aren't many representations as far as diversity, but it does represent that anyone could be at risk of homelessness because the people in the advert look like 'average' people; this may motivate people to donate because they may realise that it could be them in that position and so they want to help more.

The adverts appeal to the target audience because the large red writing instantly draws anyone in the read the poster further. This is important because the advert has a wide target audience consisting not just of people that need help from the charity but also of people that may donate.

I think the adverts are successful because they are emotive as it makes the people in the poster look vulnerable and the person reading it feel vulnerable. I think it would successfully make people aware that the charity is there to support those in their time of need. I think it would also attract people to donate because of the way the advert makes you feel.

The impact of technological change on newspapers

The Impact Of Technological Change On Newspapers

Task: 

1. Look at all of the UK news titles and research how the paywall is being used in an attempt to protect revenue and profits for these companies.

2. How do newspapers prompt readers to interact with their online news? Consider how they use social media to encourage reader participation.

3. Consider how you could apply Shirky's End of Audience Theories to online news products.

Publish your findings on to your blog.  

Technological change has seen newspaper readership decline, as audiences move towards reading news and current affairs via the internet. Rising printing and paper costs have pushed traditional news journalism to adapt. A newspaper titles offer a news product using the internet platform. These online newspapers mean less revenue because people do not need to pay to read information. To cope with this many titles have introduced a paywall (a way of charging audiences to read their content).

 The Guardian uses a paywall.The news platform asks for a £5 monthly fee to contribute however this is not compulsory. They allow you to subscribe to their website in order to 'fund and support The Guardians journalism' and therefore helps increase revenue. The Guardian also asks for generosity of its consumers. Because the paywall is not compulsory they ask their audiences to donate £1 to support The Guardian, this is also compulsory, but again thus gets fund the paper. The Guardian does not make their paywall compulsory because they want to 'keep their journalism as open as they can'.

It is possible to apply Shirky's End of Audience Theory with these online news websites and platforms as the consumers decide what news they want they want to view based on subscriptions. According to Shirky's End of Audience Theory behavior can vary across social media sites. An example of this is if someone is subscribed to a particular newspaper platform but another news story occurs from a different newspaper platform and is broadcasted and shared by peers, consumers are directed to read the story opposed to any other as it is available on another site, providing that the consumer becomes decisive and behavior is less predictable.