LESSON 20: VLOGGING A DEAD HORSE?

This lesson we're going to explore some of the issues that come under the 'wider contexts' umbrella. These ideas are focusing on contemporary media debates and the impact of media activity on the world around us. in simple terms, where the theory meets the reality.

And it gets messy.

So, by approaching some of the issues and seeing how media theory might be applied, we can both understand the deeper complexities and make some interesting connections.

This lesson it's the future of TV. Not just the usual techno-babble, but how two recent events that made it into the media headlines might indicate where TV is headed in the next 10 years.

First, let's consider the Oreo Lickers scandal and get some sense of why it was not only considered such a serious breach of media practice but also a breach of ASA rules and even the civil law of this country.

First, let's look at the YouTube video behind all the fuss.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-tell-fans-paid-adverts-asa-rules

The Dan and Phil video featured on their YouTube channel - a channel with over 2.5 million subscribers. The issue was that the advert was required to inform audience that it was a paid for spot; it was made by the boys because they were being paid by Oreos to do so. The aim of the spot was to promote the brand identity of the product [and increase sales of Oreos].

Whilst there is nothing wrong with a high-profile channel or celebrity using their audience power to market a product [and make money for themselves] it is required that they should make this clear to audiences. Very clear. To not do so is to deceive audiences who might view the brand or product differently if they were aware that money was exchanged for the positive exposure. This was felt to be a particular problem/issue given that the majority of the audience for the Dan and Phil channel is young people, specifically children [and thus seen as very vulnerable to media manipulation].

The second point might be what it tells us about the changing patterns of media consumption. 

The Dan and Phil channel attracts many more youth viewers than BBC or ITV youth output. This means that not only do they have a bigger reach than Children's BBC but that they are much more desirable to advertisers eager to gain access their [potentially] lucrative audience.

The following article [extracted from media guardian at link below] shows that this is of great significance because it reflects a growing change in patterns of media consumption that is generational and one that is moving at an ever faster pace. This changes the whole idea of media platforms and media access. the following is of huge significance to SECTION B IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY and also to how we must approach SECTION A.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/25/teenagers-watch-tv-half-adults-ofcom-report

This research found that there were widespread differences between HOW children and adults watched TV not just in WHAT they watched.

Tweens and teens watch just half the amount of live TV as adults each day, and choose to “top-up” viewing by watching clips on services such as YouTube, Vimeo and Vine, according to new research by the UK media regulator.

Ofcom says children aged 11 to 15 watch about 1hr and 32min of live TV per day, compared with the average adult’s 2hr 58min of viewing.

Instead, older children are supplementing their TV viewing by turning to sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Vine, as well as watching clips posted on Facebook or Twitter and news websites.

 11 to 15-year-olds are watching an average of 33 minutes per day of short online video clips.

This accounts for about a fifth of total daily viewing - which includes live or recorded TV programming, on-demand or streamed TV and DVDs - of just under three hours.

The report highlights a clear generational digital viewing divide, with adults watching a daily average of just 5 minutes of online video – a sixth that of children – accounting for just 2% of total daily viewing.

Adults watch an average total of 4hr and 17min of video content a day. This is dominated by live TV, which accounts for 70% of that time (2hr 58min).

Almost a quarter (22%) of 11 to 15-year-olds said some weeks they did not watch any live TV.

Ofcom’s research also finds that the digital age gap extends to the use of mobile phones, with children more likely to use social media and instant messaging services such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber than to make a phonecall.

Just 25% of 11 to 15-year-olds said that they talk on the phone at least once a week, compared to 83% of adults.

Children prefer texts, instant messaging and photo messaging, which takes up 56% of the time spent on their phones, communicating with friends and family.

Older children also spend twice as long on social networking sites each day as adults - 52min compared to 25min.

Email has also dropped out of fashion, with digitally connected 11 to 15-year-olds five times more likely to use instant messaging than email each week.

The rise of digital music services such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple’s iTunes is also proving a challenge to the live radio industry. More than 50% of the average 11 to 15-year-old’s weekly listening time is spent on digital music, either streamed or stored on a device.

While 40% of 11 to 15-year-olds admit they tune in to a radio station at least once a week, they are spending just 15min doing so each day on average. This compares with the 75% of adults who tune in to live radio each week, listening for an average of 1hr 19min per day.

Ofcom also said older children are taking greater control over what they listen to compared to adults. Almost a fifth of tweens and teens stream music each week, compared to 13% of adults. Almost 45% listen to their own digital music (33% of adults), and they are twice as likely to watch music videos (22% to 11% for adults).

Older children spend just a fifth of their weekly listening time on live radio, while this takes up 71% of the average adult’s weekly listening habits.

LESSON 19: VLOGGING A DEAD HORSE?

This lesson we're going to explore some of the issues that come under the 'wider contexts' umbrella. These ideas are focusing on contemporary media debates and the impact of media activity on the world around us. in simple terms, where the theory meets the reality.

And it gets messy.

So, by approaching some of the issues and seeing how media theory might be applied, we can both understand the deeper complexities and make some interesting connections.

This lesson it's the future of TV. Not just the usual techno-babble, but how two recent events might indicate where TV is headed in the next 10 years.

First, let's consider the Oreo Lickers scandal and get some sense of why it was considered such a serious breach of media practice but also ASA rules and the civil law of this country.

First, let's look at the YouTube video behind all the fuss.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-tell-fans-paid-adverts-asa-rules

The Dan and Phil video featured on their YouTube channel - a channel with over 2.5 million subscribers. The issue was that the adverts was required to inform audience that it was a paid for spot; it was made by the boys because they were being paid by Oreos to do so. The aim of the spot was to promote the brand identity of the product [and sales].

Whilst there is nothing wrong with a high-profile channel or celebrity using their power to market a product [and make money for themselves] it is required that they make this clear to audiences. To not do so is to deceive audiences who might view the brand or product differently if they were aware that money was exchanged for the positive exposure.

The second point might be what it tells us about the changing patterns of media consumption. 

the Dan and Phil channel attracts many more youth viewers than BBC or ITV youth output.


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/25/teenagers-watch-tv-half-adults-ofcom-report

LESSON 18 : IDENTITIES -WHO I AM

What is the most important part of your identity?

Is it your sex, your race or ethnicity, your sexual orientation, your class status, your nationality, your religious affiliation, your age, your political beliefs?

Is there one part of your identity that stands out from the rest, or does your identity change depending on who you’re with, what you’re involved in, where you are in your life?

Key concepts

Identity is a socially and historically constructed concept. We learn about our own identity and the identity of others through interactions with family, peers, organizations, institutions, media and other connections we make in our everyday life.
Key facets of identity—like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity—play significant roles in determining how we understand and experience the world, as well as shaping the types of opportunities and challenges we face.
Social and cultural identity is inextricably linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology.
The media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in society.

social construction, ideology, and identity

The answers such questions clearly depend on many factors. They define identities in singular terms (I am female), but also as multiple and intersecting parts (I am an African-Caribbean girl from Birmingham). Such questions lead us to consider the meaning of identity. Beyond “who am I?” these questions frame our individual identities in a broader social historical context and in relation to other groups. Part of understanding our identity means understanding how we fit in (or don’t) with other groups of people. It also means being aware of the fact that some groups have more social, political and economic power than others.

When we think about identity, we may too often focus on external markers (what we can see), on our biology or physiology, or how we were born. It is important as a student of the media to understand that our identities are comprised of ideas, ideologies, and ways of seeing the world around us. Our identities, therefore, are socially constructed, and the way we were born is only part of who we are.

As media students we need to ask where do these values or ideologies originate? The answer is not clear-cut. We learn and internalise these values over the course of our lives from family, peers, role models, organizations, government, etc. Our concern is to investigate and explore more fully the role that the media also plays in creating meaning, shaping our values, and defining who we are. These values at times seem to assume far greater power in our development. Possibly this is because they come from places of power, but also because we internalize them and take them for granted, because they seem natural and the way things should be, and further because they can shape the way we see and understand the people, objects, practices, and institutions in our lives.

Given the role our identity plays in the way we experience and accrue power, it’s important to understand the potential obstacles, discrimination and oppression that some groups experience over others. For some, the experience of being a particular sex or sexual orientation, from a particular racial or ethnic group or socio-economic class, involves recurring and even systematic or institutional prejudice. This prejudice can manifest in unequal opportunities, rights, or wages, as well as being stereotyped, marginalized or persecuted.

Identity and the media

The media can be both a platform of change, but also fundamentally a device that perpetuates ideologies and norms. In our study in AS we saw how the media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey ideas and values. Media representations, therefore, are not neutral or objective. They are constructed and play an important role in imparting ideology.

One question we might ask, then, is whether media produce ideologies or simply reflect them, mirroring what’s already happening in society. The line between mirroring reality and producing reality is difficult to discern.

Regardless of where ideologies originate, the media plays a key role in conveying ideas and giving them weight. With the media, we tend to see the same images and representations over and over again. Media rely heavily on genres, conventions and stereotypes. As certain images and representations are repeated, they become familiar and natural. But are these representations really “natural”?

Screenwriters, directors, casting agents, set and costume designers all make choices that help audiences understand who a character is and what they care about. They use clothing, hair and makeup, the way characters speak, and how they move as shorthand in their storytelling. It’s important to look at these elements of the story, rather than take them for granted. Think about the choices made in creating characters and telling stories (even in non-fiction news, documentary, and advertising). It’s also important to consider whether or not a character is round and whole or more of a caricature and stereotype.

If our identities are socially constructed, then they are not neutral. In fact, our gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and class can play a significant role in determining whether we have social, political and economic power, how we get that power, and how we use it. Our identity can fundamentally shape our life experience, how we’re treated, whom we meet and become friends with, what kind of education and jobs we get, where we live, what opportunities we’re afforded, and what kind of inequities we may face.

LESSON 17: IDENTITIES 11

Having looked at a series of Xmas adverts in previous session [see L.16], today we focused on the Sainsbury's Xmas 2014 advert.

The advert has aroused a great deal of interest already.

Some see it as a crude exploitative media product aimed at capitalisng on human interest for the sake of selling more of its products. it has obvious links to the dominant success of John Lewis in the Xmas marketing campaigns whose Xmas adverts over the past 7 years have seen the John Lewis advert become a media event in its own right [see L.17]

The DAILY TELEGRAPH on 14th November 2014 suggests just as much:

Sainsbury's 1914 Christmas truce ad exploits memory of Great War

Sainsbury's has gone too far with its latest Christmas ad based around the truce between British and German soldiers in no man's land, writes Andrew Critchlow

Sainsbury’s, is mired in its own form of 21st Century commercial trench warfare with the German supermarket Aldi. But by dramatizing the 1914 First World War truce between the “Tommy” and “Boche” soldiers to sell us more mince pies and turkey this Christmas, it has gone too far.

True, the company’s latest festive commercial is a beautifully shot piece. It could almost be a Hollywood remake of the classic film “All quiet on the Western Front”, except that the important message of war being the most pointless waste of young life is entirely washed into the background of history by the ad’s real purpose, which is to make Sainsbury’s money.

Of course, Sainsbury’s isn’t the first company to commercialise the horror of war to sell a product. Many television advertisements have featured scenes from battlefields, or military imagery, to market to a particular audience.

Beyond literature, the 1914-18 conflict – known as the war to end all wars – has also provided the backdrop and inspiration for musical artists such as Paul McCartney. But there was a message beyond pure capitalism in McCartney's song “Pipes of Piece”, from which Sainsbury’s and its advertising agency appear to have drawn their inspiration.

The supermarket argues that the advert, which shows a British soldier handing his hungry German counterpart a bar of chocolate while their comrades play football in no man’s land, is intended to reflect the theme of sharing at Christmas and act as a tribute to the spirit of humanity displayed in the unofficial truce.

The DAILY MAIL newspaper via its online editions stated:

Complaints flood in over Sainsbury's Christmas in the trenches advert: Viewers' anger over use of WWI to promote supermarket 

Advert has received 137 complaints since Wednesday with many objecting to use of WWI imagery to promote firm
While some think it's 'brilliant' others have called it 'cynical' and disrespectful to those who fought in the conflict
Three-minute clip shows famous meeting of First World War soldiers in no man's land on Christmas Day in 1914
Soldiers put down their guns and climbed from the trenches and exchanged gifts with each other 
In the advert two young men meet halfway across no man's land, shake hands and play a game of football
Sainsbury's says 'Christmas is for sharing' and in advert British soldier gives his German adversary chocolate
Chocolate bars will be sold in Sainsbury's up until Christmas to raise money for Royal British Legion  
Paul McCartney fans say advert is remarkably similar to his 1983 pop video for number one single Pipes of Peace
John Lewis has had one complaint for penguin ad from viewer worried it will encourage people to buy the animals

The recreation of one of the most famous moments from the First World War by Sainsbury's in its 2014 Christmas advert was branded both 'cynical' and 'wonderful' today.

Britain's third biggest supermarket said the commercial is a 'creative interpretation' of Christmas Day 1914 when British and German soldiers laid down their weapons and met in no man's land.

Sainsbury's reconstructed the trenches scenes with the help of a war historian to celebrate the supermarket's 20 years of support for the Royal British Legion, which runs the annual poppy campaign. 

While some called it moving and brilliant others were saying it was an 'exploitative' way for a big business to advertise itself.

The founders of clothing company Holroyd and Pickles tweeted: 'How do you think my great great grandfather would feel knowing his bravery had been reduced to advertising Sainsbury's?'

Juliette AdAstra added her concerns, saying: 'If there's anything more tasteless and cynical than the Sainsbury's Christmas advert, I've yet to see it'.

But Lydia Hamilton tweeted: 'The Sainsbury's Christmas advert is amazing, 10 times better than John Lewis' and Sam Carvalho wrote: 'Just saw the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert. That is definitely the best advert so far'. 

The METRO went with a different take:

Sainsbury’s has achieved the impossible; it has somehow succeeded in making a bearable Christmas advert.

I LOVE Christmas – I’m the kind of person to wind tinsel into my hair in a fit of festive madness.

I usually finish my present shopping in September, and spend the months before Christmas beaming good-naturedly at strangers in the street and listening to my bumper Christmas playlist on repeat (much to the resentment of colleagues and housemates).

All the same, I consider myself to be fairly cynical – I barked with laughter at the John Lewis advert, and probably wouldn’t purchase a penguin for £95. But the Sainsbury’s ad was so unlike a usual advertisement it won me over.

Incredibly well researched, it runs like a short film – it’s emotional and touching without being sentimental, and that’s probably because, having been co-engineered by the British Legion, it’s closely based on actual events.

Soldiers really did venture out of the trenches to play football with the enemy at Christmas; at a time when fear and misery reigned in the cold, squalid trenches, hope and goodwill won out.

LESSON 16: IDENTITIES - IMAGES OF XMAS

The Xmas campaigns by the UK's major retail stores have this year raised complaints - not as usual, regarding the mawkish nature of their message or the blatant exploitation of the 'pester power' of children turned on ever-suffering parents but for their increasingly crassness in the blatant exploitation of the Christmas message. 
At the end of it all, we must remind ourselves [as students of the media] that the basic intention of these adverts is to increase the footfall [and sales and profitability] in their stores and to secure their brand image with audiences. In this respect, John Lewis have become the leader in creating what has over the past five years become nothing less than a media event out of a simple message. For some, Xmas begins with the first sighting of the John Lewis advert.

There may be nothing new in this - we are aware that the conventional image of Santa owes as much to the American painter Haddon Sundblom who created a series of striking poster art images for Coca-cola during the 1930s that have come to define our image of Santa.

Follow the link below to a brief youtube biography of the artist

Haddon Sundblom

This year [November 2014], with less than seven weeks to go to the big day,  most of the UK’s consumer giants have already launched their Xmas advertising campaigns that will dominate commercial TV slots with elaborate feel-good adverts.

Marks & Spencer dropped their previous formula of using celebrities, opting for replacing them pair of magic fairies. Waitrose' advert features a shy girl baking gingerbread whilst Boots focuses on a more everyday idea of an exhausted nurse coming home after finishing her Christmas shift.

The John Lewis advert is a young child and his toys - a popular take for them based on previous ideas of snowmen and toys and fairy tale woodland animals. The Sainsbury advert has evoked a mixed reaction.

The Sainsbury's tribute advert follows the exhibition of thousands of ceramic poppies in the moat of the Tower of London to commemorate 100 years since the start of the Great War, which has drawn millions of visitors.

The Royal British Legion, said: 'One hundred years on from the 1914 Christmas truce, the campaign remembers the fallen, while helping to raise vital funds to support the future of living.'

The Head of Brand Communications at Sainsbury's, said: 'This year, we wanted to reflect that theme of sharing in our Christmas campaign through the lens of one of the most extraordinary moments of sharing in modern history. “The Christmas truce is an especially poignant story from the First World War that has been recreated on a number of occasions and we know it resonates with many of our customers and colleagues. We’ve partnered with The Royal British Legion to ensure we tell this story with authenticity and respect and we hope it will help keep alive the memory of the fallen that made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of their country.' 

Below, we take a look at a number of the higher profile adverts [Waitrose; Debenhams; Boots; John Lewis; Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's] 

[1] How does each advert attempt to evoke the spirit of Xmas?

[2] How is this assigned to each retailer - how do they attempt to anchor the brand to the idea, the message about the brand.

[3] Which is the most successful - why?

LESSON 15: IDENTITIES 9

LESSON 14: IDENTITIES 8

LESSON 13: IDENTITIES 7

LESSON 12: IDENTITIES 6

LESSON 11: IDENTITIES 5

LESSON 10: IDENTITIES 4

LESSON 9: IDENTITIES 3

LESSON 8: IDENTITIES 2

LESSON 7: IDENTITIES 1