NEWS 26

Vice Media attacked for making tobacco adverts for Philip Morris

 

Vice Media has been condemned as “irresponsible” by campaigners for using its expertise targeting young people to make ads for tobacco company Phillip Morris. Vice’s role in making content for one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, maker of cigarette brands including Marlborough, was revealed on Thursday by the Financial Times. A Vice spokesperson confirmed that the work was carried out by Edition Worldwide, a separate company owned by Vice that produces content for advertisers. The ads will not carry Vice branding and will not run on Vice properties. They won’t be shown to people in the US or UK as both countries have strict rules prohibiting tobacco advertising. However, Caroline Renzulli from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids said the company should not be using its experience targeting young people to help the tobacco industry sell cigarettes.

• Edition was set up as a subsidiary of Vice UK called Talent Ventures last April and changed its name in January.
• Although a separate company, Matt Elek, Vice’s Europe Middle East and Africa chief executive, is listed as one of Edition’s directors

Forbes investigates after 'contributor' asks PR for £300 to write online profile

US business publisher Forbes has launched an investigation after a freelance journalist who claimed to be a contributor to its 1,800-strong digital network offered to write a company profile in return for a £300 payment from its PR agency. The journalist, who has not been named, asked for “someone to fund my time” saying they were “only paid a very small sum by Forbes which doesn’t stretch far”. The request was turned down by Rich Leigh and Company, a Gloucester- and Manchester-based PR company, which posted the email on Twitter.

• About 1,000 freelance journalists contribute to the Forbes platform, alongside a core group of full-time reporters, creating and self-publishing their content online under the Forbes banner.
• The freelance journalists are paid according to the amount of traffic they generate. A small handful have earned more than $100,000 a year but most are much smaller, typically around the $10,000 mark, the company has previously said.
• The message to the PR agency began: “Thanks for your email – I think this is an interesting company because of the reasons you share below – also the fact its model is topical and the story behind the founders sounds like an interesting journey.

NEWS 25

Guardian Media Group to cut 250 jobs in bid to break even within three years

Guardian Media Group is planning to cut 250 jobs – including 100 in editorial – and to restructure the less profitable parts of the company in a bid to break even within three years.As part of plans to cut operating losses, which amounted to £58.6m in the year to the end of March, the Guardian and Observer publisher is to give up its ambitions to turn the Midlands Goods Shed, a former train depot, into a large events space and will restructure the less profitable parts of the business. In total, the UK workforce is expected to be cut by 18%, or 310 jobs, as about 60 positions in both commercial and editorial remain unfilled. The company hopes all cuts will be made by voluntary redundancies.

• In total at GMG, some 100 jobs are earmarked to be cut from the 725-strong editorial workforce and 150 from commercial departments, support functions such as finance and human resources and other parts of the business.
• A spokeswoman for the company said there are no plans to close the Observer, the Guardian’s Sunday sister title.
• Half of all GMG costs relate to staff with the current global headcount of 1,960 understood to have grown by 479 since the last round of redundancies in 2012. The 210 people employed outside the UK are not expected to be affected by the latest round of cuts.

Guardian News & Media to cut costs by 20%

 

Read more

In a joint email to staff, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and chief executive David Pemsel said the “volatile media environment” had led to an “urgent need for radical action”.

Independent, Mirror, Express and Star suffer sharp fall in traffic

The Independent, Mirror and both of Richard Demond’s titles, the Express and Daily Star, suffered sharp falls in daily traffic in February, as most of the UK’s press saw declines in online visitors. The decline follows a surge in digital readership between December – traditionally a weak month due to holidays – and January during which coverage of the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman will have attracted international readers. Only the Sun, which dropped its paywall at the end of November, and the Guardian recorded increases in daily average visitors during the month, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday. All the major national newspaper sites experienced year-on-year growth exceptMail Online, which was down slightly by 2.2% but is still by far the largest site with an average of 14.4m unique browsers a day.

• The Independent’s fall in average unique readers will be especially concerning as the paper is moving to a digital only future when it scraps its print editions this month. On Wednesday the independent launched a new subscription app costing £12.99.
• Meanwhile the picture in print remains bleak, with the vast majority of paid-for national newspapers recording declines, led by the Sun on Sunday whose circulation fell by just over 5%.

Independent NDM case study: Up-to-the-minute web research

Film streaming and downloads to overtake box office in 2017

The study says that revenue from electronic home video (ie streaming and downloading films) will outstrip physical media in 2016, and that the market for physical media will drop from $12.2bn now to $8.7bn in 2018. They also predict that in 2017 electronic home video will overtake the traditional cinema as the biggest contributor to total film revenue in the US, reaching a total of $17bn the following year – double the $8.5bn the sector currently generates.

That's not to say the multiplex is under threat – PwC predict a 16% increase in ticket sales over the next five years. "People still want to go to the movies, especially the big tentpole films," said Cindy McKenzie, managing director of PwC's entertainment, media and communications arm. She also pointed to the cheap and easy distribution allowed by digital media as being a major cost saving: "The amount of money that you're making per transaction may not be the same, but it is cheaper to distribute things digitally."

Streaming deal sees cinema giant bucking tradition and taking on Netflix

Two giant North American cinema chains have decided to disrupt tradition by allowing Paramount Studios to offer a couple of trial titles to home viewers a few weeks after they appear in theatres, according to industry website Deadline.

US chain AMC and Canadian company Cineplex have agreed to let the studio make horror sequel Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and zom-com Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse available via video-on-demand (VOD) just 17 days after the films are shown on fewer than 300 cinema screens. The Hollywood Reporter says this could potentially shorten the period between cinema exhibition and home viewing from four months to six weeks.

Movie downloads: Are you sitting comfortably (and legally)?

According to the British Video Association, the market for legal downloads of films more than doubled from £35m to £78m in 2010, while rental-style digital services grew in value by £5m to £205m last year

The film industry's hope is that the growing number of legal sites offering affordable (and even free) downloading and streaming of movies will mean consumers will abandon dodgy filesharing sources, which still account for the vast majority of downloads.

"While there are many websites that allow consumers to download and stream films illegally, the internet is full of cheap (and free) legal film and TV if you just know where to look," says a spokesperson for the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness, the body set up to tackle film and television copyright infringement in the UK.

YouTube signs deal with Paramount Pictures

YouTube has reached a deal to screen films from Paramount Pictures in the US and Canada, meaning the web channel now has agreements with all six major Hollywood studios bar Twentieth Century Fox.

The contract means users of the channel will be able to stream more than 9,000 Paramount titles including Hugo, the Transformers films and classics such as The Godfather. The deal comes on the same day as UK service blinkbox announced that it has reached an agreement with Disney to screen the studio's films. The channel is seen as a competitor to services such as Netflix and LoveFilm, along with YouTube, in Britain.

"Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest movie studios on the planet," YouTube's Malik Ducard, said in a statement to the LA Times. "We're thrilled to bring nearly 500 of their movies in the US and Canada on YouTube and Google Play."

YouTube also has agreements with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Studios in North America. The deal with Paramount is all the more remarkable because of the studio's attempt last October to revive a long-standing $1bn legal battle with YouTube over allegedly unauthorised clips from TV shows shown on the website. No verdict has yet been delivered in the case.

Movie piracy: threat to the future of films intensifies

the movie industry excels in selling dreams. But since the dawn of the digital revolution, there is one narrative they've consistently and conspicuously failed to sell: that piracy is theft and consumers who indulge ought to feel guilty about it. Recent research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft costs the UK audiovisual industries about £500m a year.

Given such scale, why has that the message failed to sink in? "There's a perception that it's a victimless crime," says Mark Batey, chief executive of trade body the Film Distributors' Association. "But it's not. There are just a handful of super successes every year among hundreds of movies that are brought to market. And when a film is copied or made available online, it reduces the value of that film around the world."

This, says Batey, can be particularly detrimental to the independent film-maker who may have spent years raising money for the film and may have had to remortgage their house.

Former lobbyist and US senior government official Jean Prewitt agrees. "The impact of piracy tends to play out differently and arguably more immediately on the independent sector than it does on the studios," she says. "The indies are totally dependent on local distributors in all countries to take risk and invest in the making of a film before it is made. This is how these films get financed."

Independent NDM case study: Media Magazine research

The Relationship Between Audience and Institution

MM52

In the early 2010s, on line streaming services offered audiences documentaries, films and box-sets that they could subscribe to and watch on demand. This has provided access to older media products, and to products not originally broadcast by the subscribers’ local institutions.

Institution And Audiences In The Digital Age:

As the digital landscape has developed, audiences’ relationships with institutions have continued to change. Audiences now have more freedom to access media products when they choose, rather than when they are told. Mobile technology allows audiences to carry TV programmes, films, music and all that is on offer on the internet on tablets and smartphones. Modern audiences now expect to be able to communicate directly with institutions, and to be able to construct their own media products for themselves. The ability to download and/or stream films and music on demand has led to a change of attitudes regarding media products; contemporary audiences do not see them as having much monetary value, since they are so widely and freely available.

SOLUTION:

The movie industry has invested enormous sums of money into 3D  technology, in order to encourage audiences into cinemas.

Spot(ify) the Difference

MM53

Spotify explains,the free tier that 75% of users are experiencing contains adverts, all of which advertisers have paid to place there. This revenue all goes into Spotify’s coffers, as do the subscription fees for the paid tier, and it pays 70% of the overall revenue they collect to rights holders – in other words, to the artists. According to its figures, the amount of royalties that Spotify pays to artists doubled from 2013 to 2014, from half a billion to a cool billion US dollars.

With the news that 50 million songs were streamed in January 2015 (double the previous January’s), and that from February 2015, the UK album chart (as well as the singles chart) now factors in streams, the business models of platforms like Spotify, and indeed YouTube, will be incredibly important – and increasingly under scrutiny – as the landscape changes permanently and streaming becomes the norm. Whether all artists and all labels – majors and indies – get fairly recompensed is a question that lingers.

Too much information:Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

MM32

Audience viewing habits have changed beyond all recognition due to the availability of on-demandTV and digital recording and streaming. Viewers can watch shows when it suits them, and issues like timeslot winners, overnight ratings and shareholder/advertising pressure (ironically, issues discussed in Studio 60) could completely change.

Making the most of your AQA MEST1 multi-platform case study

MM33

E-media – could include:

• Webisodes
• UGC in YouTube (parodies, fan-videos etc.)
• Streaming or downloadable trailers
• Review sites
• Official marketing sites
• Fan-constructed sites, fiction-related 
• social networking, blogs, podcasts etc.
• On-demand/download services
• Star/actor sites
• Fan fiction
• Forums/chat-rooms
• Online databases
• TV/film tie-ins with gaming

Wedding-watching

MM37

26.2 million unique UK viewers watched Kate and Wills wed live across five host channels (BBC1, ITV1, Sky News, Sky Living, and the BBC News channel) – fewer than for 1981. BUT ... with modern online coverage factored in, BBC statistics suggest that iPlayer and online streaming pushed UK figures past 34 million – even though BBC streams crashed due to an overload of viewers attempting to access coverage.

New Ideas for Media Studies needed

MM44

American Networks such as CSI and Lost and the more adult-oriented extended narrative drama created by cable networks such as The Wire, The Shield, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. DVD (replaced in part now by streaming and downloading) was crucial in the development of these shows: the box-set allowed audiences to watch complex narratives at their own pace, and the revenue from sales fed into producers’profits.

A Digital Technologies Case Study: PRIMEWIRE.AG

MM47

One of the UK’s most popular linking sites for streaming films and TV shows  is Primewire.ag.

Primewire.ag, reportedly hosted in Estonia, is an aggregator of video streaming websites. In other words it offers users the ability to search for films and TV shows, then provides them with a list of links that forwards them to another website, streaming the content to their browser without the need to download it to the hard drive. Primewire.ag does not host any copyrighted content themselves, but makes it easy for audiences to find it.

Primewire.ag is funded by advertising.Little in the way of officially published information exists on advertising revenues for Primewire.ag; but one english and media centre | February 2014 | MediaMagazine 37 per 1000 views of a film or TV show. Whilst this sounds barely worth it, these $1s or $2s can add up for a dedicated link sharer. Torrentfreak.com interviewed one such user who  allegedly owns links to 30,000 films and  TV shows spread across 12 different  file-hosting sites, and claimed to making a good living from it.

The links appearing on the website are provided by other users. You may wonder what motivates some users  to spend time providing links to films  and TV shows, and the answer is very simple: money. A user can either simply find an existing stream of a film or  TV show on one of the ‘cloud storage’  streaming sites such as PutLocker or  Sharesix, or they can upload it there  themselves, then place a link to it on  Primewire.ag. At that point, the user  ‘owns’ the link, and they can collect a  small share of the advertising revenue generated from that page.

Independent NDM case study: Media Factsheet research

Broadcast News

Contemporary Issues and Debates

Digital news technology has revolutionised news broadcasting, by providing sharper pictures, increasing the volume of programmes, live news streaming of breaking news stories while also allowing audiences to interact with news institutions. The BBC, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five all use text and e-mail voting and opinion polls as a tool to measure audience interest and participation. ITV also have a section in their afternoon news that relies on viewers voicing their opinions via mobile video messages. News is now available 24 hours a day on both the internet and digital channels. Terrestrial channels offer 24 hour news on TeleText services and their optional digital news stations. Because of its accessibility 24 hour news has made breaking news and current affairs a regular event in everyday life.

Cross Media Case Studies

Since the late 1990s another media platform, e-media, has provided new opportunities for media producers to raise awareness of their products, create positive audience reactions and in turn maximise their potential for success. The contemporary media landscape now means that a text exists in multiple formats across many media platforms and all these elements combine to draw the audience in and provide different audience gratifications. In addition, the web allows audience members to get involved and user generated content can also play a part in the way the audience accesses a text. Add to this the increase in downloading media texts, watching texts on new hardware such as mobile phones, streaming video, the rise in on-demand services and even DVD, it is clear that in the last few years the way audiences access media texts and the way they interact with them has changed enormously.

Film and TV

Have used a range of traditional methods of advertising and emedia has provided ways for them to broaden the accessibility to the marketing and provided new ways to generate interest in products. Trailers and E-Media
Traditionally film trailers were seen by cinema audiences and then, as the film was released, television audiences. Trailers for TV programmes were limited to broadcasts in carefully selected television slots. The introduction of home video and, more recently, DVD gave promoters another outlet for trailers which act to increase the number of viewers reached. DVD technology went one better than video. It was possible for the video viewer to fast-forward through a set of trailers to get straight to the feature film. Some DVDs, however, are coded so this is not possible. This effectively forces the viewing of the trailers. It is now common for a television
series to be bought and viewed as a box set so television production companies have a new outlet for the promotion of other television programming. E-media also allows trailers to reach more people. Trailers are often released via official websites and community sites such as MySpace and YouTube have also been used to release trailers to the public. Many major films now have long running media campaigns where several trailers are released over a period of time with each trailer acting to raise and maintain interest in the forthcoming film.

What is New Media?

New Media and Institution

Developments in technology have proven both beneficial and problematic for the industry. In terms of distribution costs digital format is much cheaper and more easily transported older formats. Take for example the cost of distributing film reels as opposed to a disc or the ability to target huge numbers of people on the internet without distribution costs. Institutions like the B.B.C intend to be completely digital by 2010 and this will mean huge reductions in tape costs as well as better quality productions. Some cinemas are also experimenting with both showing digital film on screen whilst streaming live on the internet, which would change the whole cinema-going experience.

Lady Gaga and The Music Industry

Lady Gaga offers a new business model by successfully combining traditional industry practices (being signed to and financed by a major record label) with new media forms. She utilises the power of a major conglomerate whilst embracing the development of digital technology. Since the Gaga phenomenon began, her music has been available to access for free via streaming on her many online profiles, including those on Vevo and Myspace. Rather than reduce record sales, this move has proved financially beneficial for the institution as fans are also paying to download the music via iTunes.


The rise in digital technology has seen an increase in online video consumption. This can create free word of mouth for producers, with the number of viewings per video providing a sign of audience engagement with a product. Fans can view videos on YouTube and share clips with other fans by embedding them into blogs, Facebook or MySpace. Fans can leave video comments, post a video response or spoof and upload music to their own social network profile. These forms of user generated content illustrate the changing relationship between producers and audiences in a move towards a ‘demand led’ music industry where fans themselves have the power to influence what is produced.

HBO Case Study – How funding models

impact the construction of texts

US TV Institutions: Network and Cable Broadcasting and Production

1. Network Broadcasters: 
These are broadcast and production companies that are freely available across America. They produce their own shows and also buy in shows produced by other production companies. They broadcast a range of programmes including movies, entertainment, sports, game shows, reality television and news. The US Networks broadcast across the whole of America and the ‘big three’ are NBC, CBS and ABC. Their main funding is through advertising and in this way they are similar to the UK commercial channel ITV. Mass appeal is crucial to the success of a network programme as large viewing figures help sell advertising space at a higher price. Successful network programmes will be sold internationally which generates more income and a secondary income comes through the advertising attached to streaming ‘on demand’ programming and, in some cases, DVD sales.

Film Regulation

The Future

While the certificates issued by the BBFC are relatively easy to enforce at the door of the cinema or over the shop counter, the internet presents a huge problem for the regulation of film. The rise of online streaming sites, illegal downloads and the increased ease with which film can be bought mail order from abroad though the internet, mean that it will be increasingly difficult to stop audiences watching unregulated films in the future. In addition, genre films need to develop and change to maintain audience interest. The horror genre has now become so extreme in its depiction of violence and gore that films are being produced that test the limits of acceptability.

The recent development of the so-called ‘torture-porn’ sub genre of horror is a case in point. Such films are criticised as little more than extended depictions of torture with little in the way of narrative to provide context and meaning to the horror. Examples of the genre could be said to include Hostel (2005), Saw (2004) and Captivity (2007) although many of the film makers would deny that their films deserve the label. Defenders of A Serbian Film (passed at 18 by the BBFC in 2010, albeit with over 4 minutes of cuts) have argued that the film uses metaphor to explore the nature of man’s existence in a post war society and that the film can also be read as a parody of the Serbian film industry. Critics of censorship would argue that films have always tested the limits of acceptability of society at the time they were made and can often look tame after time has passed. However, the sheer weight of graphic imagery in the film has lead to accusations that the film is depraved and likely to cause harm. As with many films, the fact that the film will carry different meanings for different audiences makes working out how to treat it a very difficult decision.

Audiences in the Digital Age

Audience Behaviour

Digital media has provided more choice in terms of how and when media products are accessed. Live TV viewing and attendance at cinemas is in decline. Social networking has replaced institutional based media for some whilst others access media products in alternative ways, such as streaming on-line, downloading or DVD/ Blu-ray. iPlayer allows BBC television programmes to be downloaded to a mobile device which can then be viewed anywhere and at any time. Viewers are no longer tied to schedules or locations. In addition, digital media has allowed audiences to have a more proactive relationship with institutions and they can be seen to be much more active than in the past. Audiences can be seen to have more of an impact on production and can even be part of the production process themselves. Some see this as a positive move that reduces the amount of power held by institutions. 

For example:

• Audiences have easy access to the means of production. Videos can be made and edited at home and uploaded to YouTube. Music can be produced at home and made available via social
networking where it can be sold or offered for free download.

• Audience interactivity in reality programming can be seen as being part of the production process. Audience votes select who stays and who is eliminated from programmes such as Big Brother and The X Factor. Audience choices can be seen to be casting choices and these selections direct the narrative direction of the programme. I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here allows the audience to select who from the cast ‘deserves’ punishment and they control the celebrities’ experiences in the jungle.

Netflix: an Internet Television Network

They were not launched in the UK as a service until 2012, although awareness of the brand grew as a result of their success in streaming original programming and support of independent film distribution. They describe their institution as “the world’s leading internet television network” and much of their development has impacted audience consumption of television.

Like Northern Europe’s LOVEFilm, Netflix requires users to subscribe to the service via the company website. The user pays a monthly fee, and can then stream unlimited films and TV programmes instantly. Netflix offer the streaming across a range of devices, including TVs and tablets. Netflix also allows users to log into multiple devices, meaning that login details can be shared within family or friendship groups. Netflix also encourages users to rate the programmes and films they stream, enabling Netflix to make recommendations to the user.

What makes Netflix different?

The streaming market is increasingly competitive, as the technologies used to stream VoD become ubiquitous within society. DVD rental shops have lost their market share, with many going into administration (Blockbusters being a notable recent case). Alongside Netflix, users have various options including LOVEFilm, Amazon Instant Streaming, NOW TV (Sky TV’s offering), as well as the more independent Mubu and Curzon On Demand. Netflix seeks to maintain its popularity with subscribers through increased personalisation.

Future of Television?


Netflix have established a new and secure model for on-demand internet streaming of television products. Netflix have made it known that they are keen to develop their own content rather than bulk-buying in existing content; current contracts with Nickelodeon and MTV do not look as if they will be renewed. The bulk of British television on-demand is focused on catch-up, although there have been some forays into online exclusive premieres – namely Bad Education and Some Girls, both BBC3 – and the comedy Impractical Jokers was commissioned by BBC3 following an online pilot. In this way, it may seem as if on-demand streaming may offer an extension to the viewing experience, as opposed to its immediate death.

Television and Social Media

In recent years, it has become widely accepted that audiences for live broadcast TV are in permanent decline. The increased popularity and ubiquity of Sky+, DVD, video on demand, internet streaming, BBC’s iPlayer, amongst other new media and technological developments, has enabled audiences to consume across many institutions and platforms. These platforms also offer audiences to “time shift” their viewing, and construct their own TV schedule. That is to say that they can watch their favourite shows at a time of their own choosing, not when the schedule dictates.


However, while it is unlikely to reverse the downward trend towards live broadcasting, recent developments in emedia have forced us to look again. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are having a big impact on the way audiences consume and relate to television programmes, especially in the reality TV genre. Viewers are increasingly turning to social media to enhance their viewing by sharing the experience with other users via phenomena such as the “tweetalong” or “live-blogging”. Social media is also an important way for shows to market themselves and build an audience in the face of increased competition.

Broadcast Fiction Case Study: Breaking Bad

In the UK audiences found it was difficult to watch the show. The first season was broadcast on FX - a cable channel - and it was later picked up by Channel 5 but the later seasons were never shown by a UK broadcaster, so British audiences grew through the purchase of DVD box sets in the first instance and then later via Netflix. Whilst audience anticipation grew for the final episodes of the series, Netflix made all previous seasons available to stream, allowing the existing audience to remind themselves of past events and, most importantly, allowing new audiences the opportunity to catch up. By the time the final season was broadcast in the US, Netflix were reporting that many people were subscribing to the streaming service primarily to have access to the show. The success of Breaking Bad was being assisted by Netflix and in turn the streaming service was promoted by the show.

Identity and Film

Multiple Identities

In the modern world, where we have so much ready access to films through DVD collections, streaming and TV, it is possible for audiences to consume a wide range of films and to identify with a huge variety of role models. We could suggest that film audiences are unlikely to use film as a way of constructing one single unified identity. Rather, people will use different films at different times to construct multiple identities. For example, a civil rights campaigner who identifies with a film such as 12 Years A Slave may also be a keen singer and identify with the
characters in School of Rock who are using music as part of their identity. The audience for these films need not be separate groups of people, but the same people who have a range of aspects to their identity. (Think back to your answers to the TST earlier). A productive area for a research case study may be to research the audiences for films, rather than investigate the representations in films themselves to find out what different films mean to different audiences.