The catch word for the digital world of new media is convergence. Convergence is the coming together of everything digital.

Definition

Any digital media can be transmitted by any suitable digital medium, such as a wifi broadband connection or mobile phone, so that all communications, text, audio, graphics, video, and broadcasting can be accessed instantly.

The iPhone, Blackberry or computer becomes a two-way communications module with access...

Associated Resources

Have a look at the following resources on MediaEdu:

Web Design Tutorials

The Internet and World Wide Web

Studying The Internet

Deconstructing Web Pages

History of the Internet 1 | The Computer

The history of the internet is not a straight-forward narrative since it was not invented by one person or any group of people. The internet emerged out of the combination of three distinct inventions: computers, networks and...

In this section we will look at some of the ways the internet can be studied. The first part looks at some of the impacts the internet has had on society, the second part examines some of the metaphors that have been used to make sense of what the internet is, and the third part looks at three ways in which the internet may be analysed through institutions, audiences and textual analysis.

Associated Resources

Have a look at the following...

Associated Resources

Have a look at the following resources on MediaEdu:

Web Design Tutorials

Studying The Internet

History of The Internet

A History of Online Social Networking

Deconstructing Web Pages

Definition

The above picture may look like an exploding galaxy or a human cell magnified many thousands of times but it is actually a map of the internet. The internet (short for interconnected network) can be...

MEST3 Critical Perspectives

MEST4 Research and Production

2012 Section B Topics: Representation and New Digital Media (3 Media Platforms) - 30 Week Scheme of Work

Overview

• AQA A Level Media Studies Overview

Scheme

• 2012 AQA A2 Media Studies SOW.doc

Concepts

• Analysing Text, Stimulus Material - Audiences
• Regulation and Censorship
• Critical Investigation - Viral Marketing
• Skills Development - Planning and Production
• Representation of Masculinity...[ read full article ] »
  

Explore the impact of Digital Technologies on Advertising

Key Teaching Areas

• The impact on Production (identify new digital forms of advertising and the effect on traditional media forms)
• Advertising and Media Convergence
• Narrative vs. Interactive Narrative (new technology)
• Changes to Target Audiences e.g. the Internet and Narrowcasting
• New forms of Distribution
• Case Study e.g. ad2-one – the relationship between text, industry and audience

Rupert Murdoch is probably the most remarkable media executive the world has even seen. He built his empire from his father’s newspapers in Australia to being one of the biggest in the world. His foresight, and strength of character, has led to revolutions in the production of newspapers, in Britain, and an immensely successful satellite television network. He did this through being a risk-taking entrepreneur who ruthlessly pursued his own...

When presented with the failings of their initial investigation the two top policemen in the Met didn’t resign immediately. However, it then came to light that an ex-NOTW deputy editor, Neil Wallis, had been hired by the police force as a PR-adviser whilst it was investigating the phone hacking. This embarrassing revelation (though they denied that Wallis had had anything to do with the investigation) led to their resignations.

Andy Hayman...

After the revelations that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked in 2002, it became public knowledge that phone hacking, at NOTW, had been going on for many years before 2006, when its royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and the private detective he’d used, Glenn Mulcaire, were arrested and sent to jail for hacking phones belonging to the royal family. Andy Coulson, the editor, had resigned in 2007, though he said that he was unaware of the...

Definition: Media Plurality

In a democracy it is important that people have access to a range of viewpoints in order to make informed decisions. This range (plurality) is a number of media organisations supplying news from different perspectives (see The Guardian’s editorial on the danger to media plurality if News Corporation had been able to own BSkyB outright:...

Definition: Convergence

Where a device can be used to access a variety of media texts. Because new media technologies (a phrase that is becoming old fashioned) are all digitally based, the medium of a text is irrelevant so, for example, an iPad can show films and television programmes; allow you to read books, magazines and newspapers; listen to podcasts and music and so on. Old media technologies would have required a film projector and a...

Fox News was launched in 1996 and is now the most-watched cable news channel in America eclipsing CNN, which pioneered the 24-hour rolling news format. In Britain broadcasters have to present the news in an unbiased fashion. In effect, this means anchors read the news in a more-or-less neutral fashion and contentious stories are presented as having at least two points of view. In America there is no such requirement.

Fox uses a different...

As a free market capitalist, Rupert Murdoch often eulogises the way competition between companies stimulates innovation and profitability (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PybFaMCn2qM). In 1989 he gave the keynote MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, where he argued for ‘freedom and choice, rather than regulation and scarcity’ (quoted in Keane 1991: 53). He insisted:

that market competition is the key...

The link between politicians and Murdoch was emphasised in 1995 when the new leader of the Labour Party, Tony Blair, flew to Australia to address executives of News Corporation. By the General Election, two years later, the Murdoch newspapers had switched their support from the Conservatives to Labour. However, it’s quite possible that the newspapers would have supported Labour without Blair courting them, as it was highly likely that Labour...

As noted above, the Press has an important function, as the fourth estate, in holding politicians, in particular, to account. Businesses, too, can find their conduct investigated, such as the famous Sunday Times investigation, in the 1970s, into Thalidomide, a tranquilliser drug that was found to cause birth defects. However, not all investigative journalism is in the public interest.

Under Murdoch’s influence the tabloid press had...

It is a measure of Murdoch’s foresight that he had purchased a satellite television station in 1983. This enabled his company to beat the British Satellite Broadcasting, a consortium consisting of established British media companies (Granada Television, Pearson, Virgin and Anglia Television) in launching the first non-terrestrial station in Britain. Murdoch has always enjoyed taking on the Establishment, whose vested interests always opposed...

London’s Fleet Street has long been synonymous with the national press because many newspapers were based in its locality. In 1986 Murdoch moved the printing of his newspapers, virtually overnight, from the centre of London to Wapping, in the East End. In doing so he circumvented the power of the print unions who had resisted technological change:

It is rare in history to be able to identify the precise date of a turning point. In the case...

Definition: Synergy

The concept that businesses in a corporation can be integrated in such a way that they are more than the sum of their parts; this can be achieved through exploiting properties in different media and cross-promotion. For example, Viacom’s popular Rugrats (1991-2004) cartoon ran on its Nickleodeon television channel and its Paramount Pictures produced the film versions (1998, 2000 and 2003), which could be advertised on its...

In a democracy it is recognised that those who represent the people must be held to account. The 18th century Parliamentarian, Edmund Burke, called newspapers the ‘Fourth Estate’ (after the Courts, Religion and Parliament) and they had a crucial role in ensuring that those in power didn’t abuse it. It is also recognised that the owners of news media may also gain too much influence so:

American and European policymakers and legislators...

Rupert Murdoch, who owned newspapers in Australia, took control of NOTW in 1969 after a battle with Robert Maxwell, who was also trying to buy the newspaper. William Shawcross, in his biography of Murdoch, summarised the conclusion of the deal:

It was a bruising battle in which almost everyone had lost something… Only Murdoch had won – he now had a beachhead in one of the most important publishing centres of the world. For him it was a...

The Rise (and Fall?) of Rupert Murdoch

‘I’ve been telling students for the past 20 years that concentration of ownership in the media is a bad thing, but then who gives any credibility to a Mickey Mouse subject like media studies?’ Patrick Russell (letter to The Guardian, 20 July 2011)

You may have seen on the news, in July 2011, a wizened 80-year old being attacked with a paper plate full of shaving foam at a Parliamentary hearing; if...

The Rise (and Fall?) of Rupert Murdoch

‘I’ve been telling students for the past 20 years that concentration of ownership in the media is a bad thing, but then who gives any credibility to a Mickey Mouse subject like media studies?’ Patrick Russell (letter to The Guardian, 20 July 2011)

1. Introduction

2. Murdoch Enters the British Newspaper Market

3. Murdoch Buys Times Newspapers: The Failure of Regulation?

4. Murdoch Goes to...

The term ‘EXCHANGE’ in the spec has worried students and teachers. Here is some help.

The spec says:

‘The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange’

The word exchange was used in the January exam 2011.

Here are some views on what it means from people who know on the OCR forum.

Brief Definition

Exchange:

The way in which texts are not only consumed by media...

Introduction

The need to target a ‘specific audience’ is a key issue for the ‘magazine industry’. Magazines are heavily ‘subsidized by advertising’ and the key to attracting a sustainable ‘portfolio of advertisers’ is the creation of a product that is desirable to their ‘target market’.

As a consequence, within the magazine industry as a whole, there are many magazines aimed at similar audiences because that ‘demographic...[ read full article ] »

Discuss the issues raised by an institution’s need to target specific audiences within a media industry that you have studied.

Introduction

The need to target a ‘specific audience’ is a key issue for the ‘magazine industry’. Magazines are heavily ‘subsidized by advertising’ and the key to attracting a sustainable ‘portfolio of advertisers’ is the creation of a product that is desirable to their ‘target market’.

As a...

These quizzes are best viewed in Firefox.

Firefox is an excellent alternative to Internet Explorer which is available free for both PCs and Macs.

Have a look at the following resources on MediaEdu:

Sue Crawte’s Web Design Tutorials

Rod Munday’s ‘The Internet and World Wide Web’

‘Studying The Internet’ and

‘History of The Internet’.