What impact does the increase in global media have on media audiences?

In this essay I am going to talk about how global media has impacted media audiences throughout the world. As he media industry as a whole moves from targeting the culture within which it was produced to targeting global audiences and cultures, I am going to talk about how his has an impact on different audiences.

Firstly, the increase in global media means that smaller communities within less economically developed countries outside of Europe are exposed to Western ideals and aspects of Western culture. An example of this is the way in which British TV show ‘Pop Idol’ originally started in Britain but, following its success, became present on TV channels across the globe, mainly Slovakia, Greece, The Philippines and the Arab Emirates. This offers foreign audiences an alternative to traditional cultures and norms expressed within their own country by exposing then to British music for instance. However, whilst this can be seen as a positive effect I global media, it means that local cultures and traditions may become dilutes and cultural identity may become unclear.

The globalisation of the news, especially via the Internet now also means that media audiences are able to instantly access news about affairs within foreign countries which they may feel strongly about, for example politics, in Britain during the time Gadaffi was in power within Syria, there was a number of protests calling for him to be removed from power. This can cause social unrest within media audiences and society as a whole.

On the other hand, global media has allowed British audiences to get otherwise difficult access to other cultures, for example, the Bollywood film genre has allowed British audiences to get a deeper understanding of of foreign cultures mainly, the Muslim culture, this may also help to counteract the negative effects of ‘islamaphobia’ which currently exists within British society. However, again this runs the risk of again, diluting an already vaguely defined British culture.

The globalisation of news corporations such as Murdoch’s ‘News Corp’ means that western audiences are now instantly made aware if crises within developing countries, increasing the chance of foreign audiences donating money to help. A recent example of this is the collapse if the primark factory in Bangladesh where within seconds, British audiences were being urged to donate money. Lastly, the increase in global media has transformed passive British audiences to.active audiences as anyone around the world is now able to publish their own news stories through social media or.e-mailing their stories directly to news companies such as ‘The Sun’.

 

In conclusion, the most significant impact which global media has had on media audiences is that it has created a ‘global community’. Benedict Anderson puts forward the idea that global media has created ‘imagined communities where people who other wise may have nothing in common from the other side of the world share the same online experiences, interests and values, giving them a sense of community.

“Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

During the production process of both my foundation and advanced portfolios digital technology played a massive role in allowing me to develop my ideas and in turn, developing my creativity. This ability to create and develop my own media products, in a macro sense, means that the statement: “Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers” is likely to be true as, in the past, media producers, people responsible for the production of media products had complete control over what media consumers, the general public who are responsible for purchasing these media products, view or listen to.

Firstly, before the production of my foundation portfolio I would have been considered a media consumer as I had little experience of actually producing media products, which are aimed at a particular audience. The use of digital technology in the case of the production of my foundation portfolio was vital in developing my creative ideas in relation to what makes a high quality, professional media product. The Apple Mac provided me with applications such as the web browser safari which allowed me to research existing media products and make note of any features which I felt were effective in creating a desired effect. Another application which was made available to me through the use of the Apple Mac was IMovie, this application was perhaps the most important in allowing my to edit my media product in a way which shaped the feelings my target audience had towards what they had viewed after they had watched it. However, due to my lack of experience during the production of my foundation portfolio I found using these applications slightly complicated meaning that my creative ideas were not transferred to my work in the desired way, the implication of this was that my foundation media product may have lacked the professionalism exhibited during my research into existing media products.

During the production of my advanced portfolio I was able to utilize and develop my creativity due to my previous experience using the apple mac. I was able to combine my creative ideas for my media product with ideas taken from my extensive research into existing media products. The experience I gained from the use of the apple mac in the production of my foundation portfolio also meant that I had become more familiar with the functions of iMovie meaning that I was able to utilize every effect available to me based on what effect I wanted to have on my targeted media consumers.

This piece of digital technology, the Apple Mac and its applications iMovie and Safari are completely available to media consumers across the globe meaning that anyone anywhere who has access to an Apple Mac has the capability to become a freelance media producer, producing and distributing their own media products across the internet. In my experience, during the production of my coursework productions the development of my creativity has been substantial as I took inspiration from the Internet research I carried out and iMovie allowed me to apply this creativity throughout the production of my advanced portfolio especially.

Secondly, the primary research carried out before the production of my foundation portfolio may have been considered as limited as my questionnaire was only available to people I had direct contact with and knew personally, this means that the data I received may have been biased based on the participants opinion of myself. However, during the pre-production primary research I carried out before the production of my advanced portfolio I was able to create an online questionnaire as well as a physical questionnaire using Survey Monkey, this allowed me to capture responses from people across the world as it was accessible on the internet. Similarly, the use of Survey Monkey allowed me to use a very modern mobile phone application: the QR code reader, I attached the QR code to both of my ancillary texts as this was supposed to make it more convenient for a modern audience to take part in my questionnaire. However, I considered the use of the QR reader a failure as there were multiple issues with the mobile phone application meaning that people were unable to use it effectively.

In conclusion, the statement: “Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers” could be considered true in some aspects, however, equipment, which allows the production of high quality and creative media products is expensive meaning that many media consumers may not have access to this digital technology meaning that if media consumers do not have access to this technology they are unable to be turned into media producers. In terms of my own experience during the completion my coursework productions my creativity was developed massively through the use of digital technology, there was a distinct development in the creativity displayed in my foundation portfolio and that of my advanced portfolio, this was aided by the use of the apple mac and applications such as iMovie and safari which provided me with the capability to research and develop my creative ideas.

Audience effects theories – evaluation

In terms of media products, in this case, films/film trailers there are two main theories on what effect they may have on the audience who consume it, below I will explain these theories whilst relating them to the possible effects my final media product may have on its audience audience.

USES & GRATIFICATIONS – Katz and Blumler

Research carried out into media effects on the audience produced results which indicated that media audiences were not ‘Passive’, an argument common to most research carried out previously, to what they consumed in the media. Katz and Blumler discovered that audiences have several uses for the media they consume:

• Information: media products allow the viewer to find out information which they may have been curious to find out.
• Personal identity: Allows viewers to learn about themselves, their own behaviour and compare it to the behaviour exhibited in the media they have consumed.
• Integration and social interaction: Media products such as films allow the viewer to empathise with the characters and give an insight into the wider aspect of society.
• Entertainment: The audience use media products such as films to escape from reality or their own thoughts, media products allow the audience to relax and focus on something else rather than their everyday lives.

In my opinion, the audience of my final media product is likely to consume my film trailer as entertainment as there is little inclusion of big issues within society, the storyline is relatively fictional and unlikely to happen in the real world. Secondly, it is unlikely that the viewer will be able to identify with any behaviour displayed in the trailer as it, again, is a relatively fictional storyline.

TWO-STEP THEORY

This theory presents the idea that the powerful elite, opinion leaders such as editors, owners, journalists and social networks shape the way in which we consume media and, to some extent what goes into media, i.e. political or religious beliefs. In the case of my media product, my film trailer, there are very little political ideas expressed, however, there is a slight presence of  religious activity with the inclusion of a christian, symbolic, necklace.

Narrative theories in practice – evaluation

During the production of my film trailer i felt an important factor in creating an effective piece of cinematography was the following of narrative theory. This makes it easy for the viewer to follow what is happening in the trailer as well as making it apply to the existing film market and make it common to existing film trailers such as Taken and Harry Brown. In particular my trailer follows the narrative theory of Todorov, this is the idea that during most stories/fairytales there are certain stages in which the society represented is peaceful, in a state of equilibrium, the equilibrium is disturbed, there is a power struggle to restore peace and peace is then restored. restored. Below are the stages which Todorov mentions in his theory but applied to my own trailer:

The initial state of equilibrium:

In relation to the storyline of the full film this initial shot would not be considered an initial state of equilibrium as, in some ways, this signals the beginning of the anarchy and the disturbance of peace. However, in terms of the short trailer itself this is the only stage in which there is a sense of peace and calm, however, the sound used throughout this scene gives the idea that there is soon to be an event which disturbs this peace. Todorov presents the idea that in stories/ fairytales this state of peace is what the characters strive for throughout, in relation to my film trailer, the characters are constantly seeking a solution to their conflict, in this case, it appears from the trailer that the characters resort to violence to settle the matter.

The event/ disturbance:

Todorov points out that this stage of a storyline is the most important in shaping the rest of the story. This stage is where the equilibrium is disturbed, Todorov talks of a particular ‘event’ which disturbs equilibrium within the story, above is a screenshot taken from a scene in my trailer which applies to this stage of Todorov’s theory. At this point in my trailer the villains become angry as it appears the antagonist has deceived them, peace is disturbed and conflict becomes the main focus of the story.

The Power struggle:

 

At this stage in Todorov’s theory he talks about the characters within the story attempting to restore equilibrium by searching for a solution to the conflict or lack of piece an din the scene which the above image is taken from, the two characters are seen planning to take revenge on another character, their solution to the conflict. In this stage of Todorov’s theory, he talks if to forces battling to restore equilibrium, above shows two sceenshots from my trailer showing this stage in practice, the two forces plotting or finding a solution to restore equilibrium.

Media product evaluation

Trailer evaluation from JordanBell95

Part 1 – Evaluation – Class focus group/discussion

Evaluation – Focus group by jordanbell95

Above is a link to Soundcloud where I was able to upload my file as an MP3 in order to post the link onto my blog. The sound file contains a class discussion which took place after the class had viewed my main media product. The class were asked several questions based on their own opinions of my film trailer along with questions regarding ho effective the trailer was in its aims.

Poster with QR code linking to audience questionnaire

Magazine cover with QR code linking to audience questionnaire

Dead Men Running-Final trailer

Dead Men Running from Jordan Bell on Vimeo.

Ancillary texts – Final pieces

After the experimentation I carried out using Adobe photoshop with the different effects and font colours/styles I could use to create the desired effect on my audience which, in this case, is the building of tension, darkness and excitement, all effects common to my film genre.

Finally, I took effects from the magazine covers I had analysed from ‘Empire magazine’ such as the lighting in the background image in order to create a film magazine cover which creates the feeling of tension and connotes hostility and conflict using the influence of the colour red, this colour represents bloodshed and violence alongside the darkness of the suit and the left half of the main character’s face.

I used dark text which is an exact colour match of a part of the background image to keep consistency throughout the cover. I included a picture of an ‘Exclusive interview’ with some of the main characters who starred in the film as this creates a realistic feel to the magazine cover. With this image I also added a red effect as without this effect the image looked to real in contrast to the background image and simply did not look very professional. As you can see the shadow effect behind the name of the magazine is also an exact colour match to the background photograph which adds to the realism of the cover whilst also maintaining consistency.

Lastly, I added a ‘Sky box office’ logo onto the cover just to add to the professionally and realism of the magazine cover, this also is a trusted organisation which gives the impression that the reader can trust any statistics or reviews within the magazine surrounding the film.

Similar to the production of my magazine cover used Adobe photoshop as it would allow me to introduce effects and edit my original images to transfer influences from film posters I had deconstructed earlier in my blog.

Above is my final film poster which in many ways adopts some techniques I believed to be very interesting and influential with regards to how they make the audience feel. For example, the flame technique I used was adopted from the ‘Harry Brown’ film poster as it connotes anarchy and chaos which is very representitive of the theme of my film trailer. As you can see it is a charcter portrait. The character appears to have have his hood up, this connotes vulnerability and that the character is scared of something, again giving subtle hints as to his position within the film. It is important that the promotional package for the film reveals enough information surrounding the plot of the film to interest the viewer and leave them with the question: what happens next?. It is also vital that the promotional package keeps enough of the plot away from the viewer so that they are influenced to go and watch the film.