ABC - Audit Bureau of Circulation - independent body which provides circulation figures of newspapers and magazines for advertisers
ABCE - Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic - for electronic versions of above
Active audience - An audience who interact with the media product
Conglomorate - Large industrial corporation, usually involved in several different industries
Consumers - Term for media audiences which emphasises the commercial aspects of distribution and exhibition, thus production and CONSUMPTION of media texts
Convergence - Describes the comming together of previously seperate industries (computing, printing, film, audio etc which increasingly use the same or related technology and skilled workers.
Technological convergence - Describes the coming together of previously seperate technologies (computing, printing, video, film, telecomms etc)
Deregulation - The removal of government restrictions on media industries
Digital - Based on numerical information, distinguished from analogue
Distribution - How the product gets to the audience. Traditional vs digital. Distribution of online papers is via the Internet but it also available on different platforms i.e. mobile phone, text alerts, email. This is MULTI-PLATFORM distribution.
Globalisation - A process in which activities are organised on a global scale
Ideology - Shared ideas and values and how these ideas are related to the distribution of power in society. Media have a role in reinforcing or challenging the dominant ideology.
Institution - Used in media studies to refer to the social, cultural and political structures within which media production and consumption are constrained
Internet - The global 'network of networks' offering a range of services governed by different protocols, such as the World Wide Web, email etc
Liberalisation - the loosening of controls over media markets by governments
Market - The total of all the potential sellers and buyers for a particular product (and the number of products likely to be exchanged)
Marketing - The process of presenting a product to its target audience, the ways in which its positioned in its particular market
Mode of address - The way a text speaks to its audience
Moral panics - A sudden increase in concern about the possible 'effects' of media products
Multi-media - Referring to several traditionally seperate media being used together, e.g. sound, image and text on computers
Multi-platform - This can be interpreted as Multi-platform in terms of the convergence of different platforms i.e video, radio and telecomms and/or in terms of being distributed via different platforms i.e. Internet, mobile phone apps (API), podcasts, email, RSS feeds etc. Please try and distinguish which you are being asked to write about, if you can't then introduce explaining the there are two ways of understanding the term.
News agencies - Organisations which gather news stories and sell them to broadcasters and newspaper publishers
Niche Marketing - The idea that there are very small, but highly profitable markets which could support specialist advertising-led media products
NRS - National Readership Survey is teh organisation supplying information on UK readership of national papers and magazines
OFCOM - Regulator for the UK broadcasting and telecommunications industries
Passive Audience - An audience who do not/cannot interact with the media product
Production Practices - How is the product produced? Discuss new Guardian offices for example and the technology they have invested in to produce the multi-media, multi-platform guardian.co.uk
Public Relations (PR) Professional services promoting products by arranging opportunities for exposure in the media
Quality Press - The 'serious' newspapers - in the UK synonymous with broadsheet. Audience have a strong interest in politics and current affairs
Segment - To divide up a target audience into even more specialised groups which can be addressed by advertisers
Synergy - The combined marketing of products across different media and other products (in music, toys, Internet, and TV programmes, T-shirts, Theme Park rides and so on) which are often owned by the same corporation, such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the different parts
Technophobes - People who are afraid of new technology
Virtual - Something which is a representation rather than the real thing. 'Virtual Reality'
World Wide Web (WWW) The network of 'pages' of images, texts and sounds on the Internet which can be viewed using browswer software.
Mail Online: up nearly 75% year on year, and with monthly growth of more than 5%
Mail Online remained the most visited UK newspaper website in April, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic published today.
Associated Newspapers' website network had just over 2.3 million average daily browsers during April, a 5.33% month on month and 74.5% year on year increase. Mail Online also became the first UK newspaper website to top 40 million monthly uniques in April.
Guardian.co.uk was again the second most popular national newspaper website, with just over 1.8 million average daily browsers, and Telegraph.co.uk third, with just under 1.6 million.
National newspaper websites now use an average of daily visitor numbers as their headline measurement figure as it is felt to be more representative than a monthly user figure.
Newspapers struggled with print revenues and circulations in 2010 but continued to set the news agenda. Photograph: Sang Tan
Printed newspapers may be going out of fashion but the national titles were at the forefront of setting the news agenda throughout the year. Yet they often relied on online disclosures by WikiLeaks. Three of the year's major stories – the Afghan and Iraq war logs, and the embassy cables – were the result of the leaked data put up on the net. This not only provided rich material, it enabled them to fill endless pages with comment about the ethics of publishing it. Newspapers do like to have their cake and eat it.
It was also noticeable that the election's transformative moment came courtesy of a TV debate in which Nick Clegg emerged as a political contender. However, it was newspapers' response that boosted Nick Clegg's public image. There is little doubt papers still carry considerable clout despite falling sales.
Indeed, with audiences building online, they arguably have more influence than ever before. That's the positive side. The negative is that print revenue fell further, leading to reductions in editorial budgets. The question asked continually was how to fund quality journalism. Some owners and editors showed a touching faith in apps' game-changing possibilities. Among them was Rupert Murdoch, who also boldly dared to go where no publisher had dared to go before by introducing charges for access to his papers' websites. Paywalls have since been the year's hottest topic within the industry.
By contrast, the Independent – having acquired a new owner, Alexander Lebedev – launched a cheap sister title, i. He also showed that another funding model, going free, could work with the London Evening Standard. But the overall picture for print has been anything but bright. Circulations continued to slip away, especially from the daily regional titles, and there were more closures of weeklies. But predictions of complete meltdown did not come to pass.
The Guardian Media Group resigned from regional publishing altogether, departing from its historic Manchester base to sell out to Trinity Mirror. There were further indications that the Daily Mail and General Trust is also eager to dispose of its regional division, Northcliffe., having held talks with Trinity. The other two major regional publishers, Johnston Press and Newsquest, faced increasing journalistic opposition to their costcutting strategies. Further consolidation can be expected. But all eyes will be on the Murdoch paywall results.
Prepare bullet points under each of the following headings to be ready for just about any question in the exam. All bullet points should refer to the Guardian with notes on the rest of the industry where relevant.
PRODUCTION PRACTICES (Traditional and New Media)
MARKETING (AUDIENCE TARGETING) and SYNERGY - By which methods do the Guardian advertise their product? Do they own any of these companies? Who do the Guardian work with in a mutually beneficial arrangement? Twitter? Apple?
DISTRIBUTION METHODS (Traditional and New Media) New media distribution is MULTI-PLATFORM i.e. it is distributed via the internet and available on the paper's website via a PC or a Mac but is is also distributed via the iPhone App, RSS feeds, text alerts, email, Twitter and Facebook. - this is not even a complete list!
EXCHANGE - what is the point of exchange?
PATTERNS OF AUDIENCE CONSUMPTION - (Who are the audience, circulation figures, unique users, how and why do they consume?)
CONVERGENCE/MULTI-MEDIA
INTERACTIVITY - What does the Guardian offer on different levels?
If you get a question on PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION you will be assessed on your ability to illustrate patterns of production, distribution, exchange and consumption through relevant case study examples and your own experiences as audiences.
You should cover the following material in your response to the question: • Production practices which allow texts to be constructed for specific audiences • Distribution and marketing strategies to raise audience awareness of specific products or types of products • The use of new technology to facilitate more accurate targeting of specific audiences • Audience strategies in facilitating or challenging institutional practices
All the info you need to prepare paragraphs on each of these is on the blog. Ensure you understand what is meant by PRODUCTION PRACTICES, DISTRIBUTION METHODS AND MARKETING STRATEGIES, EXCHANGE, CONSUMPTION
The only info available at this time is from the Jan 09 exam and you can find all the info at: http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/gce/amlw/media_studies/documents/index.aspx - we've looked at this site before you'll recall.
Hopefully you might be able to shortcut the search by using these links:
Question Paper for Jan 09 http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/pp_09_jan/ocr_34833_pp_09_jan_gce_g322_01.pdf
Mark scheme for Jan 09 http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/ms_09/ocr_35065_ms_09_gce_jan.pdf
The question is always different but at least you have some idea of expectations here. We will of course cover all of this in revision but it may help your essay for Monday.
With reference to your chosen case study consider how important interactivity is to media institutions? Case Study: Newspaper Industry (The Guardian) Audience demand for interactivity could be considered as the main driving force behind the development of new media and if the audience demand it then the industries need to deliver. The newspaper industry is struggling because the circulation figures are falling and with that the revenue that comes from advertising. Newspapers could not be considered interactive in the printed form because consumption of the newspaper is passive. However, if the online version of the paper is visited the experience becomes ‘active’ because the visitor is now in control of her consumption and can choose what to look at/watch/listen to, can download files and podcasts, share articles with friends and contribute to a discussion using one of the numerous ‘talkboards’. Online newspaper ‘Users’ now have a wide range of choices available to them for where they get their news and it seems the only way to keep them coming back is to make them feel part of a community, a difficult task for a national paper. If a successful community is necessary to keep their ‘unique user’ count up then interactivity at a combination of levels is crucial to the success of the paper.
Read the article 'The future of News is Scarcity' (on this blog) for inspiration. Some ideas for development of points: Who are the audience for the Guardian? Are they already a community because they share an ideology? The Guardian were the first to use blogging technology - What do the Guardian offer by way of an 'online community' now? How busy is the community? What threats do the community face? The Guardian News and Media division is losing money and staff but they are adamant that they won't move to paid for content. Also comment on the Guardian's decision to launch an iPod app for the Guardian yet leave out access to read/post user comments - good idea? Are the Guardian making any moves to leverage their standing in the 'community' to bring in additional revenues as the author of the above article suggests? Their newest acquisition is actually a digital publishing and events company in the US called ContentNext - they seem to be seeking a global audience and community for their product.
You must first understand what 'interactivity' means. It's a slippery term taken to mean different things for example an online newspaper can be interactive because the audience can control what they see and hear by chosing the links or searching for specific stories. It is also interactive because a newspaper visitor can communicate with the producer of the newspaper blog/podcast/video footage and also debate topics with other visitors. The highest level of control would allow the visitor to be a contributor to the paper by submitting their own news packages for audience consumption. Sally McMillan states that interactivity can occur at many different levels and degrees of engagement and that it is important to differentiate between these levels. ‘If ‘interactivity’ is to move beyond its current status as a widely used but poorly conceptualized term, we must recognize that there are three fundamentally different types of interactivity. Scholars and others who use the term should indicate whether they are focusing on user-to-user, user-to-documents, or user-to-system interactivity or some combination of the three. ‘
McMillan, S.J. (2002). "Exploring Models of Interactivity from Multiple Research Traditions: Users, Documents, And Systems". in Lievrouw, L.; Livingston, S.. Handbook of New Media. London: Sage. pp. 162-182.
To what extent is a multi-platform publication beneficial to media institutions and audiences?
These are currently very exciting times for audiences of multi-platform journalism but the newspaper industry is in crisis as they are slow to change their business model and are struggling to make a profit. The most obvious benefit for audiences is that online content is free and they have access to a wide range of media to satifsy their need for news and a sense of community. They not only have the stories and comment – they also have video, podcasts, blogs and forums so there’s a whole new interactive experience. The most obvious benefit for the newspaper is they now have reduced distribution costs and the audience for online content is global. However, an industry which was once funded by advertising has not been able to transfer this business model to the web and this loss in advertising revenue due both to the recession and the death of the classifieds, is being blamed for the demise of the newspaper industry. Some argue that there are no benefits for either party because the true cost of multi-platform journalism is the huge numbers of editorial staff losing their jobs in cost-cutting exercises. This raises the issue of ‘quality’ as more and more content is either user-generated or from PR material.
Have a go at completing this essay or answering another question using the same formula.
Your Homework is to choose one of the questions below and write an essay as revision and practice in structuring an answer to a question. The information on this blog will get you started and you are expected to carry out further research to build your personal case study. Reference all sources. Submit as a printed Word document at the beginning of your next Media Lesson.
Last Year's Question: How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences?
A sample paper and mark scheme is available to support your writing:
Question Paper for Jan 09 http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/pp_09_jan/ocr_34833_pp_09_jan_gce_g322_01.pdf
Mark scheme for Jan 09 http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/ms_09/ocr_35065_ms_09_gce_jan.pdf Here are some other example questions from the Long Road Media site to help you prepare for the exam:
1) To what extent is multi-platform publication beneficial to media institutions and audiences?
2) With reference to your chosen case study consider how important interactivity is to media institutions?
3) What has the impact of increased connectivity been on the media production, distribution and exhange process?
Remember that the mark scheme explicitly rewards discussion of your own experience. This section is the ideal place to put in some well-researched data to back up your case study of The Guardian.
What are your own experiences of newspapers and where do you go for news? You may think it’s not relevant but IT IS! You are the next generation of potential readers so the habits you are forming now will matter to the industry.
You’ve used free online survey websites such as www.surveymonkey.com, so you know how easy it is to gather questionnaire results for a coursework project without the hassle of distributing wads of photocopies. Try conducting a survey of the newspaper reading habits with friends and family so you’ll be able to compare your own experience of newspapers with those of others. Are there any trends or patterns? Any surprises? How do your survey results reflect the national picture of newspaper readership?
·In November 2010 the National Daily Newspaper circulation for the Guardian was 270,582 (down 13.1% from previous year)
·The circulation for the Sun was 2,898,113 (down 2.96% from previous year)
·Mail online remained the most visited UK newspaper website in April, according to the latest figures from the audit bureau of circulations electronic published today.
Online Newspaper and community:
·Guardian.co.uk was again the second most popular national newspaper website, with just over 1.8 million average daily browsers, and telegraph.co.uk third, with just under 1.6 million.
·National newspaper websites now use an average of daily visitor numbers as their headline measurement figure as it is felt to be more representative than a monthly user figure.
This picture is complicated further, however, as the number of copies sold doesn’t necessarily equal the number of readers: many people share their copy of a printed newspaper so the readership and/or circulation figures can only ever be a rough guide. They are vital to the industry of course, because a newspaper which reaches a larger audience can charge more for its advertising space, and newspapers make more money from advertising than anything else. The cover price in most cases will not cover the cost of production
