Friday Classwork - Hegemony Study

Thursday Classwork - Chief Censor in NZ

Questions:

1. How does the article describe what the censorship process was like in NZ 100 years ago?

It shows how before the chief censor at the time would have to physically look at every piece of media that was shipped over before any of it was released to the public. The chief censor would have to look through magazines and books and film reels to see if any content was deemed inappropriate and if it was they would have to cut it out before letting be sold or viewed by audiences. 

2. In what ways has this changed?

Nowadays media is released every millisecond through the proliferation of technology and the introduction of web 2.0. We as the general public have access to things such as social media platforms that allows us to interact with content and represent ourselves through the media with a click of a button. Media no longer has to go through someone else before having been seen by an audience. 

3. What does the writer of the article mean when they say, "A revolving digital landscape has changed the way Kiwis viewed their entertainment, and it's also changed the way censorship defines itself."

It is almost saying that by the introduction of new technology and the internet people are experiencing fragmentation more than ever whereas before you would have to get your daily news from linear TV and the whole family would be sitting down watching it together. Instead, we can now go on different devices, unsupervised, and be exposed to any media that has been uploaded. It also makes it harder for censorship to know what is okay and what isn't. These days we have to rely on parents to be their own regulatory bodies for their households and make sure their children aren't being exposed to inappropriate content. 

4. Who is the NZ chief censor?

David Shanks 

5. What 3 words describe how the chief censor sees his responsibility and role?

Monitor, research, Guide 

6. What City does the Chief censor reside in and how many people work in his team?

• Wellington
• 15

7. What other content passes through the hands of the censors and why is it considered a 'dark' side to the job?

Clips, film, and photos found on laptops and cameras seized by the police, Department of Internal Affairs, or customs are passed on to the censors' office for classification. The censors are the only group that can classify a video.

8. What are they on the look out for in content that is being assessed?

They're on the lookout for sex, horror, crime, cruelty, and violence as well as provisions covering highly offensive language and self-harm.

9.What are some of the things that might be outright banned in NZ?

Media that require an outright ban consist of: the sexual exploitation of children, sexual violence or coercion, torture or extreme violence, bestiality, sexual conduct involving the body of a dead person and the use of urine or excrement in association with degrading or sexual conduct.

10. What medium is becoming the censor's main focus at the moment and what do they do to classify things of that medium in NZ?

Video games, a medium becoming the office's main focus, will be played by a gamer who then rates and classifies it.

11. Seeing how Shanks describes the differences between regulatory standards in NZ and Australia, how do you think culture play a part in restrictions placed on content?

Shanks says Kiwis don't have a high tolerance for violence and sexual violence, unlike our Australian counterparts. Yet we've got a higher threshold for obscene language, nudity and healthy portrayals of sexual relationships.

12. What is a good example of a movie that was rated M in Australia but got a reviewed rating in NZ

Suicide Squad 

13. Explain how the digital era proves a challenge to the censors

A report released recently by the censor's office, Young New Zealanders Viewing Sexual Violence, revealed young people were viewing a concerning amount of media depicting sexual violence through non-traditional platforms. More concerning than that, they were forming their opinion based on those media. Youtube, for instance, has about 300 hours of content put up every minute. "No classification office can keep abreast of that

14. How does Shank imagine we might tackle this challenge?

he wants to join up agencies, getting educators in the mix, and have agencies like Netsafe and the Broadcasting Standards Authority, who can be taking an increasing role with streaming providers

15. What model did the Government say streaming services would fall under?

streaming services would fall under a self-regulatory broadcasting standards model

Wednesday Work - Representation in NZ "after The Power of Inclusion Summit"

Questions:

1. What was the event being held in NZ and what was its purpose?

• The Power of Inclusion summit
• The summit’s stated intention was to “posit future action to create a more inclusive industry and world”

2. Why was Heperi Mita identified as a significant voice? What did he direct and what did he do?

• Heperi Mita (director of Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen) called out New Zealand’s film industry for its racism, both historical and contemporary, towards Maori

3. Both NZFC and NZ On Air have a strategy for Maori content, what is it?

• NZFC and NZ On Air have a strategy for Maori content, called Te Rautaki Maori
• A range of initiatives was released specifically for Maori, including a Rangatahi Development Fund — grants for initiatives and organisations to run programmes for young Maori creators — and the Te Reo Development Fund for shorts, features and online content

4. What was the concern that Heperi Mita had with the fact that although there was funding, producers were still being hired from big studios to re-tell Maori stories?

• Heperi Mita said, “I get very concerned when I hear about big-budget production companies coming in and adapting traditional Maori stories or stories about Maori families. Although the intention may be good, and advice may be given, advice doesn’t necessarily need to be received. And at the end of the day, it is those that hold the purse strings that have the final authority, and it is exceedingly rare that those people are Maori.”

5. Last year, NZ On Air revamped its roadmaps and added a strand for “newer storytellers”. Explain what progress has been made here?

• Asian and Pasifika New Storytellers initiative under both NZ On Air (for a TV or web series) and the NZ Film Commission (for a Sunday Theatre feature, funded to the tune of $3 million)

6. What are some other important points that have been made as a result of this inclusion summit?

• Harris is planning to gather a committee to form a diversity policy after a national hui, to be presented to the boards of funding bodies.

Tuesday Task - Maori Representation in NZ

Questions:

1. What are some of the points this article raises between the difference in how progressive the TV representation of Maori is and the representation of Maori in film?

Although it is hard to be able to share diversity through film, New Zealand has done a good job of being able to represent Maori culture through movies and being able to spread them internationally. This compared to our TV industry doesn't amount. There have been certain shows such as 'Bro Town' which back in the day was a popular show but apart from that New Zealand has been lacking in the TV series area where there are no modern-day shows to represent culture or diversity.   

2. What is an example of the last TV show that really brought Maori representation into the spotlight but that is an older show to reference now?

'Bro ' Town', was a widely known show in New Zealand that went on from 2004-2008, unfortunately, that was about the last TV series to represent Maori culture or ethnic groups.   

3. What are some examples of films that have done well and that focus on telling the stories of ethnic minorities in NZ?

Films that have done well in representing Maori culture are 'Whale rider' and 'Once were warriors'. These films became big especially in New Zealand because it was the truth and depicted what really went on outside of the westernized neighborhoods. People were able to relate more to this content rather than big-budget Hollywood films that are mainly dominated by white people.  

4. Why are US TV networks scrambling to make their programming more diverse?

There was sustained pressure from minority groups for the US to diversify their casting and TV shows. Therefore resulting in shows such as Empire, Fresh off the Boat, Black-ish, and other series that have a majority all-colored cast. They were trying to represent ethnic communities in an extreme way. Former Chief of Entertainment Paul Lee said “When you see shows now that seem to lack diversity, they feel dated. America just doesn’t look like that anymore.”. Academic studies show that ethnic diversity makes good business sense. 

5. What, according to the article is one of the biggest challenges for Maori television shows?

According to broadcaster Stacey Morrison, finding advertiser backing is one of the big challenges for Māori television shows. “Māori programs are seen as niche viewing, not commercially viable and off-putting to advertisers.” Morrison says, “It is really hard to gain sponsorship.”. Accurately representing ethnic groups in New Zealand helps to benefit the country as a whole

• But not everyone agrees, including Richard Pamatatau, a Pacific Journalism expert: “I am not a fan of Bro’town or Sione’s Wedding. I recognise them for what they are – a re-presentation of a slice of a non-white world – but they seem to herd a part of a population and invite the consumer to see all people in that way.”

• We can celebrate movies like Sione’s Wedding and shows like Bro’town, but not all Samoans will see themselves represented in those stories, just as not all Pākehā will see themselves represented in Outrageous Fortune. One movie or TV show does not equal ‘representation’, but it is a starting point.

 

Monday Task - algorithms, information and news

 Notes:

- Claimed that some platforms such as Google, Facebook, etc have a biased point of view in terms of electoral positions. 

- Facebook is more likely to give content matching the user's worldview (regardless of the diverse amount of information that they also portray)

- Whatever content you most engage with is the content that you'll be seeing the most, for example, if you comment, like, or share a post then Facebook's algorithm takes it that you want to see more of the content. 

- "These platforms are businesses trying to generate money through more eyeballs"

- Facebook has been said to be biased against conservatives 

-"Hard to decide in today's society what even is truth" 

- People providing misinformation know how to work with algorithms provided by social platforms in order to get it in front of people. 

Tuesday Slideshow Power in the media

By Kayla Lockington 

Friday - Narrative research

 Narrative research:

Task 2 - 

If the power to tell stories and shape narratives is only held by a few, what dangers lie in that?

If the power to influence and tell a story was a right only held by a few then our cultures and heritages would start to crumble into nothing but a memory. If the thoughts of one were the only thoughts being portrayed to the masses, we would all fall into the trap of thinking the same and there would be no creative differences to separate us. If this proved to be true things such as racism and female injustice may still be going on to a higher degree today. We may not have seen colored people presented in a positive light on-screen or women being more than just a 'prop'

Merata Mita. Why was her work important and how would you describe her efforts?

Merata Mita helped to pave a way for indigenous filmmakers everywhere. Stirring the balance between mainstream and 'forbidden'. She was allowing small filmmakers to be able to get the opportunity to express themselves through the media in the future. She went to extreme efforts to stand up for what she believed in, although the government was targeting her and she was a single mother raising 5 children, she never stopped trying to make a statement and prove that indigenous films are an important part of learning the true culture of our country or the ways in which people live, other than the mansions and big inheritances that we see on screen. It allows people to learn about different heritages and cultures that are crucial to the social and economic development of countries. Through small indie filmmakers, we can see the truth behind all the smoke and lights rather than getting the mainstream media from big tech companies or the big conglomerates that try to mask the truth. Audiences may be able to relate to different messages or ideas that indie filmmakers are portraying, it's a smaller directed message that can help to raise awareness to try and prevent things such as domestic violence or racism in different political scenes which a lot of the time is happening behind the scenes. 

Task 3 -

1. How are indigenous stories being funded?

Different filmmaker associations are being set up to be able to financially support indie film amkers and try help with the progression of films. An example is in 2017 when Canada formed the Indigenous Screen Office to support Indigenous filmmakers, which then helped fund 35 projects in their first year. People are becoming more aware that indie films are needing to be heard more. 

2. What are some of the stereotypes that were perpetuated in early indigenous portrayals of the native Americans?

They were shown to be dirty or less than what a normal person should be seen as. Native Americans were seen as nothing more than savages and that whoever was not a native and had fair skin, could own the (what was known as) 'the inferior race'

3. Who is one example of an indigenous voice in NZ who is succeeding at telling stories from an indigenous point of view and garnering the interest of the wider world?

Taika Waititi started off as an Indie filmmaker first producing films such as "Two Cars", "One Nights", etc. Then in 2017, he was given the opportunity to direct the film Thor: Ragnarok, and even in this big-budget Hollywood film there were still touches of culture coming through, for example, one of the characters seen in the fighting ring and had a classic "kiwi accent", which stood out from the rest of the voices but almost help to make the film better as it showed more diversity in casting. This is where even though it was a big film, indie filmmakers are still in touch with their roots and help to bring that to larger audiences consuming big tech media.

4. Where do indigenous films have a platform to be viewed currently?

At the moment the only way to view an indie film is through film festivals. Even though this is a fun experience, people are so used to having everything on demand now through the introduction of web 2.0, that no one wants to make the effort to have to physically go to a film festival or if they do it is more of a special occasion that only happens every so often. Every now and again we see a big-budget film company release an indigenous type of film but that still isn't enough publicity to help the dying breed. 

5. What in your oppinion, is the future of more authentic portrayals and representations of indigenous people on screen, moving forward?

I feel as though indie films are slowly making their way through the ranks. The demand for the truth in the media is growing and audiences are starting to take a liking to the authenticity of indie films. We can see the support when things such as crowdfunding are used to help progress a film, for example, what they did for 'What we do in the Shadows' although they had a small budget people were still supporting the film and wanting to see the end result, which ended up paying off when the film grossed over $6 million in gross sales. 

Thursday Classwork

Ideology questions:

1. In your own words, describe what 'ideology' is.

Ideology is a certain view or belief seen by an individual or a group in society. It holds the power to influence societies and impact the way people live and go about their day-to-day lives.

2. What are 2 examples from the text of dominant ideologies of the West, reflected in media?

• Dominant ideologies include beliefs about gender roles, about the economy, about social institutions.
• Consumerism is a world view that a person has more worth if she or he has more material possessions and that we are made happier by consuming more goods.

3. Thinking about 'Black Panther' which is one of your case studies for Power and the Media, what ideology is being communicated to the audience about the people groups represented?

It is representing people of color and a different culture compared to the ones that may be seen in the western world today. Audiences may not relate to it as much but it is engaging with a different standard of normal, that hopefully allows people to become more diverse compared to the 90s were having a predominant all person of color cast was never seen, especially when the producers were middle-aged Caucasian men that only saw the lens from their perspective. 

4. Thinking about ideology - Why would it be considered a powerful position to be in, if you were in a position to create media, consumed by audiences?

When producing the media whatever ideology you believe in or the views that you see are socially acceptable can be portrayed in the type of media you produce. Unfortunately, up until this point people who have produced media have been white males who only saw the world as plain black and white where minorities would have never been seen on-screen or any other type of culture would have never been brought to audiences if it was not seen as the 'normal way of living. Women were never the main character but rather another prop on the side, as the world has progressed females have slowly risen in the ranks where they are now seen as more than just an object where now they are the main characters and also seen as heroes. It now imposes the idea onto audiences that this can now be seen as normal in the film industry. 

5. If movie-making is essentially storytelling, the point of view and underlying world view of the storyteller is important in how people are represented. Give some examples of how we see dominant ideologies changing in society as a result of diversity in the top ranks of those creating film/ media and becoming the storytellers? (give detailed examples)

As I said before with women in the media and how it has slowly progressed over time. We now see it in many examples where women have risen through the ranks. They have now seen as heroes an example is 'Captain Marvel' where a woman is seen to be in a powerful position and saving the world, compared to when they are shown as weak or the damsel in distress. Females have started to own their own sexuality, especially women in the music industry where instead of being sexualized they are portraying themselves in a hyper-sexualized way in order to sell but also making a statement, women rappers are now dominating the industry with examples such as Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Cardi B, etc. 

Power in the media essay

 Essay 

"To what extent do people today have the power to represent themselves" 

People today have an unprecedented amount of power to represent themselves through the media and free speech platforms. Big tech companies such as Google and social media giant, Facebook, have a hegemonic dominance over content in order to decide what is shown at what is not. Influence is huge and can be easily passed on through powerful names, enforcing different ideologies onto audiences, sometimes tainting the image of some groups in society and the way they are being portrayed. An example of this is the Black Lives Matter movement, where audiences were sick of seeing people of color shown in an aggressive or dangerous light on-screen or through the media. In 2011, more than half of the films fell into the lowest level of cast diversity of less than just 11%. However, in 2020, 28.8% of films had the highest level of cast diversity with 50% or higher. Just under 10% of films in 2020 fell into the lowest level of cast diversity, clearly showing the changes being made to adapt to audience preferences. Stuart Haul's Representation theory implies that the subject has a single fixed meaning against which accuracy can be measured. Haul points out that this can not be so. This can be seen to correlate yet also contrast with George Gerbner's Cultivation Theory. He believed that long-term exposure can shape the way you perceive the media and influence how audiences conduct themselves. 

Pew research center did a survey and found that 72% of U.S. adults say that social media platforms are having too much of an influence on today's society. Similarly, 59% of people think that certain types of media should be banned or censored to stop different messages from being misunderstood, for example, the covid pandemic showed how different information was twisted into something to either scare people further or give wrong news. Platforms such as Twitter began really as a tool that allowed those in social circles to essentially "shout out" to one another, but it has increasingly become a broadcast platform to reach the masses. Some 47% of the population thinks that the government should be regulation major technology companies more than it is now. Regulation can be seen as a good thing but censorship may be argued against. Rather than silencing someone's right to free speech, it could be edited or just the post that was seen as offensive could be taken down. An example of this is when Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump's account. As of this, within the weekend, nearly every link to his account was taken down and him being banned from social media giant Facebook. The people who hold the power here are the ones creating the content as well as the ones regulating it. Social media is still a massive evolving phenomenon and the problem is now whether it is having a more positive or negative effect and influence on the masses 

Although the control of the media is slowly becoming more accessible to the wider population, companies such as the big 5 (Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount, and Comcast) still have control over smaller subsidiaries and the media that goes out to audiences. Through the proliferation of technological convergence, big monopolies such as Disney now have more control than ever through the introduction of streaming video on demand (SVOD). Not only does it make it easier for audiences to access the media but also cheaper than having to go to the cinemas which are on the rapid decline. Fans can now 'binge' their favorite show or movie series without ads or interruptions. This as well as the introduction of web 2.0 gives audiences the freedom to express their opinions about certain aspects of the media they are consuming, audiences now becoming 'prosumers' catering to their liking. An example of this was with the release of Stranger Things, and a fan page was created on Facebook so that people could talk freely and express their thoughts on the show. Instead, it was a platform for hate speech that ended up having to be taken down because complaints were made by the actors saying that what people were putting online was hurtful and started to affect the ways in which actors played their roles. 

A clear example of the audience controlling different parts of the media is in the film 'Song of the South, released in 1946, directed by Wilfred Jackson, whom may I point out was a middle-aged Caucasian male at the time of the production of this movie. In this, there is a picture of cackling crows shown in a rather discriminatory racist light. They are seen to be talking like a person of colour and seen to have adopted 'baffoon'-like behavior, as that was the only thing people of a different race were seen to behave like. It was a mockery of culture and as time went on people started to voice their opinions about this, forcing Disney to completely remove this offensive scene from the original movie. It is not just people of colour and minorities being shown in a stereotypical way through the media. It is also how women are now being used in music videos as objects, a typical "trophy wife" where male singers almost are objectifying women, thinking they are nothing more than something to stand there and look pretty or making the males look in power, a dominant gender. Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory puts this into perspective, saying how women no longer want to be accessories on screen. Everything was being made where the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, meaning their opinion is not as important as the male audience. Big-name artists such as Chris Brown or Kanye West have used women in ways of promotion where they are almost promoting sexualized content aimed at men. Over time women have started to take rank where they have started owing their femininity and using it to sell the content of their own. Lil Kim revolutionized women in music and started a new era in the late 1990s, dominating the billboards and paving a way for future female artists/rappers. 

Independent filmmakers are starting to rise through the ranks as we now have access to so many streaming platforms that allow user-generated content. One of the biggest online phenomenons to be introduced to the public was Youtube released in 2005 and now has over 2.1 billion users. This has given indie filmmakers the opportunity to get their films recognized on a low budget. People have not only started to become involved in the way films are being made but are starting to make their own films. The industry is a forever growing market and gives people the power to represent not only themselves but already established conglomerates, in whatever light they chose. Through web, 2.0 people can influence the opinion of the world on something through the click of a button. 

Monday Lockdown Classwork

 Youtube case study:

- how much content is created every day?

• 300 hours of video content uploaded per minute, it would take nearly 50 years to watch every single video that was uploaded in a day 
• "Represents over 20% of the time spent on connected television"
• Over 500 hours uploaded every minute 
• Over 1 billion hours watched every day

- Who acquired Youtube and how much was spent?

• 3 ex PayPal employees created the idea, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jar Vet Kareem. 
• The first video uploaded to Youtube was a short video of Jarvez Kareem, one of the co-founders, standing outside the elephants' exhibit at the San Diego Zoo 
• Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine 
• In 2019 Youtube generated $15 billion in revenue. 
• YouTube had to pay $170 million to settle lawsuits and other expenses. 
• Google spent $1.65 billion on the purchase of YouTube 

- how was allowing people to monetise channels, a major shift in the industry?

• Over 2 billion users visit Youtube every month
• There are creators who are making millions and millions of dollars every month from posting videos an example includes Dude Perfect who literally do fun stunts and get paid millions to do so - 56.6 million subscribers on YT.

- how were algorithms used to Youtube's advantage with subscribers?

• lead on to people basically "never leaving the app" 
• Videos were suggested to you based on what you had watched previously and who you’re subscribed to.

- name some of the ways Youtube has changed and added aspects to their channel to increase audience/subscribers?

• Youtube at first had no traffic therefore was changed into a dating site where people were enticed with money and other methods. 
• They tweaked their technology so that anyone would be able to upload videos and share them online for the world to see. 
• Just one click Youtube's "Big Bang Moment"

- why is content moderation hard for Youtube?

• Content published isn't always accurate 
• Content moderation has been seen to be quite the challenge

The diversity report

Notes:

- shows that 54.6% of the top films of 2020 were released solely via streaming subscription services, a major departure from business as usual.

- The global home and mobile entertainment market increased to a record $68 billion over the course of 2020, up 23% from the $55.9 billion in 2019.

- The U.S. share of this global market stood at nearly 44% in 2020. Latino and Black adults, in particular, consumed online content at higher levels than other groups.

- All four job categories showed progress in 2020, but women and people of color are still underrepresented in critical behind-the-camera jobs. Women made up just 26% of film writers and just 20.5% of directors. Combined, minority groups were slightly better represented as directors at 25.4%. Just 25.9% of film writers in 2020 were people of color.

- For streaming platforms, films featuring casts that were 21% to 30% minority had the highest ratings among white, Black, Latino, and Asian households and viewers 18–49.

- In 2011, the first year tracked, more than half of the films fell into the lowest level of cast diversity — less than 11%. In 2020, however, 28.8% of films had the highest level of cast diversity — 50% or higher. Just under 10% of films in 2020 fell into the lowest level of cast diversity.

- In 2020, nearly all of the films with a female director also featured a female lead (94.7%). Films directed by minorities had the highest level of cast diversity. And 78.3% of films directed by people of color featured minority leads.

- White film directors were more than twice as likely as minority directors to helm a film with a budget of $100 million or more — 6.4% versus 2.8%. Men and women were equally likely to direct a big-budget film in 2020 — 5.7% and 5.6%, respectively.

-Women and people of color were more likely to direct films that fell into the lowest budget category of less than $20 million. For films directed by people of color, 72.3% had budgets less than $20 million, compared to 60% for white directors. It was about the same for films directed by women. Of those, 74.3% had budgets less than $20 million, compared to 59.2% for men's directors.

Power in the form of censorship

"Should social media companies and big tech have the right or the power to silence voices on their platforms?"

Social media companies and big tech companies should have the power to be able to silence voices on their media platforms. Pew research center did a survey and found that 72% of U.S. adults say that social media platforms are having too much of an influence on today's society. In a similar way, 59% of people think that certain types of media should be banned or censored in order to stop different messages from being misunderstood, for example, the covid pandemic showed how different information was twisted into something to either scare people further or give wrong news. Platforms such as Twitter began really as a tool that allowed those in social circles to essentially "shout out" to one another, but it has increasingly become a broadcast platform to reach the masses. Some 47% of the population thinks that the government should be regulation major technology companies more than it is now. Regulation can be seen as a good thing but censorship may be argued against. Rather than silencing someone's right to free speech, it could be edited or just the post that was seen as offensive could be taken down. An example of this is when Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump's account. As of this within the weekend nearly every link to his account was taken down as well as him being banned from as well social media giant Facebook. The people who hold the power here are the ones creating the content as well as the ones regulating it. Social media is still a massive evolving phenomenon and the problem is now whether it is having a more positive or negative affect and influence on the masses 

Power in the media

Notes

Stuart Hauls representation theory:

- implies that the subject has a single fixed meaning against which accuracy can be measured. H points out that this cant be so.  

- The media gives meaning to events, they decide whether it is a positive representation or not. 

- "Representation isn't an after occurrence it's a constitutive one"

- "Has no obvious meaning until it has been represented"

- Media producers who are in power try to fix a particular meaning to a certain thing in the real world. 

- Hegemonic meaning/ representation 

The mean world syndrome:

- People base judgments on the media even when there are present facts such as crime rates dropping, the perception people have is taken from the violence shown in the media. 

- How one kind of story blends into another to create and reinforce a distinct sense of the world. 

George Gerbner's Cultivation Theory:

- sociological and communications framework 

- media tends to repeat representations of people or groups of people over and over again, effects build up slowly over time. 

- May does not believe the intended message if only seen once for example violence amongst people. See it repeated in different media forums 

- accept it as realistic 

-The cultivation of the effects of the media can change the dominant ideologies of society.  

Media ecology essay

Media Ecology

Essay

The relationship between media and audiences is changing drastically. Media ecology aims to describe how diverse media environments shape today's society and our everyday lives. The theory's overall core is how the content's communication isn't as nearly impactful as the way it is being consumed. It focuses on media, environments, and environments as media, with an explicit concern for their evolution, effects, and forms. It is the aim to increase awareness of the complex relationship between technology and humans. I agree with the fact that media is constantly changing and the way it is being consumed can have an altering effect on audiences. The way audiences consume media is an ever-changing phenomenon that has been introduced to different generations. New ways of consuming media are being introduced daily. In the last year, 4 new streaming video on demand platforms have been introduced, which I will explain in detail later on.

Marshall McLuhan came up with the media ecology theory in 1964 and was officially coined in 1968 by the media theorist Neil postman. McLuhan was the first to suggest that studies should be focused on the type of media rather than the message being communicated. "Our behavior in media has been changed by the medium rather than the media", in this sense the medium is the technology on which the media is being consumed on whether it is a smartphone, laptop, TV, etc, it is almost like the middle man that gets forgotten about between people and what they are consuming digitally. It suggests that the environment inevitably affects our perceptions, feelings, values, and beliefs.

Fragmentation shows the trend of the increasing choice of how audiences consume media in terms of different platforms or channels, for example, linear TV, streaming video on demand (SVOD), or things such as social media platforms i.e Instagram or Facebook. In 2020, 95% of teens have access to a smartphone and 45% say they are online 'almost constantly. In today's date, nearly half of the teen population aged from 13 to 17 say they use Facebook (2004), less compared to platforms such as Instagram (2010), and Snapchat (2011), which were released later. Surveys were used to determine different social standings and somewhat 40% of these respondents have said that social media has had a positive impact because it helps them keep in touch and interact with others. An increase in fragmentation amongst households has occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic that was introduced to the world in 2019. People used devices to escape from their reality and used things such as laptops and smartphones to work from home or for young kids to go to school virtually. This is where McLuhan's theory may be criticized or challenged in terms of the way we consume has a larger effect than what we consume, because, in terms of COVID, the content being consumed by young minds will have a longer-lasting effect in the future rather than them looking at the screen. Nuclear families no longer watch linear TV together, but rather watch their own platforms on their own devices. While 42% of families in the USA were nuclear families 50 years ago, just under 22% are being shown as your typical family figure.

In 2019 a survey was conducted to measure how many adults still went to cinemas in the USA. It was found that 14% of adults said that they go to the cinemas at least once a month or more, around 46% said that they would go to the cinemas maybe once or a few times a year. This shows the slow decline of the use of cinemas. People state that they go for the experience that you can’t get at home. Streaming videos on demand has changed the ways in which we consume media, it also relates to the concept of fragmentation. People are now able to subscribe to different streaming platforms such as Netflix, Youtube, Neon etc. In the last 2 years alone, already 4 new streaming services have been released by monopolies in the media industry, Apple TV, HBO Max, Peacock, and Disney+. Because of the massive range that is available to watch media and the development of technology, kids are able to watch whatever they want freely without regulatory boundaries unless parents are aware and change settings so that kids are only able to see certain content. Between 2019-2020, the number of global subscriptions increased by 26% reaching 1.2 billion subscribers in the year 2020. In this year the Film and TV industry experienced unprecedented growth. Disney+ has already gained over 100 million subscribers since its launch in November 2020.

Audience demand constantly grows and spending on content production continues to ramp up. In 2020 there was a record-breaking $220.2 billion spent on making and acquiring new feature films and TV programming. Disney has encountered some issues with certain actors who are paid off box office sales, where Disney releases films in both cinemas and on Disney+ so people don't have to necessarily go to the theatre to watch a new movie, which is causing certain actors such as Scarlett Johansson distress as the recent release of Black Widow was released on Disney+ in July 2021 and was only a couple days later after the cinema release.

A version of the Fandom theory was first seen in the 1960s when the first-star trek was released. Henry Jenkins was the one who released this theory explaining different fan cultures and communities built around the shared enjoyment of a particular movie or TV series. An example of this is when a fan page was made for Stranger Things, released in 2016, but fans were so critical to characters and actors that it started affecting the cast and the people helping to make the series so it was shut down. This is an extreme version where simple fandom has been turned into extreme criticism and involvement. The way people interact with the media is drastically and almost rapidly changing. In the early 1930s watching TV was a rare commodity that wasn't seen as an essential part of life, compared to now in 2021 we have had massive reliability upon technology and media. Without online websites and the introduction of web 2.0 in 1999, people would still be relying on paper newspapers to get their information or daily news. Now we are able to actively engage with others online as well as have our input in the world by creating websites, uploading our own media, and streaming others. Has this changed the world we live in for the better or for worse?

Media ecology essay plan

 Media Ecology 

*Essay Plan*

Opening sentence: The relationship between media and audiences is changing drastically. 

intro:

Definition 

- Media ecology aims to describe how diverse media environments shape today's society and our everyday lives. The theory's overall core is how the content's communication isn't as nearly impactful as the way it is being consumed. 

Position of argument 

- I agree with the fact that media is constantly changing and the way it is being consumed can have an altering effect on audiences. The way audiences consume media is an ever-changing phenomenon that has been introduced to different generations. New ways of consuming media are being introduced daily. In the last year, 4 new streaming video on demand platforms have been introduced, which I will detail later on.

First paragraph:
 

Introduced

- Marshall McLuhan came up with the media ecology theory in 1964 and was officially introduced in 1968by the media theorist Neil postman. McLuhan was the first to suggest that studies should be focused on the type of media rather than the message being communicated. 

- Our behavior in society has been changed by the medium rather than the media. 

- Explain how media = message, medium = technology. The middle man 

-Suggests that the environment inevitably affects our perceptions, feelings, values, and beliefs. 

Second paragraph: 

Fragmentation 

- Fragmentation shows the trend of the increasing choice of how audiences consume media in terms of different platforms or channels, for example, linear TV, streaming video on demand (SVOD), or things such as social media platforms i.e Instagram or Facebook

 

- How many kids have smartphones, fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone and 45% say they are online 'almost constantly. In today's date, nearly half of the teen population aged from 13 to 17 say they use Facebook less compare to platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat which were released later.  

- Instagram: 2010

- Snapchat: 2011 

- Facebook: 2004

- Surveys were used to determine different social standings and somewhat 40% of these respondents have said that social media has had a positive impact because it helps them keep in touch and interact with others.

- Nuclear family then vs now. Typical family figure 2 parents and multiple children. 

 

Third paragraph: 

SVOD, Cinemas 

- Rapid decline in cinema use massive incline in streaming videos on demand 

- Introduction of 4 new SVOD platforms, Apple TV, HBO Max, Peacock, and Disney+ in the last 2 years

 (relate back to fragmentation and how different age groups are using different types of technology to view media without regulatory boundaries)

- Between 2019-2020, the number of global subscriptions increased by 26% reaching 1.2 billion subscribers in the year 2020. In this year the Film and TV industry experienced unprecedented growth.   

(Disney+ has already gained over 100 million subscribers since its launch in November 2020). 

• Simultaneous releases from Disney, both in cinema and SVOD, actors pay based on box office sales. 

- Audience demand constantly grows and spending on content production continues to ramp up. In 2020 there was a record-breaking $220.2 billion spent on making and acquiring new feature films and TV programming.  

Fourth paragraph: 

Piracy, Web 2.0

- introduction of web 2.0 in 1999. The second stage of development of the internet is where users can now be interactive online and have user-generated content. 

- Piracy is the copying of other work. People have the freedom to download films illegally off the internet without having to pay. 

• Takes away from traditional methods such as movie cinemas, why would you pay when you could get it at home for free. 
• The risk of having SVOD makes it easier to copy and upload to the internet, taking away some of the profits that they could potentially be earning. 

- 126.7 billion viewings worth of US-produced TV episodes are pirated every year.

- Annual global revenue losses from digital piracy are between $40 and $97.1 billion in the movie industry.

Henry Jenkins and the Fandom theory
- Fan culture or communities built around the shared enjoyment around a particular film or TV series
*Mandalorian example
* Stranger things, fan pages having to be taken down because of the mockery and pressure put on characters. The message of what fans were posting.

Shirky 

- Clay Shirky believes that passive audiences (audiences that watch/intake media mindlessly) no longer exist in today's day-in-age 

- He believes that technology has changed certain expectations and behaviors, that audiences like to talk back to producers and be active, communicating with the people making the media. 

Fifth paragraph:

Conclusion 

- Cinemas are on a rapid decline, but people still like the experience of going to the movies but feel overcharged because of the high prices cinemas charge to compensate for the lower amount of ticket sales.

- SVOD is a rapidly growing market that may help create monopolies within the film industry 

- Fragmentation doesn't help in terms of keeping linear TV alive amongst nuclear families. Young people having more freedom to different types of unregulated media. Should certain media be regulated? Is it the media itself that has an effect on the audience or more the medium (technology), Marshall McLuhan 

- Because of the easier access, easier to download and upload videos illegally to free streaming platforms, creating scams and sometimes fooling young kids or older generations such as boomers. 

CCR

Advanced Portfolio CCR

We chose the song “What Other People Say” by Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer for our music video. In this, a boy and a girl were singing therefore we chose both a female and male character to represent the two artists. Our most prominent actor/character was Phoebe who played Demi Lovato and was our female lead throughout the video. Although there was a male voice that had almost the same amount of input as the female voice, we chose to base everything around Phoebe (Demi Lovato) and how she is going through a hardship that is making her lament the loss of her mum and the mood and overall tone is supposed to come across as sad and almost depressing. To keep the realism of the video we decided to take society's view on women and portray it. Females are stereotypically known for being more emotionally unstable and vulnerable compared to men. We felt as though this would draw the audience in and make it more believable even though males can often be just as sensitive as women if not more.

In this day and age, mental health plays a big factor in how we live our lives and certain guidelines and rules that have been put in place to try and spread awareness for mental health such as depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. It is such a big thing now that although it is a sad contributing factor, some people may be able to relate to the music video more if they feel as though they have gone through something similar themselves or knows someone else who has had troubles in the past. Audiences can become more invested or like something better when it shows the problems of society and how life can change from being an adolescent girl to a struggling young adult. This idea was based on the research we did of the original artists where Demi Lovato had a past of mental illness and struggled with drug abuse herself. 

I decided to try and maintain a blue and purple-hued color scheme throughout my digipak as well as mimicking the colored lights that are seen in the music video. In contrast to the cold colors we used a lot of black and white to represent the ‘dark’ times and how her whole life felt like it was in literal darkness and shadowed, so I took this into my digipak as well as my social media page, where my first post of the ‘artist’ is a black and white photo and she was smiling to almost let viewers know that although what we filmed about is a hard-hitting topic, that the artist was okay and enjoying producing the album. I also used black and white images taken from the music video on the inside of my digipak so that it maintained fluidity and wasn't overwhelmed with too many colors or different shots. We chose to use Instagram because in this day-in-age moire than 45% of teens now either own or have access to a smartphone. Nearly half of the teen population aged from 13-18 have said that they use Instagram compared to Facebook, released in 2004. This was ideal as our target age range was anywhere from 15 to mid-20s. 


My CD case's front and back cover was purple staged lighting, the front cover containing an image of the artist (Phoebe), and the back just of a purple screen with a stage lighting streaming through and lyrics on the back. Although the music video is supposed to be sad at the beginning, it is also supposed to be a sort of visible breakthrough where our character comes out the other sad despite her difference and I tried carrying that through into my social media page where there are images of Phoebe doing different things like holding an umbrella in the rain. To keep the Instagram page realistic, I had to also take inspiration from Demi Lovato's real page and tried to carry that through to make it realistic. For example, she had just announced that she is non-binary meaning she is neither a boy nor a girl nor a selected gender. Because of this, I used a lot of gay pride images or pictures showing support to the LGBTQ community. A big part of my digipak was based on Richard Dryer's Star image theory first introduced in 1979, where it's based on the idea that the viewer's perception of a narrative is highly influenced by the image of the stars. In order to follow these guidelines, I made sure that Phoebe was the main feature on the cover and the bold font behind her was to give the impression that she is now a solid and firm wall who is slowly rebuilding herself, but it also made her stand out almost 3D. 

To engage with viewers we had to determine a target audience, because the genre of the song is mid-tempo pop, we thought that this is best suited to females aged from 15 - 40. The song is slow in some places and has a melodic tune but is also quite touching, and to really grasp the concept I feel that the person has to be a bit more in touch with their feelings, something women are usually known for. I tried to keep the design of my digipak, not ‘girly’ but so that you could definitely say that it had more of a feminine touch with the colors and fonts. This was carried through in all the different elements both seen in the music video and my social media. On the Instagram page, there are different links that you can click on to take you to the music video on Vimeo, because of different copyright regulations, etc we aren't able to upload it anywhere else limiting the realism of the song actually being produced. Even though this may have restricted what we were able to post I still tried to incorporate a lot of different interactive hashtags and carried the slogan ‘#WOPS’ throughout my post adding continuity to the images and creating hype because of the acronym of ‘What Other People Say'.

Since doing the music video first, we had to learn a lot about the different types of conventions that were usually seen in a video from mid-tempo pop. A lot of them had a storytelling/ narrative theme where the audience was to follow along with the message being portrayed rather than just singing or seeing different images that had little connection to the song or the meaning behind the lyrics. The narrative theory is based on the concept that people are essentially storytellers, a theory coined by 20th-century communication scholar Walter Fisher. Another convention was how nearly every music video from every genre had lip-syncing. In my opinion, a music video, depending on the way it is being made, can't be a music video without singing or some sort of lip-syncing. To make it look right we had to watch different tutorials from Youtube to learn how to overlay the original song over the lip-syncing in editing without hearing the original audio and making it look realistic. In different videos it had tips and tricks such as always getting your actor or actress to actually sing the song when you are filming and just cut it out later, it makes it easier to match up the mouth movements with the different words in the song. Having your audio always on is another helpful bit that we forgot at times thinking that we wouldn't need audio but then when we got to editing we didn't know what part they were singing.

What Other People Say - Final edit

Social Media Page

Demi Lovato, Instagram Page 

Username: l0vato_fanpage

Link: https://www.instagram.com/l0vato_fanpage/

This is the main cover page you see when going onto the Instagram page that I created. I tried to add in little things such as the "Musician" title to make it more realistic. I added highlights which are stories of different moments in the 'singers' life, for example, I put one backstage when they were supposedly producing the song 'What Other People Say'. I also added one of a dog because on Demi Lovato's real Instagram page she has stories of normal things such as pets or family outings etc. It almost humanizes our artist. 

This was the first image I posted on my Instagram page. It was to imitate the feeling of her being backstage and recording parts of the song, almost like a sneak peek of what was to come which I took from Demi Lovatos and other recording artists' pages. It was a very common thing to release small images and teasers for the album or single that is going to be released. 

I posted this once the Digipak had been and prior to the showing of the digipak I posted things on stories and highlights leading up to the release. 

Something that has been seen a lot on the media lately is how Demi Lovato is now Non-binary, therefore they now refer to themself as they/them. This had only been known throughout the making of our social media page so I tried to include little things such as quotes and images supporting the LGBTQ community. Because Demi is they/them, I chose to use the Non-Binary flag because it is something that relates to them as the artist we are trying to represent. 

Digipak Online Covers

 Front cover:

Back Cover:

Inside Left:

CD back:

DigiPak CD Case

Demi Lovato Digipak by Kayla Lockington