Key radio episode- Late night Women's hour

Radio- component 1 section B:

Late night Women's hour:

• Is a spin of from a radio show called women's hour which was a long running BBC radio 4 daily magazine programme
• Late Might woman's hour is broadcast once a month, late at night, is presented by Lauren Laverne and features a number of female panellists
• Each episode focuses on a certain theme thats relevant to their middle class middle age female
• 11pm Friday Night (also known as the grave yard slot)
• Broadcasted by the BBC - BBC radio 4 started in 2015

Episode notes:

• Subject: Homes
• Explores wider cultures e.g looks at the word "hygge- being comfy" which is a Danish word
• Family orientated would appeal to possible stay at home mums 
• Has an author of a cookery book as part of the panel 
• Aimed at a more educated audience through the use of big words, discussions on politics, feminism and the home ('democratisation', 'antithesis', 'egalitarian') 
• Panellists enjoy craft which is a typical female activity
• Discusses individuality and personality- the way people are overtaken by Ikea and commercialised images of the ideal home 
• Seems to express the need for comfort, striving for perfection
• A sense of inclusivity between individuals and the feeling of how you bring each other together
• Not a lot of focus on strong, feminist perspectives but more about the way that women had been expected to do in the past and still are today
• Some conversation on emotion which men may not typically understand however if men listen to the show they may get a greater understanding from the show of how the women in their life feel
• very middle class- snob like  " i knew my marriage was over when we were ordering a Ikea wardrobe'
• Round table discussion 
• 'Winter mug' 
• mode of address is very middle class
• 'Square scarfs'
• 'Only have 20 books'- the response was shock from the other panellists 
• It paints a 'utopia' for the audience
• The show could be argued as sexist- draws a binary between men and women- emotional women and hard working men
• Seen as the edgier version  
• Never discusses sex 

Meet needs: needs for perfection, the way that the audience wants to feel with the trends, possibly need to know about culture- middle class accent also through the way she speaks- very gentle/egalitarian

Regulatory issues: even though its on at a set time anyone can listen to it at any time or day without any restrictions through podcasts- radio is regulated by ofcom the same as tv 

As the BBC: fits perfectly with their image- not daring- polite and very inclusive 

BBC is a PBS (public broadcasting service) means it runs without any advertisement and relies on Tv license as funding

BBC have a remit they have to target a range of audiences through a range of shows
Its an institution which is there to make a profit and is held in such high regard that they almost become pretentious and views and presenters on the channel frown upon others
There image is really important to them 

An example is Top Gear which is so different from Late nights women hour
They also sold of the great British bake off to make money and cut costs 

Womens hour: documentary:

• Used to encourage women to rebuild their lives after ww2 
• First started 1946- end of world war 2 
• Aired at 2pm to fit with 'Womanly chores'
• Talks a lot about cooking and how to generally be a good housewife 
• Purpose was to educate female audiences them while doing the housework/ ironing 
• was moved from BBC radio 1 to BBC radio 4 in the 70's- diversification of audience 
• Criticised as sexist to both men and women 
• Another criticism was it was "too middle class" this came from the producer 

Criticism's:

• Doesn't appeal to a wide target audience 
• Overly middle class focus
• Unrelatable for most people 
• It's boring
• Has little to do with working class people especially with their topics they discuss 
• All female panel- sexist 
• They make out Ikea is too common
• Aspiration and cultural capital of interior design  
• Being evicted being spoken about as an adventure 
• Oppositional readings

Reception theory- target audience identifies with it (preferred reading) where as some audiences feel excluded (oppositional reading).

How much does a TV license cost? 2019 

It costs £150.50 for a colour and £50.50 for a black and white TV Licence. In some cases, you may be entitled to a reduced fee TV Licence (see table below). You can pay for your licence all in one go or spread the cost.

Ways digital platforms have changed the way we consume radio:

• Podcasts- your able to skip to the parts you want to hear 
• Don't have to listen to radio live anymore
• Online
• In the car- free don't need a TV license 
• Online 
• We stream everything 
• You can actually watch the presenter talking live - online
• Radio gives audience a direct address
• Archiving 
• Social media allows audiences to interact with it 
• Apps offer a better user experience for the user
• Digital radio in cars- gets more channels- don't have to be near by- better reception
• You can download podcasts in advance 
• With phones your able to use them anywhere
• Digital technologies give it a visual aspects- through thumb nails
• DIGITAL CONVERGANCE 

How radio's audience is reached by a wider audience:

• Audio streaming
• Digital audio broadcasting (DAB)
• Cross- platforms
• Podcasts

Regulation: the rules and restrictions different media products have to follow

(Ofcom regulates radio)

Nothing in Late night woman hour is controversial- it doesn't break any regulations

Localness- must talk about something local- doesn't apply to LNWH as its on a national Channel  

Online media/digital technologies allow regulation to be ignored as even though its passed the watershed you can access the show at any time - regulation of radio is largely ineffective 

4 fucks 2 shits 2 arses and 2 bastards- in a different episode - stats from The Sun newspaper- massive conflict of interest

Plurality- where a media product exhibits and gives voice to a wide range of ideological perspectives

The BBC is a public service broadcaster- it has self imposed remit to "inform, educate and entertain" 

The BBC tries to incorporate Plurality through their range of channels and shows

         

Radio

Radio is a specialised industry

• Accessed through Podcasts- can be played online and accessed at any time of the day
• Produced by BBC 
• Distributed on BBC website
• BBC rebranded from BBC radio to BBC sounds
• Funded through the license fee 
• the BBC is an institution- we have certain expectations of quality- public broadcaster provider

Curran and seaton

Livingston and Lunt

each image has a thumb nail image 

each show is meeting the needs of different target audiences 

John Peel- started off as a pirate DJ then was hired by the BBC- known for doing whatever he wanted on air- his show didn't have a huge audience but has a niche audience instead - had a  lot of diverse content 

Zoe Ball Podcast: ( BBC radio 2)

- Audience: middle age (30-50s), female, working class, family, working mum 

-Attracts target audience through the guests they have live on the show along with the type of music/tracks they play

- Audience interpretations: could see it as an insight into the guests lives, could be found aspirational, find out new things, discover new and older music

- How technology is used: only a dedicated audience would search for the show if they're not in the car

- How can audience use this show: superficial rather than in-depth means the audience may use it to boost their social interactions

- Reception, fandom and the end of the audience: preferred reading- comfortable easy listening, oppositional reading- that it's about celebrities and their lives to possibly distract you from your own 

Other examples:

- Ted talk- BBC 4, uses ted brand in order to target their older audience

- BBC radio 2 overall has a much broader music selection, not just new songs and lots of genre

Humans- representation

• Humans is a polysemic show- it has many meanings- can appeal to a wider target audience - makes it hard to understand
• As Anita is considered a machine it implies women's roles are to do the cleaning, washing and housework
• CYBORG- half robot, half human (used in sci-fi's)
• Donna Harraway- believes we are all cyborg-  she is saying that people's lives are so influenced by technology and things which help us to become more advanced- the use of technology in society helps us to improve our way of life, what we think and what we do in order to make our lives more convenient
• Globalisation- made possible through technologies- allowing us to access things all over the world which is something we heavily reply on
• Anita represents women, east Asian women, she also represents humans (cyborg) - she's much more than just a robot 

What is humanity? What does being 'human' mean?:

• We are more sophisticated 
• We can communicate
• We feel empathy 
• To be inquisitive- to ask question   
• Have feelings
• Education- we want to learn to make our selves better
• Ingenious- we think of things
• We love however it is complicated
• We search for fulfil meant
• We depend on/revolve around technology

Gender performativity: Judith Butler

• Gender categories 
• identity is a performance and it is constructed through a serious of acts and 'expressions' that we perform everyday
• while there are biological differences dictated by sex, our gender is defined through this series of acts- these may include the ways we walk, talk, dress and so on
• therefore there is no gender identity behind these expressions of gender
• gender performativity is not a singular act but a repetition and a ritual. it is outlined and reinforced through dominant patriarchal ideologies 

Feminist theory: bell hooks

• 'Feminism is for everyone'
• She believes in ending patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination- and that the position of the underrepresented is by class and race as well as gender
•  Doesn't have capital letters in her name 

Patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination in Humans:

• the father decides to buy the synths/ Anita- to do the house work 
• implies men are lazy and need a women to do the work
• refuses to take her back when his wife asks too 
• Laura doesn't want her as she feels threatened, pushed out and she feels she needs to do the housework - 'don't do that it's my job'
• they don't view her as having thoughts/feelings 
• first synth was created to replace his wife 
• Joe is 'primary user' suggesting he has more power than any of the others- asserting his dominance 
• Laura is replaced by a synth 
• the sales person is male 
• most ethnic characters in the show are synths 

End of video games

Death stranding (unreleased):
No release date 
Been 4 trailers

Trailer 3:        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QyElGLGrn0

how it constructs audiences:

• Intentionally bizzarre iconography and completely lacking in genre conventions
• Many indications for active audiences to create 'fan theories' and to decide what they believe the game will be about, however naturally this can be disappointing who do not get what they expect
• Actors, famous A-list holly wood actors and their likenesses being placed within the game- VERY high production values- VERY high budget
• Funded by Sony an extremely expensive and likely to fail video game -console exclusive 
• immersive shot types- positions the audience 
• Little merchandising options unlike assassins creed
• The producer creates an audience 
• Hideo Kojima's- the producer

Clay Shirky theorist

Clay Shirky- 'End of audience' theorist 

•  audiences are no longer passive; they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways.

The silver case- fandom

The Silver Case: The 25th ward- video game 
(grasshopper manufacture, 2018)
- visual novels, however are highly atypical of the genre with little characterisation with a plot that frequently contradicts its self
Deliberately atypical because even though the same move is repeated, it seems to have gotten the same result. also it is much more chilled with pretty much no action within the game itself 
there is a complete lack of structure and game play which could argue that it is not really a game. It doesn't care about it's audience, as the sound effects have been reviewed negatively however they  have decided not to change to to switch them off. there is an excessive use of bad language
deliberately does everything wrong 
has a very cult audience 

Fandom - Henry Jenkins:

refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise
unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meaning
fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers

one of the main benefits is it leads to a social community E.G comic con 

assassins creed players are called 'the creed'

Examples of fandom:

promotional material- Assassin's creed 3 liberation- a theories

Ubisoft is FRENCH- the game is a celebration of french culture
poster:





















Banner ad:












promotional trailer:

there are certain items of merchandise which will appeal to a certain cult audience 

Responding to potential questions

This is your opportunity to use the evidence you just found to not only back up your excellent points in the exam, but also do make detailed responses in the next few lessons. 

1. Draw up a detailed pen portrait for the target audience for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Think age, gender, class, lifestyle, cultural capital…

Aged 14-20

Hobbies: coding, programming, likes science and maths

Middle class

Clever, good at using technology 

1. How does Assassin's Creed III: Liberation attract/target its audiences (primary and secondary, niche ('core') and generalised ('casual'?) ? 
2. How does Assassin's Creed III: Liberation  construct an audience?
3. How does Assassin's Creed III: Liberation and its marketing appeal to its target audiences?
4. How does Assassin's Creed III: Liberation use technology to maximise audience consumption and to ensure sales?

what happens when you play/watch to many video games/watch to much tv:

you become violent 
you become antisocial 
you become stupid 
your attitudes and opinions change
linked to hypodermic needle model -  flawed as only the minority become affected


Generally, video games have a continuous representation of violence- which is cultivation  
they present violence as the only real way to solve things

Doom was released in 1993, which created a moral panic 
amplification- when the media pushes it out of proportion



passive audience theory: hypodermic needle theory-  suggests the audience isn't clever and are easily manipulated

passive: cultivation theory

reception theory:

Stuart hall- reception theory- encoding/decoding- preferred(when the audience agree with the ideology), negotiated(your in the middle), oppositional( you don't agree with the ideology/reject it ), aberrant (when you don't understand it)

Assassins creed 3 liberation: Dominant ideological perspective

-violence solves problems

- violence is expectable

- in life there are good guys and bad guys

- good vs evil (binary opposition)

- antislavery- what the game is based on 

- women can do the same as men - gender equality 

- the game is a celebration of french culture- to appeal to a wider audience 

- the game is fun 

preferred- that violence is an acceptable way to solve violence, and that slavery is unacceptable and needs to be challenged 

negotiated- the actual game is confusing but agree with the antislavery message

oppositional- that violence shouldn't be used, the game isn't fun 

There are more ways than before to negotiate ideologies- multiple interpretations- multiple experiences- especially in video games



Lore- an underlying story or deeper story in a video games- which you wouldn't know or understand 

Environmental story telling- get the story through other things such as descriptions of objects, talking to characters and video clips 

brief magazine revision

Woman magazine 3 million copies were sold every week in the 1960's - had a very large circulation- mass audience sold for 7D which is 80p in todays money

Adbusters- anticapitalist- rejects profit and money - sold for £10.99 - not a main stream magazine with a cult audience - deliberately confrontational - doesn't have adverts which is really subverting- non profit magazine  

Video-Games 2

Assassins creed liberation 3:
How does this trailer target a specialised and generalised audience?

According to David Hesmondhalgh, "it is essential for industries to minimise risk and maximise profit."

• Targeting a minority audience (black female led in the game) subverts expectation that target audience is young straight white men- black female avatar/character 
• New missions- targets pre existing fans
• Common industry practise to re-release games on more popular consoles
• Tackles big ideological issues about slavery and colonisation - pushes boundaries, creates bigger word of mouth
• Trailer is very similar to the film Django Unchained which was released in 2012 the same year this video game was originally released - it is a cult film which deals with slavery in anti-bellum America
• High quality animation, graphics, locations and sound track - very high production values
• This is a big budget, hight quality game developed by Ubisoft 
• Multiplatform release of the game on both PS3 and Xbox 360
• Minimising risk by going for a larger, general audience through Multiplatform release 
• Trailer shares the conventions of a high budget Hollywood film such as voice overs/narration, also had lots of proairetic code (action)- high quality orchestral soundtrack 
• Mise-en-scene of all assassins creed are very similar- historical settings 
• Assassin’s Creed III sold 3.5 million copies in its first week 

One criticism is that the game has been over saturated

Video games used to be regulated by a company called ELSPA before PEGI

PEGI- Pan European Game Information

The number doesn't refer to the level of difficulty it just informs the audience about what's in it 

it is an advisory classification system it is up to the shops discretion to sell it to someone who is under the age 

bbfc- can rate certain games 

the regulation of video games in the uk is completely ineffective partly due to digital technology 

Intro to video games

Sega advert: Viz comic early 90's:

• Targeted at only young men 
• Implies women aren't interested and aren't able to play them 
• uses sex to sell the product

What is a video game:

• Must have a console 
• Tend to target a core/niche audience
• Video games are generally much more interactive 
• There is an assumptions that they are played by a younger audience and doesn't appeal to an older audience 
• Often there is an online component to them
• More complicated narrative
• Huge expenditure of resources
• Much higher RRP
• Significantly longer
• Tend to be released for a specific console or computer

Hypodermic needle model- makes a massive assumption that the audience are stupid

The Video game industry is a specialised industry:

History:

• First ever video game was in 1962 called space wars- developed in America, designed originally as an experiment in the US military 
• some of the first video games were multiplayer, roleplaying games similar to 'Dungeons and Dragons'
• Space invaders- Taito developed the arcade game, they have a dedicated cabinet and is publicly available. It was so popular in Japan (where it was originally made) suffered from a shortage off 100 Yen coins
• In America one of the games that caused the 'arcade boom' was 'centipede' another game which was played within an arcade and had a dedicated cabinet with  a trackpad, shortly things like Donkey Kong was released.
• What developed from this was 'micro computers' which meant people could play games at home,. bedroom coders within the uk began developing their own games, and companies like Atari picked these up and made them compatible for the ZX Spectrum console.
• 1980's video game industry crash 
• Aktri went bankrupt due to the E.T video game which they only spent a month on developing and sold very little copies- they buried them as it was the cheapest way to get rid  off them
• However Japan was thriving and creating games such as Dragon Quest- Japanese games were much more graphic heavy and relied on narrative however western games were more puzzle focused
• In 1986 super Mario was created for nitendo- to this day it is still the highest grossing video game in history- it was marketed specifically towards kids, with an easily recognisable soundtrack and graphics which were more advanced than many others. Mario is easy to understand and play however hard to actually master
• 1994- Sony Playstation 1 was released- they advert they used to go with the console used almost reverse psychology- making fun of the idea the video games make you stupid - sophisticated advertising campaign challenging the idea they're only played by nerds- also took the play station to clubs and there sound tracks were made by up and coming artists
• Video games tend to be a lot longer than films
• Indie games tend to be made by small development teams
• Where as a triple A game take thousands of people to make them E.g FIFA or call of duty
• Controversies surrounding representation: lots of sexiest representation when the first women was put onto a video game 
• Digital distribution: no hard copes of games anymore 

Component 1- section B:
Assassin Creed 3- Liberation ( the game we need to know)
Published by Ubisoft in 2012 for the playstation Vita, with a subsequent HD re-release for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
Trailer for 2014 re-release:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5RxYUw4DFY 
Pegi 18 - regulated in a different way to films 

In May 2019, the game will be re-released as a part of Assassin's Creed III Remastered for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.

• to start with the game sales didn't meet the companies expectations which is why it was then rereleased on more consoles in 2014
• Didn't get very good reviews and the story line was heavily criticised 
• Critically the game didn't do well which heavily impacts sales
• Being rerelased a second time is an easy way to make more money as only things need to be tweaked not completely designed 
• 600,000 copies were sold on the first release on only the ps vita which is really low considering its a triple a 

Back To Basics

Denotations: 

• shampoo

• red background- setting, connotes love and passion- 

• attractive woman/ model- Midshot she has a direct mode of address by looking directly as the camera/audience

• long glossy hair- Mise-en-scene

• brand logo, 

• white, symbolises purity and innocence 

• advert, 

• offer - text- sans serif

• "Paris"- text, anchorage

• open palm - gesture

• red and white bottle- proairetic code

• The mise-en-scene of the model's full, red lips functions as a symbolic code, making reference to themes of love, sex and sexuality.

• adverts making by making the audience dissatisfied by their life

• through the repetition of the word damaged its implying the audiences hair needs repairing
• the bottle is a smooth shape which could be symbolic of the curves of a stereotypical attractive female

• Bridge 
• Country side
• Barn
• American
• Cowboy style
• Trees
• Outdoors
• Males and females