Magazines

Magazine: The big issue
Social, cultural, political context

The big issue is a niche magazine outside the commercial mainstream that learners may not normally engage with. It provides a contrasting example of how the elements of the theoretical framwork for media language can be used o construct alternative representations that appeal to particular audiences.
Learners must study 2 front covers of The Big Issue, from Sep 2018.
- alternative to the mainstream
- national significance

CLIFT
CLAMPS
FAM

Key terms:
- Circulation - No. of copies a magazines sells
- Readership - not just who buys a magazines but the total number of people likely to read it
- Mass Audience - readership on a very large scale
- Niche Audience - narrow group of readers with a particular interest
- Subscription - where a reader pays for a set number of copies of a magazines in advance at a lower price and receives them by post

Intertexuality

Key Terms:
- Masthead
- Plug
- Puff
- Cover Star
- Anchorage Text
- Banner
- Skyline

                 Producer
   Audience.           Advertiser

Advertising accounts for 70% of magazine income
Small circulation is more dependant on advertising

100,000 big issues sold per week
2000 big issue vendors in Britain
Vendors buys copies for £1.25
Made more than £5M
120 countries involved

Minecraft Construction Task

Evaluation:
1) The task that we were given was to create some merchandise based around Minecraft and insert our product into a print advert. Before beginning this process, we had to research current merchandise to see what is already made and how they are successful.
2) The name of my brand is 'Minecraft Merch'
3) As previously talked about, we had to research already made products. So I simply googled for Minecraft merchandise to see what is available and successful for my inspiration.
4) The main gap I occurred is that I wanted to make something that hasn't really been made prior to this, but there are so many products based around Minecraft, that I found it quite hard to think of an original idea.
5) My initial feedback was to adjust the layout of the original design so it was more formal am the background of the actual product was more visible.
6) I thought that the concept went well as it is an original design and also how I portrayed it onto my print advert went well.
7) I have learnt how to edit photo's in a way that presents a concept successfully and can sell a product.

Minecraft - Production, Distribution, Ownership & Industry

Minecraft Essay - 724 Words

Minecraft is a sandbox a video game created by a Swede called Markus Persson. A sandbox is a type of game where other than the map, the game depends on the user’s imagination. In Minecraft, players can create structures using textured blocks in the random 3D world that the computer generates. The game originally started just as mining, building and surviving back in 2009 but has massively grown into a lot more where the capabilities of the game are endless.
Minecraft can be played over almost every console and device possible with the following being included: PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, iOS devices, Android devices, Windows phones and also a variety of VR companies.

Minecraft has had huge commercial success, with over 154 million copies sold all over the world with a calculated 91 million monthly players on the servers across the 116 countries in which it is possible to play in. When Markus Persson (or Notch) first created Minecraft on May 13th 2009, he soon created Mojang AB, a developing company, for Minecraft to grow and maintain its popularity. But on 15th September 2014, Minecraft and Mojang AB were acquired by Microsoft for a total of $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) due to the game’s success and profit. This has affected the game massively by a rise in 50 million copies sold since this date, but also making the game less audience oriented in the process. This is because of Microsoft not being able to have a larger connection with the audience due to the company size, compared to Persson who could have this connection. Minecraft have also produced sequels to the game but with more of a purpose. These games include: Minecraft: Story Mode where there is a set story and campaign for the player to experience, Minecraft: Education Edition which is a limited version of Minecraft used mainly for school purposes to expand students knowledge in the classroom.
With the uprise in Minecraft users, which started to become popular in 2010/11, Minecraft decided to add in-game currency for players to be able to use skins in game. Skins are a fan-made aethstetic looks for your character to have to make your account and worlds more personalised to you. These skins are both fan made and company made. These were originally just the classic ‘Steve’ skin which Minecraft is associated with, but over the years, more skins have been developed for the public to buy over micro-transactions. These can then be set in game for the player to use online and offline.
Minecraft Realms is an official subscription-based server hosting service that allows players to create and manage their own private Minecraft servers. When Realms was first released in 2013, it required a micro-transaction payment of $7.99 but recently on the mobile devices, it doesn’t cost to make a Realm server but does only last for up to 120 days before deleting automatically.
Twitch is a streaming website that is primarily based around gaming, but it is broadening it’s horizons with the IRL section, Content creators stream anything that can entertain them and the fans, content creators can make money off of this by the fans donating, twitch is also linked to amazon giving people a twitch prime status to whoever has amazon prime. Minecraft has its own twitch channel, where fans and other pro players stream themselves playing Minecraft, completing different set challenges or just streaming their survival world. The Minecraft twitch channel has got 34,803 followers with a total 2,372,538 views.
Minecraft annually holds a gaming convention called Minecon. This started on 31st August 2010 when the convention was orignally called ‘Minecraftcon’ where a gathering of 50 fans attended the spontaneous event that Notch held in Washington. From there, there has been a Minecon convention yearly, which is announced mid-Februrary and held in late October to early November in places such as Disneyland Paris, Orlando and California. The Minecon convention also earnt a Guiness World Record on 4th July 2015 for the largest convention for a single video game.

Minecraft is regulated by Video Standards Council which applies the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) and their rating system. Initially, Minecraft was rated a PEGI 7 but with the later release of Minecraft: Story Mode, the stories were classified higher because of the narratives that had been introduced.

Minecraft Presentations

History of Minecraft

Video Games

Minecraft development referred to online Lego is a multi platform game.
Markus Persson (Notch) (Started as Indie), developed by Mojang, Bought by Microsoft

Independent, not financed by a big commercial company.
But, as a small independant products became successful, it is usual for larger organisations/owners want to buy them.

Video Games Key Words

Platforms - Different formats games are available in, such as IOS,PS4, Xbox, Linux

Cross media platforms - Games available on more than one platform

Conglomerate - Large media companies that own smaller media companies; i.e. sony

Developer - People or comapines that come up with that concept for the game

Digital Distributor - Making the game avaialble to audiences e.g. steam

Engine - A system designed for the creation and development of the video game e.g. 'unreal'

PEGI - Pan European Games Information - age rating system for regualtinig video games

Designer - People or companies who bring the concept of the game to life

RPG - Role Playing Games

MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

FPS - First Person Shooter

Event Release - Hyped date used heavily in makreting of new games

Triple A Games - FIFA, Call of Duty - An information classification used for video games with the highest development budgets and levels of promotions.

Open World - Players free to roam in a virtual game world

DLC - Downloadable Content

Sandbox - A style of a game that allows the user to change the world around them whenever they want


Different types/genres of video games:
RPG - Role play game e.g. sims

SPORTS - e.g. NBA, FIFA

STRATEGY - Fortnite, Tetris

ACTION/AVENTURE - Zelda

CONSTRUCTION/STRATEGY/BUILDING - Minecraft

FPS - First Person Shooter e.g CSGO

SIMULATION - Sims

HORROR - e.g. FNAF

PUZZLE SOLVING - e.g. Portal

CHILDREN'S - e.g. Minecraft

Minecraft

Exam: 15 Marks, 25 minutes.

Made by Markus Persson aka Notch
Sold over 100 million copies

1. How many subscriptions does Ali-A have for his YouTube channel?
Over 16 million subscribers on his main channel, Ali A, with an additional 5 million on his second channel, Morealia

2) How many years have he been doing this?
He's been uploading to YouTube for over 10 years from when he started in 2009

3) Why did he start playing Minecraft?
His audience kept asking him to make YouTube videos on Minecraft so he done it

4) What does he say he is trying to do with his content?
Post content of what his audience asked for, which is how he got as big as he is.

5) Describe his average working day
Wakes up between 12-2pm, turn on setup and start computer, then get ready and by 3-4pm, makes 3 videos a day. 2 videos on mine-craft channel then another video of cod channel. makes 1st video for 7 then next for 10pm then final video 1am.

6) Why might we watch YouTubers?
Personally, we watch youtubers because of the way the youtuber makes the content entertaining with the video game or idea adding onto this.

7) What is Twitch and what is the average time spent on it by a viewer?
Twitch is a live streaming service which allows viewers to watch people play video games in live time. Average viewer spends 4 hours.

8) How much do you estimate that Ali-A earns in a year?
Estimated to be $2.5million

9) How much was Minecraft purchased for?
$2.5 billion by Microsoft

10) What are 3 reasons behind Microsoft’s purchase?
a) Money
b) To expand to all of the different devices
c) New audience to Microsoft

11) How might this affect the game?
Oversee the development in the future, offers more support and infrastructure so Minecraft can be made bigger and better in the future,

12) What is Minecraft’s biggest asset?
The community

Radio 1 Self Test

1) Greg James started hosting the Breakfast Show 20th August 2018 after Grimmy leaving the show 9th August 2018.
2) The Breakfast Show aims to have an audience of 15-29 years old.
3) Because the breakfast show is owned by the BBC, only adverts from the BBC can be shown under their rules and regulation, much like the TV channels. This compares to smaller radio shows where they can gain more income from advertising a more variety of commercials.
4) Phone, Tablet, Radio, MP3 Player, Laptop, Mainframe, Supercomputer, Watch.
5) The audience can interact with James via the games in which he hosts. These include many fun games such as 'Pass the Pasty', 'Unpopular Opinion' and 'Jan Slam' where all games consist of the audience participating in various challenges and fun in order to win various prizes that Greg James hosts. James also hosts many quizzes per day where the audience can submit their answers via the show's social media or by ringing into Greg James himself.
6) Ofcom will regulate the content standards of the BBC's television, radio and on-demand programmes. The BBC will handle complaints about its content in the first instance, with Ofcom overseeing that process and handling appeals through a transparent process.
7)  The R1BS fufils its remits via all the audience engagement that constantly occurs. This includes all games taken place, all concerts Radio 1 hosts, the news each half hour etc.
8) Ben Cooper states that you have to take in account of all innovation, digital as well as physical, YouTube as well as the actual show itself. News reporters state how weekly listeners have dropped via the radio but never count the views on their YouTube page and other social media.
9) The program promotes British music via the program mainly playing music tracks from popular and upcoming British artists constantly throughout the day, for example Dua Lipa.
10) Majority of the songs that are played on R1BS are pop because that is what the majority of 15-29 years olds enjoy listening to, which are the audience target for the program.
11) The program interviews many celebs every morning/week. These go from top class singers to other celebs with current news stories to the UK's favourite comedians and actors. Majority of these are British as it is much cheaper and easier for the program to get them onto the show but you may get the occasional foreign celeb who is in London at the time.
12) Brexit, Immigration, Sport, FIlm nominations.
13) There are many fun games such as 'Pass the Pasty', 'Unpopular Opinion' and 'Jan Slam' where all games consist of the audience participating in various challenges and fun in order to win various prizes that Greg James hosts. James also hosts many quizzes per day where the audience can submit their answers via the show's social media or by ringing into Greg James himself.
14) The broadcast gives entertainment to listeners by adding comedy and relevant topics that people can relate, the news updates every half an hour help to inform people on everything that's going on and all the important things happening, this also educates people of around the world topics.
15) They don’t advertise any commercials that aren’t to do with the BBC due to the BBC's rules and regulation, similar to their TV channels.
16)  People aged 10+, some of the vocabulary used may not be acceptable for young audience that potentially could listen.
17) 5.1 Million listeners per week which has dropped from 5.72 million from September 2018.
18)
19) Radio 2 is the most targeted because it covers more and lasts for longer.
20) Radio 1 is the most aimed at a niche audience because of the smaller age gap of their target audience.

R1BS Practical

Evaluation:

1) The task that we was assinged was to create a 3 minute clip of a Radio 1 Breakfast Show audition where would over run Greg James' position. We had to cover various topics whithin this 3 minute clip: 30 seconds of News, An interivew with a celebrity, Music, A game that we have to make up, and social media.
2) My group are George (News), Sam and Maisie (Interview), Brooke (Game) and myself (Host)
3) The fresh idea that we came up with was our game where an audience member would willingly ring up and tell us a secret confession they had kept for however long.
4) We did an interview (Maisie being the interviewer) who interviewed Sam who acted as Danny Dyer where questions about Danny's relation to Richard 3rd were asked and other questions on topics that had recently been in the news.
5) We chose Mabel - Dont call me up, Sam Smith - Dancing with a stranger and Post Malone - Wow. We chose these songs as they are either British, popular artists or upcoming artists with talent. we chose this because this is what the R1BS repreents and wants to recognise.
6) The running that we decided was Mabel, Sam Smith, Gameshow, Interview, Post Malone, News. We chose this running order as it fit all aspects of the radio show into the 3 minutes and set a stable structure for the audience to follow.
7) We attract the audience via inviting them on our show to be part of our various gameshows and quizzes, where they can win prizes and be included within the breakfast show
8) Our product fits into the remit because it entertainments and educates all memeber of the audience.
9) As an improvement, we could've maybe had an additional quiz within the 3 minutes to furthur engage our audience, but with our given time, we wouldn't have time to do this.
10) Our initial feedback was that I was too monotone, news was a little too quick and I said the time at the end wrong.

Radio 1 Breakfast Show - Essay

How is the BBC Radio 1 BS reaching, targeting, and encouraging audience interactions? 

• Who is audience (age, class, gender)
• How radio keeps audience 
• How audience gets pleasure from radio

The Radio breakfast show helps to entice the audience through various contraptions such as competitions and games that potentially done correctly leads to significant rewards. The target audience is incorporated alongside with the music choice and genre as the audience that listens enjoy the music and tunes back into the vast playlist or remixes. They manage to get the audience to return is due to the originality of the show. Radio 1 reaches to their audience by throwing huge events such as their Big Weekend music festival. The big weekend is a music festival run by BBC Radio 1 that is held annually throughout different UK venues. Whilst it used to be the biggest free ticketed event in the UK, it now charges a fee of £15 but is still a huge event where thousands of people still attend. This hit music festival is one of many reasons why the audience of the Breakfast Show is keeping, even though the show’s rough times. 

Another reason of why the Breakfast Show’s audience is always being reached out to is because of the show’s social media and how often Greg James and his production team and on social media, interacting with their audience. They have an Instagram, snapchat, twitter and facebook page where they connect with their audience via giveaways, game shows, and links to the show. From here, the audience can react and interact with Greg James and other members of the audience via answering game show questions, taking part in the show’s wacky games and then replying and commenting in audiences comments and posts. 

When radio 1 brought Nick Grimshaw, Grimmy. he was largely expected to boost the rating because of his celebrity status and young people connection. But, when he joined the breakfast show, these rating suffered heavily and instantly fell. Funnily enough, as soon as he resigned from the Breakfast Show and Greg James stepped in, these rating shot back up after the loss of 9.37 million listeners per week from Grimmy's entrance. Greg James was able to obtain an extra 231,000 listeners in October to December of 2018, averaging a total of 5.11 million listeners per week which the audience being aged between 15+.

With the arrival of Greg James, the audience has been more involved than ever. This is because of the various games and competitions that James hosts. These include many fun games such as 'Pass the Pasty', 'Unpopular Opinion' and 'Jan Slam' where all games consist of the audience participating in various challenges and fun in order to win various prizes that Greg James hosts. James also hosts many quizzes per day where the audience can submit their answers via the show's social media or by ringing into Greg James himself. The show also provides educational news to their audience each half hour with a separate news reporter for the audience to engage and have an interest in. 

Radio 1 BS Timeline

06:30	News and Weather
06:30	Programme indent and sting
06:30	Start talking amongst themselves, discussing topics that relate to the studio crew.
06:33	Starting to talk about what is coming up on the radio as well as giveaways to festivals and such, talks to the audience like a mate.
06:34	Programme indent and sting
06:34	‘Just got paid’ by Sigala
06:37	Programme indent and sting
06:38	‘Young, dumb and broke’ by Khalid
06:41	Greg James talking about upcoming songs, interactivity with the audience along with a phone call, for example, Kerry's crush countdown along with some other crush countdowns.
06:46	‘Baby’ - Clean Bandit
06:49-06:54	Greg James just casually talking to the audiences about the previous conversation before the song and then goes on to remind people what is coming up. after this ‘The Walker’ Christine and the Queens.
06:54-06:58	News and Weather

7:31am		sting
7:31.25 – 7:31.25 am		Programme ident . station ident
7:31.28		‘one, radio one breakfast’ station indent, introduces Greg James – interacting with the audience
7.31.52		Programme ident, sting – Greg James mentioned
7:32- 7:35		(Jax jones feat. Years & years – ‘play’)   - programme ident / sting
7:35- 7:39		(Katy Perry, ‘chained to the rhythm’) radio one jam slam overview
8:14- 8:16		(Post Malone ‘wow’) countdown to jam slam
8:16- 8:20		(jess Glynne plays)
8:20- 8:22		Greg discusses a popular Netflix film (cardi b clips) (Katy Perry clip)
8:22- 8:23		Mentioned Remy malik (Freddie Mercury) in reference to an award ceremony ‘awkward moment’
8:23 – 8:24		No Oscars host – Kevin Hart interview
8:24 – 8:25		Programme ident , 2x stings / station ident
8:25- 8:27		(the vaccines – ‘all my friends’)
8:27 – 8:28		Sting – Greg mentions radio 1 breakfast again, jam slam advertised again News begins – news beats (sting)
8:28- 8:29		News beat (sting) station ident, Political interview with mum about hunger, migrant talk a lot
8:29- 8:30		Christian Hugel regarding meat interview, News beat / STING
	8:40		Track – Real life, Duke Dumont
	8:42		Programme ident
	8:42		Track – Sweet but psycho, Ava Max
	8:45		Intro into studio crew – discuss what’s coming up
	8:46		Talks about a series ‘breaking dad’ on ITV
	8:49		Track – Who R U? Anderson.Paak
	8:52		Reads out audiences messages related to their reactions on ‘breaking bad’ and what has been speaking about previously
	8:53		Greg announces a star listener, giving a prize as a cookbook and a cassette for Mabel’s album
	8:54		Track – Shake it off, Taylor Swift
	8:57 (2:24)		Track – Nothing breaks like a hear, Miley Cyrus
	9:01 (2:28)		’10 minute takeover’ – STING, Greg gives out the phone number to pick 3 songs chosen by the audience
	9:02 (2:29)		Picked a random person to choose their first song for ’10 minute takeover’
	9:02		Track – Freed from desire, Gala Rizzatto
	9:06		Track – Give me the love, Sean Paul
	9:10		Track – Girls and Boys,
	9:13		End of 10-minute takeover, recalls the songs and people who sent them in and says they will be doing another 10-minute takeover tomorrow
	9:13		Programme ident, sting
	9:13		Track – Without me, Halsey
	9:17 (2:44)		Track – Medicine, bring me the horizons

  

Timing	Content
9:20	Track -  Bring me the horizon, Medicine. Genre = pop, pop rock, alternative rock
9:23	Discussion by Greg James.
9: 25	Album promotion for 1975. Track – 1975, Girls. Genre = rock, pop, alternative rock
9:30	Small discussion. Track – Losing It, Fisher. Genre = house
9:33	News beat – politics, general news, and sport.
9:40	Track – Sigrid, Sucker Punch. Ident. Genre = pop
9:44	Track – Imagine Dragons, Thunder. Genre = synth-pop
9:50	Track – Kojey Radical and Mahalia, One night only. Lead to a short discussion about The Artist.  Genre = R&B/soul
9:56	Ident. Track – Major Lazer Light it up. Genre = Moombahton, Dance/synth.   Track – Sia, Elastic heart. Genre = electric pop trap.
10:00	End show

  How does the programme promotes British music?

The songs are repeated, when the track is finished it will state the name and artist to help entice the listener to re-listen and spread the word about a specific artist.

● What percentage of tracks played during your slot were British?

75% of the songs played ¾ were British, with the other song being from Canada.

● What genres of music were played during your slot?  Do a tally.

Electronic, indie rock, House, Pop, Dance, Garage, hip hop, grime

●  Celebrity interviews – who is being interviewed and what are they being interviewed about?  How many of the interviews are with British people?

The only person being interviewed was ex- England cricketer Graeme Swann, he is British, this was done to help promote the giveaway.

●  News items – list the stories and identify which relate to Britain. 

English footballer talked about injury and potential return, the drone problem in and around the airport how the military might need to get involved.

● Quizzes and games – what can you win?

Tickets to the cricket world cup.

● How does the broadcast fits into the BBC ethos of ‘informing, educating and entertaining’?

    The broadcast gives entertainment to listeners by adding comedy and relevant topics that people can relate, the news updates every half an hour help to inform people on everything that's going on and all the important things happening, this also educates people of around the world topics. 

●        How does it differ from commercial breakfast shows?

    They don’t advertise any commercials that aren’t to do with the BBC due to the BBC's rules and regulation, similar to their TV channels.

●        Who you think the audience is from the content of your section?  What evidence do you have for this? 

    People aged 10+, some of the vocabulary used may not be acceptable for young audience that potentially could listen.

●        What platforms is the show is distributed on? 

    IPad, Phones, Laptops, IPods, TV