Introduction:
The Media sector has a wide
range of companies and sectors that are connected to the media sector. Most of
which are listed below…
·
Broadcast television
eg. BBC, ITV, Sky, etc…
·
Radio – eg. Capital FM, Kiss FM, BBC Radio 1, etc…
·
Film – eg. Warner
Bros Studios, Disney Studios, Paramount pictures, etc…
·
Animation – eg.
Dreamworks, Pixar, Disney, etc…
·
Publishing – eg.
Online Journals, e-books, Mailing list, etc…
·
Corporate production
- using film, CD-ROM or DVD formats for training, PR and sales
·
Interactive media -
web and Internet, off-line multimedia, electronic games and interactive TV.
·
Music – eg. Universal
Studios, Island Records, EMI Records, etc…
The sector I will be
focusing on within this report is Interactive media as this covers Web related
jobs such as Web design, web developer, etc. The interactive media industry is
normally product and and services on digital systems such as phones, computers
and tablets. I also chose this sector, as it’s the sector that I have the best
knowledge in and would be able to interpret my knowledge into this
report/booklet better than any of the other sectors.
Private
Ownership (Youtube):
There are two types of Private
ownership. The first type of private ownership is when the ownership is held by
an individual or a small group of people, an example of the first type of
private ownership is IKEA as it is run by Ingvar Kamprad, But also Ikea is
considered as a multinational company as it is a company with stores around the
world. The second type of private ownership is when the ownership of a company
can be held by stakeholders, stakeholders are people or companies who buy and
sell shares of the company through the use of stock markets an example of this
type of ownership is when Google brought out Youtube and now Youtube is a
subsidary company meaning that their a part of a bigger company but yet get to
control what they want to do with their company.
Youtube is a franchise that has
business buildings in several different countries which include US, UK,
Germany, Turkey, Canada and many more in
Europe, Middle east & Africa, Asia and America.
Youtube is a part of the private
sector in the media industry as it is owned and financed by an Google which
means that the google have financed the website in which the website is part
financed by Google as they have financed and brought the company. This is not a
public Ownership company as google is owned by a small amount of people and is
not accociated with the government.
Youtube is a cross-media
diversification as some of the shows/videos you see on Youtube are also part of
a TV show that runs and aires on TV first and then is put onto Youtube.
Youtube is a Horizontal integration
company as the company ‘Google’ took over Youtube in 2006 and is now a part of
google who have took over youtube and its systems, this was done so that
youtube would still be able to carry on making profits and would be available
to a larger platform that everyone uses every day.
As stated before, Youtube is a shared
ownership between Google as Google has brought the company but both still own
the company (Youtube). They have both merged together to share the ownership
between the two companies so that each company can benefit.
Youtube gets its sources of finance
through the use of advertisement-based projects through advertising on
different media platforms such as TV, Radio, Billboards, etc… Before being
brought by google, Youtube has said that they made $15million per month from
advertisements and its projects. Youtube has profited over the past years as an
article in a Forbes magazine said that in June 2008, the revenue of Youtube
went to $200 million but some industry commentators has speculated and said
that the running cost of Youtube (especially the bandwidth required) maybe be
as high as $5 to $6 million per month. Google and Youtube have produced a
variety of different products such as the chrome cast to increase their revenue
buy selling this product to people around the world.
Youtube’s customers may include the
people who watch youtube but also youtube’s customers may include the content
creators who make the content on youtube for people/fans to watch over on their
youtube channel and so without them, youtube would not be as successful as it
is now.
Public
Ownership (Facebook):
Public Ownership is a company such as
facebook that’s ownership is shared among the public in shares of stock which
are traded in the stock exchange. Facebook is a Public company who’s CEO is
Mark Zuckerbeg but is now part owned by the Government. Facebook is a part of a
Cross media diversification as it extended into video streaming where you can
Upload videos but also Livestream videos from your phone. Facebook is a
vertical integration as its production and distribution is controlled by the
company to get power in the marketplace.
The company is part owned by Mark
Zuckerberg (Owner of facebook) and the government to protect the saftey of
users on facebook. Facebook has merged with many different companies to
increase their sales and interactions, some of these companies include
Whatsapp, Oculus VR and Instagram.
Like many other companies, Facebook
gets its sources of income from advertisements placed onto their websites to
increase the business interaction as different companies know that facebook is
used by millions of people all over the world each day. Also, facebook gets its
revenue from the purchases on different games or features being made from
users, whether its in-game goodies such as extra lives or buying ads to promote
your business/page on facebook. Facebook’s financial concerns include ivenstors
being concered by the stock shares as many people use other social media
platforms such as whatsapp and twitter and the mothly active users for facebook
has decreased.
Facebook hasn’t got a wide range of
products on sale or in the market, but has some that can help improve the
customers time on facebook such as the Facebook messenger which is where you
don’t need to open facebook in order to message people on your facebook.
Facebook has also created some other products to the public for people to
enjoy, one of the main and most successful product they have made is Instagram,
as its similar to facebook but instead of posting posts you post only images for
people to look around the world to look at.
Facebooks Competitors include other
social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Kik etc… as they might have other
special features that facebook doesn’t have and so people would rather use that
social media platform instead of facebook. However facbook has over 1.2 billion
monthly active users (as of 2013) which is 43% of the online population.
Multinationals
(Google):
A Multinational company is a company
that has differen office buildings set up in a variety of different locations
around the world also A multinational company is a company that controls the
production of different services or goods in different countries. For example,
Google has its business set up in a variety of different spots in America such
as California but also different places in Europe such as London.
Google is a Franchise that is founded
by Larry page and Sergey Brin, It is setup with headquaters around the world.
Google has diversified with youtube
which means google has now branched out onto the video streaming service as
Google now part owns Youtube. Google uses Horizontal integration as they have
brought Youtube which is a different company to increase the reach of google
and so that it can crossover with youtube and its products such as the youtube
now uses Google plus which is a part of google. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin own 14%
of the shares and 56% of the shares is controlled by stockholder voting power
through Supervoting Stock.
Google’s biggest merger was when they
merged with Youtube for a total of $1.6billion, other companies that google
have merged together are Android, Adscape, DoubleClick and many others. A
merger is when a company shares features with other companies so people use
more of that company’s products. For example, its vital for people now to
connect to Google+ to then create a Youtube account.
Google get most of its revenue and
income (97%) from advertising on its different platforms that they have merged
with such as Youtube but also with their partner sites such as Adsense. Some of
its income also comes from pruducts that google have produced such as Chrome,
Android and chromebooks.
Product range is when a company
offeres a wide range of different products on the market. Google’s Product
Range includes products such as Laptops called Chrombooks to Operating systems
such as Android. These products profit lower than the advertising that they do
as their products that only require a one time payment whereas advertisements
require monthly payments and so they would produce more profit for the
business. Google Plus is one of the concerns that google face that include
Income and profit as not many people like or use Google plus, so all the
investment that google have made into google plus would be a waste of money for
the company.
Google’s Objective and vision
statement is to provide access to the worlds information in one click, which I
believe is good objective to have as google is the most powerful and industry
leading search engine.
Google has other competitors form
different companies such as Windows, Bing and Sony that they have to compete
with but however google is the most used search engine online and then followed
by Bing.
Independents
(e3creative):
A independent company is a company
that is free from outside control and is normally a company that is a privately
owned establishment whereas a publicly limited company is a company which is
owned by instement shared that are traded in the stock market.
E3Creative is a cross-media
regulation which is in control and restriction of the amount of dominance in
the media sector and is a vertical integration in which several steps in the
production is taken and controlled by the company.
E3Creative is under the ownership of
e3.co.uk which is a internet based creative company based in the United
Kindgrom. E3Creative specializes in web design and is a digital agency for
website designs. E3.co.uk hasnt merged or tookover any other companies as it is
a independent company that has been privately established.
Most of its sources of income comes
from producing hight quality content for other businesses and creating
imaginative website designs for other people and businesses.
E3Creative’s Products ranges from
brand tranformation to web design as this is a digital company that specializes
in brand and web based products and outcomes. The company doesn’t tell us what
their objectives are but I would think that their objectives are to create more
revenue and cash flow by creating more webites and expanding their business
even further. Its competitors include other similar companies to their size and
its customers include other people or businesses that want to have a
re-branding or a new website design.
Conglomerates
(Walt Disney Co.):
A Conglomerate is when a business
like the Walt disney Co, have setup businesses in different media sectors such
as TV production, News, Record Label, Publishing, Interactive Media (Internet)
and others this is done so that more revenue is made into the company also,
these types of businesses are Mulitnational and public businesses as they sell
shares to stocks.
Walt disney Co. is a company that has
a wide range of sevices available to people such a record label called ‘Disney
Music Group’, A publishing company called Marvel Comics and Disney Publishing
worldwide but also have internet based services such as Disney Interactive and
Hulu.
Walt Disney Co is a diversification
company as it expanded and branched out into different media sectors in the
media industry as well as being a diversification company, it is also a share
of ownership as each sector has its own owner but is run under the same
company.
Walt disney co has took over other
television companies such as the ABC Television and the ABC family but also
other internet streaming websites such as Hulu as they have a joint venture
between Disney, Universal and FOX this has been done so that it wold increase
the company’s revenue in the future but also to promote a newly established
video streaming service.
Most of Walt Disney Co’s income comes
from the mergers and takeovers anqd the ownerships of the different companies
in the different media sectors as Walt
disney has a business running in nearly all of the media sectors that are out
there. But also some of its income comes from the sales of products and
advertisements placed on each of the services.
Walt disney has a diverse of products
that are put out, one of the most exciting and interesting products that walt
disney has put out for kids is ‘Disney World’ which is a place where you can
enjoy your favourite disney stars in person. There are several places that ‘Disney
World’ is available in, Paris and florida are just two of the places that its
available in but is also available in different locations.
Walt disney has a wide of product
that are being sold each day, these products include characters from different
franchises or clothing for young and older people available or other products
such as technologies for people who love disney to enjoy.
Financially, Walt disney is concerned
that television companies such as ESPN have dropped in subscribers and that
this would fall even further as not many people now watch TV and would rather
go video streaming sites such as Netflix to watch they favourite show and films.
Also in 2015, the stocks continue to fall on the ESPN television network
because as stated above, people would rather watch netflix or other video
streaming sites such as Youtube than TV because people now-a-days are very busy
and don’t necessarily have the time to be to watching films or tv shows when they
first aire on tv.
Walt disney Co’s objective and
mission statement is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers
of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to
differentiate its content, services and consumer products. This is a great
objective to have and I believe that they have already completed it as they
have a wide range of products available for people this also means that walt
disney is a Franchise business.
Its competitors include other similar
brands such as Unversal and fox as they produce similar content/services to
Walt disney and have similar products such as a Theme park. Walt disney’s
customers are mostly Younger children and family people.
Chapter 2: Ethical and Legal Constraints in the Creative Media Sectors
There are some Ethical and Legal constraints in the interactive media sector that people need to follow in order to make sure users are safe from Hackers, cyberbullying and any other offensive legal issues.
There are also several Laws and acts that protects your information you provide on the internet and in this chapter I will be going through the variety of different Ethical and Legal constraints that come with the internet and the Interactive Media Sector.
The Privacy Law is very important in the interactive media sector as you need to make sure that all your data that you put online is protected with the Privacy Law as this law protects people's personal information. An example of when it was breached was in 2013 when News of the world hacked into peoples phone to access text messages and voicemails of a variety of celebrities for news reporting, They breached this because it is private information and should not be accessed without consent from the person. If I was to make interactive media service such as Facebook, I would need to make sure that the users information is kept safe and protected so that nothing like this was to happen again.
The Intellectual property right is a Legal constraint that lets creators protect their work by putting trademarks in the name/company so that a person does not steal the idea or Logo. An example of where this might be used is when you do online shopping from sites such as Ebay or Amazon as you do not what you buy as it might be a fake company that has been put on a product, of any sorts, to raise the price of it. Other properties that are protected by this right are; your innovation in creating something, the design of your work and the creation and development of new platforms or Technology that are to do with your company's name. If I was to create a unique company, wether its e-commerce company or an interactive media company, I would need to protect the ideas so that no one else uses it for themselves and would use this law to protect them.
If you want to use someone else's work, wether its big or small, you will need to obtain permission from the owner to let you use their work so that you don't copyright his work which could result in a serious penalty or Jail time. Copyright is when you take someones work with out his/hers permission, An example of this happening in the media industry is when Catch up TV was streaming TV shows or Films on their websites without any legal permission from the broadcasters such as ITV or C4. Some content can also be used by everyone as these types of content are Copyright-free (Royalty Free) meaning that anyone on the internet can use and manipulate it to however they want. If I was to work as a Graphic designer in the media industry, I would need to create my own photos or Graphics otherwise I would have to source where I found them from and give credit to the owner of the original photo.
Another Legal constraint is a libel, which is a written or broadcast form of defamation. A libel ensures that you do not publish or write fake or untrue content online or elsewhere, which could result in getting a fine for you and your company. An example of a breach is when people create fake Facebook profiles and start writing fake or untrue information about a person or company whether its because of hate or for fun, it breaches the Libel and could be resulted in a serious consequence.
The Race relations act of 1976 is a legal constraint in the UK that protects Racial discrimination of any sorts online so that people do not discriminate of somebody's race or gender. An example of this done in the TV broadcasting industry is in 2007 when Big brother made races comments against one of the celebrities in the big brother household. If I was to make a interactive media product or service such as Youtube, I would make sure that it isn't offensive to anyone's race or gender. I would make sure that I follow a code of ethics that is used by all Companies.
The Obscene Publications act of 1959 is an act that protects the publication of anything obscene online but also strengthens the law that is concerned with Pornography.
The data protection act 1998 is one of the most important Legal right as it is a right that protects your personal data that you provide online so that criminals don't steal your identity. This Protection act is similar to the privacy law as both of these acts protect peoples information in a way
Video Recordings act of 1984 (which was later ammended in the 2000) is another important act in the interactive media sector but is more important in the FIlm industry as it protects the videos made for film or publications outside of film such as Youtube, vimeo or any other video streaming/sharing service. The Video Recordings act of 1984 also provides categories such U (Universal), PG (Parental Guidance), 12, 18, R rated, which make it easier for people to classify which film would be a family film. An example of a breach of this act is when people upload the movies or TV Shows on Youtube for people, this will make people not buy the movies as people would assume that they would already be on youtube or a Video Sharing website similar to youtube. If I was to create and produce content on youtube or anywhere, I would claim it as mine and that way people would not be able to use it in other content otherwise they would get copyrighted as my content would be protected by copyright and the Video Recording act of 1998.
Case Study...
A case study shows that a citizen in spain fought against the right have false information to be removed from google search engines.
In 2010, A spanish citizen filed a complaint against a spanish magazine and google inc with a National data protection agency. The person had a complaint that an image of his auction notice of his home became available on the google Search, in which he believed that it was against the privacy rights as the issue was already resolved a number of years before. This is also a libel as fake information about his home was places on a newspaper and in the google search. The Spanish citizen later requested that the information was removed or altered from the the newspaper at first as he thought it breached only the privacy law but also it breached the libel as the newspaper was giving out fake information to the public about his home. Later he requested that Google Spain or Google Inc to remove any personal information/data that related to the citizen and so that it no longer appeared in the search results.
So under the Right to be forgotten act, the information was later removed as the right to be forgotten is an act that allows individuals to have the right (Under certain conditions) to ask search engines such as Google or Yahoo or Bing to remove links with personal information about them if the person feels like the information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive.
Chapter 3: Regulation and Employment in the Media Sector
Part 1 - Regulations:
In the media sector there are several regulations that companies follow as a rule of conduct to make sure that none of the product aren't offensive to people across the world;
The Advertising standards authority (ASA) regulate advertising across all media whether its Social media sites, cinemas or websites in general ASA regulate every advertisement made and put out onto the sites.
The British board of film classification (BBFC) regulate and uniform the classification of film by using age rating in film.
The Office of communications (OFCOM) regulate content of all television programmes in the UK, They regulate the TV, Radio, fixed line telecoms, postal services and airwaves on which devices operate on.
The Pan European Game information (PEGI) regulate every game made and published by putting age rating on them to show the people whether the game would be graphical or family friendly for people to play with their families.
The Independent Press standards organisation (IPSO) which has replaced the PCC, regulates the newspaper and magazine industry. They monitor and maintain a code called 'The editor's code of practice'.
The Regulatory body that looks after the interactive media sector is the advertising standards authority (ASA) which is where advertisements are regulated on websites and Cinemas. It is important for the ASA to regulate the interactive media sector so that there would be child friendly advertisements placed onto different websites that everyone uses. The ASA effectively protect adult rated advertisements being shown on family friendly websites like youtube or google but also protect any false information to be placed on advertisements to make sure all the information given is as accurate as possible.
In the Interactive media sector the are several constraints that are faced due to the regulatory body, the Advertisements placed online should all be truthful which is one of the constraints as you can't lie about what your advertising about. Also the adverts that are placed online should be child-friendly otherwise consumers and companies will complain and might result in your advert being taken off the internet.
There have been several companies that have put up advertisements online that have been controversial and many customers have complained about. One of the company that was the most controversial was the MoneySuperMarket advert that was aired online which had a massive 1500 complaints that had come from people who saw the advert. The advert was about a guy walking down a street and dancing whilst wearing denim shorts and high heels. ASA had received that the advert was offensive by other people as many of the people complaint about the choice of clothing and dancing and believed that the video overtly sexual. ASA did not take down the advertisement at the end as they believed that the advert was not offensive and didn't any part of the of the code.
Part 2 - Employment Opportunities:
In the Interactive media sector there are several job opportunities available such Social Media Manager, Digital Designer/Graphic Designer, Web Developer, Video Designer, UX/UI Designer and many more. Most of these jobs can overlap with each other in certain ways to count as one collective job role for example, you could be A Graphic Designer who would also be working on Website designs which would be considered as a Digital Designer or a UX/UI Designer.
Each job has it own opportunities that you could become in the future. But, for me, If I wanted to become a professional Web Designer I would first need to become a Junior Graphic designer which is an entry level job, then you would later move onto become a Sr Graphic Designer which could then involve working on Website layouts, after you have become a Sr Graphic Designer you would most likely want to go towards Website design and practice coding as you will be required to use Codes such HTML and CSS (the main ones) to create complex and sophisticated websites.
If you was to become a Web designer you would most like need to take some courses or professional training from either watching and learning at home via Youtube or go get into a special course where they would teach you different coding that could help you in coding in HTML, CSS, jQuery. But also I would need to regularly update my knowledge of different designs on the web and around but also update my skills if I wanted to make more complex and more professional websites.
Part C - Application Pack:
http://ijobs.independent.co.uk/job/102395/junior-graphic-designer/?LinkSource=SEOLandingPageListing
I fit the Job Description as I have knowledge of different graphic design tools and softwares such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. I also have knowledge of a variety of Microsoft tools and software such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I have good organisational skills as I can carry out multiple work loads to certain deadlines that have to be met. I have a strong desire to learn and develop my skills even further and give the best possible result at the end and I can understand complex concepts easily.
