G322B – The Film Industry

Audience - Collective group of people reading any media text.

Institution – An established organization or company, e.g. the BBC, that provides media

content, whether for profit, public service or another motive. This involves you understanding

of the media as a business, the relationship between institutions and the public and media as a

form of power.

Q – How many ways you can ‘read’ something produced by the BBC?

(If I understood the question properly) I looked at the main clip on the page (Doctor

Who advertisement for the new series) and found several examples of BBC associated

articles. These included:

The end title sequence of the actual clip

The fact that the website is created or part of the BBC

The copyrights of the BBC at the bottom

BBC toolbars to the top and bottom of the page

TASK - Go to the Doctor Who website.

Q. How can the audience engage with Doctor Who? How many different forms of ‘media’

are offered?

I looked at all of the major types (Broadcasting, Internet, Mobile Phone, Video Game)

and found that doctor Who was available in several of these, including Broadcasting

(On the TV obviously), Internet (Episodes are viewable on the BBC Iplayer), and also

on Mobile (The BBC offer an Iplayer service on formats such as the Iphone)

Although this is a TV programme produced by a British company it involves video games,

cartoons, film style trailers, cartoons, comics, music etc…

The name we give to this coming together of different ‘media’ is your third keyword:

Convergence - Hardware and software coming together across media, and companies

coming together across similar boundaries. This makes the distinction between different types

of media and different media industries increasingly dubious.

Q. How would you usually watch an episode of Doctor Who?

I normally watch Doctor Who on the Television

Now think of the other ways you can watch an episode. Here’s one…

List the other ways|:

On the computer

On your mobile phone

On DVD

What links these formats?

They are all electronic. Also each method has been introduced to increase convenience,

for instance the Iplayer has made it very flexible for people who may otherwise miss out

on watching the programme

They’re all digital, your fourth keyword...

Digital technology has led to increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with

general agreement that the notion of a large group of people, brought together by time,

responding to a single text, is outdated and that audiences now are ‘fragmented’.

Explain, in your own words, what fragmented means.

I believe ‘fragmented’ in Media terms is the number of viewer watching different

channels. Since the development of satiate television hundreds of new channels have

been created and fragmentation is the divide of viewers between different channels

Key Points

In media studies we focus on ‘the contemporary’.

What does this mean if, for example, we are to study the film industry in Britain?

Contemporary means the ‘current’ industry. If we were to explore Britain’s

contemporary film industry we could be exploring recent changes.

We are also keen to focus on convergence as a key agent of change. Why?

Because it’s one of the most important things that’s happening now.

Q. How does the film industry 'converge' with the internet?

First of all distribution has been helped by this convergence. For example you can now

find advertisements all over the internet informing you of the latest blockbuster

whether to go and watch it at the cinema are whether to buy it in the shops.

Also, internet programmes such as the ITunes store now make films available to

purchase over the web, another important feature of this congregation.

We are finally interested in how things are changing.

Within the context of not only convergence, but also ownership, technologies and

globalisation.

More key words – ownership and technologies are pretty straightforward however…

Globalisation means - The shift in media distribution from local or national to international

and the whole world at once. Culturally, describes the process of ‘sameness’ over the world,

typified by the availability of McDonalds in most nations.

Convergence

(Can be more than one way of converging.)

Definition again - Hardware and software coming together across media, and companies

coming together across similar boundaries. This makes the distinction between different types

of media and different media industries increasingly dubious.

1. Converging technologies – e.g your mobile ‘phone…

So what can the iphone do?

Make a list of the features…

2. Converging media industries

News Corporation produce and distribute across several media. Find examples of their

multinational media presence.

(Luhrs quote)

“We no longer live in a media world where TV, videogames, films, newspapers, radio,

magazines and music exist separately.”

For this reason it is essential that you become aware of the impact of convergence on the film

industry.