Christmas TV ad spending up by £10m
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/27/advertising.television

Christmas TV ad spend has surged by over £10m this year, fuelled by a surge in last-minute ads from panicked retailers worried about a sales downturn during the festive season . This surge has been driven by retailers and the "interior furnishing" category – brands such as DFS – which have contributed a rise in spending on Christmas ads of about £5m.
Media agencies and broadcasters have attributed much of the overall December boost to "late money" on ads to get consumers shopping on the high street.

Therefore most television channels will benefit as retailers will be looking to advertise during popular shows such as X -Factor, which have high ratings. As retailers want to reach mass audiences quickly.
However if one retailer advertises during a certain show, it is likely that others will follow. The rest of the article also highlights that the best performer in TV ad revenues has been multichannel TV which would include channel 4 and ITV

News Values

I watched the BBC 6'O Clock news and the Channel 4 News at 7pm on Tuesday 18Th December.
BBC first 5 stories:
-New party leader elected for the Lib Dems (Nick Clegg)
-Alleged rape at a hotel where Man Utd players had their Xmas party
-Treasury has extended financial guarantees to Northern Rock
-Should fruit be shipped thousands of miles to supermarkets?
-Immigrant workers are keeping Britain afloat

Threshold- northern rock having continuous problems, people withdrawing all their savings and they are currently looking for a new buyer. Also the new Lib Dem leader being elected. As they would have the job of persuading the nation in voting for them in the next election.
Continuity - The northern Rock and Lib Dem election
Meaningfulness- The northern rock story involves government issues and people may have lost money

Channel 4 first 5 stories:
-Northern Rock taxpayers exposed
-New lib dem leader elected
- New president elected for South Africa
- BBC censors word from Christmas fairytale
- Amy Winehouse arrested

Reference to elite persons - new president elected for South Africa
Composition - Amy winehouse being arrested(celebrity news)
Threshold- northern rock having continuous problems, people withdrawing all their savings and they are currently looking for a new buyer. Also the new Lib Dem leader being elected. As they would have the job of persuading the nation in voting for them in the next election.
Continuity - The northern Rock and Lib Dem election

Virgin users hit by broadband crash
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/18/virginmedia.digitalmedia

Last night cable operator Virgin Media's broadband and Video On Demand services crashed, leaving an unspecified number of its 3.6 million customers temporarily without facilities including Internet access.
This problem occurred during routine maintenance, however only customers in the North West - Yorkshire and the midlands were affected. The majority of customers did regain their service shortly after midnight. But Virgin Media stated that it was difficult to estimate the number of people that were affected, partly because it depends on what time people were online.

Though this may have been a one off, it could occur again which would then cause customers to switch Internet provider. As it is Virgin media have tough competition with rivals such as Sky and BT.

Representations of Asians - med 4

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vFL0w1ruiCM
Typical Indian Parents
This clip is from Goodness Gracious Me, which is a comedy sketch show.
This is part of the stereotype where, Indian parents want their children to get top grades. In the clip the son gets A’s and a B, how ever the father is disappointed as this was in classical studies and the rest were in chemistry, biology etc.
He then compares his sons’ grades to someone else’s son; this is something that is done by some parents. He then talks about the 'B'damaging his pride in the community as someone else's son got better grades. yet again this re enforces the stereotype about Indian parents always wanting their children to get the top grades.

Channel 4 education focuses on web

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/11/channel4.digitalmedia

This article is about Channel 4 focusing on education for 14-19 year olds. As this project would be faced around social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and Myspace and also blogs which would then invite people to share experiences and would later be made into a quarterly documentary.
New projects cover entrepreneurship, careers, media literacy, the transition form school to work and, later in 2008, political engagement and citizenship.
This project aims to tackle the motivation in education, this would be done by finding content that is entertaining and engaging as well as educational.
There would be a variety of projects appealing to different audiences..i.e. one project will encourage users to set up an online business.

As this is part of a £6million budget, channel 4 would try and cater for different interests as they are targeting a wide age group, and due to the 'educational crisis' - in which students are not being motivated to learn this would appeal to them, as most students do use social networking websites.
In addition Channel 4 are trying to move away from the cliched view of opening a business (as seen on Dragons Den), providing a collaborative environment for young entrepreneurs. Therefore Channel 4 are trying to create an interactive environment in which 14-19 year olds are able to learn about a variety of subjects and also take part in online activities.

Xbox to offer VoD service
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/04/digitalmedia.microsoft
Microsoft will allow gamers in the UK to buy films through its Xbox 360 console from next Tuesday, as the console moves to compete directly with everything from television to online download stores.
Films including the Matrix, the Harry Potter series and Ocean's 11 will be available after Xbox 360 becomes the first games console to offer a video-on-demand service, Live Marketplace Video Store, that will includes 40 popular film titles in standard and high definition in six countries
Users will have to pay between £2 and £4.50 for each film and users will then have two weeks to watch the film after the download.

Microsoft would be breaking into a new market and also this service would be extremely popular as 60% of Xbox console owners do go online and download games and music videos. As they also have family propositions this new service would also appeal to families..no other console has launched this service therefore this service may also appeal to people with other consoles such as PlayStation

Summary of.. Reception Theory

- No text has a simple meaning as audience are able to de-code texts in individual ways
- David Morely found that there were 3 types of reading...he looked at how different social groups read the same media text.
1. Dominant or hegemonic reading (preferred reading)
2. negotiated reading
3. Oppositional/counter hegemonic

- This theory often ignores the context of everyday life.

Summary of...Uses and Gratifications

- Assumes that the audience is active, choosing texts based on different reasons
- The audience also have a wide selection of programmes to choose from
- Blumler and Katz suggested four reasons.... Diversion, Personal identity, Personal relationships and Surveillance
- Denis McQuail made a detailed breakdown of audience motivation (above) i.e. entertainment, self education, seeking advice and relaxing
- Maslow (not a media theorist)... hierarchy of needs
- Richard Kilborn suggested reasons as to why people watch soaps... a regular routine and reward for work...identification with characters
- However this model can be to simplistic as we choose the media we consume from what is available

Summary of...Effects theory

- Assumes that the audience is passive
- Hypodermic needle model... to Inject the passive audience with ideologies.
- Promotes dominant ideologies
- Frankfurt School (propaganda)... concerned with the impact of the rise of the media industries on society
- Adorno ...Culture industry (dumbing the audience down)
- Althuser...Power of the state (ISA)
- Marcuse... 'indoctrinating & manipulating'
- Barthes... 'myths' (cultre)
- Moral panic -> Censorship as the moral majority seeing horror music and rap music as harmful
- Cultivation Theory... Audience is becoming desensitised
- Two Step Flow theory...assumes that the audience is more active and will discuss texts with each other

Uses and Gratifications & Me

-Blumer & Katz
* Diversion - Escape from everyday problems
i watch sitcoms such as Friends and scrubs as i don't particularly enjoy many soaps
* Personal relationships - Using the media for emotional and other interaction
i don't think this would apply to me because i don't relate to any characters
* Personal identity - Constructing their own identity from characters in media texts.
when watchin films or television programmes i sometimes understand where the charcter is coming from
* Surveillance - Information gathering i.e. weather reports
Read the newspaper and watch the news :)

-Denis McQuail
*Information - The news...newspaper...weather reports
*Learning - Watching different documentaries..channel 4 ones
*Personal identity - ermm.. does'nt really apply to me
* Integration and social interaction - same as above lol
*Entertainment - i enjoy watchin films..sitcoms i.e. friends! Heroes