Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Google taps US presidential race
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/29/googlethemedia.digitalmedia


Google has opened an advertising sales office in Washington DC after adapting its online targeting techniques for niche demographics to aid political campaigning in the 2008 presidential race
Republican presidential candidates John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudolph Guiliani and Mitt Romney and their Democrat counterparts Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have all signed up to use Google's Adwords and AdSense targeted advertising programmes to help their campaigns.
Staffed by 25 people, they will help to set up web campaigns for the political parties.
The candidates' campaigns typically buy up ads to appear next to relevant search results through the AdWords or through the AdSense, which places targeted ads on relevant sites.

By using the Internet as a source of political advertising, as the parties would be able to target certain demographics, in addition to persuading new voters to choose their political party - this would be done by placing adverts on specific websites. Also the Internet is used by millions of people each day, so candidates are targeting mass audiences.



Thursday, January 24, 2008

Miss Jones work

Masood Family - Eastenders

In July 2007 the Masood family made their first appearance in Eastenders, currently the only Muslim family in Albert Square.
The family consists of Zainab, Shabnam, Masood Ahmed and Tamwar.
Zainab - Strong willed and a tough businesswoman who owns a string of post offices. She comes across direct and can be intimidating
However her daughter Shabnam - seems to be more outgoing as she goes clubbing with friends when she told her mother that she was going to be babysitting. But even though her dad found out about this he did not seem to bothered but told her to be more careful. Since she has been more open about her social life with her mum.

The introduction of more ethnic minority characters is part of producer Diederick Santer's plan to "diversify", to make EastEnders "feel more 21st century". EastEnders was heavily criticised by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), for not representing the East End's real "ethnic make-up". Furthermore, it was suggested that an element of stereotyping surrounded many of the minority characters in EastEnders.
After being heavily criticised the BBC have attempted to bring in another Asian family, who will last longer in the square as the Ferreira family ( previous Asian family in Eastenders) were seen as unrealistic by the Asian community.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

BBC3 launches multiplatform revamp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/22/bbc.television

The BBC3 controller, Danny Cohen, has unveiled plans to turn the channel into the UK's "most ambitious multiplatform network" with all its programmes to be simulcast on the internet.
The digital youth channel is also undergoing a major rebranding as it approaches its fifth anniversary with a pink logo replacing its current blue design and talking animated blobs.
He has pledged to put interactive ideas at the heart of the channel's schedule, with regular peak time slots given to user-generated content and viewers encouraged to upload clips of themselves introducing their favourite BBC3 programmes, with the best to be shown on screen
In addition BBC3 will be screening new episodes of US hit show Heroes and other new dramas.

BBC3 is trying to establish itself, especially with competition with other channels such as Sky and E4 which air other popular British/American shows. By introducing new shows they also hope to attract more and new audiences. As they would be introducing drama's and entertainment programmes that would appeal to different audiences...as part of the BBC's policy is to educate, inform and entertain
I Am Legend - Poster Analysis

This poster has been created so that audiences are encouraged to go and watch the film.

The writing is the most dominant on the poster ' the last man on earth is not alone' this creates an enigmatic statement (how is he not alone) which intrigues the audience, therefore encouraging them to watch the film. Also 'Will Smith's(protagonist) name is at the top of the poster, therefore people are able to relate to his films which can be from either the comedy or action genre. However they would also assume that this movie would be worth watching just because it features Will Smith. Therefore the target audience would be teens and over and will smith fans.

The bold writing on the poster goes from small to large, and there is a picture of will smith at the bottom of the poster, which represents him as a hero as he is responsible for saving the world. Therefore a patriarchal ideology is represented as the poster suggests that only he can save the world from what ever is out there - seen as a hero again.Also it could suggest that a female may not be able to do the same as the male lead.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

ITV opts to revive News at Ten ad-free
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/15/itv.tvnews

ITV will now run the News at Ten without any advertisements, in a bid to rival with BBC which runs uninterrupted. By doing this ITV hope to lure more viewers away from the BBC 10 o' clock news.
This move is set to cost ITV hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost revenue as 60 second slots can cost up to £100, 000.
BBC1's news beat News at Ten in the ratings last night, pulling in 4.9 million viewers to ITV1's 3.8 million.
'A total of 9 million people watched one or the other programmes which indicates there is still a high and healthy audience for terrestrial news at that time. We will give the BBC a real run for their money'.
A BBC source said ITV had only anchored their coverage from the Zimbabwean border with South Africa while the risks for the BBC to report live from inside the country were much greater

Though ITV want to get a higher audience share than the BBC, the money lost from advertising would mean that ITV may not be able to pursue other projects due to the shortage of money made from advertising.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

New York Times and CNBC In alliance
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/08/rupertmurdoch.newscorporation

The New York Times and business channel CNBC have struck a deal to share news and video clips online as both companies prepare for battle against Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and Fox Business Network.
New York Times articles will be posted on CNBC's website, while video from the news channel will run on NYTimes.com
Murdoch, who is expected to drop the pay barrier for WSJ.com, is aiming to marry the brand and business pedigree of the Journal with the Fox Business Network, the US cable channel News Corp launched in October to take on CNBC.
However to rival with the NewYork times the Wall Street Journal is expected to cover more general and political issues.

This article highlights Rupert Murdoch's power, he is now launching another cable channel which would compete with CNBC. Therefore it would be difficult for rivals to take over parts of the industry due to Murdoch's influence and power.
But this also shows that more networks are now trying to rival with Murdoch.
However with Murdoch dropping the pay barrier(subscription is no longer needed), this would attract more users to his site - The Wall Street Journal, which would only lead to more competition.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

BBC children's series confirms India is centre of animation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/02/bbc.television

With a £10m budget, India-animated Freefonix is one of the BBC's biggest ever animation projects. The futuristic tale of mismatched musicians was two years in the making across three continents and involved more than 200 people.
Now a new BBC children's series airing this week will cement its position as a global centre for animators, the show will consist of 40 episodes which will be aimed at the 7-11 age group.
A spokesman for the new project said 'there were opportunities not only to outsource but to actually get investment for animation out of India. In the UK there is a major problem with animation for children because the broadcasters do not have sufficient budgets to finance animation, so it all has to come from private sources'.

I think that this project would be a success as it is being created by the BBC, but also this company is trying to make the most of tax breaks and other subsides available in other countries. But also this project has enabled various teams in different countries to swap files and communicate instantly via a video link service such as skype.