uses and gratifications

Uses and gratifications
This theory is the opposite of “range of audience theories”
The main difference is that it assumes that the audience is active, which means we choose the texts consumed and how we all consume the texts.

Uses and gratifications theory
1960’s- it became apparent that the audience made their own choices about how and when they consumes media texts.
Blumer and Katz expanded on this theory in 1974 suggesting a serious of reasons why audience members might consume a media text.
Diversion- escape of everyday problems
Personal relationships- Using the media for emotional and other interation
Personal identity- constructing their own identity from characters in media texts
Surveillance- information gathering

Denis McQuail suggests a more detailed breakdown of the audience:
Information
..finding out about relevant events and conditions
..seeking advise
..satisfying curiosity and general interest
Learning
..self-education
..confidence through gaining knowledge
Personal identity
..finding reinforcement for personal values
..finding models of behaviour
identifying with ‘celebrities’
..gaining incite into oneself
Intergration and social interaction
..gaining insight to circumstances of others
..identifying with others
..finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
..having a substitute for real life companionship
..helping to carry out social roles
..enabling once to connect with family, friends and society
Entertainment
.. escaping, pr being diverted from problems
..relaxing
..getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
..filling time
..emotional release
..sexual arousal

Watching TV Soap operas
Richard Kilborn suggests that:
.. a regular routing and a reward for work
..social and personal interaction
..fulilling indicvidual needs
..identification with characters
..fantasy to escape
..focus on a topic
..appreciation of genre conventions

a recent model argues that th individual has the power to controll the media texts that we select and we select the ones which best suit our needs

Critisisms of uses and gratification theory
can be simplistic, hrad to explain why we like something. from what is consimed n the media we choose from what is available.

Entertainment
My form of entertainment would be to watch comedies/ sitcomes such as Friends, My wife and kids as the programmes help divert myself away from problems, it also alows u to escape as you can identify with other character roles.

Plurism

Pluralism
It’s the opposite to the Marxist theory. Whereas Marxist perspectives on the media centre on the belief that the mass media are a tool used by ruling bodies to maintain hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society, pluralists take a more flexible and open view, arguing for a classless society and media organisations which are responsive to an audience and economically determined.

Basic definition of pluralism:
They view society as a system of competing groups and interest, none of them predominant. Media organisations are seen as enjoying an important degree of autonomy from the state, and control of the media is said to be in the hands of an elite who allpw a considerable degree of flexibility on production choises. Audiences are perceived as capable of manipulating the media and having access to what Halloran calls the puural values of society, enabling them to confirm accommodate or reject.

Is the opposite of Marxism and rejects the concept of mass culture

As we become more media literate we are able to choose from a wide variety of cultural options

Class distinctions are less important now influencing the choices made by individual

High culture now reaches wide audiences which might have chosen soap operas for example

Individuals have the freedom to consume texts based on their personal preference.

The media is seen as acting like a public interest as the fourth estate , keeping an eye out in abuse of power by publications, large multinational corporations and others.

Allows for many different view points to be explored in media texts which may b in conflict with each other (like party political broadcasts). There is no hegemonic message to be conveyed through all media texts.

The role of the audience
If the audience odes not like a media text of any sort they will simply not watch it allowing the rates for the text to fall down thus leading to media organisations to respond y changing their output. Audiences are vital to producers, so therefore they have to research and spend a considerable amount of time to assure them of what the consumers want in order for it to appeal to the audience. The audience is seen as being active and not just receiving texts passively.

The media as fourth estate
There are many ways in which the first three estates of a democratic society are defined but essentially they are seen as the government, legal system and the church in various combinations. Each had power in our society.
The role of the media is seen as being that of the fourth estate, whose role is to keep the public informed about what is happening in each of the other three. The media fulfil this role by reporting political events in the newspaper or on broadcast television by providing documentary programmes to report key events

Google and their advertising !

“others are fighting for scraps” (other advertising agencies)
Google is set to make £900m in the UK this year (2006)
Nearly every £1 of £2 spent by advertisers online raises some serious questions about the market dominance
Andy Duncan highlighted that the “structural change “in the ad industry will lead to Google earning more then it its corporation (£800m estimate)

How comfortable is the UK advertising agencies with Google to carry out Digital advertising?

In TV land there is a huge furore over ITV controlling around 45% of the ad market - and it has the regulatory mechanism of contracts rights renewal to keep it in check.

If you want dominance take a look at Google:

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau the UK online ad market will crack £2bn this year.
Search marketing consultancy Greenlight estimates that search advertising accounts for around 60% or more of total online ad spend (maybe around £1.3bn this year).

And Google takes the lions share (60% to 70%) of that, completely dominating next closest rival Yahoo!, with MSN much further down the search advertising revenue food chain.

Last year Google scrapped the 15% discount that was usually offered agencies by using its advertising auction system and replaced it with a new net pricing system.

This caused a furore among many agencies.

"More transparency and put everyone on a level playing field using the auction system".
(Damian Burns-Google's head of agency relations for Europe Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has run into trouble in the US and Europe over market dominance and Apple too has its share of potential legal wrangles over opening its music platform.

But not much, so far, has been said about Google's position. For example, can it even be regulated, and, more to the point if it has such a great model and has taken full advantage of it over competitors why should it?

My views
The internet has become a vital part of recent day’s society. It’s easily accessible and is more attractive then the usual adverts in the newspapers and leaflets. Its has grown to become popular due to it being so convenient, you can use it to find out information about anything at any time of the day. I think that google will empower the advertising agency as they know that they can make a lot of money, however I feel that it isn’t fair on other smaller advertising agencies as they will be facing great competition as google is seen to be a monopoly.

Sony Ericsson unveils new brand strategy

Sony Ericsson unveils new brand strategy

Sony Ericsson is launching its 1st television campaign to introduce the new global brand strategy that lead to Bartle Bogle Hegarty resigning from the £50m business.

BBH resigned from the account, which is worth £8m in the UK, in July after it emerged that branding agency Wolff Olins had been quietly working on a new strategy with which BBH fundamentally disagreed.

The resignation sparked an industry furore about the client pecking order between ad agencies and branding consultancies.

"This is the first TV ad to build on our new brand identity," said Jo Coomber, the senior marketing communications manager at Sony Ericsson's global marketing team.

"We want to bring the brand as a whole closer to consumers."

The ad aims to promote Sony Ericsson's range of next-generation Walkman phones - the W950, W850 and the W710 - the company hopes will help topple Apple's iPod.

The ad aims to get across the idea that in everyday situations people always have their phone handy and should think of it as music player.

Sony Ericsson has sold more than 15m mp3 player phones since launching the range in August last year.

McCann Erickson created the TV campaign as a one-off project while Sony Ericsson was holding a pitch to find a new agency to handle its business.

Saatchi & Saatchi, which also handles T-Mobile's advertising business, was appointed in September to develop future campaigns as the new agency of record.