Critical and Contextual Awareness
What is Critical Awareness? Critical Awareness is the professional thinking and researching of what different media products and text's are and what effects they may have on the body's mind. The idea of this project is to gather a basic knowledge of "historical and contemporary contexts and perspectives influencing the development of ideas within Creative Media Production". This project will also allow me to identify how different media products and texts have influenced the public in different ways such as video games having the influences of addiction and copy cats. Firstly I would just like to list a few different types of media that may be looked into when researching about media products and audiences. The media could include:
Radio eg Heart station or Kiss FM station
Social media eg Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram
Movies such as the Thriller or Horror genre that may influence particularly teenagers or young people
Internet eg when someone wants to find out about a certain topic, they may use the search engine; Google to find different websites that shows you graphic and violent images
television programs eg action, thriller, horror or any genre that someone may take very seriously and be a copy cat of
Print media eg books, magazines, newspapers
Video games
Music/Music videos or live performances
This list teaches us that, we are are all consumers of at least one type of media as the media is used by a huge majority of the public. As the media is used by the majority of the public, it is important for each regulator to ensure they are doing the job correctly when setting their own Codes of Practice for a company as the media consumers may affect or interpret a certain media product or text differently than perhaps the company had made it to be. This can have good and bad effects on people as people could really love the product and want to buy it or they could be a copy cat of it and cause themselves or others around them, serious harm.
To start off my project, I learnt about Codes of Practice and regulators as it allows me to look deeper in the industry at how adverts, websites, radio, television programs and other media products or texts get finalised.
Codes of Practice
A Code of Practice is a company's or organisation's set of rules for how something should be done. This could be School and college policies, work policies, swimming pool policies or a general conduct of rules that provides a secure health and safety environment. For example a swimming pool's policy would be the rules which can not be broken and must be followed when in the pool area, one of these rules could be Do not run or Do not dive.
Following up from researching about Codes of Practice, I then learnt about who the people are in which conduct these rules. These people are called regulators.
What is a regulator?
A regulator is someone in which enforces the rules made by the code of practice. The regulator makes sure that every code of practice is put in place and is done to a great standard.
A regulator and code of practice is necessary to know for when It came to researching my project as it has taught me who regulators are and what type of rules and jobs they enforce in a particular environment. This knowledge also gains me a further insight into what the media industry may be like. Here are a few bodies that contain codes of practice:
BBC - They enforce Editor's guidelines
These are the rules and regulations in which is upheld by the BBC themselves. Here are their companies codes of practice:
Some aspects of the BBC is regulated by the outside bodies. The BBC's competition policy is regulated by the Office of Trade fairing, the European Commission and Ofcom. Ofcom regulates certain aspects such as Ofcom's fairness code.
"Ofcom is the UK's communications regulator. Our relationship with Ofcom is set out in a Memorandom of Understanding."
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/ofcom_trust_mou.pdf
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/mou_addition_dec2011.pdf
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/mou_addition_feb2011.pdf
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/ofcom_trust_mou_addition.pdf
What impact does this have?
This means that because the BBC is regulated by the Office of trade fairness and the European Commission, that the BBC would not be aloud to discriminate against other races, religions and foreigners. This is because the European Commission makes sure that the radio and television stations would be child and public friendly to everyone in the UK. This also means that every advertisement, radio station and television program to do with the BBC has to be up to a certain standard including being public friendly to everyone, in order for the show to be aired.
ASA - Advertiser's standards authority, these look at many adverts and react or have the final say in whether they are suitable enough for tv. The state advertising must not mislead or offend children and must not show offence when including products such as alcohol, gambling, financial products, motoring or health. Here are some of there codes:
The ASA is the UK's independent regulator for advertising across all branches of media. They also take action on harmful, offensive or misleading sales promotions or marketing advertisements. Their regulation system is a combination of Self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising and co-regulation for broadcast advertising.
How does the regulators have a impact on the company and media products?
The combination of self-regulation for non-broadcasting and co-regulation for advertising has a big impact on the final products they produce as this means that the marketing and advertising products have to be seen at a certain standard before being finalised. their own regulators make sure that nothing is copyright, racist, sexist, or is stereotyping any individuals. The advertising and marketing productions also have to be short, eye catching and user friendly as younger people may be watching.
The regulator's play a big part in all media products as it is important that each and every product is up to the correct standard as certain individuals may be vulnerable or likely to copy the media therefore the regulator's have to take on board every type of individual.
W3C - Web accessibility guidelines, these are similar as the ASA except they react to websites and ensure that the companies website is suitable for the web.
Web accessibility guidelines are very important as they are what makes the websites suitable in order to be published. Like any other productions or advertisements, the media has to have very strict and precise guidelines in order to be published or it could possibly influence the wrong individuals into doing crime, using offensive languages or have depression. As we are all consumers of the media, it is important that every branch, whether it is print media, websites, advertising or tv ensures that every product is put together carefully as we do not want to give out the wrong ideas or impressions that can affect people badly. In this specific case, the Code of practice for W3C states that you should never discriminate by harassing or bullying anyone verbally, physically or sexually which is one of the main rules for when you are publishing your own websites or products. If you did do this then the regulators are likely to take down your website or product.
IPSO - Independent Press Standards organisation. As this codes of practice is so long, I have screenshotted a shorter version to see the rough idea of what the codes of practice is at there company.
The regulator's of IPSO are the editors in which has written the Codes of Practice. This image shows the different topics in which the Codes of Practice contain. As you can see, the main topics within the Codes of Practice are children and selfless acts such as harassment, privacy and crime. This codes of practice ensures that the press is interesting, none stereotypical or hurtful which makes the advertisement or story all the more interesting for the public. If IPSO did not contain the Code of Practice, the public who read the press may be offended, bored, hurt, depressed or may be influenced to do the wrong things such as crime against themselves, the public or personal property.
Ofcom - This company is telecoms sector in which other businesses and customers can benefit from. Ofcom is the communicators regulator in the UK. They regulate the television, radio, video-on-demand, fixed-line telecoms, mobiles and postal services as well as the airwaves over which wireless devices operate from. Ofcom operates under a number of Acts of Parliament including the Communication Act 2003. Ofcom is funded by fees from the industry for regulating, broadcasting, communications networks and grant-in-aid from the government. They also ensure that people in the UK get the best from their connections services while being protected from scams and sharp practices as their competition can thrive.
Ofcom, which was launched on 29th December 2003, has inherited the duties of five different regulator's:
the Broadcasting Standards Commission
the Independent Television Commission
the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel)
the Radio Authority, and finally;
the Radio communications Agency.
What impact do these regulators have on Ofcom?
The Broadcasting standards Commission makes sure that every broadcast and advertisement is to a certain standard where the advertisement would be suitable for the public audience such as no violence, child friendly, no alcohol or drug use e.t.c
The other 4 regulators allows the company to be secure in all aspects within the media. If we did not have regulator's or the code of practice then the world would be a lot more harsh and a terrifying place as there will be no strict rules or values that protects the public from being harmed by the media that surrounds them.
The next topic I went on to research was how and why different people may interpret different media texts differently. I first looked at the Media Effects Debate to see how the media audiences respond to media products.
Media Effects Debate - How do media audiences respond to media products?
It is very important for the media producers to understand who their audiences are as the product needs to be designed in order of their needs and age group. However with the audience in mind, the majority of the media audiences across all the different aspects such as social media, print, web e.t.c needs to be thought about as the media has a great effect on our everyday lifestyles.
The mass media is such a big part in everyone's lives that it could potentially destroy human beings if it is not safe or conducted in the right way. As the media is used in our everyday lifestyles, one of the big debates that are used throughout our use of the media is the Media effects debate in which debates and contrasts the good and bad points within the media use. The issue focuses on negative effects and responsibilities that the media may influence on certain people. An example of this would be a young copycat, copying certain actions and threats within video games and using them in real life. This may have serious consequences as certain video games could cause health issues and endanger others by the act of someone copying the violence.
Does the media have the power to change the behaviour and actions of its consumers?
On the 12th of February 1993, James Patrick Bulgar was murdered at the age of two after been abducted and tortured. The murder's were two boys aged ten and named; Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. James had disappeared from the New Strand Shopping centre in Bootle while being next to his mother. His body was found mutilated on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool two days after the murder. Thompson and Venables were found guilty of abducting, torturing and murdering Bulger. Both boys were found guilty on the 24th November 1993. This made them the youngest convicted murder's in history.
Suggestions have been made by the Independent news report that the murder of James Bulgar, was influenced by the use of horror videos and violent crime in which, the two ten year old boys may have copied as a misunderstanding of what is right or wrong due to the media. James Bulgar's trial judge; Mr Justice Morland, had gathered evidence that the exposure to violent, and constant viral videos over the web had influenced the young murder's; Robert and Jon who had been jailed after being found guilty. After the police had closely studied the case of James Bulgar, it was said that there had been no further evidence found for them to link the case with 'video nasties'. As Britain already has extremely tight European laws on videos, it was said that 'We cannot see any other way we can make the laws any tighter... no matter how tightly Parliament may classify films, what you watch in your own home as viewers is the decision of parents and youngster's.' This suggests what the two boys parents may have been like in order for the boys be allowed to constantly be under the influence of videos and violence in their own home. Neil Vanables; the father of Jon Venables had denied that his boy had watched the film Child's play 3 which he had rented a month before the murder had taken place.
Child's play 3 contains several scenes in which an obsessed doll; Chucky dies after having his face battered then being splattered by paint. In addition to this, James Bulgar was splattered with paint after being tortured and battered to death as seen in the film Child's play 3.
Since this story of James Bulgar, there having been many other cases and newspaper prints containing Jon Venables and Robert Thompson as crime suspects. Here are a few other different story headlines linked with these two crime suspects:
"Boy of 8 attempts armed robbery"
"Ten year old boy abducts 10 month old baby"
"Boys aged 10 and 11 charged with rape"
"Boys aged 10 and 11 drop 5 year old down 14 storeys to death after he refuses them sweets"
"Boy of 13 accused of murdering 85 year old woman"
"Boy 13 denies of rape in sandpit"
As you can see, these two boys have been all over the print media with crime and bad behaviour. They are certainly recognised which tells us that they may have mental issues where they copycat certain crime off of films and think it is okay to feel pleasure.
I believe that the film; Child's play 3, has been influenced in a different way than the producer; David Kirschner may have wanted for his audience. The film was produced in 1991 and is aged rated 18 for the violence, evil and real-life murder effect. The film was made to create tension in the atmosphere of its audience, and not influence any copy cats into doing crime. The film contains such evil and violence for the audience to be scared, as it is a horror film but was never intended for copycats to be influenced by such graphic scenes. However, although the film was never intended for its audience to have the influence of crime, after the James Bulgar case the producer had achieved more views and sales than ever before. Therefore, the producer had brought out a following film named Brides of Chucky. This implies that actually the producer may not have cared much at all about the case as he is more interested in views and profit.
Media effects Debate - What reflection does this have on society? Going back to the media effects debate, this case shows that although the film is very graphic and violent for an age rating of 18, the producer was more interested in his sales than maybe the wrong age group buying such a film. By David Kirschner producing a sequel to the film; Child's play 3, this may have a massive influx on society as many copycats will begin to think that the graphic intel on the film would be okay to copy as did the boys from the James Bulgar case.
During class, we then learnt about 3 different responses that the media audience may have on a media product. The 3 different types of responses are:
Preferred
Negotiated, and
Oppositional
A Preferred response to an argument would be to follow the majority of the public as that is what the reader would want or expect you to answer. A Preferred response is not very fair as you are unsure of what to do therefore, the answer is almost being forced upon you as the reader may be biased. An example of a Preferred response to the James Bulgar case, would be the audience shedding hatred towards both Jon Venables and Robert Thompson for their disgusting behaviour of killing a human being. As a Preferred response, the audience would not see eye to eye or look for a reason why he did the actions he did, they would just think it is wrong.
A Negotiated response to the James Bulgar case would be saying that although I find what both Jon and Robert did very disturbing and wrong, I understand that they may have had the influence from games, films and videos that their parents may have allowed or not known that they were watching. This means that although I have the same opinion that the case was very wrong and the two young boys are guilty, I have evidence for why I think this and reasons to back up my point which means I am not just following the majority of answers from a forced opinion.
Lastly, a Oppositional response would be me saying that I completely disagree with the Preferred and Oppositional point of view and that I believe what Jon and Robert did was okay as it has not only been done in the film; Child's play 3 but there are also other people that have had similar cases. This would be a criminal's argument or Jon and Robert's side of the story. This may even be someone who is trying to back up Jon and Robert's opinions as they are going against other people's point of view by saying what they did was right.
To conclude what the three types of responses you may have to an argument is, depends on the person. A person with a Preferred response is usually someone who does not want to admit there views or they do not know the argument fully therefore they go with the most popular answer or will just agree with what the reader's opinion is. A negotiated point is usually someone who agrees with the Preferred response but has looked more in depth at the argument. Lastly, a Oppositional response, in this case would be the two boys them selves or someone with a criminal mastermind. As I believe that the case is very wrong, I would have a Negotiated response.
How far has Video Games really developed?
The video game; Computer Space was first initially released on November 17th and was one of the latest games created in the earliest history of video games. I have researched about the development of video games as I believe that the more graphic, complex and engaging the game is, the more problems begin to situate. For example, in the early 1970s psychological health issues were not often heard of as video games were so unrealistic and basic, that there was not much copycats could be influenced by. Whereas in today's society, video games have come along way as they are more graphic, detailed and horrific when it comes to action games as you are able to customise weapons that allows the player to gain points and achievements for killing innocent people.
The very first type of video games, in a sense were not a video at all. They were made out of text to give the player a new adventure to explore in a new dimension. All games were made for back then was adventure, for the layer to see a new hidden world and control there own character in it, nothing violent, nothing graphic. Just a new adventure.
The next real development in video games was a game called pac man. Pac man is an all time classic video game where you control the yellow circle character to eat up as many white dots as possible without being eaten by the other coloured ghost like characters. In the middle of the game, everything apart from your character will turn blue for a few seconds where you are able to eat the bad guys to earn extra points and eat up plenty of fruit which also gains you points. The more points you have and the higher level you are on, the higher ranked you will be. I played this game in my childhood as it is very satisfying and fun. The game is not very graphic or lifelike at all, although it was one of the first games which brought out the idea of points and a ranking player system. The game could become addictive as perfectionists may strive to be the best and at the top of the leaderboard and young children may be under the influence of, killing bad guys is the right thing to do, however there is not a very high age rating or risk of violence throughout the game. I feel like this was the initial beginning of video games process as this game was one of the first to be so addictive and have point style system which is what other games applied in their systems.
Where are video games today and how do they compare to the 1970s releases?
Today, video games have came a very long way as they have developed in graphic and increasing capabilities as game makers began to take advantage of game's hardware systems. Graphic resolutions could only be displayed at approximately 160 to 228 pixels in only 128 colours.
The video game players demanded more sophisticated stories and moral choices. The game designers began creating a sandbox environment where players could explore their own simulated world. A game that may have developed from the sandbox-like environment is Minecraft.
As the newer video games are now made with high resolution, more graphic content, 3d realistic characters and surroundings, the viewers feel as if they are in a false insecurity world that they they should copy as it is the right thing to do. The more realistic the content or game is, the more believable it is which means even though in the real world you may not get flying carpets or aliens, if the game makes the content look 3d and real, the viewer would believe its real as the character they are controlling is potentially them in real life. This is the reason why so many more viewers are having bad side effects from video games as the content is much more graphic and real than it was in the 1970's when games were only basic. http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25764
Halo the video game - what effects does this game have on people and the public watching others play the game?
Designers: Dave Pottinger, Chris Haluke, Tetsuya Nomura, Jason Jones
Awards: VGX Award for Strongest Heroes of All Time
Developers: Bungie, 343 Industries, Microsoft Studios,
Publishers: Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Studios, MacSoft Games, Atari Age, Destineer
The video game; Halo is a science fiction video game based around military forces who want to take out the enemy. The video game series is now managed and developed by 343 Industries in which is a subsidiary of Microsoft Studios.
"Players' aggression may be directed against aliens, and our heroes may refrain from using coarse language, but there's no getting around the fact that the latest entry in this popular Xbox-exclusive franchise is, like its predecessors, all about glorified violence. The game's extra-terrestrial enemies bleed profusely in shades of blue, purple and green, and often let out bone-chilling screams. This game is all about finding your favourite weapon and using it to tear holes in your enemies."
http://www.parenting.com/gallery/violent-video-games?page=8
What does this text tell us?
I personally agree with this text as it tells us a brief understanding of what the game; Halo Reach is all about. I agree with this point of view from which the text is written in as I do not believe that the game is suitable for people of all ages. The game is aged rated 18 because of the horrific violence and explicit scenery which some scenes may contain. This means that all violent minded people who have an urge to be a copy cat of what they see, will be easily influenced by this game. The means that copy cats should stay well away from this game genre as it will enhance your natural violent aspects and may even make your mind out of control. The game is set in a virtual reality world to look realistic for the players as they strive to defeat and kill anyone who is not amongst there team.
