Becky's blog - Magazine Industry

Q magazine - advertisements

2009-02-19T16:55:00.003Z

This is the issue of Q magazine (March 2009) I will be using to annotate and understand more on how the magazine works, along with it's advertising which is linked to the publishing company and the target audience.

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Q magazine - facts and figures

2009-02-19T16:28:00.003Z

- Q magazine is an alternative music magazine.

- It is published monthly in the UK.

- It's publishing company is Bauer Consumer Media (Emap).

- Mark Ellen and David Hepworth founded the magazine because they felt it was a niche market as there wasn't a magazine for the older generation who were still buying CD's.

- Q was first published in 1986 and was different from other magazines due to it's high quality photography and printing, as well as having an older target audience.

- It was originally going to be called 'Cue', however it was changed to 'Q' due to possible confusion with it being a snooker magazine, plus a single lettered title is thought to be more prominant on newsstands.

- The magazine includes a very wide reviews section (music, reissues, television, films, games etc) however most of the magazine is filled with interviews and compiling lists.

- Promotional gifts are given away quite often, such as CDs and books.

- Q has a history of association with charitable organisations.

- Q launched a radio station in June 2008, however it is only available on digital TV.

- Q also has it's own music channel called Q TV.

- They hold Q awards every year.

- It's circulation figures are 103,017. (81,240 being in the UK and republic of Ireland) 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- It's cover price is £3.90.

- It's single copy subcription figures are 22,798. (19,097 being in the UK and republic of Ireland) 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- The target audience for Q magazine are the older generation such as people in their 30's and 40's who are looking for a different mode of address, more sophisticated and just want to know more about the music instead of what colour pants so and so is wearing (which would be mentioned in Kerrang). Although the founders state that they want to appeal to all the older generation, it seems that Q magazine doesn't appeal to many woman of that age.

Rock Sound Magazine - Advertisements

2009-02-18T16:47:00.008Z

This is the issue of Rock Sound magazine (Issue 119, february 2009) I will be using to annotate and understand more on how the magazine works, along with it's advertising which is linked to the publishing company and the target audience.

- The first advertisement is on the inside of the front cover, which is a very expensive place to advertise due to it being one of the first things you see in the magazine. It is the first of most likely many music adverts. It is a record label advertising albums and EPs from artists that are signed to them. The advert seems very eyecatching with a quirky background image of many CD's and text along with images of front covers of albums and EPs overlapping this background. The advertisement is very article like as it tells the reader a bit about the band and the album in the first place.

- The next advertisement is a few pages after the contents page, it a full page spread advertising the new 'Deathstars' album with a huge picture of the band accompanied by the name of the band and the name of the album with a picture of the front cover of it so the reader can recognise it when it shops. The advert is very dark, which relates to the band themselves as they seem to hold the 'goth' image with very pale, white faces and black eyes and black hair. The advert may appeal greatly to 'Deathstars' fans as fans tend to follow the same image as the bands they enjoy.

- An advertisement is used on the next page in the letters section, however it is only quite small and taking up some room on the page. It is a 1/3 page advert and is for 'Attitude clothing' (which has a huge number of adverts in Kerrang magazine). For a small advert, it takes up most of it's space by listing the brands they sell and with a picture of a girl with many facial piercings, however her clothes aren't on show which defeats the purpose of the advert as the reader can't tell if the clothes 'Attitude' are selling appeal to their taste.

- Rock Sound does a little self-endorsement a few pages later with a small column advertising what is showing on Rock Sound TV (such as acoustic sets, interviews etc...). Tempting readers onto Rock Sound's digital advancements and to gather more reader satisfaction.

- Another music based advertisement is used in the magazine similar to the size of the 'Attitude clothing' advert. It is for an album released by a band called 'The Tyrant Lizard Kings'.

- A whole page is dedicated to an advertisement by Cargo Records who are trying to ge the word out about bands new albums who are signed to their label. The list of bands and albums are unheard of, I certainly haven't heard of them, which is why the record label also provide shops in which you will find the CDs as they are obviously hard to come by.

- Yet another music advertisement is used on a full page spread by a record label, the advert follows the same conventions, however looks a lot more proffessional than many of the others. It also includes tour dates for the bands they are promoting, suggesting that people who are interested in the bands would be keen gig goers.

- A whole section in the magazine is used similar to the two pages in Kerrang! (Introducing: new music coming your way...). This section in Rock Sound magazine is about 10 pages and called 'Exposure: the best new music' which also can be seen as advertising that won't cost any money to the band as the magazine is just trying to fill its content and help out its readers by introducing them to new bands and music, which the magazine is famous for.

- The magazine carries on with a bit of self-endorsement by using a 1/3 page spread dedicated to letting readers know about their subcription deal. The advert includes back issues of the magazine and the front cover of an album they are giving away for free with the subscription, plus a low price in bold to attract audience attention.

- The music advertisements continue throughout the magazine, however still adapting to the theme of the magazine being underground as it is many small bands that the readers haven't heard of. A whole page is conquered by 4 advertisements, one half page one, one 1/4 page and 2 1/8 page. They all hold the same aim; to advertise their new album and hope for readers to be interested.

- Another music full page advertisement from a record label is used, this time a well known record label, however it is advertising bands that aren't heard of in other more mainstream magazines such as Kerrang. The colour of the overall page is very dark, like that of the album covers, relating to them.

- The next page of advertisements are a bit different to the ones seen earlier in the magazine, about half the page is bright and quirky promoting tour dates for the band 'Polar Bear Club', whilst the second half of the page is dark, dull and smoky promoting an album with a similar artwork for its front cover. However, at the bottom of the page, a banner with band tshirts is used aswell to advertise a company selling clothing merchandise. This suggests that fans of the magazine will want to follow the bands they like as much as they can by not only buying their CDs and going to see them live, but also wearing tshirts with the band's name on them.

- Another full page of adverts are used, however this time the bands are more well known. Such as British band 'Architects' (absolutely amazing band) who are doing very well with their new album and another band called 'The Eyes Of A Traitor'. Again, the 4 adverts follow the same conventions, the colours adapt to the colour and style of the album artwork and there is a picture of the band to put faces to the music.

- The adverts are starting to get more 'commercial' now as a half page of a big American band is seen promoting their new album. However, this one breaks the rules of the layout as the whole advert is the band artwork and a picture of the band is not seen at all.

- Rock Sound use the rest of the page for more self-endorsement as they promote their digital advancements, this time with rock sound mobile, promising the latest news, reviews and gossip.

- The next article can be argued to be an adverisement as it is simply pictures of clothes and where to buy them from. This article is quite a new addition to the magazine called 'Off the peg' which adds fashion to the magazine. The clothes included are mainly tshirts with a massive picture on it and shoes such as 'vans', 'converse' and 'Dr Martins'. There is only a small section that is dedicated showing girl's clothes which are dresses and bikinis. This suggests that Rock Sound expect most of their target audience to be dressed in certain brands and are mostly male.

- The next advertisements are situated just before the reviews section of the magazine which is an expensive place to put your advertisements due to many people turning to the reviews section just to see what albums they are being recommended and these advertisements can catch their eye. The advertisements are for two new albums that have only just been released or are coming out and (very handy) have just been reviewed in the same issue of the magazine.

- The next two adverts are situated in a very uncommon place as they sit at the side of an article in the reviews section. One of 1/4 page adverts are simply, plain and promoting tour dates for yet another underground band, whilst another is promoting an album from band of the moment 'Rolo Tomassi'. However, the advert promoting the album is very different, the background is a picture of half of the girl vocalist's face with all attention on her eye and the only words in the space are on her cheek and reviews from magazines such as kerrang, Q and Rock Sound. Using the girl in the picture immediately grabs the attention of the supposed male target audience and it seems quite 'sexy' as her eye is very big and is staring at the reader.

- Towards the gig section of the magazine, a lot more adverts are used that are also promoting tours from bands themselves. Many are just 1/4 page and from bigger bands as the underground bands can't afford to do so.

- The last 3 pages of the magazine are dedicated to advertising clothing companies such as 'Attitude clothing', 'darkside clothing' and 'loud clothing'. They are the same adverts that can be seen in Kerrang, however are less cluttered as they are all half page spreads and therefore bigger giving each advert space and the reader a chance to be able to see the adverts.

- The back page of the magazine advertises the latest addition to 'Guitar Hero' game. It suggests to the reader that the target audience are musicians or dream to be like one and therefore will like playing the game due to being able to play a guitar, bass or drums to their favourite songs.

Unlike Kerrang, the magazine tend to include a lot less adverts, probably to not bring on the image of a 'sell-out' magazine. Again you can argue most of the magazine is an advertisement. As the magazine has sections such as reviews, exposure and gigs that allows new bands to be advertised to music fans for no price. Of course, this is the aim of magazines, (especially this certain magazine) to inform the reader of new subjects from their particular hobby.

The magazine has a lot less advertisements and appears thicker than the weekly kerrang magazine that is always packed full of badly placed advertisements. Being at only £3.80 per month (Kerrang readers would be paying more for just 2 weeks worth of the magazine), the magazine is very good value for money as it doesn't try to force advertisements down your throat and the advertisements themselves sometimes act as articles in the magazine due to how many music promoting ones there were.

All the advertisements in the magazine were music or image related, which add to the fact that

Rock Sound Magazine - Facts and Figures

2009-02-18T15:21:00.005Z

- Rock Sound magazine is known for dealing with more 'underground' music in the rock genre and less commercial (like Kerrang magazine).

- It is a British magazine and the UK edition of the magazine was first launched in March 1999 by French publishers Editions Freeway.

- It established itself in a very competative market.

- Was bought out by director, Patrick Napier, in December 2004.

- It's circulation figures are 20,011. (12,734 being in UK and republic of Ireland). 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- It is a popular magazine in other countries aswell, mainly in Europe.

- Single copy subcription sales are 895. (704 being in UK and republic of Ireland). 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- It's cover price is £3.80.

- It is a monthly magazine, therefore being less topical and having a lot more worthy content. It isn't full of rubbish trying to make up pages in the magazine on slow news days.

- The magazine doesn't have a top publishing company, it has its own called 'Rock Sound LTD'.

- They describe themselves as the UK's leading alternative magazine.

- Every issue comes with a CD with songs from new or upcoming albums from different bands.

- Many fans of the magazine comment on how they enjoy the magazine because it introduces them to many new bands.

- "Rock Sound is 100 per cent independent and we pride ourselves on championing the underdog and totally encourage the independent scene in the UK and abroad." From the magazine website. http://www.rock-sound-magazine.co.uk/home/

- The magazine includes exclusive features, interviews, gig guides, reviews and competitions.

- As a gift for subscribing to the magazine, readers receive an album for free (the album changes every month).

- The audience are seen as;

- 15 - 24 YEAR OLDS

- 57% up to 17 years
- 31% 18 - 25 years
- 6% 26 - 35 years
- 4% 35 - 44 years
- 3% 45 and over

- 58% FEMALE - 42% MALE
- INTERESTED IN MUSIC, CLOTHES, X BOX - PS
- ATTEND GIGS REGULARLY
- 54% ARE MUSICIANS

Kerrang! advertisements

2009-02-17T21:51:00.004Z

This is the magazine issue (Kerrang! issue 1248, February 14th 2009) I will be using to annotate and understand more on how the magazine works, along with it's advertising which is linked to the publishing company and the target audience.

Advertisements in the magazine.
- As soon as you open the magazine, you are greeted by a massive double paged advert with an eyecatching border. The double page advert is an advert for the popular metal festival, Download festival, in which the first bands have just been announced and are included in the advert in big, bold writing to gain the audience's attention to who is playing. The advert is incredibly colourful, with the border being very eccentric including random pictures which are most likely to be seen as tattoos and blue, yellow and white being the main colours.

- The next advert is after the double page advert and just before the regular contents page, it is a page spread advertising getting suscribed to Kerrang! magazine using past front covers of the popular magazine and big, bold letters that stand out for the price which gathers audience attention. The magazine is using it's own pages to advertise discounts on their own magazines they are offering.

- The next advert is very small and on the contents page in the corner (most likely to just be there to fill up an empty gap in the contents page) and it is also advertising Kerrang! magazine subscriptions. Again it uses past front covers of the magazine to show what you can get through the magazine and bigger, bolder writing for the price to grab attention.

- The next advert is a page later in the magazine on the letters section in the bottom corner advertising Samaritans Rock For Life! necklace with proceeds going to the Samaritans Charity. The advert may be small, however it is still eyecatching to the reader as it has a picture of a famous band member (in this issue it is guitarist, Iain, from Kids In Glass Houses) wearing the necklace aswell, which prompts many fans to want to also buy this necklace and be like their idol.

- A full page spread is used a page later to advertise the horror film re-make 'Friday The 13th' which was coming in the cinemas at the time of publishing. It suggests that the target audience of the magazine may also be interested in films as well as music, however the film is dark, gory and scary, which may also reflect on the interests of the target audience. It may be seen as a film that wouldn't appeal to females and therefore be for the male audience of the magazine.

- Another page spread advert can be seen a few pages later advertising the new The All-American Rejects album within an advertisement for HMV aswell. The advert is very plain, with a white background, the HMV logo at the bottom right hand corner of the page and the front cover art work of the band's album in the centre of the page, throwing the reader's eyes to the album and how they should buy it either 'online' , 'download' or in 'shop' from HMV.

- A page later, the magazine includes another small section to advertise more from the Kerrang! empire, telling the reader what is happening 'THIS WEEK' on 'kerrang.com', 'kerrang! radio' and 'kerrang! tv', making sure their readers also check out their digital mediums.

- The next advertisement is a half page advert for the new 'The King Blues' single with a picture of the band standing infront of a billboard filled with political messages to Gordon Brown from the band, hinting to the audience what the album/single is about. Included in the advertisement is also some tour dates to make sure the readers know when they will be playing the songs from their album live incase they already like them.

- The next advertisement I am talking about can be argued to be an advertisement and not to be one. It is essentially an article, however it is part of a regular section called 'Introducing: new music coming your way...' in which the magazine introduces new artists to the reader. The artist in this section is called 'Hey Monday' and the whole page is a picture of them overlapped with an article on what type of music they play, a bit about the band themselves and what albums or singles they have planned for release. It can just be seen as an article, but it also tempts readers to check out the band if they are interested and may then become a fan generating more revenue for the band.

- A whole page is take up by two half-page vertical adverts, one advertising the film 'Moscow zero' on Play.com, with most of the advert taken up by the DVD with a small banner at the bottom telling you to 'pre-order now at play.com'. The other side of the page is taken up by another HMV advert similar to the one seen earlier in the magazine, only this time smaller and advertising another new album for the band 'Thursday'. The layout follows the same of the earlier HMV advert. With the adverts on the same page, there is a huge contrast as the Play.com advert is very cluttered, colourful and eyecatching, yet the HMV advert is plain, and the only diversity to it is the picture of the album cover. However, this allows the reader to take in both adverts individually rather than associating them with each other.

- Yet another 'Introducing: new music coming your way...' page is used within the magazine to advertise another new band. The layout of the advert/article follows the same of the one a few pages earlier in the magazine.

- Once the magazine begins to include more articles, the adverts die down a tad and are more far apart than towards the beginning of the magazine. This is most likely due to Kerrang wanting to keep all the reader's attention on their own content and not that of others. The next advertisement is for a page spread for the army, in the 3 pictures shown of 3 different people doing army jobs, it strikes me that they are all men and women aren't in the advert at all. This suggests the army is a masculine thing to join and take part in and that the advertisement will appeal to the readers of the magazine because the target audience are largely males.

- The next advert a few pages later is a page spread for the Royal Air Force which is also stereotypically male, again suggesting to myself that the target audience is seen as widely of the male gender.

- Just before the middle of the magazine, there is a double spread page of different advertisements for different tours coming up, with some bigger bands taking more space than smaller bands due to their labels being able to afford more. The band 'Madina Lake' take a horizontal half page advertisement to show tour dates around the UK whilst also subtly mentioning their new album, whilst the smaller bands 'You Me At Six' and 'Cobra Starship' take 1/4 page advertisements underneath to advertise their own tour dates. The next page is a full page spread for worldwide big British band 'Bring Me The Horizon' to show when they are back in their home country. All adverts are reletively the same, with pictures of the band (or album artwork pictures) accompanied by tour dates. However, they all share their own individuality.

- Just after the middle of the magazine, there is a full page spread advertising the album by 'My Son The Bum', with the album artwork directly in the middle to make sure the reader knows what it looks like when looking out for it in the shops.

- A lot more advertisements are directly after this advert like the ones just before the middle of the magazine. Except this time they are a lot smaller as they are either smaller bands or smaller, less anticipated tours. It gets down to the size of a 1/8 page advertisement, however again they all share individuality and are similar in the sense of just showing pictures and tour dates. The reason for the hefty amount of advertisements around the middle of the magazine is due to the posters being situated in the middle of the magazine

- The next advertisement is for another new album, however it is situated in the reviews section where many people may turn to look out for new albums to buy, therefore it is a good spot to put the half page advertisement.

- The next few advertisements make up one page, however 3 out of 4 of them are quite small and 1 of them is a vertical half page. Whilst one of them advertises a new alternative club in London, two of the others are advertisements for gigs and festivals. The remaining is a simple and plain advert for unsigned bands to contact. These adverts are in an essential place due to the upcoming gigs section being just after and therefore they may catch the readers who enjoy going to gigs and going out's eye.

- Kerrang carries on with its self-endorsement as they take up a whole page towards the end of the magazine selling ringtones, pictures of band members and game downloads for your mobile phone.

- The self-endorsement carries on the next page with two half page spreads, one advertising the 'Kerrang podcast' summoning readers to go on their website and watch bands talk to kerrang on video and the next advertisement is prompting readers to listen to a certain show on kerrang radio.

- The next double page consists of a regular section in Kerrang magazine called 'Small Ads'. This whole section has many different advertisements, mainly for alternative clothes shops (online and around England) and seems to remain the same every week. The page seems cluttered, however allows readers to adapt their image more to the image that kerrang expects from their target audience.

- The next page is the second from last page in the magazine, it would appear Kerrang continue to advertise as they give you a sneak preview into what is in next week's magazine and telling you when it is on sale, by telling the reader what they will expect in the next magazine, they may be inclined to buying it, perhaps if they didn't have any money and wouldn't buy it in the first place, they might have a change of heart due to what they know is in the magazine's future content.

- The advertising in the magazine is finally finished with the back page. A whole page is dedicated to advertising a festival giving two of the big band's names who will be playing it and more information such as what date the festival is and where to get tickets from. Having an advertisement on this page in the magazine is very expensive due to it being either the first or last thing the reader will see in the magazine as it is on the back cover.

It seems that advertisements play a huge part in Kerrang! magazine. When I used to buy Kerrang a few years ago, the magazine was thinner and this was due to less rubbish adverts clogging all the pages. Now, when I picked up the magazine, I thought that the price had increased from the original £1.99 I used to buy it for to the £2.20 it is now because there were more articles. However, it seems that there is still the same amount of articles, just a lot more pages dedicated to just adverts filling up the whole magazine and making the reader turn pages at a time just to read the next article. The answer to this dramatic increase in the number of adverts is of course money. Kerrang has become a lot more mainstream now and is the number 1 UK music magazine due to its content suiting to the scene and due to this popularity, more companies, bands etc are wanting to advertise in the magazine as well.

Of course, you could argue that the whole magazine is an advert itself. With it's 'Introducing' section where new bands are brought into the magazine, it's reviews section where the magazine practically tells you what music to consider and it's gigs section where upcoming shows are advertised to the readers to tempt them into going. All these prompt the reader either to begin to like a band, buy an album, or buy tickets to go see a band live.

Of course, most of the adverts are very music and image related due to the advertisers wanting to appeal to music fans, therefore it would be obvious to publish adverts in a music magazine (especially the number 1 music magazine in the UK). If someone were to go out and buy a music magazine every week, they are most likely a huge music fan and dedicated to buying anything music related to their taste, therefore by putting advertisements for a band's new album or tour dates, it benefits both the advertiser and the audience. The audience gain the knowledge of either being able to see a band that they may like or buying an album that they may be interested in, and the advertiser can 'cash in' from this as they are promoting and gaining audience attention. However, I did find some adverts that were more male related (stereotypically perhaps) suggesting that Kerrang! has a wide male audience and this is their target audience. The adverts I found to be male orientated were the one for the Army and the one for the Royal Air Force, both these jobs are largely masculine and the adverts even suggest so by having men in the pictures and not women.

Kerrang facts and figures.

2009-02-17T17:07:00.002Z

- Total circulation sales are 52,272 (50,128 in UK and republic of Ireland) - 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- The publishing company is Bauer Consumer Media (Emap sold 2/3 of the company to Bauer)

- Cover price is £2.20, which is cheap for the target audience (students, young people with low incomes etc..)

-Single copy subscription sales are 5,523 (5,062 in UK and republic of Ireland) - 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

- Weekly music magazine of the rock genre.

- First Published June 6th 1981 with Geoff Barton as editor.

- Is famous (and criticised) for repeating the process of discarding bands when new musical trends become popular.

- Kerrang! Australia was launched by Emap in the late 1990's, however it was a monthly music magazine.

- Kerrang! is also published in Spanish.

- The Kerrang! empire has it's own awards ceremony, TV music station, Radio station and website.

- The magazine gives out occassional free gifts to satisfy the viewer such as calenders and CD's, however posters are included in every issue.

- It overtook NME as the number 1 rock/music magazine in the UK.

- Emap advertised the magazine more through its digital mediums such as Kerrang TV and Kerrang radio. This allows the magazine to generate more circulation figures and therefore more revenue. (Masthead Branding)

- The target audience is 16-25 year olds and specific towards rock music fans. However in recent years, the age of the audience has dropped and it is more 14-17 year olds who tend to buy and read it due to its featured bands being more poppy. (Elliot Minor, We Are The Ocean, 30 Seconds To Mars etc)

USING THIS FOR NEW MEDIA STUDIES SUBJECT - MAGAZINES

2009-02-17T17:04:00.002Z

This will now be used for my new media studies subject which is the magazine industry and possibly my other subject which is horror films...but I doubt that.

I need somewhere to backup some of my notes on magazines.

Zing.

Results are in!

2008-09-15T19:26:00.003+01:00

My survey got some nice reponses, I am hoping to build on the opinions of everyone else now and hopefully create FACT. The amount of people who voted on each answer is marked next to it.

1) What sex are you?
- Male IIIIIIIIIIIIII
- Female IIIIIIIII

2) Do you or anyone you know carry a knife?
- Yes IIIIIIIIIIIIII
- No IIIIIIIII

3) If there were no laws against carrying a knife or stabbing anyone, would you carry one?
- Yes IIIIIIIIIIIII
- No IIIIIIIIII

4) If yes, then why?
- Protection IIIIIIII
- To look cool
- To stab anyone who does anything wrong II
- Because other people would be III
Other _________________________

5) Have you seen either Kidulthood or Adulthood?
- Yes IIIIIIIIIIII
- No IIIIIIIIIII

6) If yes, did you feel an attraction to carrying a knife after the film?
- Yes IIIIIIII
- No IIII

7) When reading or hearing about another knife crime victim, what would be your top reaction?
- "Poor soul" IIIIIIIIIII
- "The person probably deserved it" IIII
- "I'm scared it might happen to me" IIIIIIII
- "I'll carry a knife then as well"

I find it alarming that most of the people who took the survey and knew someone who carried a knife were male. Most of the people who answered that they would carry a knife if the laws weren't there were male too, possibly giving the knife epidemic a stereotype that it is mostly young males.

It was disturbing to find out that most of the time people would carry a knife just for protection, young people feeling they are not safe on the street is not what this country should have to put up with and it needs to be put to a stop. Most of the candidates that had seen the films 'Adulthood' and 'Kidulthood' did feel an attraction to carrying a knife due to the glamourisation of a knife in the films.

Put your hands up if you are blaming knife crime on the media?

2008-09-10T13:41:00.003+01:00

Over the few years in which knife crime has increased within the young community, many people have commented on what they thought was the reason for the recent epidemic. With films, music and games being the most common.

Actor, Sir Richard Attenborough, believes it is the American gangster films that are to blame due to knives seeming normal making viewers desensitised to real life crime as the graphic images from on screen are so frequent. He added that modern cinema has created a culture where teenagers and young adults are no longer shocked by weapons. Thirty years ago, a weapon was pulled out during a film and the audience would gasp in a state of shock, nowadays, the audience wouldn't have any reaction as they see it as normal. This cinema experience reflects onto reality as knives aren't seen as a huge thing when teenagers carry them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1038361/Violent-movies-blame-knife-crime-wave-blasts-Sir-Richard-Attenborough.html

London (awesome guy) Mayor Of London blames the video games that this generation of young people favour. His aim is to show young people that the characters in video games aren't their idols and to push positive idols onto them so their behaviour reflects their idol.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30932/Violent-games-encourage-knife-crime-says-Boris-Johnson

HOLY JESUS! ANOTHER SURVEY!?

2008-08-31T14:06:00.003+01:00

That's right.
I love the surveys.
I would probably leave my boyfriend and marry them if i could...but let's not get onto that subject.

I have devised yet another survey as i feel the one before was ...well....crap. This one will also have more reference to the films Kidulthood and Adulthood as now my hypothesis has been decided and they play a big part in my argument. So here we go....results shall be posted when i get a good mix of people taking it.

1) What sex are you?
- Male
- Female

2) Do you or anyone you know carry a knife?
- Yes
- No

3) If there were no laws against carrying a knife or stabbing anyone, would you carry one?
- Yes
- No

4) If yes, then why?
- Protection
- To look cool
- To stab anyone who does anything wrong
- Because other people would be
Other _________________________

5) Have you seen either Kidulthood or Adulthood?
- Yes
- No

6) If yes, did you feel an attraction to carrying a knife after the film?
- Yes
- No

7) When reading or hearing about another knife crime victim, what would be your top reaction?
- "Poor soul"
- "The person probably deserved it"
- "I'm scared it might happen to me"
- "I'll carry a knife then as well"

hopefully that is gooooood enough!

oh survey, i love you

From Kidulthood to Adulthood....

2008-08-31T11:24:00.003+01:00

Adulthood and Kidulthood remain a favourite in the urban teenager's film collection. With it's gritty storylines and reflection on the realities of a teenager living in the modern urban world, it attracts young audiences to watch and idolise the fictional characters on the screen.

However, is it right for such young people to be looking up to the actions these characters are acting out?

After watching both films, I find it alarming and disturbing the violence and filth that is being shown to an audience who are as young as 15 (or possibly younger if they have managed to see the 15 certificate film).

The first film of the two remains to be the most distressing with violent bullying, prostitution, casual sex, drug dealing and most importantly knife crime.

Knives are produced throughout the film, with our first glimpse of one about 50 minutes into the film when one of the youths we follow throughout the film reveals it when him and his friends get into a brawl with two other youths they just happened to accidently bump into. And the worrying scene when 15 year old Trife's drug dealing uncle makes him carve into a man's face. Accompanying these attacks, there are also continuous reference to knives when one youth threatens another with the act of "shanking them up".

The sequel to Kidulthood, Adulthood, doesn't seem to pose any better. With the main character, Sam, being stabbed towards the beginning of the film telling it's audience that this film is going to be violent and troubling.

However, the teenagers and young adults watching both these films may not see it as a warning. They may see it as rebelious and attractive and strive to be like their idol in the film, copying what they do if they are confronted in a situation, or indeed create the situation themselves.

In the films, using a knife seems to be connotated as either a way out, revenge or just giving somebody what they believe they deserve. Knife use in the films are violent and show the gorey effects of it but never seize to show the reality of it. In Kidulthood, when Trife carves into the man's face, we never know what happens to the man in the end. Whilst it may seem that it isn't a fatal kind of knife attack, some situations can change that view and all knife attacks can prove to be fatal. In Adulthood, Sam get's stabbed in the shoulder towards the beginning of the film, however he still appears to have the strength to get up and kick his attacker onto the floor and then threaten him with the knife. The films may be applauded for reflecting the shabby facts of life for young people in urban ares, but it lacks the massive truth in the actions the characters are carrying out. That people can die from any stab wound.

This missing part of the truth causes a huge change in the behaviour of the youths around us as they are led to believe that a stab wound won't get them into big trouble and then they carry around a knife and use it when it pleases them.

I believe films and tv are the main culprits for the increase in knife crime amongst young people. These technologies are what are most popular in a teenager's life and when they are young and naive, they can be stupid and believe and copy anything they see and think may be 'wreckless fun'.

Films before Kidulthood and Adulthood involving knives and guns may have just been a gangster type film or action film but when these two British films arrived on the scene, it became a lot easier for young people to want to mirror what they see on the screen.

Back into the swing of things...

2008-08-14T19:30:00.002+01:00

Right so, i haven't done any work recently and i figured i should do some just to get back into the habit of it.

I have decided to look at the films Adulthood and Kidulthood to see how the street violence (mainly the knife crime) in the films influence teenagers into following the film and being a copycat.

I am interested in finding teenagers that find they have to carry a knife themselves or carry out any act of street violence on others, whether they have been reading about the crimes in the newspapers or watching it on the tv or just simply watching films that are strong in teenage violence and glamourise it to the public.

Seeing knife crime constantly in the media can have three effects on people;
- Shock them into seeing the consequences and turning their backs on committing the crime.
- Make them fear it may just happen to them and therefore they feel the need to carry a knife themselves in 'defence'.
- Make them want to carry a knife because it seems that everyone else is and it can make them feel 'hard'.

Different types of media can have different effects on people, the news giving off more of a shock towards teenagers whereas films such as Kidulthood and Adulthood, which have a target audience of teenagers and young adults, will glamourise the use of knives and street crime as teenagers look to these films as enjoyment and entertainment and may want to copy their favourite characters in it.

With my hypothesis in place, i am ready to devise another survey to be carried out for deffinate in the next few days to gather the facts on whether teenagers feel the need to carry knives after seeing coverage on the news or the films that have made it into the mainstream.

Kids, Knives, Broken Lives

2008-07-18T12:07:00.002+01:00

The media has responded to the huge increase in the knife crime culture with reports and documentaries to attempt to get the facts out to the people causing it.

This particular youtube video has clips from the recent programme 'Kids, knives, broken lives' that was part of the Disarming Britain season on channel 4.

The video is quite interesting as it is teenagers commenting on the recent sour in knife crime and gaining their opinion through the media may just be enough to calm the public down.

More detail into the Deviancy amplification spiral

2008-07-17T11:08:00.002+01:00

I have already explained how deviancy amplification is the phrase for when the media creates a hype and moral panic with the public, usually involving a crime.

Examples of the media doing this may be;
- A shooting spree by an adolescent
- A gruesome murder involving cannibalism or mutation
- A shocking act of corporate fraud

The dramatic increase in knife crime can be questioned as to whether there is a real problem or if the problem is copycat behaviour. With others reading or watching coverage on the television, they may be tempted as they see the crime as desirable and an act of rebellion.

Deviancy Amplification Spiral

2008-07-16T13:37:00.004+01:00

Mr White recently directed me to this which is incredibly useful in my research.

Deviancy amplification spiral (also simply called deviance amplification) is a media hype phenomenon defined by media critics as an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events.

This is a perfect explanation of exactly what is happening with the media hype in knife crime at this current moment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviancy_amplification_spiral

My letter

2008-07-15T12:24:00.003+01:00

I created a letter to be sent on to some newspapers today, I am hoping to gain a response from people to add to my critical research.

Can this count for primary research by the way??

Knife crime can be seen as a very common thing now creating moral panic amongst the public. But although it could be a number of reasons that teenagers feel the need to carry knives in public, could one of the reasons possibly be the media coverage it gets? Although we may not think it, but there are some people in the world who get a kick out of knowing their crime has made it into the national news, elsewhere other teenagers are worried that they may become a victim themselves and want to carry knives for 'protection'. With knife crime being everywhere, in films aimed at teenagers, newspapers and television, teenagers may feel the media is advertising knife crime so to speak causing the numbers to increase.

that ok?

www.ntk.org.uk

2008-07-11T12:05:00.004+01:00

I found an interesting website on the Disarming Britain website that cries out for people to make a pledge to say No To Knives. I made a pledge myself, by making a 'tag'. Using your creative skills to spray paint online and write a message to be viewed by other people browsing the wall.

Hopefully 1million people will make this 'pledge' not to carry a knife and can be made into one big voice.
This website is just one of many that have been added to the internet to try to reduce knife crime or hopefully stop it.
To find my pledge, type in this code on the 'pledge wall' ntk5f1. It might take a day or two to be up on the wall though.

I mentioned Disarming Britain before.
This is a season on channel 4 that has so far been on for the past 2 weeks and features facts, acted out stories and much more to awaken Britain to what is happening and hopefully to get the public to put down their weapons.
I couldn't find anything on the knife crime yet on youtube, but here is an interesting trailer for the season using guns in it.

this video made me cry though :( NO GOOD!!!

I will be watching the rest of the season with much interest.

Finally got a hypothesis!!!!

2008-07-11T11:51:00.003+01:00

After thinking (and worrying) for weeks and weeks that I haven't yet decided on a hypothesis, I spoke to Miss Ward about my research so far and she came up with the question 'Can we argue the media is glamourising knife crime?'

I feel this is a good hypothesis as I have said in previous posts that the media may be advertising the culture in some way to teenagers. With the recent increasing rise in knife crime and the coverage of it in the media, the question is one that can have many debates.

I feel I can discuss the way newspapers present their stories on knife crime and the fairly recent film 'Kidulthood' and the more recent 'Adulthood' which shows the brutality of London streets in a gang culture, featuring knife crime and possibly answering questions as to why the stabbings are increasing.

writing a letter...

2008-07-10T10:56:00.002+01:00

After Mr White said i should write a letter to a newspaper to voice my opinion, i have decided to do so.
I will send the letter into a few newspapers consisting of different types of readers such as The Metro and The Times hopefully to gain different reactions from the public.

I will devise my letter of opinion tonight and it will include my voice of opinion about how the media presents knife crime.

What are the reasons behind the escalating knife crime figures?

2008-07-08T11:44:00.003+01:00

After research into the figures of growing knife crime in teenagers, my mind has been going over and over why these figures have increased and what can be done about it.

Knife crime goes back quite a few years with gangs being active and stabbings between members happening every now and then, however the scenario has worsened as the streets are being ruled by gangs fueled by drugs and alcohol and a sharp weapon in their pocket to be used on someone who may look at them in the wrong way like 14 year old Martin Dinnegan or for simply trying to help break up a fight like 18 year old Rob Knox. The fast growing numbers of teenagers dying from stab wounds have created a moral panic in the public, causing parents to worry every time their children step out of the house and wondering if they will get a chilling phonecall or a knock on the door from police saying their precious child has had their life taken away by an evil person who decided to carry a knife.

It may seem that this culture is mostly present in males, however there have been a few cases where females have been stabbed to death like Sian Simpson or a female has infact been the person with the knife like Sian's killer Chelsea Bennett. No teenager in England can be seen as safe now whenever they leave their house and take to the streets for a night out with friends. I know for a fact my own mother worries so much about me now and is constantly texting me and calling me when I am out somewhere just to make sure I am alright and then staying up very late just so she can give me a lift home when I come home very late at night after being out with friends.

The constant involvement of stabbings in the media has caused a crisis in this country causing parents to worry, teenagers to be scared and then even more knife carrying teenagers for either self defence or to follow the 'trend'. One of the reasons behind the ever growing stabbings may be the press coverage that these stories have in the media, with it being talked about every day, teenagers may be tempted to carry a knife themselves to see what it is like. It can be similar to how violent video games may influence teenagers as the media may be seen as 'advertising' knife crime and teenagers may take it the wrong way.

Another reason behind it may be family life in the UK. The traditional family has been attacked and it has got to the point that the family where one parent is at home, and the other is working is the most taxed in this country. Yet it is with the nuclear family that most get the moral guidance from. In addition the rise of divorce has meant that the responsibility to each other that was also present in families no longer is and now generations exist who have not had this basic form of moral guidance. With the emptiness of that one parent that isn't there, teenagers are more likely to be more 'troubled' and the one parent that they do have may not be able to cope handling them or controlling them. Many teenagers may see carrying a knife as fun and it is just a game.

There have been many debates as to why knife crime in teenagers has increased over the last few years but how are we to know what is actually causing it?
Some people blame the video games teenagers are constantly playing such as Grand Theft Auto or Call Of Duty, some people blame the type of music they listen to like 50 Cent who glamourises killing other people and some people just blame the parents for not being responsible and taking control of their child.

Statistics prove that knife crime HAS increased

2008-07-03T10:49:00.002+01:00

One of the questions i had asked at the beginning of this project was whether or not knife crime amongst young people had increased as the media had made it out to be, or infact it was worse in the past.

However, figures have revealed that knife crime has infact had a massive increase in the last few years, especially in young people.

Here are the figures:

The number of under 16's admitted to hospital with knife wounds has grown 88 percent from 95 in 2002/2003 to 179 in 2006/2007

The number of 16-18 year olds admitted to hospital with knife wounds has grown 75 percent from 429 in 2002/2003 to 752 in 2006/2007

With these figures being revealed very recently and the number of victims increasing every week, the media seems to always be busy with the issue of knife crime. Focussing on one victim for a few days until the next victim is announced.
It remains a huge and important subject in the media and has been for the last few months due to the massive increase.

Sir Ian Blair reveals Operation Blunt 2

2008-07-02T13:39:00.004+01:00

As a result of the recent stabbing of 16 year old Ben Kinsella, London Mayor Boris Johnson and the head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair, came together at City Hall to speak about their solutions on knife crime in the capital, especially amongst teenagers.

Operation Blunt would be only one area in which the authorities are working on to make London safer.

So why are the authorities only really gaining interest in what seems like a growing knife culture in what is supposed to be one of the most famous cities in the world that brings in tourists constantly?
Is it the "1,200 people that were arrested on suspicion of possessing weapons and other suspected knife-related crimes between 19th May and 29th June this year"?
Or possibly the "528 knives [that were] recovered as a result of 26,777 searches".

As Boris Johnson kept quite silent throughout the press call in City Hall, Sir Ian Blair finished it up by stating

"Everybody is shocked by the level of violence we are seeing, particularly towards young people in London, and we must all work as hard as we can together to reverse this dreadful trend."

As the authorities are still quite baffled as to what has caused this dramatic increase in knife crime in the capital, teenagers worry that if they step out of the house, will they be coming back?

Full article here.

the latest victim of knife crime

2008-07-01T12:09:00.002+01:00

The 17th teenager to be stabbed to death in London has been named as Ben Kinsella, a 16 year old boy who had just finished his GCSEs and was chased by people outside a pub in Holloway in North London. The victim is the brother of actress Brooke Kinsella who used to play Kelly in Eastenders.

The metro newspaper seems to be more focused on the fact that the young victim was the sister of someone fairly famous rather than the fact that he is the 17th teenager to be stabbed in London 6 months into the year.

A similar incident to this one happened not long ago when 18 year old Rob Knox was fatally stabbed outside a club in South-East London and he was fairly famous for just playing a part in an upcoming Harry Potter film.

Now what we really have to ask is....are these teenagers getting what they deserve? Is it jealousy that causes these victims to be fatally assaulted? Or simply no respect for life?

Knife crime isn't as common as you think...

2008-06-26T10:53:00.002+01:00

The media today seems to be full of stories concerning knife crime in young people, however i found an article arguing that maybe it isn't as common as it used to be.

The British Crime Survey claims that overall violent crime has decreased by 41% since 1995. Knives are used in 8% of these crimes and that figure has remained about the same for the last decade.

However, it is hard to determine whether these statistics can still be considered as they don't include under 16's.

Knife crime seems to be a huge problem in young people and young adults and it affects many under 16's with lots of victims and criminals being that of a young age.

Does drilling the facts into these young people persuade them to drop the knives?

2008-06-19T10:51:00.004+01:00

I read an interesting article on the BBC news website that discusses 'The Be Safe project' that is traveling around schools nationwide to tell young people and teenagers the many dangers in carrying a knife, for you, your friends, your family etc.

Here are some useful quotes from the website that i may be able to use in my notes for the exam;

"At the end of each Be Safe weapons awareness course, pupils are asked if they would like to hand in their blades, or leave knives under their seats.

Hundreds have been left behind at the courses which have been running mainly in London and surrounding counties since 1998. The Be Safe project also teaches people to run the courses, and there are now 330 trainers working nationally with young offenders and in schools."

"Be Safe organiser David Morris says: "If we are working in a school - an inner city school anywhere in the country - around a third of a class of 30 pupils will put up their hand and say they have carried a knife at some point."

But few grasp the implications of using one. Mr Morris, a former police officer, says young people tend not to think beyond putting the knife in their pocket or bag.

"Most say they are carrying it for self-defence, but [their] knife has never been used for this and never will be.""

"First up is there's no such thing as a "safe stabbing"."

Full article here.

I think this article does highlight that the government is trying to do something about knife crime in the younger generation, even though many people suggest that they aren't, and this seems to be a very good idea if it can grow and be able to visit schools quite regularly.

Surveying it

2008-06-18T13:54:00.002+01:00

I decided to devise a survey to be taken by some teenagers that range in age to get their thoughts on knife crime in the young people and to help me to think about what type of experiment i would have to do.

1. What sex are you?
Male Female

2. How old are you?
10-13 14-17 17-20 21+

3. Do you or anyone you know carry a knife?
Yes No

4. If yes, why do you/they carry a knife?
Protection Peer pressure To look 'hard' For respect Other, please state_______________

5. Do you think the media glamourises knife crime in young people?
Yes No

6. If yes, in what way?
Causes young people to feel the need to carry a knife for protection
'If others are carrying knives, then so should I'
Other, please state__________________

7. Do you think knife crime has increased or decreased in the past 5 years?
Increased Decreased

These are the questions i have thought up so far as a draft, i will possibly add more or work on them a bit

Planning the hard work

2008-06-13T11:38:00.002+01:00

As i have already stated in my first post dedicated to Critical Research, i am going to be looking at the topic of young people involved in knife crime under the heading of Crime And The Media.

For my research, i plan to look at many newspaper articles in both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers to see how they differ in reporting the news and how they may portray the victims and the criminals. When looking at the newspapers, i will also be looking out for how the victims are introduced with the statement 'the victims are always shown as innocent' fresh in my mind. Using the articles, i will try to either support or give evidence against this statement.

I still don't know what i can do for an experiment, however i will use my own research in the project to add debate and facts to it. I will devise a survey to be taken by a certain amount of teenagers and young people ranging in age regarding their thoughts on the issue, whether they know anyone who carries a knife or if they infact do carry one themself and what they think is causing the increase.

I will act on my experiment when the results for what the teenagers think the cause for the rise of knife crime may be.

Some drafted questions have been produced to consider within the project to answer such as;
- Does the media advertising the knife crime affect the increase in teenagers carrying and using knives?
- Has knife crime in young people really increased or is it just in the limelight now for the media to comment more on?
- What is causing young people to kill others out of no respect for their life?

New Subject - Critical Research

2008-06-06T11:54:00.002+01:00

The start of a new year means a new course in Media Studies.
So this course is about 'Critical Research'.

Out of the few topics given to the students to choose from, i have decided to make a go of starting with 'Crime And The Media'
With the news filling up with many negatives now, crime seems to be one of the main stories in a media product every day, whether it is in a newspaper or a broadcast.
My main area of focus still hasn't been decided yet as i am still to think of a hypothesis over the next few weeks, however i am thinking that it may be best to stick to teenagers or young adults and their connection with injuries or murder throughout the nation.
The point of discussion that made me consider this particular topic was the talk of Gordon Brown wanting to lower the age of prosecution of carrying a weapon from 18 to 16 years old as already there have been 34 teen murders throughout the nation, 16 of these being in London by knife.
I feel this area of debate is an open one and will be one to go on for a very long time as it dominates the media now and most likely will until something is actually done about it.
I would also like to explore whether the media change some facts or fiddle with the actual truth for a better news story, such as making out the victim to be totally innocent when they most likely weren't and involved in gang crime which brought their death upon them.

The type of media can have an effect on the audience as well with certain tabloids describing attacks such as being 'brutal' and other newspapers, like broadsheets, subtly commenting on the actual attack. This can also be mirrored in broadcasting as well as the news reader is a lot more 'posh' and well read so the information is given to the audience but descriptions of it are, again, subtly hinted.

Britain's love for social networking

2008-05-02T12:18:00.000+01:00

I found a small article in the metro newspaper (yay!) today about a recent poll showing that Britons top the European league when it comes to online social networking.

Almost 10million log on to sites, mainly Bebo, Myspace and Facebook, and the number is forcast to almost triple by 2012 to 27.1million.

The report put France in second place at 8.9million

DON'T LET THE FRENCH WIN

Social Networking In Plain English

2008-04-30T13:37:00.000+01:00

Found a simple and funny video that explains the basics of social networking and how it effects you.

yay!

Social Networking sites grow to accomodate wider taste

2008-04-29T11:38:00.000+01:00

So, when someone says 'social networking' the first website that pops to mind is Myspace.
If you were at a gig full of young people chatting to each other, i am certain you will hear the sentence "what's your myspace?" uttered more than once. Phone numbers seem to be the 'old' thing to give out nowadays.

But now even the social networking community is growing, as if Myspace isn't enough for one person; Bebo, accomodating to the younger teen generation, Facebook, being the website for all university students and adults to be signed up to and Youtube, being the difference in social networking due to videos being posted instead.

It seems that there are enough social networking websites out there to satisfy the tastes of the people all over the world. But what about 'man's best friend' having it's own online website to socialise. That is where Dogstar comes in. In 2007, this website was created as a 'photo, video, shring community for dogs.' And that isn't where it stops, there are now more social networking sites adapting to a wider audience such as the car owner community Boompa and even a website taking a leaf out of Facebook's book and creating a mock website called Pensionbook

the social network continues to grow and who knows, we may soon have websites dedicated just to our Action men later in life

oh my

Web 2.0 debates Internet's future

2008-04-29T11:35:00.000+01:00

San Francisco's Web 2.0 Expo conference brought together thousands of people responsible for crafting the future direction of the internet, and the world of applications - or apps - was front and centre.
Everyone from Microsoft to Yahoo to MySpace was on a mission to woo developers to create exciting applications for their devices.
Jennifer Pahlka of Techweb, one of the conference's co-chairs, said the carrot these big Silicon Valley companies were dangling to entice developers to get involved was that of openness and allowing people to devise programmes without constraints.
"Yahoo was talking about opening up advertising platforms, Mozilla was talking about opening up the mobile web and John Zittrain from Oxford University was talking about openness to drive innovation and creativity so we don't go into this closed system where every application has to be approved by someone else," said Ms Pahlka.
"So I think open versus closed and who gets to define what is open and what isn't is a big theme that dominated the week at Web 2.0."
Throwing down the gauntlet
For Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester Research, this over-arching principle of openness was at the heart of two of the week's major announcements.

I think that Web 2.0 is at an intersection
Mitchell Baker
"I think the combination of Microsoft's Live Mesh and the Yahoo! Open Strategy are throwing down the gauntlet to everybody else to open up as well," he said.
Live Mesh aims to synchronise and unite a multiplicity of devices and applications online.
Yahoo! Open Strategy is about stitching together its online services under the social profile concept for ultimate access.
Ms Li told BBC News: "All this then says that whoever has the best experience, if I can make your connection to the web better than anyone else, you will be loyal to me."
Web 2.0 intersection
The point of delivery was a hot topic throughout the Web 2.0 conference and the focus was undoubtedly on the mobile web.

They are all start ups digging the earth right now and their pay-off will maybe come later
Dean Takahashi
Mozilla's chairwoman Mitchell Baker is banking on the Firefox browser as being one of the more important platforms for developers who are working on mobile devices.
"I think that Web 2.0 is at an intersection and the software on which it is based and the involvement of Mozilla demonstrates that by being open and allowing interoperability you get more innovative and better efforts," she said.
For the last six months, Firefox has been working on a browser that operates on mobiles and the organisation is already testing its prototype, she said.
To some degree, that takes care of the here and right now, but turning to the next stage in the world of the internet, at Web 2.0 chatter about Web 3.0 was bubbling under the surface.
While largely thought of as the semantic web - where machines understand what is being written - not everyone at this conference was ready to embrace Web 3.0.
Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff described it as "a load of baloney".
"It just shows people can count and it's some piece of marketing flim-flam dreamed up by companies pushing their products," he said.
Opening up
Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat said if you want to find out what the next big thing is, follow the big money.

I am just more interested in applications that connect me with other people than with a computer that says it can understand what I just wrote
Jennifer Pahlka
For the moment that is not happening in the so-called world of Web 3.0.
"The semantic web is a longer term play and so far I don't see highly valued companies popping up there," said Mr Takahashi.
"They are all start ups digging the earth right now and their pay-off will maybe come later."
For the moment, Mr Takahashi said the venture capital landscape is being dominated by the mobile world, social networks and applications.
With a plethora of companies embracing open social networks and the demand for applications increasing, this, he said, is where there real growth will be.
"Starting a plain old application company for something like Facebook, that's like a one or two person company," said Mr Takahashi.
"What you are going to see is other businesses acquiring those small app companies so that they can have a big collection of Facebook apps that will eventually be worth something.
"That's potentially where the money will be."
Get connected
For the moment, Jennifer Pahlka advised users to enjoy the ride that is Web 2.0.
"There is still a really long way to go with Web 2.0," she said.
People were still trying to find ways of "exploiting all those principles of collective intelligence", she added.
"The fundamental aspect of what is gong on just now is more personal and that resonates more with me than the semantic web," said Ms Pahlka.
"I am just more interested in applications that connect me with other people than with a computer that says it can understand what I just wrote."

The evolution of social networking

2008-04-25T11:58:00.001+01:00

I found quite a nifty video that is quite recent of how social networking has evolved over the years since it was first introduced to the world and how popular it is now.

Click this link to see this video that helps meggggaaaaa

see you on the other side maggie

Web 2.0 set for spending boom

2008-04-25T11:54:00.000+01:00

Web 2.0 is set to be embraced by Enterprise 2.0 as businesses prepare to spend nearly $5 billion by 2013 on social networking tools.
Over half of the companies in North America and Europe see Web 2.0 as a priority for next year, a report says.
The news comes as San Francisco plays host to the Web 2.0 conference on next generation of the web.
"This is where we see the future of the web," said conference co-chair Jennifer Pahlka.
"The companies making announcements here are building that future."
Forrester, the research company which carried out the Web 2.0 survey, believes the technologies being developed and unveiled over the coming days represent "a fundamentally new way" for businesses to communicate with employees and customers.
Priority
The report found that consumer giants such as General Motors, McDonald's, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Wells Fargo Bank will drive much of this growth and have already embraced tools like blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting and social networking.
Analyst Oliver Young estimates that another 56% of North American and European companies regard Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008.

All Web 2.0 eyes are on San Francisco this week
"If I wanted to be anywhere in the Web 2.0 economy, I'd want to be on the enterprise side," says Mr Young.
Forrester analysed seven Web 2.0 categories: blogs, mashups, podcasting, RSS, social networking, widgets and wikis. Of these, social networks will attract the greatest levels of investment but even then that will be dwarfed by the multi million dollar revenues the software industry commands.
Mr Young says "Advertising revenue has been hard to come by with even sites such as Facebook finding it hard to monetise their high volumes of traffic.
"Companies are now looking over their shoulder to the business market where even revenues of $50 (£25) per user per month are looking increasingly appealing"
He also points out that there will come a saturation point and investment will start to slow down as Web 2.0 applications become increasingly prevalent and absorbed into collaborative software packages.
'Disneyland for web nerds'
In the meantime, the world of business will get to see what is on offer in the Web 2.0 world as vendors take the wraps off a raft of products, services and applications during this week's conference in San Francisco.
Everything from the latest in cloud computing to blogging software and from mobile technology to rich media applications will be on show.
With around 7,000 people expected to attend, some bloggers have already nicknamed the conference a "five-day retreat to the Disneyland for grown-up web nerds".
Also taking part is a Web Mission from the UK which consists of more than 20 entrepreneurs looking to forge useful business connections and showcase British internet companies.
The businesses, which were selected from over 100 applicants, were chosen because they have the potential to expand into the US.

Article here

Social Networking - The stalker's website?

2008-04-05T15:57:00.000+01:00

Social Networking has grown to be massive in the past few years, especially amongst the younger generation.
With websites like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace appealing different age groups and growing larger and larger every day, it's not wonder that more than a quarter of 8-11 year olds have a profile themselves.

It was created as a free and easy way to contact people, friends, family or maybe to talk to strangers who share your interests. However, now it has gotten out of control with the amount of information it can give away about a certain person. Your age, location, email address and avatar can be the starting point for a stalker, or a pedophile.

It is now getting a lot more dangerous with anyone who looks at your profile knowing a bit too much about you.
There are privacy settings, but most teenagers either don't know how to use them or want strangers to know what they are interested in.
Parents grow more and more worried as the figures of children meeting strangers, who turned out to be a 50 year old man and not '10 year old Billy who enjoys watching Pokemon too', grow and how did they meet them? Through a social networking website.
Stalkers and pedophiles have all the information to lure your children to them through their own profile - is social networking really for socialising or is it for tracking down a new victim?

What the parents say.

My magazine production so far...

2008-03-04T14:33:00.001Z

So far we have designed our front covers and double page spread so the audience can identify our magazine from the layout, even though they are going to be 3 different editions.

We decided on our target audience which is going to be 16-19 year old boys. Mainly because if you were to look at adverts in most film magazines these days, they are targeted at males.
The mode of address will be simple, laddish slang that everyone knows. However, i am finding this hard to do right now as i can't help writing in a sophisticated style!

I am doing the 50 best British films edition, the double page spread will be the number 1 British film, which will be Trainspotting.
So far, i'm in the middle of writing my article and i've taken most of my pictures. (thanks to Joshua - he stood out in the freezing cold in just a tank top and jeans with a cigarette and a bucket of water poured over him! And of course Michael and Tim)
The article will include a review, research, the awards the film won and the change it made in cinema amongst other key facts.
A short interview with a member of the public will be shown in a box at the side which agrees with the fact that Trainspotting is one of the best British films for this certain audience.

The mock ups for the double page spread and front cover have been done now and all i am left to do is write the article and start to properly put together my front cover and double page spread on the computer.

Still a lot to do.

IT'S BIGGER, IT'S BETTER...ANOTHER ONE ALREADY?

2008-02-05T16:24:00.000Z

Out of the rumor mill comes the 16GB iPhone, now official. Ever since the 16GB iPod touch was announced in September, we all knew it was just a matter of time until Apple could bung the same NAND capacity into their chubbier iPhone. The surprise is a new 32GB iPod touch for the same $499. No other changes and certainly not 3G. Both are available immediately.

Update: We just spoke with Apple, who told us that by available immediately, that means US and international customers, both. They should start making their way to stores over the next couple of days, too, so call ahead to check stock if you're buying offline.

Woah.
Just shows how quick gadgets can get updated nowadays.

REOW

2008-02-01T12:29:00.001Z

1. How old are you?
16-17 18-19
* *

2. What type of magazines do you buy?
Lifestyle Music Hobbies Film TV
* * * * *
Other, please state _________________________

3. Why do you buy magazines?
Freebees Arcticles Images Appealing front cover Adverts
* * * * *
Other, please state _________________________

4. How much would you expect to spend on a magazine?
£1-£2 £2-£3 £3+
* * *

5. How often do you purchase magazines?
Daily Weekly Fortnightly Monthly
* * * *
Other, please state _________________________

6. Where do you buy your magazines?
Newsagents Retail shop Suscription Online
* * * *
Other, please state __________________________

6. Who do you prefer on the cover?
Woman Men Celebrities Don’t mind
* * * *
Other, please state __________________________

Magazines - Are they falling to their death?

2008-01-19T13:47:00.001Z

Magazines used to be a right popular thing.
Whether it was reading them to find out the latest gossip, for educational purposes or for digging deeper into your own interests.
However, the 21st century has seen the birth of a lot more of the public learning to use the internet, pushing through that barrier to get online and research all of features in magazines for free.
Would you rather pay about 2 pounds for a magazine? Waiting another few weeks for the next addition to come out to only find out that it features 'old' news?
Or would you rather surf online, whenever and wherever you like and find out whatever you want in a matter of seconds?

I would go for the second option.
Unfortunately this is the case for magazines these days. They are losing more and more readers to the claws of the internet. In February 2006, we saw the death of Smash Hits! magazine. A beloved music read for the younger generation out there. In 2007, we saw the Popworld Pulp released from the cage and then tumbling down a mountain soon after the first issue.

The gap in the market is getting smaller and smaller, institutions have to come up with better ideas to relate to that niche audience now or they will burn too.

Who knows what will happen in a year?
But i am sure i'll witness the rise and fall of a few more magazines.

Homework Task for the 12th

2007-12-16T13:32:00.000Z

I would like to offer some of my experience of having designed the original foundations of the Web, what I've learned from watching it grow, and some of the exciting and challenging developments I see in the future of the Web. It has become a public resource upon which many individuals, communities, companies and governments depend. And, from its beginning, it is a medium that has been created and sustained by the cooperative efforts of people all over the world.

The special care we extend to the World Wide Web comes from a long tradition that democracies have of protecting their vital communications channels. Of course, the imperative to assure the free flow of information has only grown given the global nature of the Internet and Web.

The success of the World Wide Web has depended on three critical factors: 1) unlimited links from any part of the Web to any other; 2) open technical standards as the basis for continued growth of innovation applications; and 3) separation of network layers, enabling independent innovation for network transport, routing and information applications. The last decade has seen so many new ecommerce startups, some of which have formed the foundations of the new economy, that we now expect that the next blockbuster Web site just appear on the Web without any difficulty.

The Web has grown because it's easy to write a Web page and easy to link to other pages. Starting with one page and one site just about 15 years ago, there are now over 100,000,000 web sites with an estimated over 8 billion publicly accessible pages as of 2005. Adding a Web page requires no coordination with any central authority, and has an extremely low, often zero, additional cost.

A current example of the low barriers to reading, writing and linking on the Web is the world of blogs. Blogs hardly existed five years ago, but have become an enormously popular means of expression for everything from politics to local news, to art and science. The low barriers to publishing pages and abundance of linking ability have come together, most recently with blogs, to create an open platform for expression and exchange of all kinds.

The universality and flexibility of the Web's linking architecture has a unique capacity to break down boundaries of distance, language, and domains of knowledge. These traditional barriers fall away because the cost and complexity of a link is unaffected by most boundaries that divide other media. This universality has been the key enabler of innovation on the Web and will continue to be so in the future.

So how do we plan for a better future, better for society?

We ensure that that both technological protocols and social conventions respect basic values. That Web remains a universal platform: independent of any specific hardware device, software platform, language, culture, or disability.

By adherence to these principles we can ensure that Web technology, like the Internet, continues to serve as a foundation for bigger things to come. It is my hope, Chairman Markey, members of the committee, that an understanding of the nature of the Web will guide you in your future work, and that the public at large can count on you to hold these values to the best of your ability.

My Response

I think Sir Timothy Berners-Lee makes plenty of good points in his speech and it was very interesting to read what he thinks of the change in the World Wide Web since he was one of the first people to use it. I also appreciated how he mentioned the newer and modern characteristics on the internet to relate to the younger generation to keep them interested. I think he has delivered a successful speech and i am sure the Chairman will agree with many of his points.

Iphone - A guided tour

2007-12-01T18:52:00.000Z

The Iphone has now been released for nearly a month.
But how does it work?
What features are good and which are bad?
Here are a few videos introducing the consumer to the Iphone.

Coorrrrrr, what a phone.

Comprehension Questions.

2007-11-22T13:58:00.001Z

I think i had the easiest questions.....

Students know to come to my blog for an easy riiiiiiide =D

Homework Task for the 16th...Mate.

2007-11-14T18:54:00.000Z

Record labels are predicting that this month's launch of three new mobile phone music services will usher a return of rising sales after years of decline.

Apple's music-playing iPhone grabbed the headlines with its arrival in Britain last week. But music executives are just as excited about the new unlimited downloads service launched on Vodafone. At the same time Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, has opened a digital music store here.

The world's biggest music company, Universal, is backing the MusicStation, the Vodafone service. Rob Wells, head of digital at Universal's international division, predicts the £1.99-a-week subscription service will have mass market appeal. "We are at a turning point in the UK," he says, predicting digital music sales here could offset falling CD sales within a year.

Global sales have been falling since 2000, down another 5% to $19.6bn (£9.4bn) last year, according to industry group IFPI. Although digital sales are rising fast, at a tenth of the total market, they have yet to make up for tumbling CD sales.

One place where the gap has been closed is Japan. Total music sales there edged up 1% last year. Japan's success in offsetting falling CD sales - something the IFPI calls reaching the "holy grail" - is largely attributed to the prevalence of mobile downloads.

IFPI director of technology Richard Gooch sees lessons for other music markets. He says: "There are cultural differences, and there are network differences at play so it's not simply the fact of having a mobile music service but in those countries where they have moved towards the holy grail it's generally been on the back of mobile.

"Mobile is obviously extremely important because you have the market reach and secondly, the type of demographics that are very important to the music industry will almost certainly have music-enabled mobile phones." There are already indications that mobile music sales are picking up in the UK. The Orange UK network says its music sales jumped 70% over the past six months and it expects them to double by the end of 2007.

Comprehension Questions.
1) Which mobile network has opened a digital music store in England?
2) By how much did music sales increase in Japan last year?
3) In what period of time did Orange UK's music sales jump 70%?

The new Iphone - Is It Worth It?

2007-11-13T11:39:00.001Z

The Iphone has finally been released on 9th November at 6.02pm.
People were already queuing outside the Apple Shop Regent Street branch more than 24 hours before the release to purchase the popular new technology or even to just get a glimpse of it.

Now that the long awaited phone (plus camera, plus mp3 player etc) has been released, the public have reviewed the phone to show the audience if it really is worth it...

Negative Review.
If you are a Network Admin who likes to remotely control his network from his phone, the iPhone isn't for you. If you like talking on the phone, listening to music, texting, checking email, sharing pics, surfing the net and other practical things....you will love this phone. I've had Blackberry and a MotoQ over the last few years and in hind sight, they were boat anchors. This is easily the best gadget I have ever purchased. The battery lasts 8 hours. That's not a normal 8 hours....there should be a new category of battery life called iPhone hours....because you will use this phone 20 times more than your existing phone....you are always doing something. People who say the network stinks are unknowingly hook, line and sinker for everything the iPhone does; because you are constantly using it in a high speed wifi network, you get spoiled, then you leave your office or starbucks and are forced briefly to do all of the stuff over the cell network...whose cell network is as fast as true wifi? Verizon wasn't even close.

Positive Review.
I reviewed the apple website before going to the store to see it in person. There is no doubt that the screen is less prone to scratches, especially with the nice plastic film deigned for it. Like all apple products, the iPhone is very intuitive. I was able to sync up my plantronics bluetooth without any hazzles. And unlike my Palm, I did not have to resync it every hour. I could speak to the programs, but I am sure all have experienced them or they are listed on the apple website. I think this is a great step forward, especially the ability to view pictures in larger size by turn the iPhone on its side. Another great feature is the resizing of text by merely spreading two fingers apart. Wow I can now see the text. For a product that is a "first" effort by Apple they have clearly surpased the competition. It now needs to be improved and expanded to include new offerings. But I have faith that will be forthcoming.

LOL Review.
Let me just tell you all, I like to hump women. This phone allows to me to go to websites to find women to hump.

NMT article and Comprehension Questions - Have a Butchers

2007-11-09T08:38:00.000Z

Google has unveiled software it hopes will power a variety of future mobile phones and boost the web on the move.

The software could lead to cheaper phones as it is designed to speed up the process of making mobile services.

The firm is working with four mobile manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG - but a Google branded phone was not announced.

The first phones using the so-called Google "software stack" will be available in the second half of 2008.

"This is going to bring the internet into cell phones in a very cool way," Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Rubin's firm, called Android, was bought by Google in 2005 and the software it developed forms the basis of the new stack.

Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), made up of 34 companies, including chip manufacturers and handset makers.

The move will be seen as a major competitor to Microsoft, Research in Motion, Palm and Symbian, who make the leading software systems for mobiles.

Google's Android software will be provided to handset makers free of charge and could lead to a price war for operating system licenses and potentially cheaper handsets. In the United States mobile networks such as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile will carry the Google-powered phones.

'Unleash potential'

China Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom Italia are among the carriers that have signed on to provide services outside the US.

"This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive and chairman, said in a statement.

Rene Obermann, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, said Android would offer a "better than internet experience for mobile users".

Comprehension Questions

1. Which mobile manufacturers is Google going to be working with on the project?

2. What has Google formed that is made up of 34 companies?

3. Which mobile networks in the United States will be carrying out the Google powered phones?

Tell me Becky, what is the flaming difference!?

2007-10-31T22:13:00.000Z

Ok, so the ipod was introduced to us, the audience, a few years ago.
As per normal with a NMT everyone went crazy for it and starting acting like apes!
But it has many different version.

Ipod Nano
Ipod Mini
Ipod Shuffle
Ipod Touch
Ipod Classic
Ipod Video

"What is the difference!?" I hear you cry. To be honest, most of them have the same features and just look the same. For example the Ipod Classic, Mini and Nano all have the same features like playing music, storing photos, playing games and some more. They simply have improved in image over the years to please the audience. The Ipod shuffle is the less popular of the Ipod range, it doesn't have a screen and the audience can't choose what song they want to listen to. The video Ipod is one of the most expensive as it had one extra feature of being able to download podcasts and play videos on it. The Ipod Touch is the newest to the range, where the only button is the 'power' button. The institution have made some improvements to tempt the audience into thinking it is much better than their old Ipod. Therefore making more money from us fools.

Do we really need all those features though?
The media seems to think we do.
Oh woe is me, now i have a headache from thinking too much.
I leave you with this. The person in green is you. The person in red is the Media. Oh YAH!

New Media Technology

2007-10-31T20:28:00.000Z

New
Media
Technology

"What Is New Media Technology?"

Ipods/Iphones
Digital TV
HD TV
Web 2.0
Social Networking

New media technology (NMT) is what the media's technology has evolved into. It adds extra features to simple objects (such as phones or television) to please the audience and give them what they want. Constantly updating these objects also tempts the audience into buying the newest technology, therefore gaining the institution more money. For example, mobile phones first came out about a decade ago where they were as big as bricks and only used for calling people. Over the years they have become smaller, gained a camera, included text messaging and mp3 players. Ipods are quite popular in the society today among all ages and are constantly improving to make it easier to use for the audience. The new Iphone is due for release very soon and it boasts many different features that a phone wouldn't usually have such as a camera, touch screen, mp3 player and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone

MEGA LOLZ!

2007-10-19T12:13:00.001+01:00