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Week 10: Advertising in the Digital Age

Advertising has recently seen a new culture in anticipation for cinematic trailer releases, which in most cases, focuses mainly on blockbuster superhero films which have had fans itching and waiting since their first reading of the original comic.

Cinematic trailer releases often cause virtual riots in social media forms. Twitter is renowned for its use of hashtags to promote businesses, films and trending topics, and Twitter is always the first platform for movie trailer discussions. After YouTube, Twitter is continuously the second social media platform to showcase the ad. One particular advert, the Batman vs Superman special promotion trailer, which featured Turkish Airlines became a viral hit and resulted in its own trending hashtag (BatmanvsSuperman). The film even for a short period of time gained its own superhero emoji which many users posted in support.

"Thanks to a significant grant from my company, Wayne Enterprises, Gotham is being restored to its former glory."

The trailer saw Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) as well as Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) featured on board a Turkish Airline flight as they flew over 'Gotham City' and 'Metropolis'. The advert appeared to be a spinoff of the films leading character, who just so happens to be a multibillion entrepreneur, 'promoting' the airline as Bruce Wayne rather than the film as his alter ego Batman. 

The 'in-text' promotion form of advertising has become a major marketing scheme for the entertainment business, with this particular ad proving successful with  30 million views on social media in the first three days after its launch, and more than 52 million views on YouTube alone.

As advertising becomes more of a culture of popular media culture than an evident 'buy and sell' promotion, it becomes evident that advertising in the digital age is an enjoyable and anticipated part of media communications.

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week 9: Social Media and Participatory Fandom

This week’s lecture focused on how the digital age has brought about social media; which, because of smart phones, has become a global marvel, bringing about the question: does social media make you feel more connected to your content and more empowered? As a huge consumer of social media, interacting in virtually all of the social platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), I consider myself to feel more connected through using social media, as I use my phone as a device to stay connected everyday. Many of the applications (also referred to as ‘apps’), allow fans and celebrities to interact with each other, and allow companies and shops to use their accounts to help their consumers with transaction issues. With user-generated content being the internet’s primary source of content production and information, Twitter has become renowned for its ability to allow fans to engage and consume information, such as tour dates and ticket sales, as many celebrities use their page for promotion purposes. I myself have been able to gain opportunities via Tweets since I have sent out 'tweets' directly to companies, firms and magazine accounts. I can therefore say that I am a prosumer of social media content.

With Twitter hooking in celebrities as well as the general global population, it can be hard to differentiate between a ‘personal’ account and a business account used for promotion. Many celebrities, including Katy Perry (@katyperry) and Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) use their influence towards their millions of fans (with Perry having consuming a whopping 9.4.4 million followers) to showcase their activism and gain charitable donations. For example, Katy Perry’s ‘pinned’ Tweet (a Tweet that permanently stays ‘pinned’ to the top of their page) is her asking fans to donate to the charity Unicef, whilst asking her fans to “help celebrate my birthday with the purchase of lifesaving”. Ben Affleck uses his account to vigorously raise awareness of Eastern Congo Initiative, with which he is the founder of. Despite both celebrities using their voices for charitable causes, they do of course use their viewed pages to promote their tracks and movies.

This can make it difficult to differentiate whether celebrities are using social media for humanistic or commercial purposes, but it is to my understanding that social media, within the present digital age, can and is being used for both. Since its global popularity, social media has now built the ability to create careers and global recognition, with websites such as Youtube (where beauty blogger Zoella found fame), and blogger (SheWearsFashion who is now a paid travel blogger). With the rise of the digital age, advertisements and consumeristic behaviour is everywhere, therefore this sort of behaviour is to be expected and will only increase.

Zoella - Youtube

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week 8: Industry Insight: Digital Radio: From Radio to R@dio

Sunday 27th November

This week our lecture was run by guest speaker, Julia Hayball, a senior lecturer in Radio at University of Gloucester. Having previously worked within the media industry with the BBC, Julia ultimately addressed the issue of the lack of young listeners who listen to the radio. I myself did not raise my hand when asked who tuned into radio stations, and I believe that this is greatly due to growing up within the ‘internet’ generation. She expressed how media platforms such as Twitter, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook were not around when she started her career as a radio broadcaster, and these medial platforms are the explanations for the internet generations lack in radio.

When I think of radio, I immediately think of the older generations, mainly due to the fact my father consumes a lot of radio. He listens in his car and whilst he’s doing minimal tasks around the house, whereas I do not listen to any radio stations at all. I am however drawn to applications such as Spotify and YouTube, with which I think many other people may age are as well. This may be due to the fact that smartphones, a product near enough everyone my age has, encourages you to download and use the apps on the smartphone. Being able to stream music whenever you want, instead of buying the album has become the norm in many people’s lives.

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week 7: Technology: Digital Television Cultures

Sunday 20th November

Traditional television viewing is becoming a distorted concept within society, this is due to the growing impact of digitization and its ever expanding technological growths. I find the thought very interesting, and also extremely momentous as we are of course consumed by digitisation on a daily basis. The abilities that ‘catch up TV’ platforms such as Sky Plus and Now TV have brought, may suggest a bump in ratings of previously popular live shows, altering with less live view ship. However, that certainly is not the case. We are now able to live stream programmes, indicating a success in digital globalisation, as sharing programmes across the globe is easily achieved. We are able to live stream from many sources, stemming away from the traditional television, but also to tablets, phones and computers. This element coincides with societies lifestyles, for example, those who commute to work are now able to stream a live programme whilst on the tube. Live streaming is easily attainable and a definite positivity within the ‘internet age’ of television.

Television streaming entire series is also a key factor hindered from the impact of globalisation, as we are now able to stream series from one country to another. Breaking Bad is a great example of how streaming benefits a programmes popularity; originally broadcasted in America which had minimal viewings and was on the verge of being axed after only one series, its success triumphed within the United Kingdom. Thousands of people within the UK were streaming and watch online, which ultimately saved the show which continued to run onto 5 award winning series.

It should be noted that some components to digitalization, such as the catch up TV abilities as noted before, may be damaging in terms of TV ratings. The number of ratings during a programmes broadcast usually reflects how popular a programme is to the public. Being able to miss an initial broadcast by watching it within your own leisurely time slot may corrupt the popularity of said show. For example, a programme that may be deemed as unpopular or unsuccessful because of its lack of ratings may be cancelled, when it was in fact watched and streamed later by the public. Therefore ‘catch up’ television mediums such as ‘4 od’ and ‘BBC IPlayer’ can arguably be both positive and negative elements to digitalization. Its positivity stems from an individual being able to choose when and where they watch a television show, which changes vastly from traditional television viewing where families would come together at the specific time the programme was scheduled. I believe this outcome to also be a negative, as it can take away that sense of togetherness that television can bring to families and friends. Therefore I believe the rise of digitalization within television has both good and bad repercussions: being easily attainable benefits greatly however it ultimately is causing a lack of togetherness within society.

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week 6: Celebrity Branding

Sunday 13^th November

In 2009, Britain saw Geordie pop singer Cheryl (formally recognised as Cheryl Cole) as the poster girl for L’Oréal Hairspray products. Starring in their TV advertisements, Cheryl used her illustrious glamour to represent the product which saw her enveloped within gold, shimmery tones, which mirrored the image of L’Oréal’s standard hairspray cans.

 During 2009, Cheryl was an extremely relevant figure within Britain’s popular culture. Having broken away from Girls Aloud, the band that shot her to fame, Cheryl went solo within her musical career and was also recognised as being the charming, glitzy judge on ITV’s X Factor. Cheryl was later branded as ‘Britain’s Sweetheart’ by many medial viewpoints, which makes her representative towards the brand even more alluring to consumers. A major element to the products selling point is of course the particular product in question: hairspray. Since appearing as a judge on the reality show, Cheryl was always memorized for her glamourous style, with the focus being on her chosen dress during live shows. The L’Oréal adverts generally see Cheryl getting ready for a big night out, which is suggestive of her getting ready for the X-Factor live shows for which she is adored by the public. However, you also see her with minimal makeup and casual attire for an ‘everyday’ look, which significantly appeals to the wider audience of ordinary, working people. Since her familial association with the brand, Cheryl has released her own type of hairspray with L’Oréal, which is advertised as ‘Cheryl Limited Edition’. This appeals to its audience as it implies that Cheryl herself uses the hairspray, attracting others to buy it too. In the past, L’Oréal have used similar actresses who convey and are recognised for their glamorous appeal, such as Julianne Moore and Eva Longoria.

We are surrounded by celebrity endorsement on every social scale, including television, billboards and social media. It is evident that social media has impacted a greater scale within celebrity branding, as its purely easier for many celebrities to use personal social media platforms, such as Twitter and particularly Instagram to advertise a product. Instagram for example advocates many celebrities and even YouTube stars to caption their photo with ‘#AD’ so it is clear that they have been paid to market a particular product. The Kardashian’s are renowned for using their Instagram accounts to sell products, including diet pills and waist trainers, to their eager fans. Many YouTube stars who have a large number of impressionable subscribers are also targeted to film videos indorsing a particular brand or product. Living in both a heavily consumeristic society, as well as a digitalized one, will I believe only see a greater rise in celebrity branding and adverts. Cheryl is a great example as a celebrity brand as her face is still heavily printed upon campaigns for L’Oréal.

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Week 5: Global TV formats

Sunday 6th October

Britain's Got Talent is one example of a global TV format. Often referred to as 'BGT', the premise of the reality show is to put forward British contestants as they battle to wow the celebrity judges and the British audiences at home with their particular talent, with a large cash sum prize. Having broadcasted from 2007 too present (2016), with ten series, anyone of any age can apply to be on the show, which enhances its popularity compared to other reality shows such as the X-Factor, which have an over sixteen age restriction. The audience at home are able to participate as the format of Britain’s Got Talent, like many other talent shows, sees a week by week elimination based on the publics vote.

Since its success, the show has since created a vast numbers of spin-offs from its original founder, musical entrepreneur Simon Cowell. The first spin off, merely named ‘Got Talent’ fell flat in Britain due to the already efficacious BGT. It later spawned popularity within America; and thus America’s Got Talent was formed with an identical series structure to the British original. Since April 2014, over 58 countries have formed follow-up ‘Got Talent’ shows, spanning from Afghanistan, Australia, India and Canada. By looking at the array of countries that broadcast the talent shows named after their particular country, it is evident just how much of a global influence the ‘Got Talent’ organisation has built around the world.

One major factor to its global successful is how universal its premise is. As its built and aimed at a specific country, there are no barriers that come with any of the contestant’s acts. It’s also a reality show that doesn’t need to take itself seriously in order to be successful and gain view ship, as many contestants are familial relationships that bring the audience together in awe or laughter (for example, Stravos Flatly a father and son dancing trio). The show’s title immediately brings said particular nation together, as it is explicit in showcasing the performances and abilities of those from your country, which bring a huge sense of unity. Another aspect to its success are its celebrity judging panel. Each of its sequel shows provide well known celebrity judges to represent the particular country, which ultimately makes it an appealing programme to its countries audience. For example, Americas Got Talent, however much its panel changes year by year, always features celebrities that are current within popular media culture, which keeps its fresh and relevant. Their panel has seen many popular stars such as David Hasselhoff, Jerry Springer and Heidi Klum, all extremely likeable representatives for America, appealing to its audience at home.

Britain’s Got Talent is a great example of a Global TV format, displaying that easy-going, easily watched shows make for the most successful around the globe.

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week 4 - Transmedia product

Sunday 30th October

        "In a transmedia environment, content is repurposed, diversified and spread across multiple devices to enhance, engage and reach as many viewers as possible. … It is generally new same expanded for different screens, fragmented and disseminated on different platforms, quite possibly incorporating extra content and channels to extend the viewers’ experience."       

Nicoletta Iacobacci

With its continuous and successful rebooting, the thriving Batman franchise is an evident example of a transmedia product. Since his first arrival in 1939, Batman has expanded from its original comic book and has been adapted and modified to live action and cartoon film as well as television, videogame and even Lego. With over ten live action Batman films made, and even over fifteen cartoon adaptations, Batman is a rich media product that clearly satisfies a global audience. I looked at one of the particular reboots, The Dark Knight, which exists as a trilogy. Its primary film (Dark Knight), brought $534 million in America and $469.7 million in other regions, with a worldwide total of $1 billion. It became the 25th highest-grossing film worldwide, as well as the highest-grossing film of its release year (2008). The Dark Knight also became the fourth film in global history to gross more than $1 billion.

The last film in the trilogy (Dark Knight Rises) became the 16^th highest grossing film worldwide, a clear example of a transmedia product as its reception expanded due to its worldwide anticipation and previous achievement. Also following its success, the franchise has created soundtracks and various other merchandise such as The Dark Knight Video Game, posters, children’s toys and more, selling worldwide. It is clear that the Batman trilogy catered for the global market with its success in various outside of America, such as Australia, France, Germany, South Korea, England and Ireland, also making it a transcultural product. It is clear that this one small instalment within the DC Batman universe makes the entire Batman cooperation an extremely large transmedia product. The general synopsis of Batman seems to appeal to many diverse cultural audiences as it displays loss (loss of his parents), independence (Bruce building the Batman persona), an element of magic and heroism (Batman himself as a superhero) as well as romance. Its newer reboot (The Batman, played by Ben Affleck) has yet to release its own solo film, but introduces other anticipated characters such as Wonder Woman, which has already sparkled a larger audience attraction worldwide, both male and female.

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Week 3: What are some of the perceived reasons for Britain wanting to leave the European Union in the 2016 Referendum?

Thursday 23rd June 2016 saw the UK leave the EU in a voted referendum.

"It's vital to understand that Brexit was a vote against the British elite. Voters thought politicians, business leaders, and intellectuals had lost their right to control the system."

It was an unforgettable day for all, distinctly the world of politics and of course the future of globalisation. With the ‘in’ and ‘out’ votes being almost equally divided, it is interesting to explore the diverse campaigns as a media scholar looking in judging the effects that the vote casted upon a globalised society.

It is important to look at how newspapers affected the publics voting judgement, as particular tabloids such as The Sun, The Mirror and The Daily Mail evidently expressed opinions to leave. It would appear that these newspapers used their demographic input in order to courier the out vote, with even using miniscule elements such as blue, red and white font colours to symbolize the British union jack. The aftermath of the results found The Sun’s headline to be a play on words ‘BeLEAVE In Britain’, which ultimately creates a comical and amusing surface toward the vote which 48% saw as a negative result. It also suggests that these certain newspapers believe the UK can function as its own country.

It can been argued that the result was caused by differential voting patterns amongst young and older voters. According to online sources, only 64% of the 'young' people aged 18–24 voted, in comparison to 90% of eligible individuals over 65 who used their vote. It would seem acceptable to suggest that if 100% of the young voters used their vote, the result of the UK referendum may have ended with an alternative result. It would appear that more education of politics and voting should arguably be made compulsory within schools as it is said that the younger people are the generation with which Brexit will affect.  

It can be argued that the aftermath of the referendum, which came in at 52% to 48%  in favour to leave, could affect global media in terms of attitudes surrounding culture and race. Britain is infamously known as a multicultural society, could the aftermath of Brexit change this type of society?

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week 2 - The future of the Media Industries

Sunday 16th October

This week we were introduced to a guest lecturer: Dave Mason, who is a knowledgeable journalist with great experiences within the media industry, particularly in radio journalism, broadcast and correspondence reporting. He brought about the discussion that the advancement of the media industry has, and will, continuously change.

This of course reflects on the conception of Globalisation and the progression of the digital age we are living in. He principally focused on the effects that media progression has brought to journalism; deeming that the traditional journalism profession is no longer what it used to be as a consequent of its progression. With the ability to share or stream a video captured from a mobile phone straight to a large social networking platform within an instant, Mason stated that “the public are the reporters”, and journalists simply collects and gathers the pieces together – rather than uncovering the story themselves. Due to technologies innovation, digital storage systems such as ‘The Cloud’ have brought about the focus on the quality of our journalism – is it sinking? Mason suggested that anyone who shares information is a reporter, but isn’t quality better than quantity? This is a factor that will widen as the future of technology and its machinery develops even further. Some progressive elements were looked up however – such as the evolution of streaming to social networks i.e. Facebook. Anyone from across the world can take part in ‘Facebook Live’, which, as it says on the tin, allows others to watch you as you broadcast publicly. This amplifies the concept of Globalisation as it instantaneously breaks down cultural barriers, permitting people to really see the world we live in. For example, I was able to see a live stream of someone attending the Rio Olympic Games, live and direct as it was happening.

What is instore for the future of the media industry? I believe it will persistently improve in terms of accessibility due to digitalisation which is improving with each passing day. However I believe that the content and quality can and should be questioned, as with easy accessibility comes a lack of depth. It's like a game of Chinese whispers - how much that we read will be true if it'll be sourced from various other places? How much has been fabricated or miss told along the way, once it reaches its journalistic destination?

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week 1 - Global Media Platforms

Sunday 6th October

Media acts as the largest podium for cultural, social and marketing platforms within civilisation and has increasingly changed over the past decades; with greater and faster developments changing the way in which we, as a multination, come together. It should be highlighted that with the medias technological advances, it has brought about this conception of globalisation, a relatively new term. The media has allowed us to interconnect and communicate with anyone from across the globe with it being the social norm. The coupling together of media and globalisation generate this ongoing progression that has, and will continue, to span worldwide – so this week I wanted to consider a few of the contextual explanations behind global media, such as the mix of multiculturalism and the rise in digital media platforms.

For me, the upswing in multiculturalism (a range of ethnic, religious and cultural groups within one society) is one of the key beneficial factors towards globalisation and global media. The immigration of various cultures had previously brought about many questions and curiosities, all of which now can be answered as well as understood because of global media. An indication that global media is causing multiculturalism to change into a solitary, unified identity was brought about by media scholars Machin and Leeuwen within ‘Theories of Globalisation’. They use the expression ‘homogeneity’ to describe the foreseeable idea that quite rapidly, we will not be culturally diverse but instead, share and distribute pieces of traditional cultures into everyday living. With the instant broadcastings of any genre of news report (general, fashion, entertainment, politics) being accessed within a matter of seconds, their concept is quite evident. It did however bring about the discussion of a loss of national identity - is this a positive or a negative aspect to Globalisation? By growing up in this 'digital, multicultural age' I believe it to be the beginning of something positive, which older generations may dispute, due to their most likely selective traditional upbringing.

It is apparent that with the heightening of global media, it not only westernises other cultures (wide scale showcasing of American sitcoms across the world, as well as Hollywood celebrity culture and film being a worldwide phenomenon) but also brings other cultures customs into a western society. I for example noticed the media coverage of the controversial issue faced upon Marc Jacobs during New York Fashion Week, where he used dreadlocks, a hairstyle associated with black culture, on white models. Social media platforms such as Snapchat give us access into the lives of not only celebrities, but more likely the ‘everyday person’, with Snapchat celebrating diversity with its highlighted ‘Stories’ that focus on a specific anniversary or holiday not only from your region, but from the worldwide demographic.


This brings me onto the rise of the 'digital age'; with the advancement in technological growth helping Globalisation to advance even further. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat as previously stated, allow anyone to access any part of the digital world, and because of live video streaming and mobile apps such as ‘Facetime’, a conversation between two people across the world is now instantaneous and easily achieved. Smart phones have become the social norm which allow access to the internet, Google (the world’s largest search engine) and all the social media appliances, meaning that accessibility to the world sits simply in anyone's pocket.

Being able to connect from all over the world has also brought about the idea of cross-media, which within social media aims to connect everyone and ultimately achieve the same result through interconnection. Media firms such as ‘Netflix’ use the same ‘shell’ (to stream TV shows, movies and documentaries to their audience) but what changes is the content, depending on what country it is being streamed in. For example, Netflix there would be a huge difference between the British and Indian Netflix in terms its TV programmes. It is evident that globalisation is a more than positive aspect within a growing technological age, with many benefits to societies and the globe as a whole.

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