Component 2 Section C - Online Media

Industry and Audience

How have new digital technologies affected how the online media industry is regulated? [15 OR 30]

The advent of digital technologies have made regulation nigh impossible for online media. This is because of the new digital technologies, such as being able to access everything anywhere, piracy and torrenting, and streaming services have made regulation difficult because of there being no real effective way to efficiently monitor and measure online content enough for regulation. In comparison to the film industry perhaps, where everything is filtered through a regulatory body, the internet is essentially no-mans land.

Plan:

Zoella - blurring between advertisements and reality
Attitude - IPSO
Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
Lack of regulation in online media
Convergence od digital media
Increasing power of tech companies - bigtech and conglomerates
Curran and Seaton ^
More globalised internet
Lack of unifying regulatory body
Move to advertising and commercial interests
Algorithms and demonetisation - can lead to self regulation
Lack of protection rom harmful content
Advertising standards agency - possibly powerless
Vulnerable young audiences


Define - What is regulation?
Regulation is the method in which content is filtered, and quality checked, this ensures that people do not see sensitive content or harmful media. Most media products have a regulatory board, and they have rules and guidelines that each product from the relevant industries must follow.

Society needs to be protected from the effects of potentially harmful media forms
Vulnerable people such as children need protection from exposure to harmful materials
there should be measures to protect the vulnerable from harmful media content.

Issues with regulation in online media:
Censorship
Ineffective
Livingstone and Lunt - The increasing power of global media corporations and rising convergent media technologies place traditional approaches to media regulation at risk. There is a completely different digital landscape now with the different production and distribution processes we now have.
Technological convergence - 'coming together of information and communication technologies to create new ways of producing, distribution, and using knowledge information and entertainment.'
Globalisation of media consumption online has risked the classifications and guidelines of the regulators. This makes Government control difficult to enforce due to the innate globalised nature.
The global nature of the internet means that its very difficult for any singular nation to take action. No one organisation controls the internet making it difficult to hold individual organisations to account when mistakes or content issues are raised. If an organisation is forced to censor, the thing they tried to censor will still be available everywhere - also known as the Streisand Effect.

Our personal data is monetised, adverts are aimed at us from our participation in searching for anything. The internet, in this sense, has become a self-regulating industry.

Zoella:
There is not much of a line between her own content and advertisements.
Zoella's demographic mainly falls within the young and impressionable teen girl fanbase. Zoella capitalises on this with her promotion of products disguised as content.

The ASA is alarmed by the growing number of complaints received concerning covert advertising and product placement on social media platforms. Complaints relate to social media starts, also called 'market influencers', who receive payments to promote products via their social media accounts.


Self regulation and self censorship is not an effective form of regulation

Attitude:

IPSO is the regulatory body for Attitude online - as it is essentially an online magazine. This means that they should also follow the guidelines, though this isn't always the case.

Articles about death and murders within the LGBT community, this could be considered a breach of the guidelines as it is sensitive material.
'Boys' section of Attitude. Objectification, patronising for the audience because it obviously doesn't think much of their entertainment standards.
This is not effective regulation on Attitude mags part, as there is nothing stopping anyone from viewing this content.

The growth of a now globalised online media alongside the increasing power of tech companies that monopolise online content for advertising and commercial purposes have resulted in an industry which is near impossible to regulate, control, or contain. Zoella and Attitude are ineffective, they attempt to censor themselves but online provide restrictions to themselves, which while it may protect the users, but overall online media is more or less a wasteland which has no strict or enforced guidelines, and this shows with the masses of content that is unregulated.


How does Attitude attract / target its audiences? How does it construct an audience? [15]

Attitude is mainly focused on targeting gay males for the magazine. They do this because of something called the 'Pink Pound', or the fact that gay couples often have more money, due to them usually not having children, and making more money in the workplace. Therefore, this is a large market to target, and Attitude can capitalise off of this. Reading the media kit from Attitude, they identify their audience as well informed and up to date with trends, and in a constant pursuit of high fashion.

Factual Writing style*
High image to text ratio
Short paragraphing
Lots of statistics used in articles*
A lack of emotional content implemented within stories

*When the articles are on actual issues

Supporting articles are Facebook and Twitter, indicating an older audience
Celebrity culture referenced to engage an audience who grew up with the mass media of the late 20th Century, like Madonna and Britney Spears - The audience grew up with these stars.
Retro culture stories
The format emulates magazine print with the layouts and construction
There are not many child or family oriented articles, perhaps this is because they are targeting more of a casual couple / single lifestyle.
Premium products are advertised on the website
The language is fairly formal, encourages middle class values
Relatable activities, theatre visits, art events, premium restaurants, five star holidays




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