There is an apprenticeship scheme, that is tailored for people that want to get into the digital marketing aspect of the media industry. The scheme is run by the media firm Maxus, who works with a number of different firms, to produce advertisements for them. The apprenticeship is paid with a annual pay of £17,500. The apprenticeship scheme consists of working with the firm for 4 days a week, and 1 day in college studying a Level NVQ. This course will benefit me as it will allow me to learn more about the work place in the media industry and have work experience, with dealing with clients and working under pressure. It had additional benefits, like the wage rate, and 26 day holiday, and a subsidised gym membership. This will help me develop professionally as i will gain the knowledge about the media industry and how it works, gain valuable experience, and develop skills that i can use after the course.
This apprenticeship is run by the Media Giant, Virgin Media. This apprenticeship is also paid with an annual salary of £12,500. This scheme is for the role of a residential field apprentice, Which works closely with customers to try and provide the best customer service possible, the first 2-3 months, consists of shadowing a current residential field, learning the basics and picking up skills that you will need later on. On the Apprentice programme i will combine real work with studying for an NVQ level 2 or 3 in Communication Technology at the training facilities. Shadowing experienced technicians, i'll learn how to install and repair all of our products by visiting customers in their homes. Providing an amazing service to our customers is the aim here, i'll learn how to provide expert advice to the customers so they get the very best performance from their products.
This apprenticeship, run by the firm RSPE, it is a video production apprenticeship work scheme, it involves filming and editing video for the Youtube aspect of their media advertising. Filming, editing and also suing programs like photoshop and adobe, adding in creative ideas for the clients of the firm, This is beneficial as i want to personally get in to the social media aspect of the media industry. Developing skills in using other software and my IT skills, dealing with clients and working within a team, having good communication skills. The scheme doesn't have any college or learning based qualification that i will get, the apprenticeship lasts for 13 months, and is not permanent like other apprenticeship schemes i found.
Trade fairs are when companies hold an exhibition to try and attract new employees, and demonstrate what they have produced, and also meet other companies and monitor what their rivals have done, it allows for lots of companies to come together and see what each has made and produced. It is more of a showcasing what the company is capable of producing, and showing the latest technology and products that they have made. It also a good place to network with companies and if you can have a face-to face interview with a recruitment employee working for the company, it can be the basis for an interview and it may be a way in to getting a job in that company, this is good for people looking for work, as they will have more information and be able to talk more about the company, rather than just applying through the internet or handing in CV's manually, going to trade fair's can have a boost in the chances of getting a interview and then to a vacancy in the company. There is no limit to how many stalls that a person can go to, so you can see a variety of different companies and see what they do and learn more about the company see what products they produce, this allows for a greater chance of being exposed to more companies, these type of trade fairs are usually open to the public and are very populated when they are open, it allows for companies to essentially receive free advertisement, and also be helpful to consumers and job-seekers as well. The company however does incur costs by going to these trade fairs as they have to rent the space in the exhibition, the stand they create has to be paid for and through networking and giving out free promotional items can be costly to the company, however due to the mass attendance to trade fairs the exposition they get to lots of people cannot be under-valued. Trade fairs in London particularly for the media industry is the BVE in Excel London, it brings in people from the media industry and allows for them to present or have speech's that a mass audience can listen to, in the 2017 exhibition there are going to be more that 371 companies all showing their product to consumers and this means that there will be a variety of companies to choose from that you are interested in working in. Trade fairs allow for Networking with a variety of different companies and people working for them, it gives access to the latest technology and products within the industry, allow for talk sessions with people in the media industry, it has all the information you need about the media industry in one place.
Technology has developed and has allowed audience's to have a far better viewing experience in terms of film and TV. Better technology generally signifies better comfort, accessibility and a general better quality to the productions that the audience is watching. A massive technological advancement in the 20th century meant that the media industry and particularly in film and TV has benefited massively and it has become the social norm. for example technological improvements allowed for Film's to be filmed digitally and edited on computer software, rather than filming on camera reel's and then manually cutting and sticking the reel's together to edit, this has allowed for a easier way to edit and it is not as labour intensive as it used to be, and mistakes can be corrected very easily, which has arguably decreased the time that the movie is in the production stage and can be released relatively quicker to the audience, and if it is a sequel that fans have been waiting for, it will make the audience happy as they will be getting their awaited movie will be released earlier, if there wasn't technological advancements such as that, they would have to wait a longer time.
Another impact that improving technology has is that it has allowed for better graphical quality to be in film and TV, this is generally a positive, as in the past black and white tv and film, to the point now that through CGI we can create locations and characters through computers and without having to actually hire or go to those locations. This is an advantage to the viewer and also the producer as the audience views a better quality production with the sound visuals etc. the producer benefits because they spend less money and can still create a decent movie, however to evaluate this point making films without much effort or input can lead to a 'bad movie' as there is no enthusiasm, leaving everything to technology can have negative feedback as well. However the improvements in graphical viewing cannot be ignored.
Also the improvements in technology has allowed for more people to have access to means of watching media, having a TV in the past was only for the rich people, but now in the modern time, it has become a social norm and nearly everybody has a TV. more people are exposed to the TV industry and film's are also being more easily watchable through the internet, be it via subscription services such as Netflix or through illegal streaming websites.
Possibly the biggest change and improvement int he TV industry was the analogue to digital broadcasting, This was a massive change, this change occurred between 2007 and 2012, i personally witnessed the change. This changed the TV industry in the UK and it was done in order to improve the sound and visual quality of the TV in the UK. In analogue TV if there was interference with the frequencies then you would get a really bad image and bad sound quality the inferences in the channels would mean that you could still watch the programme but at a very low standard. In digital TV however the frequencies and the air waves are not susceptible to being interfered with and so people can enjoy consistent good quality programmes. Digital television is not perfect though, if your reception for a certain channel is poor, you will not receive a poor-quality image or sound. You will not receive anything at all, because of the way in which digital TV broadcasting works, you will get great reception or no reception - there is no middle ground. Another benefit of digital TV broadcasting is that television stations can transmit more data. This means they can supply more features for the audience such as surround sound or HD quality programmes.
The internet has had a massive impact on the audience's viewing experience, linking back to Accessibility the internet has allowed to people to watch virtually anything wherever they want, as long as they have internet and the producer has uploaded it to the internet. This has massively improved the way people can watch TV/ Film. An example would be the BBC iplayer, where people can watch BBC programmes that they have missed on TV and they can watch it later on. This is a massive benefit to the audience as they don't have to stick to a certain schedule to be able to watch the shows that they want, this allows for flexibility for the audience. The internet has also improved the film industry, as people can now watch movies through services such as amazon prime and Netflix. Once the film is uploaded onto that service the viewers can watch it at no additional cost as they have already paid for the membership, this has also allowed for greater choice for the audience as there is a massive pool of series/films that they can watch through one service. The internet is a massive place, and there is a slight disadvantage to it, as there are often illegal streaming and downloading websites that allow people to watch films and series that they have not paid for, this leads to piracy and can damage the profits of the producer of the film as they would be missing out on potential customers. The internet has not had a massive impact on the quality of the productions, but more on how easily people can watch the shows/films that they want, also now through modern smartphones, there are apps that allow people to watch films/series on their phone, there has been a massive improvement in accessibility to the audience. Accessibility has been a massive improvement with the proliferation of technology. Videos and films can now be watched over phones/tablets and other devices on the move. This has allowed a massive improvement in comfort for audiences as they can watch their series and shows where ever they want.
Another benefit of the improving technology is that it allows the audience to have a better quality end product, as the improvement in technology means that all stages of production have been improved, the filming stage has benefited through better visual quality cameras, and so it in the raw shooting stage there is an improvement in how the film/programme turns out. Then in the post-production stage, mainly in editing since the move to digital editing on computers, rather than manual cutting pieces of film, mistakes and continuity errors can be solved relatively easier on the computer as nothing is 'lost' as all the footage is still kept and can be re-worked to make a different scene, all scenes are filmed from a variety of different angles and so the editors have a lot more room to work with, as they can piece together footage relatively easier, and this allows for a better audience experience as well as they will get more camera shots within a scene as it requires less effort on the editors part, if the improvement in technology did not happen, then editors would have to work longer hours, and the end product would not be as good, every shot has to be carefully edited, and if a mistake is made, the whole scene film has to be made again, where as a mistake in a digital format can easily be fixed by the re-do' button.
There are many skills that i leant during my creative media production course, from the technical aspect, to the practical aspect, to the theory. The technical aspect includes the skills i learnt from using the computer's to be able to do a variety of tasks, mainly including using the final cut pro program to edit all the footage we all filmed to be able to create productions, the ability i enhanced in using all the Microsoft office programs, word powerpoint, excel etc. The practical aspect i learnt was learning how to film and use digital cameras, use SD cards and upload footage from those to computers to be able to edit. The camera language i learnt had a massive impact on later productions that i created and will create, camera language can have a massive impact on how the final product can turn out, and how visually appealing it can be to the audience watching it. The theory side of the media course has taught me various different theories, that can be applied to modern day scenarios, particularly the Dyer's Star theory.
To go into depth into the technical aspect of skills that i learnt, learning how to use the Apple operating system at first, getting used to the layout and the way certain programs can work differently in contrast to the windows operating system. Learning how to use this software as well, has made me fluent in using 2 different systems which can be used in the future. More importantly using the blogger application from Google, allowed me to learn how to embed videos, documents, pictures into a piece of work, and additionally has taught me to use One drive, to generate HTML codes to add in work that i have done elsewhere, or on a separate file that i have saved, to be uploaded to Blogger. The editing aspect is the area where i gained a variety of skills, uploading footage from cameras, adding effects, filters, cropping, enlarging and changing video clips to suit my needs. The audio editing as well, adding music, detaching audio from clips that i filmed, adding ambient sound effects were all part of the audio editing that had to be done. Also adding graphics and text to our productions, selecting the font type, size, colour and adjusting it according to how i wanted. Lastly adding special effects, is a skill that i learnt, although not always applicable, they can be very effective in a production. Overall editing requires patience and being able to spot mistakes and correct them, fixing mistakes in the shooting stage can also arise when editing, indicating that we did a mistake in the filming process, attention to detail is important as the continuity errors need to be fixed in the editing stage, and also making sure that the project is flowing, as one second can have an impact on the editing and the overall product.
Teamwork is another skill that i improved, during the course. Having to work in groups to be able to make a production, apart from the documentary, meant that we had to work as a team. Working on pitches, the actual production, the evaluation and the editing stage, as a group meant that we needed to have, good communication with each other in order to give out tasks and roles to each other, to set up dates where we would film, designing a production schedule, listening to each others idea's and taking in all ideas into account and making sure that everyone participates in the production. Having to do focus groups in order to receive feedback on the finished project, arranging what questions each member of the group would ask, allocating roles then as well. Teamwork requires good organisation among us to be able to arrange dates to film, meet deadlines for unit's, making sure we manage our time effectively.
The camera language that i learnt, the camera movements, angles, and shot types have all reflected onto the productions that i have made, they can have a big role to play in the shooting stage and getting a variety of different shots, means that you have more footage to work with in the editing stage, also the more shot types and angles you have in a production it will keep the audience engaged more as they will looking at a scene from a different perspective and be more engaged, and not be bored by looking at the same thing all the time. Learning and knowing the various camera language has allowed me to apply them to the productions i have made and will make.
Another skill that i developed during my course is the theory part of the course, this gave me skills to recognise and know different theories in the media, and how they apply to real life scenarios, also the theory side also enhanced my extended writing skill, and structure my work accordingly, and also due to Unit's having deadline for the written work, keeping up to date with the work, editing and adding additional paragraphs to the post when needed and making sure i do not fall behind by being stuck at a post for too long. Learning how to appeal to a certain target audience through classifying the target audience through socio-economic class and making products that would suit your audience is a key skill that can be used in every industry. Being able to identify why certain aspects of film/ tv shows can appeal to the specific target audience and understanding how to use the techniques correctly to make sure the production suits to the audience's needs. Understanding the relationships between the Film producers and their viewers/fans has allowed me to also personally identify within those categories.
Lastly a skill that i further enhanced, was my research skills, having to find interviews for my documentary, having to do research that suited my industry that i was doing a documentary meant that i had to research firms in the industry and find out where they were located and if i could arrange an interview with them, this required research into depth, and then having to email then to try and arrange one, getting no reply or behind rejected meant that i had to find other firms to research on, and being based in the Uk and restricted to London, meant that i had to find firms that related to me that were in close proximity to me that i could have an interview with. Research was done throughout the course, finding out information about things that we did not particularly know a lot about, evident in Unit 3 which was research based, defining the types of research, conducting our own research, and then making graphs and vivid examples of the research and data we collected, and then lastly analyse and reaching a conclusion from those research we did.
Ethics are moral principles that define how a person or group act, they are self-imposed rules and a set of beliefs that are followed. They are closely related to morality, morality can be effected and can change over times according to many factors. In relation to the Tv and Film industries, there is no legal requirement for companies and broadcasters to be ethical right, they may receive a bad reputation but there is no legal repercussions, however since the companies are run by humans and people are have morals and ethics they are followed and it leads t quite diverse and controversial cases in the media industry. A big issue being the amount of racially diverse a company is and how many people it employs that are from a minority background, and also how the minorities are represented in the media. There is an ethical obligation to show the minorities so that they have a voice and are shown, however the representation may not be in a positive way, so there can be a thin line between having an ethical obligation to show the minorities but if they are represented in a bad way and since the media can have a massive impact on people's opinions and influence them, there could be a breach in morals and ethical obligations of broadcasters and companies. Morals and ethics are really subjective and may not always match with others, and also society's views and morals can also change, so matters such as sexism was much more present in history in the 1900's. Now due to society's values changing, sexism i think has decreased a lot, it still exists in the current time period. Also another ethical point related to the Tv and Film industries, particularly TV is what to air/show. Films can categorise their audience with the age rating so they can show 'un-ethical' things such as murder, nudity etc as they have placed an age limit on it. The TV industry has to be more careful and be more ethically aware that what they are showing may have an effect on their audience, especially young audiences as they can be easily influenced, and having a certain morals and rules that a broadcasters has will mean that they will follow those rules, and so have an ethical way of broadcasting programmes/shows. As TV is a more universal and general type of media, and nearly everyone can watch TV the broadcasters have to follow a set of ethical rules and guidelines, such as a 'code' that they will follow.
Code of practice
The BBC's code of practice is to make sure all the producers and directors give everyone a equal opportunity regardless of age,sex,race etc. The producers must comply with all the anti-discrimination legislation that was brought forward, the BBC is aiming act in an objective,integral, and confidential way, fairness and honesty in dealing with all their workers and trying to uphold their ethics that they have. They have written in the codes of practice that they will promote equal opportunities for everyone, in the past this was not necessarily the case, it was more dominant with white male's. in the modern times however the equal opportunities and how ethics have changed have made it more diverse and due to the legislation to promote equal opportunities in the BBC's code of practice. The BBC in their Code of practice is to also ensure impartiality in their news and to be objective. The BBC's is the national television so they have to represent the minorities, a good example is that there are now different races of news presenters which represent them in a good way. The minorities are now having a voice and are being shown on screen which allows them to be represented on national TV. The BBC also supports that all staff should be trained within the industry and to have equal opportunities in having promotions.
An example of racial diversity being upheld is through more racially diverse news presenters:
This allows for minority groups to be represented in a positive way, and allows for the minority groups to be shown on national tv. This is ethically correct to make sure everyone has a voice and can express their opinions and views. Another example is women presenting shows and the news, where as beforehand it was just White male's so there is gender diversity as well, this allows for women to also be shown and be represented.
Lastly the BBC also upholds ethics of equal opportunities to people regardless, if they have physical disabilities or not. An example is Cerrie Burnell, in a children's show in the CBBC's.
Ethical issues in TV and film
The main issue of representation in the film and tv industry is that, there is a wrong representation, or negative representation of minorities in the industry, or that they are simply not represented are shown at all. The industry is still dominant of white people both in TV and Film. Due to society's standards changing and their moral views and opinions there has been progress, but however there is still a huge gap that needs to be filled. A case study that i will focus on is the Series Top Boy. Which is essentially about the teenage life in east London and it focuses on gang violence and crime. This may be seen as unethical to some as it represents all teenagers to be involved in gang violence and crime and also it represents the minorities in the show in a bad light that they are involved in criminal and illegal activities. The series does try to differ away form stereotypes but still gets dragged into through its plot. I think that personally it is not un-ethical to show this, because the issues that are raised and shown in the show are present in real life and especially in urban areas like London there is presence and a rising social concern of teenage crime and gang violence being raised, so showing these true 'stories' can be beneficial to the audience in that it will be an 'eye widening' experience. The series may be seen as un ethical due to there being shown drugs, guns, violence and a lot of swearing, it would not be advisable to air this show before the 9pm watershed, and even after that is may be seen as controversial. This show was made and aired on channel 4 so it was on a quite popular channel so it raised a few criticisms and if the show was suited to be shown on national tv, and so the season 3 of the series was canceled. I think that it was not un-ethical and it would show the brutal reality, as i live in the urban areas of London as well, i could personally identify with the locations and the characters meaning that i thought it as a great series, and not un ethical.
Emerging social concerns
The media and particularly TV, has an ethical obligation to let the audience and public know of any updates or more news on social concerns of the public. An example would be as i stated above Teenage gang violence, especially with knives. This has been a social concern for a long time and so the news and through and series allows for the media to relay this information to the public as they have a right too know about these topics and issues, as it is society's problem.
This Documentary on gang violence, by the BBC highlights the issues of gang violence. This then means that the audience watching this documentary will be informed about these issues in society's and through a droccumetnary they can watch it for long as it will be engaging to the audience. The TV industry has a bigger obligation to portray what the public wants as this is what they watch and so representing what their concerns are and spreading the news. This then creates a awareness for the audience that watches it and so can be more vigilant. The TV industry has an obligation to inform the public, as they cannot keep their audience in the 'dark'. The BBC has to be impartial and be objective in making this documentary, and just relay information to the public/audience to give them information about the social problem that is occurring.
The Broadcasting act was a law made by the Prime minister of the time Margaret Thatcher which was from the conservative political party. Margaret thatcher believed that privatizing and opening up firms to competing would make them more efficient, more innovative and creative, due to her belief that the British TV industry was far behind of other countries, particularly the USA. The act was made in order to inject more 'liveliness' into the UK film TV industry to allow for more firms and different ideas to be created and so to grow the tv industry. The act included the regulation of existing broadcasters as well as privatizing the firms to give them an incentive to be more productive and efficient. The purpose of the act was allow for firms to be able to set up new channels creating competition and allowing for more creative ideas to 'regenerate' the British TV industry. Margaret thatcher believed in privatising all the nationalised industries in order to create a better economy in the long-run due to the nationalised industry being inefficient and not making any progress, this was also present int he TV industry with the BBC the dominant TV not being very efficient or creative, and not having an impact or change on the TV industry, believing the act would allow for more creativity and allow innovation in the Industry.
The act had a huge impact on the TV industry, particularly on regulation. she believed that regulation killed creativity and allowed for a monotone, boring TV industry in the UK. The act also meant that it lead to the abolition of the IBA (independent broadcasting authority) and it's replacements Independent television commission and the radio authorities. These two have now merged and are called OFCOM. The abolition of these meant that the TV industry was far more free in what they could broadcast and show to the audience, aimed at all firms to produce and show what they wanted without the fear of being banned or taken off air. It was essentially de-regulating the market to allow for more creative freedom and to be more innovative, in order to boost the growth of the British TV industry. The ITC was also in charge of regulating both terrestrial and non-terrestrial channels which gave it technically more power than the IBA, however on a physical standpoint their powers were far more reduced. de-regulation did prove to be beneficial to growth and allowed for more companies to be able to set up a TV channel and allow for more variety in the UK TV industry. David waddington described the act as heralding a ''massive expansion in choice''. The act was indeed controversial and opposed by mostly the Labour party and a few conservative members, however the progress of the TV industry cannot be under-valued.
The ITC was the regulating body of the TV industry it lasted from 1991 to 2003, it included regulating the existing 15 channels and also the big network of ITV. They also regulated the channel 4, the regulating powers were passed onto them from Channel four television company. The ITC eventually in 2003 became OFCOM through the communications act 2003. The ITC merged with the Radio authority, office of telecommunications and the radio communication agency, to become OFCOM, they now regulate the TV and radio in the UK.
The act allowed for the final terrestrial channel to be created, Channel 5 in 1997 was created. This was seen as a good thing by many as it allowed variety in the UK TV industry and meant that more channels with different channels could be viewed by the audience. The act also allowed for multi-channel satellite TV to be put in place, which opened up the TV industry to other channels and made for a more interesting TV industry. It was also seen as a bad thing however as it may have lead to confusion and made it more difficult for the audience to pick a channel to watch, too much variety can also have bad repercussions.
The BBC before the act was introduced used to make it's programmes 'in-house' meaning that they produced everything 100%. However with the act being introduced the BBC was forced to outsource to other companies by 25%, A quarter of the programming of the BBC was to be sold to other companies for them to do, in order to try and stop a 'monopoly' in the TV industry with the BBC being the dominant firm.
The most controversial part of the Act was that it lead to the a profitable business for the Media giant Rupert Murdoch. It allowed for him to expand his business into the UK, and made way for ' rich get richer' which was seen as the public that the government doesn't care about the low income people, which caused controversy at the time and is still discussed today. This act allowed for him to create the company of SKY into the UK, Sky has now grown into a big company and did benefit massively from the Act, Rupert Murdoch's pro-conservative media broadcasting may have had an effect on the Act. To summarise the Act, It had benefits in the TV industry that it allowed for more creativity and variety for the audience to watch, it allowed for de-regulation so companies and broadcasters were allowed to broadcast programme's more freely and allowed for a more creative UK TV industry. Opening up the TV industry to competition allowed for the existing firms to try and be more efficient and make different shows to attract viewers, competition is good for consumers as they will get the best possible product, the TV industry was also open to foreign companies like SKY which made sure that the BBC and other UK domestic firms would make better quality TV.
The main points of the 1990 Act were that the ITC was set up to regulate all the TV services in the UK, however the BBC was exempt from this, The channel 4 was allowed to sell advertising meaning that ITV nor longer was the onlycommercialchannel selling advertisements to get money, The channel 5 was the last terrestrial TV being set up in 1997 before the digital move of television, the TV licence was introduced to who ever owned a TV set, and also pay per view and subscription ways of paying for TV was also introduced.
