In digital media I have learned a lot of things such as the difference between analogue and digital, the different types of media sectors, the definition of devices and platform, the meaning of synergy, and more things.
The difference between analogue and digital is that analogue are devices that  read the media like tapes or records by scanning the physical data of the media,  some examples are Analogue radio Broadcast and SLR photography, while digital are devices which perform all calculations using ones and zeros, also called bits which represent words and images. Digital technology  permits  immense amounts of information to be compressed on small storage devices that can be easily preserved saved and transported for example a DVD or a MP3 player.


 Examples of media sector are music industry, games industry and TV industry.


Devices is the technology of objects for example phones and tablets and platform is what makes media products. (iTunes)


Synergy means when digital media sector doesn't work independently and has to work with another company , so they overlap and are connected such as The Walt Disney  company.

Revision file

*Technological convergence is where existing technologic emerge into new forms. E.g. Xbox is a game console and a DVD player. 

*We media: Games e.g. apps, Film e.g. video recorder, Publishing e.g. e-book, Websites e.g. blogs, Photographer e.g. after effect, Music e.g. recorder.

*Interactivity: Phone calls, Video games, Siri, music, red button, Internet, on demand, voice functions and phone voting.

*Personalisation: wallpapers, name/details, passwords, apps, fonts, font size, play list, folders, login, recording and reminder.

*Interactivity:

-Advantages: connects you to people, expanding brand, increase profits, helps their marketing, active audience and market research.

-Disadvantages: unwanted content, more costs for company and customer, people lose interest if it’s not working and some devices not compatible.

*Personalisation:

-Advantages: aesthetics makes user feel in control, identification, creativity (allows).

-Disadvantages: Privacy, cost for producer, time consuming for producer, take memory/data and complication.

*Audience: people watching films, viewers, playing games, people who watch the show, series.

*Individual consumption: Media platforms and devices that can be enjoyed by one person who engage with them alone e.g. smartphone, PC, laptop, Tablets etc.

*Group consumption: Media platforms and devices that can be enjoyed by a group of people at the same time and engage with others e.g. PC, radio, MP4, TV broadcast etc.

*Primary audience is also known, as the audience who the company is aiming for e.g. primary audience for SpongeBob will be kids.

*Secondary audience is the viewers who are consider to be outside the primary target and the viewers that can affect conception statistics if not a counted for e.g. if an adult is watching SpongeBob and that will be a secondary audience.

*Active media requires audience interaction and engagement in order to acquire full meaning or message embedded with in the product e.g. games, adverbs, TV programmes, red button (Sky) and series.

*Passive media requires observation rather than an active response and the questioning of media texts e.g. media, music, series, DVD, films, Radio broadcast, adverts, TV shows and books.

*USES/ gratification model: The theory that audiences use media texts in order to fulfil pleasure and basic needs such as; Escapism, surveillance, personal identification, and personal relationship.

*Hypodermic needle model: The theory that purpose that media message can be “injected” into the audience can be influence people to act in a particular way.

*Audience statistics: collecting data internet of rating sales. The collection of numerical data in terms of circulations, hits, box office figures, ratings and sales that can be used to analyse the audience.

*Quantitative research: describe research based on facts and figures that can be used to form numerical and statistics data.

*Qualitative research: Describes research based on attitudes, thoughts and opinions rather than facts and figures.

*Primary research: Methods such as questionnaires, surveys, interviews (face to face, telephone or internet), focus groups, vox pops and product analysis.

 

*Secondary research: research that has already been conducted by someone else and can be found in books, journals and internet research, for example.

*Regulatory bodies e.g. ASA, PEGI, OFCOM, BBFC,IPSO.

-ASA stands for Advertising Stands Authority and this is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media sectors. 

-PEGI stands for Pan European Game Information. PEGI is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games' boxes.

Audience profile

Audience profile

Supper Mario Bros:

 DEMOGRAPHICS:

Gender: Male and Female

Age: 4 and over.

Race: Any people.

Sexuality: Any.

Education: They will learn some things like; share things in the game, learn to work together as a team, to meet people and most importantly, learn about the companionship. They will also learn how to support and help each other by sharing knowledge with everyone, alerting and informing the partner goals, sub-goals and the steps they are going to try to do. And the best of all is that they will know how to enjoy the game.

Occupation: Kids, students, adults etc. 

Annual Income: it's unknown.

Disposable Income: it's unknown.

Current Lifestyle/ Aspirational or Desired Lifestyle: Students from different schools as primary and secondary schools, students from colleges and universities. 

Culture: The Adventures of Super Mario Bros has influenced the creation of a line of licensed merchandise and has appeared in popular culture.

Media Interest: This game involves people to become more interactive and more interested in playing the adventures of Mario Bros.

Buying Habits & Loyalty to Brands:  Devices such as in; phones, tablets, PC's etc./Platforms such as in Xbox, PS4, PS3, Nintendo DS, Wii etc.

 Media Consumption: Group consumption.

Homework / A paragraph summarising what you have learnt about the regulatory bodies.

REGULATORY BODIES

 I have learnt that we have five different regulating bodies, such as; BBFC, PEGI, iPSO,  ASA, and OFCOM. All of these regulatory bodies have the same purpose in the world. The purpose is to protect people and children from the aged content. As we know each of these bodies have the responsibility to fulfill what they say. The BBFC is a non-profit organization that rates media products by age. This organization was founded in 1912 by the film industry. They are responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom  for example; 12A, 12,15, 18. The  BBFC has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs, films and some video games that have specific themes of content. They need to make sure the content on children films is suitable for kids and to include the right content in films to protect children from adult rated films. As audience is our responsibility to respect the rating of age put on film by the BBFC. Also there are cases that  if a child want to watch the movie but is just for adults, is required an adult to be present during viewing the film or any other with this rating on it.. 
While PEGI is a rating system that rates games based on the games content. This is also used to help parents to make decisions on buying computer games, films and videos. This regulatory body is supported by companies as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.  PEGI has the responsibility to decide if a game contains bad language, violence, sexual behavior or sexual references, discrimination or if it refers to the use of drugs etc.. 
on the other hand, we have IPSO. This is a voluntary regulatory body that administers the regulation of press, such as; magazines and newspapers. by dealing and helping with complains about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines. This regulatory body can support you if you are making an article and they will look through it., if you write things that are not productive and good, the will tell you off. The following regulatory body is The ASA. They are the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media sectors. The ASA are responsible for ensuring advertisements are real, legal, correct, decent and truthful. They have to regulate the content of advertisements in the UK. As audience we have to report to the ASA, if we see an advert that is not considered to be appropriate for any particular reason. So they can analyse what's wrong with the advert. 
In short, the last regulatory body that we have is OFCOM.  They are independents regulators and competent authority for the UK communications industries. The responsibility of OFCOM is to regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed-line telecoms mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. In order to protect the consumer. They need to make sure that people get the best from their communications services. e.g. TV shows, Radio shows and web pages. 

Are e-newspaper beneficial to the publishing industry?

Are e-newspaper beneficial to the publishing industry?

Primary
I would like to ask you some questions about e-newspaper and publishing industry.

1) What do you think about publishing industry?

2) What do you think are the e-newspapers benefit?

3) Do you think e-newspaper tell the truth to the audience?

4) Do you think the online news papers is cheaper?

5) Do you prefer buying new papers in shops or read it online? And why?

Secondary

Metro 
Evening Standard
The Daily Express  
The Guardian
The Independent 
Financial Times
Dayle Express

Quantitative

- How enjoyable do you find the publishing industry?
- What is your weekly newspaper?
- How much money do you spend buying a newspaper each week?
- How recently have you read a newspaper that was based upon sports?
- Have you ever read a newspaper that was based upon economies?

Qualitative:
-Why do people read E-Newspapers?
-What do they think of them?

Unit 7: Digital Games Production

Unit 7: Digital Games Production

Platforms:                                                                                         

Consoles have become part of our leisure. There are many who routinely use, not just children, teenagers and adults use consoles to have fun and entertainment too. A game console is an electronic entertainment system that runs video games that are contained in cartridges, optical disk, magnetic disks or memory cards. The first systems of consoles were designed only  to play video games but from the sixth generation of games consoles, they have been incorporated important features of multimedia, internet, virtual stores and online service like Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Wii Channels. As we know, consoles have been an important gadget in many people live. Mostly of the children who have no friends are bored or want to have a fun time, they tend to entertain more with their consoles and prefer to spend hours playing video games with a slight obsession. Nowadays, there are many types of consoles, such as; Microsoft Xbox 360, 3DS, PS vita, PS3, iPad , Sony PlayStation 4 etc. They are extremely powerful computers in the own right. They just happen to be dedicated to run games, but they can often run other software as well.

In addition, we have some advantages and disadvantages of consoles.The advantages of consoles are that children can have moments of distraction when they are bored and also they can play with their friends thought internet. Some disadvantages are the following:  consoles could be  an obsession for children. They can take an awful lot of hours, that time could be spent doing something more productive or sociable. 

In short, consoles are platforms that could be useful to communicate, connect and play with other people or play by their selves to have fun but sometimes the consoles make people to become obsessive and spent hours doing anything. Games consoles have a lot of variety and usually promote interaction and sharing between users. The following console  Constraints are: Some genres are completely absent from console games and  they only can certain number of games that can be played on a console. And the following Console Opportunity is that is very easily to play and connect with our TV and the controllers usually fit nicely into your hand. Some games consoles are technological convergence, this means the combining of two or more mediums in TV, films, computers, websites and consoles, as example we have  the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 4. They are games consoles, DVD player and you can connect with the internet.

PC is a programmable machine. The two main features of a computer are:

-It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner. Also it can execute a pre -recorded list of instructions (a program).

Modern computers are electronic and digital. The actual machinery wires, transistors, and circuits is called hardware; instructions and data are called software. People use the computers in many ways, as they use to search information, to watch videos, images or to do works in programs such as in power point or word 2013. PCs are used throughout the world, as this can be used by students, teachers, people, children etc. Computers are also used to play games online as this is very similar to consoles. In short, we can have a personal computer as example a laptop. The PCs opportunities are, there may be more games available for the PC, thanks to PCs we can have the best features in our works, the best graphics and it gives us many opportunities to be connected with internet and find more things to learn. The constraints of PC's are that sometimes we can't share time with our friends and we can become to be an interactive person as we are  practically stuck with dealing with Microsoft Operating systems for gaming and this could be a bad thing.

Handheld devices are portables machines that can be carried it anywhere in your pocket or in bag without consuming much space. A handheld can be any computing or electronic device that is compact and portable enough to be held and used in one or both hands.  A handheld device may contain cellular communication, but this category can also include other computing devices, such as; handheld gaming devices, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc. Handheld gaming devices are for example PS vita, Nintendo 3DS, game boy including phones and tablets which you can play on it. The constrains are that sometimes we can be very distracting because of the handheld devices and the opportunities we can have with handheld devices are that they are very easily  to use and carried to everywhere and we can have entertainment in our times of boredom or in case of emergency. Also they can be easily held in the hand for long duration and can be used while standing as well.

Mobile phone is a device used by everyone in these days. Everywhere you go, you’ll see people sporting the latest mobile phone models. Mobile phones have completely changed the way people interact. You can call, send text messages, read emails, play games, watch videos, chat with friends by social media as well as read and edit documents on the go. Also a mobile phone is a telephone with access to a cellular radio system so it can be used over a wide area, without a physical connection to a network. Mobile Phone Constraints are: Constant Interruption, possibility of Privacy Leak, distraction and affect Real Interaction. And the mobile phone opportunities are:  easy communication, always Connected, multiple Uses and emergency Situations.

Tablets are very similar to laptops. They are bigger than a smartphones and smaller than a net books. Tablets are characterized by having touch screen, so this means that for the use of tablets you don't need a mouse or a keyboard and you can use your fingers. There are several formats tablets. The most popular are between 8 and 12 inches and have a virtual keyboard, but you can add a physical keyboard connected through a USB or Bluetooth .The popularity of the tablet multiplied in 2010, when Apple launched the iPad. Today a lot of manufacturers like Samsung, Google, Microsoft, HP and Sony, have produced their own tablets. Often it considered the tablet as a device to surf the internet , access and play multimedia content. With a tablet, you can listen to music, watch movies, take photographs, make video calls, reading e-books, play games etc.The tablets, like any   other computing device operate with; 

          - Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows CE,

• - Google Android based on Linux.
• - Variations of Linux created by each manufacturer.
• - Apple's iOS, which runs on all iPad.                                                                                           The constrains of tablets :
• On the productivity front, typing over the touch keypad is difficult, especially while typing long documents and emails.     
• The screens of tablets are delicate and exposed if you don't have a protective case.  The opportunities are:
• Tablets get access to a wide variety of applications that enhances their entertainment and productivity experience. 
• The touch interface offers great gaming experience too. Tablets are even good at taking notes, showing demos, adding annotations to the images, etc.                                    

  Platforms specification 


iPad 3: is the third tablet of the company of Apple. The third generation of the iPad retains the general appearance of the former outside, although hardware improves markedly with a Retina display with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels, bringing the screen to 264ppi. It also has the A5X dual-core and GPU quad-core for higher performance graphics processor, improved 5 megapixel camera and support in different versions for 4G LTE, HSPA + and Wi-Fi only in 16GB / 32GB / 64GB of internal memory. This device is used for entertainment as children can spend hours playing games, watching videos, and navigate in internet. 

iPhone 4S: The iPhone 4S is a high-end smartphone developed by Apple. It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, a device that combines a 3.5-inch display, a mobile phone with various benefits as this device cooperate with hardware program. 

PS3: is a game console used by children, adults, teenagers, students etc. With the PS Vita you can entertain, play with friends, go online and make good use of the PS Vita. It is easy to carry everywhere in a bag or even in your pocket.

Xbox 360: is the second video game console Xbox brand produced by Microsoft. It was developed in collaboration with IBM and ATI and released in South America, North America, Japan, Europe and Australia between 2005 and 2006.

PlayStation 3: is the third console PlayStation of Sony Computer entertainment model.This can be used as DVD player, game console or to watch videos in internet. This platform is very similar to the Xbox as they share many things and programs.

Screen resolution: The screen resolution is the number of pixels that can be displayed on the screen. It is given by the product of width by the height, both measured in pixels, so that a relationship is obtained, called aspect ratio.This specifications affects the graphics quality of a game, higher the resolution, better the graphics. Examples: 
Nintendo 3DS (800x240), iPhone 5s (1136x 40), etc.
Polygons and pixel counts; is the number of pixels connected to the amount of information within an image. Polygon is used in computer graphics to form images that are 3D in appearance. 

Frames per seconds: is a unit that measures display device performance. It consists of the number of complete scans of the display screen that occur each second. This is the number of times the image on the screen is refreshed each second, or the rate at which an imaging device produces unique sequential images called frames. Some of the first 3D video games used a frame per second of only 6 FPS. In today’s action-oriented games, the frame per second may range from 30 FPS, for example; in "Halo 3" to over 100 FPS as in"Unreal Tournament 3". Computer game enthusiasts may use the FPS ratings of a game to demonstrate computer power and efficiency.

RAM/ CPU/ Size and speeds: RAM is an acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the part of a computer system that is commonly referred to as the brains of a computer. The CPU is also known as the processor or microprocessor. The CPU is responsible for executing a sequence of stored instructions called a program.  In short, the Size  is a binary digit or bit. A bit can only store a single 0 or 1 and does not convey much information by itself. A string of 8 bits is called a byte. The speed of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is very important. The faster the CPU, the faster the computer actually runs, since it acts like the brain of the computer. When the speed of a computer is mentioned in an advertisement, that speed references the speed of the CPU.

When we talk about size, we use bytes. When we specify processing speed, we use units called hertz. The number of "hertz" describes the number of electric pulses per second, and the same prefixes are used with hertz as is used in bytes to specify larger values. Smaller devices such as phones and iPad's will run at slower processor speeds, because they don't have the power to run that fast or the cooling system to handle the extra heat. That is the same reason a laptop will generally not be as fast as a regular desktop computer.

Defining the Audience

Game play modes: There are two types of games players as we have the single player and the multiplayer. A single-player game is a video game where only can be played by one player throughout the course of the gaming session. The multiplayer is a mode of play for computer games and video games where two or more gamers can play in the same game environment at the same time, cooperatively as a clan or team competitively, often referred to as death match. Multiplayer mode may be a split screen where the gamers play at the same time on one system, or where gamers play on separate systems connected to a LAN or Internet game server.

 Cooperative gameplay: is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates against one or more to their opponents.  

Online gaming; This can refer to any type of game that someone can play through the Internet or over a computer network. Most of the time, it refers to video games played over the Internet, where multiple players are in different locations across the world. Having an optimal online gaming experience typically requires a high-speed Internet connection. Proper hardware will also be required, whether it's a computer or a gaming console, such as Xbox or PlayStation, that's connected to the Internet. In terms of video games, online gaming is growing in popularity for a variety of reasons. Gamers can easily find opponents of a similar skill level when playing a head-to-head game over the Internet.

LAN: A local-area network is a computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings, however, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves.

Split-screen: a cinema, television, or computer screen on which two or more separate images are displayed.

Campaign and story: It's a set of adventures or a continuing story line, typically involving the same characters. The whole purpose of this is that is to introduce a further aspect into the game.

Turn-based: A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game, where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real time strategy where all players play simultaneously for example; the war games  that is a turn based strategy game.

Deathmatch and PVP (Players vs Player): Deathmatch is a type of gameplay mode found in first-person-shooter games. The objective of a deathmatch is to frag as many players in the game as possible while keeping yourself from being flagged. When the game ends, the gamer who accumulated the most flags in the deathmatch game is the winner of the deathmatch.

Social: social games are played on a social platforms that run on or integrate with a social network and use that network to enhance gameplay between players. I think this is a good way to know people, play games with them and to communicate through the internet to have entertainment and fun.

In conclusion, from my point of view, I believe that new technology in these days is being updated very fast . The consoles, tablets, laptops or handheld devices are very similar because you can play on it or do the same things in different platforms.  Sometimes these platforms are used for entertainment, emergency, homework etc.  For example as we can see we actually don't need the games consoles to play games. I strongly agree that the audience are with me because nowadays children use tablets, their phones or some handheld devices to play video games. Games can be also accessed on handheld devices and other platforms not just consoles as I said before and this is good in terms of the audience.

How has access to digital media technology changed the way in which the audience consumes media?

Throughout the years, media technology has expanded to the point where audiences no longer consume media technology in the same way. Digital media have made it easier for audiences to consume certain products and making it more beneficial for them .Producers are creating more and more new media technology than ever before in this digital age, the creation of many new products allows audiences to benefit from them more because of their availability. New media technology such as, smart phones, smart TV’s and high definition has allowed audiences to explore and consume new products in a useful way to adopt their lives. This has proven to be particularly beneficial for audiences who don't have the time to sit and watch TV as regularly as before. For example; the consumption of television has increased as we are now able to watch shows we have missed, as well as new shows becoming available to audiences instantly making it the most beneficial for its audiences. The introduction of BBC iPlayer  is one way audience’s benefits most from media technology, this is available on IPads, iPhones, laptops and tablets which allows audiences to consume this media product wherever they go, not just at home on their television. With the rise in new media technology accessible apps like this allows audiences to benefit most through the different ways they can consume media products. New media technology has enhanced the way audiences are entertained through the values of escapism and diversion it offers. The consummation for media technology has increased because of the beneficial effects it produces on its audiences.
 Media technology allows audiences to be creative and personalize their own spaces, letting them create their own identity online which is beneficial to them. The increase of new media technology has allowed audiences to access and consume news or information in a number of different ways.  Social networking sites like Facebook and twitter have become a surprising source for information due to the sheer amount of people sharing and spreading the news they hear about. As we can see this is very beneficial for audiences.These themes allow audiences to benefit most from how they consume these media products. 
In short, media technology has allowed producers to benefit the most from the audience’s consumption of media products because of their power to shape and control the media. 

The convergence of media technology has largely benefited producers as it provides maximum exposure allowing more people to consume their products. Reality television shows, typically talent shows have benefited a lot from the convergence of new media technology and the audience’s consumption of it.

Overall, I find that audiences benefit the most from consuming media produces, as it represents how audiences have the most uses for new media technology, as well as getting the most out of it rather than producers.