...MEDIA GUARDIAN H/W 12...

Tube bans bookie's 'man breast' ad

Paddy Power ad: a Transport for London committee said the ad had the 'potential to offend public decency'
London Underground has banned an ad campaign by bookmaker Paddy Power that features a man who appears to be breastfeeding a baby.
The poster ad, one of three that promotes the company's new online bingo business, has been banned by LU operator Transport for London's compliance committee.
A spokesman for Paddy Power said that the poster, which uses the strapline "Where have all the women gone?", was banned on the grounds that it had the "potential to offend public decency".
The Irish bookmaker will now invest more money into other media where the ads are running, such as 48-sheet and six-sheet posters and national and regional press.
"We are completely astonished by the reaction of the London Underground to our advert," said the spokesman. "Fun is central to the Paddy Power brand and we strive to communicate this in all of our advertising."
It is not the first time that the company has run into problems with its advertising.
In 2005 the Advertising Standards Authority banned an ad titled "The Last Supper", which turned the dinner table in the classic Christian image into a casino table.
And in 2001 the ASA banned an ad featuring two grannies with odds above their heads crossing the road as oncoming traffic approached.
Both campaigns were banned on the grounds of a "potential to cause widespread offence".

I chose this story because i actually had seen this ad myself around my local area and bus-stops. It did make me feel slightly vulnerable, as this objectifies men. If men started doing this then why would we be called men/man? There wont be any difference between the two sexes. Although Paddy power is a Irish bookmarker, no one would actually know unless they know the controversial adverts which are always made by Paddy power. I think this ad does draw the male attention. It is quite different for men to see male breast feeding, it does escape from reality but it puts the male in a vulnerable position. It did surprise me! Dipz was with me when i showed her the ad early this week, she just laughed whereas i was like 'What the ****'

...MEDIA GUARDIAN H/W 11...

Rapture TV appeals Ofcom's Sky ruling

Digital channel Rapture TV has claimed that Ofcom did not fully investigate its complaint that BSkyB overcharged for its electronic programme guide listing in an appeal against the regulator's ruling today.
Rapture, which airs a mix of entertainment and extreme sports programming, originally complained to Ofcom that its annual EPG bill of £76,500 from Sky was "unduly high", given that its annual turnover was under £150,000.
The channel, run by chief executive David Henry, claimed Sky had breached its regulatory obligations by offering unfair listing terms.
However, Ofcom cleared Sky of overcharging in February, saying the price had been "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory".
Today at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London, Michael Bowsher QC, acting for Rapture, said: "The question for the tribunal is whether Ofcom did enough. Our ending point is that Ofcom did not do enough.
"It was happy to accept Sky's position without drilling down on what was being said."
Bowsher added that just because the price Sky had charged Rapture fell between the satellite broadcaster's two unidentified cost bands, it did not make it "fair, reasonable or non-discriminatory".
"It seems that Ofcom have taken undue comfort from the charge being between the floor and the ceiling [of the two price bands] but it doesn't mean that any price between the floor and the ceiling is fair, reasonable or non-discriminatory," he said.
"That is the core of our case. It seems that Ofcom's position has been that as long as it is between the floor and the ceiling it is fine."
Bowsher said the EPG charges should be "about treating broadcasters properly with regard to their circumstances".
He also argued that Rapture should not have to pay for EPG services it did not use and questioned the amount of subsidy channels should pay for Sky's set-top boxes.
"We say this decision should be remitted with appropriate guidance from the tribunal as to where errors have been made," Bowsher said. "We say a number of errors have been made."
The appeal is being seen by some industry insiders as a test case, because if Rapture wins it could throw open the doors for other channels to challenge their EPG charges from Sky. Ofcom would also have to look again at how it investigates such as cases.
Rapture was broadcast on Sky between June and August 2002, and from May 2003 and July 2004, before relaunching once again in November 2005. It was removed by Sky in March this year following the current dispute.
Sky charges for EPG listings to recover the costs associated with developing and running both the EPG and its digital satellite TV service.
Ofcom and Sky will outline their positions tomorrow when the case continues.

...Ms Jones H/W on Asian Stereotypes...

I looked at a clip from LITTLE BRITAIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxXGNSx4CBc (CLIP FROM 2.15MINS ONWARDS)

• The Dialect is not strong, pronounciation is not clear. Having a "freshie tone" "Fish & Chips"
  
• Typical indian women, dressed in a Sari.
  
• Wearing Gold jewllery/some sort of jewllery. Shows married women. Gold being typical.
  
• Subverting own national dish. We expect her to say some indian dish because she seems traditional and shows she supports her culture by wearing certain props but instead she brings it down, by saying "Fish and Chips", we would not really expect that.
  On the other hand if an modern asian girl/women sitting there wearing western clothing and saying an Asian dish would seem odd, i would expect something like Continental.
  
• Asians are associated with Curry

...MEDIA GUARDIAN H/W 10...

Food companies sign EU ad pledge

An alliance of food companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mars and Burger King have signed a European Union pledge to stop marketing junk food to children under 12 years old.
The group of 11 companies, which represent more than 50% of the food and beverage advertising spend in the EU, have agreed to stop running junk food ads on TV, in print and on the internet to under-12s by the end of 2008.
The alliance, which also includes PepsiCo, Kraft, Unilever, Danone and Ferrero, have agreed not to market products in primary schools, except where "specifically requested by or agreed with the school administration for educational purposes".
A number of the companies, such as Coca-Cola, Kraft and Mars, have previously agreed a US responsible marketing code around advertising to children.
The difference with this new programme, called the EU Pledge, is that the 11 companies have agreed to have independently verified monitoring of their reduction in marketing, from January 2009.
"This is just part of the industry's response," said Stephan Loerke, the managing director of the World Federation of Advertisers.
"We have worked with the (European) commission and other stakeholders in identifying a best practice model of self-regulation, have reinforced codes of conduct and are providing children with the tools to help them understand and interpret advertising so that they are able to make informed choices".
The "common commitment" forms part of the EU pledge, that ties into an EU initiative on diet, physical activity and health set up in 2005 by Markos Kyprianou, the EU health and consumer protection commissioner.

This story was chosen because, i felt that this was cutting down the choices we the consumers suppose to have. I do believe that children under 12 do not know what they are eating or they do not know what is good or bad for them but it is then the parents choice to provide them the right food. This is a moral panic for the UK and this is right wing politics. These fast food ads dont just have one single meaning to it, the auidence decodes the texts individually, this is called the Reception Theory. So the ruling class is stopping the audience to view or be targeted at by the advertisement. This tells us that there is hegemony in adverts too, even if it is good or bad for the auidences their some sort of influence of the ruling class (government in this case)

…Uses and Gratifications and Me…

Ø Diversion HEROES
Ø Personal relationships EASTENDERS
Ø Personal Identity (no one in the media Mr Bush)
Ø Surveillance GCSE BITESIZE

…Uses and Gratifications Theory…

Summary

- States that the audience is active
- The audience has the ultimate choice
- The way audience uses the media
- Blumber and Katz (1974) suggested a series of possible reasons why audience members might consume a media text.
- The four motivations for choosing a text are:

Ø Diversion
Ø Personal relationships
Ø Personal Identity
Ø Surveillance

- Dennis McQuail suggests a more detailed breakdown of audience motivation:

Ø Information linking to Surveillance
Ø Learning linking to Personal Identity
Ø Personal Identity linking to Personal relationships and Personal Identity
Ø Integration and social interaction
Ø Entertainment linking to Diversion

- Maslow’s Motivation theory:
Ø Basic
Ø Belonging needs
Ø Self esteem
Ø Self actualisation

...Effects Theory...

Summary

- Hypodermic model
- Has a right and left wing approach


The Theory states-


- The audience being passive
- It promotes dominant ideologies
- Reinforces hegemony
- Frankfurt school---> propaganda
- Adorno : came up with Culture Industries > which tells us how the media dumb down

The Left wing –

- Althussar who came up with ISA
- Marcuse : “indoctrinate (teach us) & manipulate us”
- Marxist theory
- Burthes : myths

The Right Wing –

- High moral panic
- Try to censor, or reinforce censorship
- Feel kids are learning about sex
- Very traditional thinking
- Calls for control by moral majority: sex is harmful

...Media Guardian H/W 9...

Channel 4 axes TV schools programmes
· £6m education budget to go exclusively to internet
· Projects will cash in on social networking sites


For years they have been a fixture of Channel 4's schedules, but next year early morning programmes for schools will become a thing of the past - replaced by a sweeping initiative on the internet.
In a pioneering move for a broadcaster, the £6m annual budget spent on education programmes aimed at teenagers is being moved from traditional TV shows to multimedia projects. From 2008 schools programmes - which have included Greg Dyke's Get Me the Producer, Let's Talk Sex, with Davina McCall, and My Big Gay Prom, will be replaced by internet projects, games and interactive stories.
The two-year experiment is being headed by Janey Walker, the Channel 4 managing editor, who took over the company's education portfolio last year after the departure of the high-profile business leader Heather Rabbatts.
Some projects will utilise the popularity of social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace, while others will use purpose-built web services and online games.
Get a Life will transfer the fly-on-the-wall documentary format to the internet, by following 21 teenagers over the course of a year. Participants will try to gather support from around the internet to reach their goal, through social networking and video sharing services. One teenager will attempt to regain custody of her child, while another will try to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
Walker said research indicated that schools TV was failing to reach its target audience. "It was very clear that we had to do something," she said, "because at the moment what we do is spend £6m commissioning TV programmes aimed at 14- to 19-year-olds and then put them out in the morning when they're at school."
But executives admit they are taking a gamble. "It's an experiment," said Matt Locke, the former head of innovation at the BBC, who will run the project. "It's a risk, and it might not work. We might end up with something that looks really dull, or we might end up with something that's really vibrant and interesting. That's what we're going to find out."
However, the bold plan is likely to be criticised. Educational programming has been a core purpose for the publicly funded broadcaster since it launched in 1982. The 2003 Communications Act stipulated that its output must "include programmes of an educational nature".
Critics of the broadcaster include the former ITV chief Charles Allen, who said last year that Channel 4 was fixated with repeats and American imports, and was mislabelling entertainment programmes such as Scrapheap Challenge as "education".
Multimedia plans
Get a LifeUsing YouTube and MySpace, 21 young participants will try to achieve individual personal goals
City of ViceAn online game based on a new series exploring Georgian London
InsidersA new spin on traditional careers advice, with a network of blogs based on real-life contributors
4PioneersA social networking service for teenagers who have considered starting their own business