Steve Neale : Genre Theory

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to see how The Guardian has evolved over time.

We have learnt there is evidence to support Steve Neals theory that genre is a process by which generic codes and conventions are share by producers through the repetition in media products. This example can be seen in a range of ways; firstly all newspapers use the similar conventions to highlight what the audience will expect to see, meaning mastheads, skyline, headlines, body text etc. These conventions are usually repeated in all newspaper but may adapted to fit the environment they are placed in, for e.g tabloids may consist of numerous advertorials and graphic contest whilst broadsheets may not. 

Films are other examples of how genre is a process shared by producers and audiences.

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Media Ownership in The UK Newspaper Market

Summary of the ownership~
Statistics have shown that the ownership of national newspapers remains concentrated in just a few large companies: 70% of the UK national market is controlled by just three companies (News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Trinity Mirror), with Rupert Murdoch’s News UK fully holding a third of the entire market share. Furthermore, just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation If you include online and mobile readers, the situation isn’t that much better with five companies accounting for 80% of all consumption, online and offline.
In terms of local news six companies account for over 80% of local newspaper titles – more than four times the combined number of titles published by the remaining 56 publishers – and 85% of revenue.

Issues created from these ownership models~

The problem that arises from this is the fact newspapers exercise power and influence in a number of ways as well as having privileged access to politicians. One of their most powerful forms of influence is the ability to effectively set the political agenda for the other media and more widely, in parliament, the workplace in households and even in social gatherings. The nature of a paper is set by its owner which creates anomalies in the system; press barons wield far more power and influence a majority of MPs have, and use it to further their own interests. Ultimately this means, corporations run our government and the 5 billionaires who run our media have huge power in our democracy, forcing our political parties to prioritize their wishes over the wishes of the British public. They dominate and monopolise the British culture and that is a disaster for democracy as it means the wishes of the super wealthy 0.1% dominates our governments actions.

Moral Panics

New Media and Moral Panics | Media in MInutes | Episode 5

Uses and Gratifications - Audience Theory

Cultivation theory - Audience theory

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Hypodermic Needle Theory

Bandura and Social Learning Theory

Online Vs Print

Online and print newspapers all have their advantages as well as flaws. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing why online newspapers outdo the print versions as well as the reasons why people prefer print versions.

There are many reasons why online newspapers are considered better, the first one being the fact update on trending stories provides the reader with the latest information regarding that topic and if the reader wants to view stories that happened about 5 years ago, they can simply search for the story name or go through the news outlet's data base to find it.
Another advantage online ones have over the print version is that is it very portable, quick and easy to access. Commuters normally struggle carrying and reading newspapers whilst on transport due to cramped spaces which is burden out of personal experiences. The online version gets rid of the problem by allowing you access to the latest news on a small device so deals with these problems which I believe is great especially for people without seats.
Again, online newspapers tend to be free this means that commuters can be informed of the same news that other pay to access. Not only is this great to the public but the news outlet due to the fact more people will have access to their news this means more publicity for their company and therefore more news.
Another great thing about the online newspapers that people prefer over the print version is the fact that it revolves around interactive news. This means views and followers have the ability to interact with the company through watching videos, liking articles and sharing content; all things that viewers cannot do in in the print newspapers. This is a major pull factor especially to the younger generations whose lifestyle revolve around technology which I believe is its greatest strength. It’s also environmentally friendly which is always great.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages of online newspapers, one being the fact it cannot be accessed in some parts of the world who do not have appropriate technology to do so. In addition to this people with no access to Wi-Fi or mobile data cannot access online newspapers which is the most important part of viewing them. It is useless to have the app without internet.
Another disadvantage which i agree with is the fact that the page may appear cramped despite the infinite space they have so there is no sense of organisation making it very difficult to navigate the page. This is a burden to many due to the fact they may struggle finding particular stories and with all that appears on a page this can be a major eyesore.
Lastly, viewers may be faced with some rude, racist and controversial comments that may slip past administrators of the website. This brings me to my second point which is the fact that administrators struggle to check the website is quality assured with all that has to be posted so face problem from groups of people when they slip up.

In my opinion the online newspaper is better than the print version because not only that is match my preferences due to many of the reasons above but is also the best alternative to go to especially in this era where technology thrives allowing the news to come directly to you.

The Big Issue

The Big Issue was launched in 1991 by Gordon Roddick and A. John Bird in response to the growing number of rough sleepers on the streets of London.They believed that the key to solving the problem of homelessness lay in helping people to help themselves.Vendors buy their magazines with their own money and sell them at their own profit or loss.

Since its creation the Big Issue Foundation has provided services and referrals to address issues around housing, health, finances, education, employment and personal aspirations; helping Big Issue vendors to regain their independence and turn a livelihood into a life. In the last decade we have achieved over 40,000 positive outcomes with our vendors alone, life improving steps one and all.

In 2015 over 2000 Vendor’s achieved record levels of personal outcomes Our impactful, cost effective work included:

• teaching transferable sales and customer service skills
• enabling and advocating for decent accommodation, access to mainstream health care (something people who are homeless are often excluded from) and access to employment, training, education and volunteering
• facilitating the establishment of support networks made up of other The Big Issue vendors, customers and specialist service providers.

In addition nearly £11000 was awarded to over 200 vendors through vendor support fund grants. Vendors saved a minimum 20% contribution towards these grants in keeping with our self-help ethos. Vendors took part and raised funds in many of our events, wrote content for this website and represented our work at various functions.

Old Spice : Initial Research

The first Old Spice® product, called Early American Old Spice for women, was introduced in 1937, closely followed by Old Spice for men in 1938. The Old Spice products were manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz.

Back in the the 1930’s, Schultz was inspired by the scent of his mother’s rose jar and began experimenting in the development of his own fragrances.

The trademark Old Spice scent for men was an instant hit and the company became big rapidly. Its major success came in men’s products market and it launched various popular scents like York Town, Old Spice Lime and Blue Stratos.

In the early 1940s, when the packaging moved to glass bottles, T. C. Wheaton Glass Company created specially designed cream colored glass bottles that mimicked the appearance of pottery to continue with same design.

After World War II concluded, Schultz relocated it’s manufacturing factory to New Jersey before passing away in 1950. 

His son George Schultz took over the company and served as the President for 20 years before selling the company to American Cyanamid in 1970.

By 1970, the annual sales had reached $130 million and keeping in mind the need for larger scales of production and capital, the company was sold to American Cynamide.

American Cyanamid held on to the company for another 20 years before selling the brand to Procter and Gamble in 1990.

When P&G bought the company, they replaced the clipper ship on the bottles with a yatch. The packaging underwent another change in 2008, with the glass bottles being replaced by plastic and the stoppers turning red.

Procter and Gamble rebranded Old Spice, donated product to 5th graders who didn’t need the product yet, and began to reshape the way Old Spice was perceived. 20 years later in 2010, Old Spice launched the video ads with “the Old Spice Guy” and the brand continues on.

Early American Old Spice was developed around a colonial theme. When Old Spice was introduced, William Lightfoot Schultz was interested in maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme for Old Spice. Thus, sailing ships, in particular colonial sailing ships, were used as a trademark. Through continuous use and advertising, the various ships have become a valuable trademark identifying the Old Spice product for men. 

Shelter : Initial Research

HISTORY: 
Shelter is a registered charity that helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through their advice, support and legal services. They also campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to them for help; freeing England and Scotland from the problems of homelessness.

Shelter was founded in England in 1966 by the Reverend Bruce Kenrick, who was horrified by the state of the tenements round his Notting Hill parish. Later came the setting up of Shelter Scotland followed in 1968.

Kenrick had formed the Notting Hill Housing Trust three years earlier to provide decent, affordable houses to rent in the area.

As slums proliferated in the inner cities, homeless families were forced into overcrowded hostels, and notorious landlords like Peter Rachman made the headlines, Kenrick saw the need for a national campaigning body to complement the work of charities providing housing. Shelter was born.

1966 was also the year that the BBC screened Ken Loach's film about homelessness, Cathy Come Home. Watched by 12 million people on its first broadcast, the film alerted the public, the media, and the government to the scale of the housing crisis, and Shelter gained many new supporters.

Capitalising on the success of Ken Loach’s gritty docudrama Cathy Come Home, screened a couple of weeks before their launch, Shelter mounted a series of successful campaigns consisting of real-life stories with hard-hitting facts.

They told hundreds of stories. An old woman dying of TB in a near-derelict flat. A family cooking on an open fire because they had no kitchen. Children suffering life-changing injuries playing on slum clearance sites.

The public became outraged that these conditions existed in modern Britain which resulted in huge fundraising success and there was a wave of support for our campaigns. One hundred local Shelter groups formed in just six months after thier launch.

Shelter also started to achieve real political success when two party leaders mentioned their report 'Face the Facts' in  their 1969 party conference speeches and their founding Director, Des Wilson, spoke to packed rooms at conferences, rallies, and town halls across the country.

Later, Shelter’s tireless campaigning resulted in a major win when the government passed the Housing Act in 1974. This act provided housing associations with full government funding.


As a result, their resources were freed up for campaigning on other important issues, such as the rights of private tenants and those facing homelessness.

More than four decades of constant lobbying have pressured government into making some key changes to policy and legislation, and Shelter has celebrated some landmark achievements in recent years. These include the ground breaking commitment in Scotland that, by 2012, every homeless person will have the right to a home.

Key Events:
Since the late 1960s, we have pioneered new services that have responded to local housing issues, such as the Liverpool Shelter Neighbourhood Action Project (1969-1972), or ‘SNAP’. This project worked with residents living in slum housing to build neighbourhoods they wanted to live in.

Today, programmes such as The Homeless Families’ Support Service and Inspiring Change Manchester carry on helping those most in need. In 2014–15, Shelter helped 68,946 people through our face-to-face advice and support services.

Thanks to endless campaigning from Shelter, the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act was passed. This seminal piece of legislation codified in law a definition of homelessness that went beyond ‘rooflessness’ and ruled that local authorities have a legal duty to house homeless people.
Their contribution to achieving the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act remains one of our greatest achievements.

In the 1990s, Shelter discovered 31 families living in a Bristol bed and breakfast with one cooker between them, and decided to run a campaign that called the local authorities to account and offered a solution. n

In 1980 we helped to convince the government to give social housing tenants the same security of tenure as private renters. This legal change was fiercely opposed by local authorities, but provided protection for families facing eviction at short notice.

In 1993 we strengthened our legal clout by setting up an in-house legal arm. We employed top housing lawyers to fight directly on behalf of the people we help.

In 2002, a new Housing Act strengthened the legal protections for people facing homelessness.