Wednesday, 9 February 2011

Task 8

There have been some moral panics regarding the content on Youtube and its danger of desensitisation and acts of the Copycat theory. For example, the term "happy slapping" has become a popular action, originating in South London, for troubled youth who used it as a form of entertainment and gratification. A recent case in 2006 explored the murder of a 38-year-old barman, which was taped on the movile phone of one of the violent gang members who beat him to death, after convincing him they were filming a documentary about "happy slapping".

Audiences have also become acustomed to the idea of immediacy and on-demnad content, resulting in a lack of moral patience in today's society. Youtube further convinces its audience that, through the creation of UGC, anybody would be able to become an internet celebrity. This is argued as dumbing down society, who could be spending their time broadening their knowledge with academia, than watching pointless home-made videos by inexperienced individuals.

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Task 7

In terms of employability, there is not much of a difference between the amount of jobs available for advertisers. If anything, there are more employment prospects for those who have technical abilities to be able to advertise on Youtube, that many broadcast-based employees would probably not be in posession of.

Therefore, the advertising industry would receive an immense amount of profit - not only from viewers who watch the advertisement forcefully, but also from those who click on the link that they would be unable to avoid. It could be argued that advertisers take advantage of those who have less experience in their use of the Internet/Computing, who may accidentally click on the link, unaware that they have just been pulled into a viral marketing attempt. This could cause vulnerable viewers to believe they have no choice but to buy the product if they would like to continue watching their chosen video, and therefore exploited by the institution. This would, however, increase profit for the institution by use of a set income received from every link that is clicked on.

However, the use of the new Adblock plugin on Firefox could show a slight decline in income, as users would be unable to see the advertising, let alone click on it. The reason it would cause only a slight decline instead of an income epidemic, is that not all users of the World Wide Web would be in posession of Firefox. Although efficient and noticeable quicker in download speed than Internet Explorer, many deem Firefox as having less security and therefore dangerous for the use of minors.

Task 6

In some aspects, one could argue that audiences have lost their choice of what they can watch on Youtube. This is because advertisements cannot be skipped but only ignored. A Marxist approach to this issue would suggest that audiences have no control whatsoever on these contents.

However, others could argue that audiences have not got more control because of the amount of advertisements being less than those shown on television. Therefore, there is less that advertising agencies are able to inject into the minds of helpless audiences. This also keeps the audience continuously optimistic about the website, as they always have the length of television adverts to compare it to.

A new revolutionised new add-on has been created for Firefox users called AdBlock (alternatively AdBlock plus) that blocks advertisements on all UK-based websites that contain compulsory ads. It also allows users to block videos only, from certain websites, in aniticipation of security from inappropriate content. This gives the audience a stronger sense of control to be able to choose which ads/videos they would like to watch.

Task 5

FaceJacker

Original target audience - Young adults
Current target audience - Young teenagers
How do you know? - Its advertising on Youtube clips attract a younger audience (users of Youtube)

Family Guy

Original target audience - Adults
Current target audience - Young teenagers
How do you know? - Usually late scheduling time on Broadcast TV but now clips are available on Youtube

Cadbury Gorilla Advert

Original target audience - Older audience
Current target audience - Younger audience
How do you know? - Used to be advertised on daytime TV, for those who would be at home to watch it. But now available on Youtube for the younger audience.

Task 4

Audience size has increased dramatically since the invention of Youtube. Especially as institutions have allowed the use of advertising on Youtube videos themselves, institutions are able to focus on their target audience (mainly teenagers depending on the genre of the video) shows such as The Inbetweeners for example, featured on Youtube, includes at least 3 advertisements one of which is always that of FaceJacker (Brian Bedoné) - famously known for its enormous youth audience. This allows institutions to force their way into more popular shows through the use of these compulsory advertisements, expecting inexperienced viewers/users to accidentally click on the link.

Task 3

Media institutions are, through the use of Youtube, able to appeal to an enormous audience - not only in the UK, but also worldwide. Therefore, it is very important for institutions to be able to create these shows in a way that is more accessible by its target audience. For example, many current shows on Youtube can feature channel-approved advertisements, which are compulsory to view before the start of the video. Also, Youtube tends to encourage viewers to create User Generated advertisements, with which they would be able to promote their own products, without stringts attached, at flexible prices which are most comfortable.

Task 2

Due to this increase of User Generated Content, audiences are far more careful of what they believe to be true. THis is because it is difficult to distinguish whether some videos are made for the purpose of entertainment or viral marketing. E.g. the viral marketing ad for Mini Clubman car in 2009 emphasised the importance for audiences to distinguish which videos are genuine and which have hidden purposes.

This was not the case before tha launch of websites like Youtube, as audiences were not aware that some UGC-like footage could have been easily recreated for other purposes by institutions longing to inject certain ideologies into them (Marxist view)

Task 1

Youtube is owned by a multi-million dollar company Google Inc, also a worldwide search engine available in more than 140 countries across the globe. Youtube has allowed the public the freedom of User Generated Content, with which they feel much more comfortable rather than watching news clips on TV broadcast.

This new-found freedom has had an enormous impact on TV Broadcasters as viewers no longer wait for their favourite show to appear on television, but find it much easier to simply search it on Youtube.

It is also an enormous base for viral marketing, where advertisers are able to target younger audiences, in anticipation that it would be that generation that would be accessing the content on the Internet rather than watching it on TV.

However, it could be argued that this is exactly what TV Broadcasters have been aiming to do - grab the trust of the audience by allowing them to believe they are watching User Generated Content, when they are being injected viral marketing like a Hypodermic Needle.