Minecraft Revision

Media Industries; Radio 1/Minecraft

Key idea: How the media industries’ processes of production, distribution and circulation affect media forms and platforms.

Must have studied:

• processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context
• created by Markus Persson in the company Mojang
• the specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation 
• the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation 
• allows Minecraft to be available on many different devices and so increasing profit
• the significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification
• Mojang sold Minecraft to Microsoft in               for
• the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products
• how media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
• fandom help to market and advertise, since they can use the game to make their own creations
• Youtube was vital in their advertising, since mnay of the fans turned to it to share their work
• the regulatory framework of contemporary media in the UK 
• the impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the role of individual producers
• fans making their own creations and Youtube videos increased awareness of the game
• how processes of production, distribution and circulation shape media products
• the impact of digitally convergent media platforms on media production, distribution and circulation, including individual producers
• the role of regulation in global production, distribution and circulation
• the effect of individual producers on media industries.

Theories of media language:

• power and media industries, including Curran and Seaton 
• theories of regulation, including those of Livingstone and Lunt
• theories of cultural industries, including those of Hesmondhalgh.

Media Audiences;Radio/Minecraft

Key idea: How media forms target, reach and address audiences, how audiences interpret and respond to them and how members of audiences become producers themselves.

Must have studied:

• how audiences are grouped and categorised by media industries, including by age, gender and social class, as well as by lifestyle and taste
• how media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences
• how media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated 
• the interrelationship between media technologies and patterns of consumption and response 
• how audiences interpret the media, including how they may interpret the same media in different ways 
• how audiences interact with the media and can be actively involved in media production
• 'sandbox game' and so allows audience to create anything they like
• how specialised audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms 
• how media organisations reflect the different needs of mass and specialised audiences, including through targeting 
• how audiences use media in different ways, reflecting demographic factors as well as aspects of identity and cultural capital
• 4 different modes
• some people prefer to not actually play the game- rather just watch other people play it on Youtube
• the role and significance of specialised audiences, including niche and fan, to the media 
• the way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances.

Theorists:

• media effects, including Bandura 
•  cultivation theory, including Gerbner 
•  reception theory, including Hall 
•  theories of fandom, including Jenkins 
•  theories of ‘end of audience’, including Shirky

Contexts of media:
Key ideas:Social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts.

Must have studied:

• how the media products studied differ in institutional backgrounds and use of media language to create meaning and construct representations to reach different audiences, and can act as a means of: 
• reflecting social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs 
• constructing social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs 
• how media products studied can act as a means of reflecting historical issues and events 
•  how media products studied can potentially be an agent in facilitating social, cultural and political developments through the use of media language to construct meaning through viewpoints, messages and values and representations of events and issues 
•  how media products studied are influenced by social, cultural, political and historical contexts through intertextual references
•  how media products studied reflect their economic contexts through production, financial and technological opportunities and constraints.