The reason to why Blogging is the new craze!

Blogging to me was something out there that people who have all the time on their hands to just talk about anything. I have never been a wizard with computers, so when being asked to make a blog and share my views towards media issues was a big ask. Realizing that making a blog was just like skiing down the river, once you’re up and going there is a sense of freedom. This is what the blog was like creating it, there was no limit to what was discussed and it was my own personal opinion.

Blogs are known to have a core topic; with the one topic per blog, allows the author to have a broad opinion. The media issues have created a blog about how changing media is affecting the world and how much people take note with each different media. To help my understanding of the articles, each were discussed as I am not someone who regularly sits down to read a paper like The Australian. I am the person who reads The Advertiser, reading to the confidential section and stopping. With blogs, that is a whole other story, the closest thing to a blog I have encountered is Facebook.

Overall, the assignment side of the blog made me learn that there are ways of having a say and expressing my own opinion on certain issues. Although the blog isn’t just the media issues there are many other aspects, for example, professional links to other blogs and news sites and the debate print verses online. Although, my blog has only had a couple of visitors, I have put my opinion out there for those who want to read it. The main positive of the Blogger program is that it is free and easy to use for anyone.

Image source: I Love Blogging

Michael Jackson’s concert film was released into cinemas for the two weeks that the concert was going to be performed. This Is It managed to smash box office records over the Halloween weekend, records reaching $112.6 millions of dollars. Even with the record sales the film still managed to fall below some expectations within the first week. The film contains the behind the scenes documentary of the Kings concert up until his death.

After five days in the cinema This Is It has already made the highest amount of money, out running Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which made 70.6 million dollars worldwide last year. There obviously has been a lot of hard work that has gone into the film with it reaching world wide audience.

Michael Jackson has always received mixed emotions from his fans because of the scandals that have followed him. Despite the scandals, the film was a hit and Sony has now released a media release to say that This Is It will play for an extra week in the US, taking the total up to three weeks. In Australia the film will be extended for up to an extra three weeks depending on each state. Now all that is left for the film is an Oscar, something that would have defiantly happen when he was alive.

Image Source: Michael Jackson This Is It

Newspaper Article: Michael Jackson’s This Is It sets worldwide box office record by Lauren A.E. Schuker November 2 2009

Digital advertising to be seen less frequently

Most adverts that are seen on television are digitally enhanced and computer generated for more entertainment. The computers have been used to improve the landscapes of environments in adverts, the most common being city skyscrapers like the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids of Egypt being placed in the background.

Now with technology becoming faster everything from ironing out wrinkles to creating the perfect meal is done digitally to engage more of the audience and persuade them into buying the product. The main positive with the computer created images is the fact that better results and better pictures are received. Sport adverts have the appearance that the players are there on the shoot, where in fact they are digitally enhanced to be placed into the picture after the shoot.

This sort of advertising is false and should be used only on a need to be used basis. Especially with cars, the exact specifications need to be shown for the safety aspect. The people who produce the adverts don’t know that some people actually prefer the old fashion adverts.

Image Source: Car Advert

Newspaper Article: Digital Image takes truth out of advertising by Lara Sinclair, viewed on October 12 2009

Neighbours characters appearing on Twitter

Twitter, a place for ‘regular’ people to follow the celebrities throughout their day. Channel Ten’s soap Neighbours is the first Australian series in the world to establish Twitter accounts for the fictional characters. The main reason for the accounts is a great way for the audience to engage with the Neighbours world, off-screen. Characters like Donna Freedman, Declan Napier, Ringo Brown and Zeke Kinski have all taken to this new form of communicating with their audiences.

For Channel Ten, this is not the first time a social networking site has been used for fans. Shows like, Australian Idol, The Biggest Loser and MasterChef have been known to set up accounts on Myspace and Facebook.

The Twitter accounts in the characters names allow the fans to interact with the stars on and off screen. So far, the response to the new step up in technology has been positive with the story lines being discussed by characters and loyal fans. Twitter accounts for the characters will continue to grow with many other characters joining and reaching a wider audience for the Neighbours series.

Image source: Twitter Bird

Newspaper Article: Neighbours take roles to Twitter by Michael Bodey, viewed on September 7 2009

Advertising fails to grow for pay-TV viewers

Adverts, the annoying two minutes between favourite shows that keeps the viewer under suspense even longer. Well, for pay-TV viewers there has been little growth in advertising for this year with just 0.1 per cent.

This information on the low growth on advertising was not meant to be released to the public the Australian Subscription TV and Radio Association explained. The reason for this is, because the decrease from 30 per cent in 2007 to just 15 per cent in 2008. Overall this year the free to air television advertising has dropped 11.8 per cent in just six months.

Channels like TV1, Sci-Fi and The Movie Channel on pay-tv are those that have a relatively flat due to the longer shows and with the fewer adverts. There have been more channels being added to pay-TV. These channels range in sports and movies which were launched on to pay-TV at the end of October. The new channels are the main savor and hopefully increase growth of advertising.

Image Source: Foxtel

Newspaper Article: Advertising stalls for pay-TV by Lara Sinclair, viewed on August 31 2009

Are newspaper subscribers and buyers purchasing a different paper?

The local newspaper in South Australia, The Advertiser, was the first to have a different looking paper for subscribers and for news stands. The newsstands had a paper with a large title and an even bigger picture that was eye catching. Whereas, home subscribers unwrapped a newspaper directing the reader to more news inside.

The main use for the subscribed newspaper is so that the reader receives the most value, for example, the continuing special offers on page two. The new design for the front page will become more eye catching for the newsstands and more detailed and informative for subscribers.

The main reason behind changing the papers for subscribers and newsstands was for better engagement for both subscribers and newsstands. With the new technology the ability to have two different newspaper front pages is possible.

Changing the design of the Monday to Friday papers will not cost extra but it will attract readers and increase money and target audiences. Even with the changes to the front pages, the letterhead The Advertiser will remain the same size and roughly the same position.


Image: The Adevertiser for Subscribers

Image: The Advertiser for News Stands

Article: Paper with two front pages hot off the press by Gavin Lower, viewed on August 10 2009

London's The Observer to close down

Picture this, you are in London on a Sunday morning, walk to the local shop to collect The Observer, come home and sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee to read the paper. Well, all that is about to end with the stopping of The Observer, London’s and the World’s longest running Sunday paper.

The Observer newspaper began back in 1791 by W.S Bourne and has been around for 218 years. Each week an average of 400,000 London people will purchase a copy of The Observer, although, the newspaper has suffered millions of dollars worth of losses in the recent years. The most talked about reason for the loss is related to the purchase of The Guardian back in 1993.

The Guardian Media Group (GMG) has cut down on the amount of copies of The Observer being produced and sold to places such as airlines and hotels and an overall trim of the newspaper itself, for example, the television guide. For The Observer to continue to be successful GMG will have to undergo structural change, remodelling some of the business sections in order for the newspaper to continue. With the restructuring and cost cutting it is not clear if The Observer’s closure will go ahead.

Image: The Observer Picture

Newspaper Article: Fight in London trust to stop closure of The Observer by Dominic O'Connell, viewed on August 3 2009.