Section B Exam Question

How far does the platform on which they are consumed determine the construction of media products in your cross-media study? Support your answer with reference to a range of products from THREE media platforms. (32 marks) 

I will be discussing how the construction of a media product differs based on the platform in which they are mostly consumed in. I will be using the examples of three films: Ill Manors, A Field in England and The King's Speech. Codes and conventions are used to promote films and to get the correct target audience, this is evident in all three films. They would target this audience using print, broadcast and e-media techniques in order to make the film successful. 

The first film I will talk about is Ill Manors as it's been promoted through a variety of ways particularly using print through magazines and newspapers. The director Ben Drew who is more known as Plan B appears on a magazine called NME which is mainly targeted at a young alternative audience. He is shown to have two middle fingers up with a cigarette in his mouth. This gives him a very strong, urban and street look in which the youth can easily relate to. The target audience for this magazine are mainly young people so this gesture and attitude would appeal to them greatly. This reinforces the dominant stereotype of that young people are rebellious and this sometimes causes a moral panic as this isn't an image or figure that parents would want their kids looking up to. Plan B is used to promote the film because he doesn't have much experience in on the film industry as this is his first time directing and making a film. He is a lot more popular in the music industry and has a big fan base which would also watch a film if he made it. He is the unique selling point of Ill Manors. 

A similar technique is used with the film A Field in England as the director, Ben Wheatley is written in big bold font on the print poster for his film. He is very successful and very known in the film industry, he is used heavily to promote the film as he's made previous ones therefore he is a trustworthy film maker unlike Ben Drew with Ill Manors who is very inexperienced. 

Moreover, Plan B also appears on the cover of Men's Health but the target audience is significantly different from NME just by the name of each magazine. In terms of Blumer and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory, the main aim of Men's Healths editors would be the surveillance of Ben Drew as they ask him and write about his dieting and weight loss program. This Ben Drew is a lot different than the one in the NME magazine because in this one he is dressed in a suit which makes him look very classy and is often referred to as objectifying himself because he makes himself appear urban and street in one magazine and then classy and sophisticated in the other.  

As Men's Health have very strong ideologies with health, lifestyle and fitness, Plan B is not necessarily promoting the film , he is almost just talking about his own lifestyle however when readers read about him they might be interested in searching about him and they would then find out about the film he is making. That helps to create exposure for his media products and also gather a wider audience to consume his media products. This again shows how different platforms change the way in which the media product is constructed because of a difference in target audience and the nature of the platform itself. 

A Field in England uses codes and conventions to appeal to it's main target audience of the upper-class demographic. This target audience is very different from the Ill Manors mainly due to the historical context which is involved within the film. The film poster contains a 16th century England with a very warm sepia look with blacked out silhouettes of people who are the main characters. The poster is very important when it comes to identifying the genre of the film and it is appealing to the correct target audience. Although the old, traditional worn out colour, the audience can easily make out the assumption that the film is a historical drama

The King's Speech is also similar to A Field in England as it has a very traditional and conservative poster with the royal colours and faded out sepia look. Just from the background colour of the film, the audience would be able to understand more about the film. The microphone is used as the main iconography in The King's Speech and it is also used to signify the genre of this film and the fact that it is a historical movie due to the authenticity of the microphone. However the iconography in Ill Manors is a lot different as it's a gun which is held by the protagonist which also then also captures the genre of the film as an urban film with a lot of social realism. The use of film poster conventions helps the audience to understand the genre of the film as the construction of these film posters help to emphasise the genres.  

The broadcast platform is quite different and unique for Plan B because he sticks to his original ideologies and values but the way he delivers the message is quite different. This is evident when he is presenting himself to a very well educated TEDx lecture audience and he changed the way he spoke so he can make himself more understandable and relate to the audience in a way for them to understand him. However the audience for the film would be very different to those in the TEDx lecture.  The audience in the TEDx lecture would mainly be middle classed ABC1 demographic and the most fitting psychographic group would be succeeders and aspirers. The audience might not watch the film or even knew it existed beforehand but this speech creates exposure for Plan B to a whole new audience. Plan B delivers his strong moral values and political views and beliefs very powerfully. It also creates synergy through this platform as the director of the film is able to promote his soundtrack and he is able to construct the way he speaks to promote himself as a brand too. This helps the audience understand Plan B as a brand and this would cross-promote himself and his film.  As the audience in the TEDx lecture are middle classed and perhaps more conservative and traditional, Plan B stays true to himself and is informal and he spoke in a very colloquial way. The reason for this is perhaps it shows that he holds strong ideologies by being true to himself.

He also appears on SBTV who's audience is almost the same as the audience Plan B is familiar to. The young working class demographic would be the predominant viewers of SBTV and therefore may already know who Plan b is and therefore promote his film through himself once again. However because Plan B's background of being a political rapper, it has already gained a wide fan base for him therefore creating exposure through his soundtrack which creates synergy and therefore widens the audiences that utilises his media products. 

A Field in England decided to use a very simultaneous release strategy in order for a wider audience consumption. Therefore due to the film being released across all platforms on the same day, it had the risk of decreasing the overall profit. Also as the film is an arthouse film, it targets a very niche market and therefore the people who go to these arthouse cinemas would most probably not mind spending the money on watching the film in the cinema to have the theatrical experience. The people who go to arthouse cinemas and watch arthouse films would mainly fit the succeeders psychographic category as it shows that they have money and status. The film was therefore released on DVD, on demand etc. all on the same day as the theatrical release, this therefore allowed a wider audience to have this type of media product easily accessible. 

 Also similar to both Ill Manors and A Field in England was The King's Speech strategy as the protagonist Colin Firth helped promote the film through themselves as brand images just like Plan B promotes himself to promote the film. Colin Firth had an interview with the BBC and this was almost a match made in heaven because the BBC is a public service broadcaster and promotes positive brand values and very conservative and traditional British ideologies and therefore as the King's Speech reinforces these positive ideologies as the film is about the monarchy, they gather a very precise target audience and would then be consumed by a much larger audience. 

Ill Manors proves to be the best example of featuring interactivity and communication within the platform. The Tag London Twitter campaign was a great way to promote the film through social media, using hashtags and allowing user generated content to be shared online and throughout London. This campaign allowed London passers-by to consume the media products and this therefore creates synergy across all media platforms. The campaign would particularly appeal to the young adult and youth demographic as they are the most consumed by e-media and social media, therefore this is a seriously beneficial and advantageous strategy to promote the film through the target audience themselves. The users could promote the film to their friends and stimulate discussion through their own user generated content as there are no gatekeepers, therefore all the content is first hand - this could be seen as beneficial as positive reviews would be promoted and consumed by a large audience but it could also be seen as a disadvantage as a bad review can similarly be seen by a large audience and could potentially promote a negative impact for the film rather than a positive one. 

A Field In England's distribution strategy was simultaneous, therefore was released online too. This would allow the younger generation to perhaps come across the film through the internet and be exposed to it and perhaps watch it as they are consumed by the media. This idea of the dependency theory would be applied here as young people are dependent on the media and the internet.

The Ill Manors brand is clearly themed on the website, through the use of the urban colours and the overall gritty feel it has, which relates to the genre of the film. The logo itself for Ill Manors is consistent and appears across many media platforms, which helps the audience to recognise the brand. Also the use of Ben Drew being iconic as the director is part of the brand and appears as the unique selling point of the brand and the most iconic part of the film. 

The website for A Field In England similarly embodies cross-promotion through all media platforms and captures the essence of the film as a period drama movie. The similar layout and aesthetics from the film poster is used within the website. The branding is clearly themed on the website just like in Ill Manors, which makes the brand of the film clear to see. The colours are very washed out and traditional, which shows the authenticity of the film.

In addition to this, The King's Speech website also has codes and conventions to help capture the brand of the film. The fact that the genre of the film is a historical period drama would explain the historical picture used as the heading of the website. It embodies the film as a whole as it is based on real life historical events. The website aesthetically is very simple and captures the seriousness of the film and would appeal to the target audience. The website, unlike the Ill Manors website, does not have any direct links to social media, similar to A Field In England, providing no synergy between the social networking platform. There are also no e-media campaigns for either film, however this is not particularly surprising as the core target audience would be middle class and mature, therefore they would not particularly be interested in e-media campaigns as they probably would not be associated with many social networking platforms.