Independent Case Study

Independent Case Study : BBC

Your chosen industry: Television Industry                         

Audience

1) How has new and digital media changed the audience experience in your chosen industry?

NDM has had a vast impact on the way in which audiences are able to experience watching BBC. Not only have they got a catch up application in which one can use to catch up on the programmes they have missed, but this can be done on any device with internet on it, be it a phone, iPod, laptop, tablet or television itself. Before all this, one could only watch it when it was on, then wait for the later showing.

2) Has new and digital media changed the way the audience consume your chosen product?    

NDM has changed the way in which BBC is consumed as it is easily accessible on iPlayer and there devices, therefore allowing one to watch it wherever and whenever.

               

3) Has the size of the audience changed as a result of new and digital media?  

Making a difference to the way in which one is able to access the channel, there has been a huge and positive result as more and more people are watching programmes on the BBC.

4) What are the positive changes new and digital media have brought to the audience of your case study? (E.g. greater choice, easier access etc.)          

It is a lot faster, easily accessible from any place and any device.

               

5) What are the negative changes new and digital media have had on your chosen audience? (E.g. quality of product etc.)    

One of the main problems is the fact that the quality has gone down.

6) What about audience pleasures - have these changed as a result of new and digital media?

Over the years the audience pleasures have changed dramatically. Firstly one was only able to watch the news and academic documentaries as those were the only things that use to be shown on the BBC. However now, there is the option to watch anything that suits the way you are. Also showing real life like families going through problems on a daily basis and how they are dealt with - therefore showing and helping the audience. For example one of the most popular ones; Eastenders. 

 7) What is the target audience for your chosen case study? Write a demographic/psychographic profile.           

The target audience for the BBC is both males and females; between 13 - 50 years old and the psycho graphics for them are explorers as they have such a huge variety of different programmes for the audiences.

Institution

1) How has new and digital media had an impact on ownership or control in your chosen industry?

The big issue is competition. As competition and other competitors rising over the years, including ITV, FOX & E4 means a lot for the audience however for the institution itself means fewer profits. 

2) What impact has new and digital media had on ownership in your chosen case study?  

        

The impact of NDM has had an impact on ownership for the BBC  as the BBC are in control of the license fee in which they intend to inform, educate and entertain & this was advertised throughout the use of BBC iPlayer.

3) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions produce texts?              

NDM has helped in order to make changes for the institution as BBC has worked on delivering better quality programmes. 

4) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions distribute their product?

NDM allowed the app and website for iPlayer to be made and therefore allowing one to watch it where've and whenever. 

5) How might new and digital media threaten your chosen industry?   

NDM may have a negative threat on my chosen industry as a competitor so good could come in 

Place and do a better job than BBC and therefore take away the audience. Additionally the idea of television could be totally gone as everyone watches it on I player, devices other than the TV. 

6) How has new and digital media changed the way your chosen industry is regulated?              

The way in which the BBC is regulated, and has changed over the years is as before it used to be quite censored however now a lot of explicit content can be shown whenever however. 

User Generated Content

1) What examples of user-generated content can you find in your case study?

The BBC uses UGC very little & one of the examples I remember, having been here at the time was the London Bombings that occurred on the 7th July 2005. This involved a lot of people spread across and constantly speaking about what was going on.

2) How has UGC changed things for audiences or institutions in your chosen case study?     

For the institution itself, they never use UGC on a regular basis & when they do it is for a reason. the reason behind not being so keen on it is because it is unprofessional shootings taken from anyone. Plus the story then shows the complete story and institutions like BBC would want to show only some of be story and create a bias news story. However this doesn't stop the audience sometimes. As they have access to different devices - they are able to record what they need to and send them into major institutions.

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

1) What would be a Marxist perspective of the impact of new and digital media on your chosen case study?    

A Marxist being quite money minded and always thinking about capitalism, would believe that NDM helps to keep the institution right at the top and therefore receiving more profit. 

2) How would a pluralist view the impact of new and digital media in your chosen industry?  

A pluralist would have more of an oppositional view and would say that NDM gives the chance to smaller institutions becoming big, such as ITV.

3) Are there any examples of hegemony in your chosen industry or case study?        

Hegemonic control is maintained through other big and well known players such as News Corporation who are ITV.       

Globalisation

1) How has globalisation impacted on your chosen industry or case study?        

As the television broadcasts about BBC iplayer and iPlayer broadcasts about the television number for BBC as a channel, globalisation is evident.

2) In your opinion, has globalisation had a positive or negative impact on your chosen industry and case study? Why?

In my opinion I believe that globalisation has had a great impact on the industry, as it gives a chance for everyone to know and for the word to spread, therefore getting to all the targeted audience on all different platforms. Therefore increasing their amount of views and getting more and more viewers. 

3) Can you find examples of cultural imperialism in your case study or industry?

Within the television industry a lot of Americanisation has begun, this is purely due to the fact that there have been quite a few American programmes that have been brought to the UK through different channels, ie The Big Bang Theory.

Social media

1) How has your industry or case study used social media to promote its products?       

By taking advantage of different social networking sites BBC have been able to advertise themselves and again help increase the amount of viewers they receive. They have many accounts, including an Instagram, Twitter & Facebook. On these they post pictures or anything that they feel the audience are more likely to respond to and enjoy, creating more of a connection with the viewers. 

2) Provide examples of how your case study has used social media and explain the impact this would have on audiences.               

3) Is social media seen as an opportunity or a threat to your industry and case study?   

For my case study; BBC, I believe depending on the situation social media could be seen as threat and it could be seen as an opportunity. Firstly it could be a threat, as one little thing stated by someone could cause a bad name to the institution if it got out of hand, for example the Citizen Khan problems from last year, everyone had a huge outburst about it - therefore not only giving a bad name to adil ray but to the BBC itself. However with the use of social media I believe that it can help for an institution to spread its word further than the furthest & bring utmost success.

Statistics

1) What statistics can you find to illustrate the impact new and digital media has had on your industry or case study? For example, in news, the UK newspaper industry sold more than 12m copies a day in 2001 but in 2014 it was below 7m.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/global-news-audience-265m

-          Russia has shown the biggest growth for a single market, with the audience more than doubling to 6.9m weekly as people turn to the BBC for trustworthy and impartial news. The BBC’s Ukrainian Service also reflects this trend with its audience more than trebling to more than 600,000 over the last year.

-          BBC World News TV shows an increase of 5m viewers, taking its weekly audience to 76m.

-          BBC digital news services have continued to grow, with an 8m, or 21 per cent, year-on-year increase, bringing the digital audience to 46m.

-          The weekly audience for GN Ltd – which comprises BBC World News and bbc.com/news - has increased to 95.5m from 88m last year: a rise of 8 per cent

-          The audience for the BBC World Service has remained broadly stable at 191.4 million (slightly down from 192.2m last year), with the introduction of new TV language bulletins boosting the World Service’s television audience

-          Increases in television and digital audiences are offsetting the decline (mainly on shortwave and medium wave) in radio listening. Radio audiences have dropped by 17m since last year, although radio still remains the biggest platform overall at 128m listeners, with TV viewers at 126m

-          The launch of responsive design (now available for all World Service languages) and the move to ‘mobile-first’ has contributed to mobile growth. A third of all weekly visitors to World Service websites come via mobile

-          For the first time, a nationally representative media survey was conducted in Yemen, showing an audience of 3.8m weekly viewers for BBC Arabic TV in that country

-          The average age of the audience for the BBC’s global news services is 32

2) What impact have the statistics you have found had on institutions in your chosen industry?

The way in which these statistics have impacted institutions is because it shows the way in which the amount of viewers have increased or decreased.

3) What has the impact been for audiences?

The way in which statistics have impacted the audiences is due to the fact that they are the ones who are consuming more of these media products and it is because of them, these statistics exist.

Theories

The first theory I'm going to discuss is the hypodermic needle. This links to the BBC as stereotypes are created when watching shows such as Eastenders and this means changing beliefs because of the media. For example Citizen Khan created a lot of stereotypes and therefore for those who aren't Muslims it injected in their mind that all Muslims are the way they are shown in there. Another theory that relates to this is users and gratification as the shows on BBC again like Eastenders allow one to escape from their daily routine and also gives the audiences ways in which they can sort their own problems out as there are ALOT of problems shown in Eastenders itself. Finally, the dependency theory applies really well as the audience is very much dependant on watching what is on the BBC whether it's bias of not and makes sense or not, throughout the day one has something they are dependent on for the BBC.

Wider example and secondary texts

1) What other texts or institutions are also relevant to your case study? What would be good secondary texts or example to use to support the findings of your independent case study? 

One of the main institutions that are relevant to my case study is news corp, especially because recently there has been a conflict regarding whether the BBC itself should be getting A fee or not & whether it should be split.