Musings of a Young Creative

Harding's take on Press Regulation

2012-11-27T10:45:00.002-08:00

**The Editor of The Times potential Solution**
James Harding openly acknowledges what has become the common conception of the regulation issue in that, he declares that the press has forfeited its right to self-regulation. But state regulation is out of the question. The question remains in what way can the press be regulated fairly, openly and most importantly effectively?

As I've mentioned before the inflexibility of the Statutory solution has meant it has been ruled out of contention. The flexibility and speed offered by self-regulation make it ideal but this would continue to isolate the public and increase there growing mistrust within the press. A solution that has been most widely approved so far is a self-regulator under-pinned by legislation, this is effective but still poses the problem of keeping legislation effective with a rapid increase of technology.

The third suggestion offered by Harding would re-focus Statutory with a judicial system, this would then be run by an independent regulator. It is universally agreed the PCC in now fully redundant, he proposes the independent regulator as with self-regulator proposals would be able to investigate and punish, fast and effective. The important alteration though is that this independent regulator would run the public, not by the press themselves. A good way for the public to begin trusting the national institutions they have lost faith in.

It was suggested that the Lord Chief Justice would appoint a single of panel of lawyers to lead the regulator, stoping a backslide or the industry gaining an influence. This proposed regulator offers the most effective, open way to solve issues open to the press and public. It would run an appeal mechanism open to both sides to contest it's owns decisions. This reinforces the trust is so badly needed and as Harding puts it be a guarantor of the regulator's independence and effectiveness.

As with the majority of the industry, opposed to state regulation, the current proposals of Lord Black for self-regualtion effectively go most of the way but do not offer a redeeming quality toward public trust. This third proposal may well be shaping as the final piece of the jigsaw in balancing a new regulator but other institutions continue to look into other means of regulation, keep posted.

Where is Press regulation going?

2012-11-23T15:36:00.001-08:00

Where is Press regulation going?

In recent years there has been a escalating progression of miss trust in regard to various national institutions from the banking crisis, the expenses scandal, the full circle exposure of the phones hacking cases and most recently the issues within the BBC. It is clear that trust is hard earned but easily lost. The Press and increasingly the rest of the media are struggling to regain it. A key process available to restore public faith will come from the Leveson enquiry in a ‘more effective way of regulating the press’ as the current process has lost all creditability. The debate however is now how exactly to regulate the press.

The main debate is the countering debate between self-regulated and statutory processes. There are pros and cons to both sides but each must be taken to context and effectively applied to rapidly progressing medias. The now discredited PCC (Public Complaints Commission) simply couldn’t handle and didn’t have the power to internally handle the phone hacking scandals.

The challenge that surface when establishing a new regulator is the balance between the versatility and speed of self-regulation against the static but clear and definite statutory regulation. It is clear that the press needs to be independent and free from government influence however politicians cannot help but become involved if legislation is the basis of the regulator. This political sway raises questions of censorship and simply escalates public mistrust. An example related to this idea of the press card.

The concept of the press card is nothing short of ridiculous and defies the independence of any freelance journalist and certain potentials of guerilla advertising. The idea that journalist’s can only report on certain areas of the news and cannot gain access without a relevant card simply stands against the ideals of a freedom of expression. If we were to select a statutory regulator it should be a journalist friend aiding them not attacking them.

The other issue affecting a Statutory is inflexibility to react quickly and progress with the new technology of our time. The complete contrast in argument to this a purely self-regulatory approach. This would struggle to be passed simply by the fact it relies on institutions to govern themselves and in the wake of phone hacking it is considerably unlikely that public faith within these institutions is at an all time low. The benefit as well as over statutory-regulators is the speed of an investigation but it lacks in effective punishment as evident in the PPC despite the argument that legislation already exists in liable and so forth. This alone isn’t enough but an alternative from Lord Black attempts to bond both sides.

He simplified this on Radio 4 to the following, (the essentials highlighted): “The PCC goes and a new regulator is established it will have two functions, one is to deal with complaints from members of the public, straight forward complaints that come into a regulator everyday but it will have a new function. So if there is a breakdown in standards on a newspaper, of the sort we saw with the McCann’s, issues surrounding Chris Jefferies more recently and it will be proactively launch investigations in the problems that have arisen. Go into a paper and call for documents and call for witnesses, conduct a full examination of the facts. If it finds that publisher has been serial or systemic breakdown in standards it will have the ability to fine, and there will be fines of up to a million pounds depending on the size of the publication concerned”

Self-regulating but under pinned by legislation offers the trust that the public want with the flexibility of technologically advancing industry. There is the ability to quickly assess and solve problems and create a fair and even playing field for the press. Suggestions of a court of arbitration have also been forwarded in conjunction with. This will be utilizing legislative power to resolve issues before taking them court.

Lord Black’s proposals for sustaining this process of regulation also solidifies the potential effectiveness it holds. His proposition is to have the national press join 5 year bonding contracts that prevent publications from walking away from the regulations and therefore holds the benefit of the self-regulatory process vested in law and enforcing there penalties. The national press lead the FT and Guardian except the Expresshave retracted their views to support a process based on under pinned self-regulation.

Lord Black’s proposal despite relying on the trust to the publisher to effectively self-regulate is the most effective framework that allows the regulation to reflect any technological advance and quickly implement changes as the contract not the punishment that is the statutory. It is going to be a long job if the press are available to implement Lord Black’s proposal the public can once again develop a trust to their national institutions.

The Social Core of Integrated Media

2012-03-06T18:47:00.003-08:00

The Social Core of Integrated Media

Recently I've been looking at forms of integrated media and what I believe to be the core, Social Media. Social Media and networking have undoubtly boomed in recent years with the mass expansion of Facebook, Twitter and most recently Google+. These central hubs are perfect platforms to launch and expose a campaign. I believe the strength of these campaigns now grow through the ability to interact with a brand or campaign, such as tweets or video responses. They are becoming an essential tool to the success of earned media.

A strong example for this was a viral campaign leading to social Interaction created by the New Zealand Agency Brandspank for Sky Sport and the Rugby Channel. It entails a spoof of a well known series of NFL fantasy team adverts performing physically impossible stunts. However, this viral features the All Blacks rugby side performing believable but impressive skills and tricks. This is where the seeds of it's strength were first planted. The clip of the first edition is below, give it a peak:

As you can see to a rugby fan, the target audience, these feats seem impressive and lead to the aspirations. As a viral this spread like wild fire, within 3 hours it had 4 million hits. It trended rapidly and within the day became on the most viewed and discussed videos worldwide.

Unsurprisingly it spread through the core that is Facebook with thousand of 'likes' and comments. Everyone was keen to demonstrate their skills on this platform. From this seed of 'Got the Skills?' proposition in the video stems a mass video response. There was also later the classic interaction of the competition. This continued into the next edition, in summer, as the response's continued to flood in. It's set below:

I believe this to be a fine example of how fast social media and trends (hash tags etc) can play such a major role in an online campaign and is such a fundamental in the progression of earned media. Facebook is essentially free in the communication between friends and following exposure.

The other example that utilised Facebook even further was Wieden+Kennedy's campaign for Old Spice. Progressing from, what is now, a cult television campaign and into an interaction through Facebook and Twitter creating fan pages. Fans and potential consumers could now ask the 'Old Spice Man' questions with a potential personalized response on the Facebook page. These also featured on feeds further exposing the oppurtunity to fans.

In summary it is important to understand that there are two main strengths held via Social Media and networking in regard to integrated media. First is the ability to spread and expose a campaign on a mass scale. The other equally essential part of this social media is the ability to interact, as above with Old Spice, allowing a personal connection with the campaign. The more interaction the greater the exposure.

Will Jones

A view of some notes from the Red Book:

The uses of Stereotype and Archetype in the Citroen C5 advert

2012-03-05T07:25:00.003-08:00

The uses of Stereotype and Archetype in the Citroen C5 advert,

“Unmistakably German”

This is a paper I wrote last year in a module for Media Theories and Debates' on one of my favorite ads. It demonstrate the strength of the codes and conventions used. Have a peak...

Television advertisements for cars have progressively become more focused on selling the consumer a lifestyle with the product being the key to achieving that lifestyle. Citroen’s Unmistakably German accomplishes exactly and constructed using media codes and conventions. When constructing the advert it is important to convey the message quickly and effectively. This will be done predominately through the narrative and connotations that are signified. The most important conventions applied to this advert to construct the basis and recognition to support narrative are the use of ‘types’.

The codes and conventions I believe that play the largest part in the construction of this advertisement are the use of stereotype and archetype and the related semiology. In advertising stereotype is used as means to quickly establishing an understanding, a fast summary is “It is the speed and intensity of the assumptions and predictions that are made about persons on a slender basis that makes stereotyping so lethal...” (Burton, 1988). It relies on the quick association from semiology. In this advert the narrative relies on the success of establishing the environment through stereotypes.

The stereotype linked to the environment also serves to add the connotations that influence the narrative. The environment is of a classical German society and the associated reputation of class and efficiency. There is clear use of basic signifiers that are quickly read. First is the classic German Bavaria.

The pine trees, snow and mountains denote a German location but the connotations taken accompaniment of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries cements this. The buildings in the opening scenes denote a large, grand house but the connotations taken from architecture recognizes them as historically German and with subtle masculinity through the grandeur. This environment has clear crisp colours to demonstrate the pristine values. In the Village the classic architecture continues. The simple denotation of a dressed marching brass band connotes that they are classically German in their appearance are support the classic values of enforced male dominance.

As the advert progresses so does the culture, it moves from classic to a new efficiency and colours begin to contrast. The road denotes a new driving surface but due to the established environment we gather it connotes a new path and future in the autobahn. It is a clean cut through the landscape that signifies the efficient aspects of the car. The road is a constant colour with simplicity, allowing for the quick association of change and hence a success the progression it created for the narrative.

The final environment is directly in front of the Brandenberger Tor instantly associated to Berlin. Berlin is widely regarded as a home of automobile engineering. The monument denotes a culture and reputation and the identity evokes connotations of class and efficiency. It is recognized as the end of the final scene, a finish of quality. This connotes a level trust from the consumer who can rely to support their efficient business needs and values.

The target consumer plays a large part in determining how codes and conventions can be applied, especially for the fast recognition of a stereotype. The purpose of an advertisement is to “create false needs in people`(Jhally,1986) so that they feel the need to aspire a lifestyle and understand through the product “The proper sphere for men is… as masters of technology they serious and complicated business of life” (Vestergaard & Schroder) It is there important they can quickly see what constitutes this.

The consumer needs to quickly associate from a denotation quickly what the desired connotations are. Such as an eagle statue, with a bold structure will constitute a powerful nation. Male professionals, predominately in management aspire to this sort of recognition in their life style and will understand the narrative faster if they can instantly associate other aspects. Power is not the only value of the aspired lifestyle of success and recognition are also essential and from this use of a more focused Archetype is created.

This advertisement relies on the theory “…an archetype is a ‘perfect’ or idealized person or thing that exhibits certain core values and indebtities”(Long & Wall, 2009). The lead protagonist of the narrative is the archetype of the desired lifestyle of the consumer. The audience look to him as signifier of what the can achieve and their own connotation signify this.

The opening fencing scene allow the denotation from his winning of the battle and slicing the feather to connote that he is the dominant male in the confrontation and assert his masculinity over the opposition. This is the perfect position in business that the target consumer will aspire to. The entering of the car denotes the close of the scene but denotes his clean victory and that associate the car to the success. Success is drawn to the Car.

The posture of the model driving the car links the stereotype of that society into the archetype control of the situation. The audience begin associate the stereotypes of the environment with that of the archetypes values and hence to the car. The posture also emphasizes the efficiency and mechanism that create and construct the vehicle.

When the final scene is reached it has become apparent that this archetype, the desired lifestyle has encapsulate desired lifestyle values for an aspiring consumer. The connotations from the driver have come to represent the vehicle as he focuses upon throughout narrative as a final result.

The advert is an excellent example of how the use of stereotype can help construct and how an archetype encapsulate advertisements. The narrative of the advert was the driver’s path through Germany and actions along the way are essential to deliver the message but I feel in terms that the most influential part of this adverts comes from the stereotype. This is because the stereotype does so much in establishing a fast familiarity to the audience that they only need to focus on the tiniest bits of the narrative to gather the final message of advertisement’s lifestyle appeal. The archetype then encapsulates the narrative supported by location stereotypes for the car share the consumer’s own connotations of success.

William Jones

21098728

Bibliography

Burton, G. and Dimbleby, R (1988) More Than Words: Introduction to Communication, London: Hodder Arnold.

Jhally, S (1986) The Codes of Advertising, London: Frances Pinter

Vestergaard, T and Schoder, K (1985) The Language of advertising, Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd

Long, W and Wall, T( 2009) Media Studies Texts, Production and Context, Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited

How has the evolution of Macintosh technology changed the role of the creative designer from artisan to technician?

2012-03-04T16:13:00.002-08:00

How has the evolution of Macintosh technology changed the role of the creative designer from artisan to technician?

The evolution of Macintosh technology has revolutionized the industry in both process and production. No longer is the development from a creative idea to the printer a long and expensive processes, many of the roles have been replaced by developing software. The role of the creative director becomes more encompassing as he must develop these ideas to production. This the physical evolution in the role but does not answer the question of changing from an artisan to technician. As Kevin Kiley states on his blog “…graphic design is a way of thinking”[1]which poses the question when does the artisan finish and technician begin? I believe the creative designer remains an artisan in creativity and ideas development, but in today’s industry his tools call him to become a technician in the new process of production.

The original process of a creative concept through to the final production has become nearly unrecognizable compared to that of today’s industry. Roles have altered and been reformed from the pre Macintosh process. It is important to define an artisan in the time’s context. Just like today in advertising an artisan is the original creative, skilled in fine and visual arts, ultimately responsible for the creative concept. Before the new evolution of Macintosh technology his role was far more simplified providing the concept. To understand the evolution of the Macintosh it is important to understand the earlier production process.

The creative director or the artisan after creating the concept would pass it to the technicians in production. This would begin with the art director who would be responsible for the layouts and styling of the advert. A visualizer would then draw up these layouts and with gaining approval then forwarding them to a typographer. The typographer would then write the copy of the advert. He would then forward it to a typesetter and the copy would be re-typed to form the typefaces. Now the paste-up would haven taken place place to join the work together before sending to the finished article to the plate maker. Another key point in the process is also the work of any photographers, illustrators, colour retouches or art workers, all professions in their own respects and that have grown with development of the Macintosh evolution. The plate maker creates the film and finally forwards to the work on to the printers. The production from concept to print was a long and ultimately expensive procedure.

This all began to change in 1984 with development of the first Apple Macintosh computer. This became a revolution in it’s self. Magid writes “…It uses a hand-held "mouse"--a small pointing device which enables the user to select programs, and move data from one part of the screen to another”[2]. This was a completely new concept and combined with a new a high-resolution monitor able to quickly display, at the time, detailed picture and now visually crisp text. Essentially this meant a new way to interact with the computer and new platform for software.

This new operating system utilised this new hardware and the simplicity was an essential part, “…turn on the power, and in a minute you are presented with the introductory screen. Apple calls it your "desk top"… Instead of just a blinking cursor you see pictures, called icons.”[3]The quality of the display is instantly clear and importantly offers access to the new software. The word processor MacWrite could now alter type on screen without printing. The point sizes, fonts and effects such as italics could all be altered. The other introduction was MacPaint, a program that used the cursor as a paintbrush and offered the ability to literally draw an image. A variety of tools were available to create detailed images. Another key selling point, that also began to suggest a future in design, was the ability to move an image from the MacPaint to the Mac-Write application.

An early application on the Macintosh II was the first edition of the publication program QuarkXPress in 1987. The Macintosh II had a new display that redefined industry standard. Monitors had begun to grow in size and quality making them more appropriate for graphic and design. As the nineties drew closer editing software was becoming increasingly developed, Adobe was on the horizon.

The software developer and manufacturer Adobe has revolutionised the digital editing and creative industry over the past twenty years resulting in all mediums of work we see today. It has become the modern artists tool kit in conjunction to any original media. Any form of commercial media you see today has more than likely been processed using some sort adobe industry software. Throughout the nineties and contingent to both Macintosh software and hardware Adobe has developed it’s software.

Adobe has developed some of the most influential programs of all time. Originally in 1990 Adobe launched their first recognized industry program with their first edition of Photoshop. This first edition was quickly updated to feature printing facilities with CMYK colours. This was followed promptly with the highly successful digital video software After Effects. Adobe Acrobat released in 1993 and was used to access any PDF image quickly and easily making images easy for multiple parties to access. With the beginning of the Internet Adobe released the industry defining Dreamweaver program that build and develop web pages. This was another fast dominance in the creative industry. Throughout the nineties adobe have proved themselves to be clear leaders in the digital creative industry both in development and manufacturing of software. This development carried well into the twenty first century as they began to challenge established brands through suites.

A creative director now has the tool kit of the Adobe creative suite. This is a large collection of industry standard applications and a clever method of implementing their software and similar the process Macintosh began with when merging their word processing and painting programs to the market. A program that also developed with the Macintosh software was that of QuarkXPress moving into the twenty first century with a 90% market share, however the Adobe creative suite packages have pulled back to an equal market share.

This is key in what I believe to be the new role of a creative director in the modern and current creative industry. If you look to modern society and business speed is essentially and increasingly cost efficiency. No longer can a process be long winded or convoluted, it needs to be compact and controlled. This where I believe the biggest changed has taken place and really where the artisan has no choice but to merge roles to a technician.

Traditionally the creative director is responsible for the creative concept, this would be a individual cost plus the expense of an entire team of obsolete specialists. I believe a creative director can still hold the role an artisan in the respect of ideation and select the concept. Mahon says “The secret of having good ideas is to have a lot of them”[4]and this is something the creative director can still make in this role. Due to the current economic climate combined with speed that has become expected with technology. I believe it is now necessary that the creative director have the skill of a modern technician.

A creative director must have the ability to put his vision into production. An aspect of an artisan is also the ability to be a skilled craftsman technically. However, in the past this term has merely referred to the creativity, not production. Now a creative director is given tools that would have been formerly handed to his specialists. He has the software to replace the role of a typographer and to paste up an image amongst others. Importantly he can prepare a piece for printing.

The conclusion I have come to is that creative director has had to adapt his role within the creative industry due to modern software that has developed with the evolution of Macintosh technology. It is clear a creative director still holds the role of the initial approach of the artisan but developed a role in production, as the previous production positions had be irrelevant. The creative concept remains as before, but now the speed and finance provided has decreased. This is due to economic climate combined with the need to pay an individual as compared to the now functionless team process. The software of Adobe creative suites has rendered the role of visualizers, typographers, typesetters and paste-ups obsolete. This Evolution with Macintosh technology has merged the role of the creative designer into that of a beginning as an artisan progressing his concept through production as a technician.

Will Jones

21098728

[1] Kevin Kiley, http://priorityresults.com/blog/graphic-design-b-c-before-computers, 12/7/2010

[2] Lawrence J. Magid, Los Angeles Times, 29/1/1984

[3] Lawrence J. Magid, Los Angeles Times, 29/1/1984 (continued)

[4] N. Mahon, The Fundamentals of creative advertising, AVA SA, 2006

The Demise of Direct Mail

2012-03-04T16:02:00.002-08:00

Hello and welcome to my first blog,

I'm currently studying a degree in advertising at the University of West London and just finished a module in Advertising Production. The main assessment for the module involved designing and creating a piece of Direct Mail for the online rental site LoveFilm.

In this module I raised the question of whether Direct Mail is really relevant to the audience and hence consumer of today? As well as this I raised the question of how to re-address this consumer? These question were especially relevant to LoveFilm as it solely trades online via their website.

Increasingly people ignore any Direct Mail and to further enforce this even fewer choose to act upon it. This was the main obstacle in my intial ideas. First of all they need to pick it up, so it had to be personal and what's more personal than Christmas card! I decided to take a seasonal approach and use the ploy of a card to lure the consumer in.

As LoveFilm operate online and the consumer had effectively been tricked to the inner copy I needed to quickly engage them.

The copy needed to be simple and honest. I took the assumption that I would lose about a third of the audience here so inserted a QR code. The only way to directly interact with the audience.

I believe this to be the biggest problem facing Direct Mail campaigns today is Consumers don't have the time or inclanation to follow given instructions. In my research the majority of consumers I interviewed said they found instructions too 'Intrusive' and 'Laborious'.

The counter argument to giving instruction that I presented to the group was that when Direct Mail was replaced with an email that provided a hyperlink the majority of interviewees felt far more at ease and chose to select the links. The only way I could come close to this sort of interaction in Direct Mail was a QR code, feeling increasingly like hard sale as opposed to the discovery of a hyperlink.

Another aspect that I discovered that was contingent to the consumer's feeling towards the christmas card concept was the tone of the copy. The consumers in my research actually gave a more positive reaction when they felt they had discovered aspects of the product. The copy needed to suggest what the product could offer the consumer rather than being given instructions to act upon.

An email is a far more effective method to allow the consumer to actually interact and use the service. The Direct Mail can merely suggest and wait for the consumer to access online content, only a QR code can get them anywhere close to a much desired online interaction. I believe increasingly company's like LoveFilm who will try to use Direct Mail will become dependant on apps.

Other companies like Google's Netflix also work through apps and a QR code is the only direct link that can result in quick access. I see this as the only last real stand point for Direct Mail as it is clear consumers are becoming increasingly wise to the ploys and instructions of traditional deliveries.

Will Jones