The ASA and Copyrighting

ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority is the independent body set up by the advertising industry to police the rules laid down in the advertising codes. The strength of the self-regulatory system lies in both the independence of the ASA and the support and commitment of the advertising industry, through the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), to the standards of the codes, protecting consumers and creating a level playing field for advertisers




CAP
Admired around the world for its creativity, the UK advertising industry sets the standard in successful self-regulation. Our industry is governed by codes of practice that are designed to protect consumers and create a level playing field for advertisers. The Codes are the responsibility of two industry Committees of Advertising Practice - CAP (Broadcast) and CAP (Non-broadcast) and are independently administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).


Taste and Decency

• The advertising codes state that advertisements should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

• The codes also require that special care is taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability.

• When the ASA Council decides whether an ad complies with the codes it will judge on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency.

Taste and decency are obviously important in determining whether an advert is fit for general broadcast. It poses questions and inspires arguments like the state of social decline, this is exemplified with phrases like 'sex sells'.

Some argue that with every pot noodle advert that uses a brothel to sell it's products, the country slips to some degree into a steeper social decline.
On the other hand, is it important to portray sex, violence even mild swearing in advertisements? Is it the case that as we become more and more desensitized each time we view such products, we accept that we are diverse, cultured and able to handle such content in a sensible way?

What do people find tasteful, some would liken a football match to a ballet whereas others see football as a game which fuels corporations and inspires unhealthy competition.
Benetton have continued over the last decade to shock audiences with their vivid, insightful and deeply sensitive imagery to advertise...clothes. Is this acceptable?


Social Responsibility

• The use of shocking images that could cause undue fear and distress.

• The depiction of scenes that could encourage people to behave in an irresponsible or unsafe way.

• The advertising of products, or their consumption, in ways that can be harmful to health.

• Advertising to children that could make them feel inferior, encourage them to pester their parents, or result in their physical, mental or moral harm. (See the section on Children and Advertising).

Children and Advertising

Common issues surrounding children and advertising are:

• Making children desire things they cannot afford or would not be able to use.

• Pester power: encouraging children to pester their parents for advertised products or services.

• Showing children in unsafe or dangerous situations that other kids might emulate.

• Making children feel inferior, especially if they don’t buy the products or services shown in the ads.

• Showing children in a sexual way. I.e. wearing make-up and glamorous clothes.

• Advertising soft drinks & high fat / sugar foods to children.

Children are young, vulnerable and inexperienced. This therefore makes them prone to accepting a situation simply because it has been portrayed to them in a way they like or because they have been told it is correct.
Many adverts used to sell products for children in a way that suggested that the child would not be cool or good enough without that product.

The ASA now work under strict guidelines to prevent such feelings being felt by young audiences and to protect children from actions which could harm them.

All sources from and available from the ASA website.

Real Children DON'T Bounce Back (Youtube)

The above advert is a famous campaign by the NSPCC in which a cartoon child is abused by an adult to highlight the very real and very serious issue of child abuse. The campaign was highly successful, however, it still needed to be cleared by the ASA. Should it have been cleared, or is even a cartoon image of a child being abused to taboo for general broadcast?



Copyrighting

Copyright is a set of exclusive rights that regulate the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally "the rights to copy" an original creation. In most cases, these rights are of limited duration. The symbol for copyright is "©", and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either (c) or (C).
(Wikipedia)

When producing a product and using a piece of music that has copyright protection, certain procedures need to take place.

You will first of all need to get in contact with the record label, who enforce copyright restrictions surrounding work by their artists. Through paying a fee for the piece of music, you have accepted that you are using a piece created by another person and are paying to use someone else's work o benefit yourself.

The UK Copyright Service provides copyright registration for original works by writers, musicians, artists, designers, software providers, authors, companies, organisations and individuals.
(Copyright Service)

The MCPS-PRS Alliance is the home of the world's best songwriters, composers and music publishers.

We represent the world's music - that's 10 million pieces of music - and enable businesses and individuals to access all the music they need for use in their business, product or project in the most effective way.

MCPRS

How much do you pay?

Charges for the use of Commercial music in feature films are negotiable. They are generally set in relation to the budget of the film.
Charges for a film primarily for festival exhibition or for a student film are usually based on affordability.

Royalties
Unlike other forms of intellectual property, music industry royalties have a strong linkage to individuals - composers(score), songwriters (lyrics) and writers of musical plays - in that they own the exclusive copyright to created music and can license it. Recording companies and the performing artists that contribute to the 'sound recording' enjoy a separate set of royalties from the sale of recordings and their licensed digital transmission in whole or in part.

Media Piracy
FACT is an organisation that deals with copyright infringement regarding 'DVDs, films and other forms of broadcasting materials'.

Analysis of the AKG 'C 4000 B'

This is a report regarding the AKG 'C 4000 B' multi polar pattern microphone...

Name: C 4000 B

Make: AKG

Price: £229

Application: Concert hall, strings, vocal, brass, acoustic and general music recording.

Dynamic: We can apply uses in different types of recording to this microphone judging by it's polar pattern. The variable polar patterns of this microphone being omnidirectional, cardioid and hyper-cardioid means that this microphone can pick up general sound from all angles (omnidirectional), specific to one angle (cardioid) and extremely accurate to one angle (hyper-cardioid).

This means that this microphone can be used for almost all types of recording, it is however usually advised to be used when recording instruments or voice. This is due to it's polar pattern being able to pick up sound from all angles and the ability to hone in to one direction (recording a single instrument or voice).

Polar Pattern and Frequency Response Curves of the 'AKG C 4000 B'

(Diagrams from the unit's user manual)

Polar Pattern

A microphone's directionality or polar pattern indicates how sensitive it is to sounds arriving at different angles about its central axis. How the physical body of the microphone is oriented relative to the diagrams depends on the microphone design.

Some microphone designs combine several principles in creating the desired polar pattern. This ranges from shielding (meaning diffraction/dissipation/absorption) by the housing itself to electronically combining dual membranes.

An omnidirectional microphone's response is generally considered to be a perfect sphere in three dimensions. In the real world, this is not the case. As with directional microphones, the polar pattern for an "omnidirectional" microphone is a function of frequency. The body of the microphone is not infinitely small and, as a consequence, it tends to get in its own way with respect to sounds arriving from the rear, causing a slight flattening of the polar response.

A unidirectional microphone is sensitive to sounds from only one direction. The sound intensity for a particular frequency is plotted for angles radially from 0 to 360°. (Professional diagrams show these scales and include multiple plots at different frequencies. These diagrams just provide an overview of the typical shapes and their names.)

The most common unidirectional microphone is a cardioid microphone, so named because the sensitivity pattern is heart-shaped. A hyper-cardioid is similar but with a tighter area of front sensitivity and a tiny lobe of rear sensitivity. These two patterns are commonly used as vocal or speech microphones, since they are good at rejecting sounds from other directions.
(Wikipedia)

This source, like all wikipedia information is only semi reliable. We can only assume that the author know what they are talking about in regards to the Microphone's polar pattern. The source does however match information I have collected from other sources, we can therefore assume that it is truthful.

“A microphone that is equally sensitive to sounds coming from every direction is called an omni-directional pick up pattern. The smaller the microphone barrel is, the higher would be the frequencies up to which it would tend to remain omnidirectional. An infinitely small microphone of this type would be omni at all frequencies.

The other basic design, the original "classic" ribbon microphone, placed the ribbon within a magnetic gap. Of course any sound approaching it from either the front or back would cause the ribbon to vibrate in-sync with the sound. Sounds approaching the ribbon from anywhere in the plane across its middle would tend to encounter the ribbon with equal effect on both sides causing little or not motion of the ribbon and hence little or no electrical output."

(Live Sound Reinforcement. by Scott Hunter Stark. 9th edition 2004)

I'm confident that this source is accurate as it came directly from a book regarding sound recording and what equipment to use.

“The AKG C 4000 B is affordably priced to make it attractive mainly for small home and project studios. Its design provides 3 different polar patterns (omni, cardioid, and hyper cardioid) selectable on the microphone, making it suitable for many applications, even live sound.”

(Musician's Friend Website)

This source is taken from the above website. Being a company who specialize in instruments and recording equipment, we can assume that their information is factual. This website has been awarded 45/45 on satisfaction and low prices.

Frequency Response

This Microphone's Frequency Response is: 20 to 20,000 Hz

Frequency response is the measure of any system's response at the output to a signal of varying frequency (but constant amplitude) at its input. In the audible range it usually referred to in connection with Electronic amplifiers, microphones and loudspeakers. Radio spectrum frequency response can refer to measurements of coaxial cables, category cables, video switchers and wireless communications devices. Subsonic frequency response measurements can include earthquakes and electroencephalography (brain waves). The frequency response is typically characterized by the magnitude of the system's response, measured in dB, and the phase, measured in radians, versus frequency. The frequency response of a system can be measured by:

• applying an impulse to the system and measuring its response.

• sweeping a constant-amplitude pure tone through the bandwidth of interest and measuring the output level and phase shift relative to the input

• applying a signal with a wide frequency spectrum (e.g., maximum length sequence, white noise, or pink noise), and calculating the impulse response by deconvolution of this input signal and the output signal of the system.

• simply measuring the output of a system where an input signal isn't practical.

If a system is demonstrated to have a poor frequency response, a digital or analogue filter can be applied to the signals prior to their reproduction to compensate for these deficiencies.

Frequency response curves are often used to indicate the accuracy of amplifiers and speakers for reproducing audio. As an example, a high fidelity amplifier may be said to have a frequency response of 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz ±1 dB. This means that the system amplifies all frequencies within that range within the limits quoted. 'Good frequency response' therefore does not guarantee a specific fidelity, but only indicates that a piece of equipment meets the basic frequency response requirements.
(Wikipedia)

A Study of the Ownership and Structure of Viacom Inc. (My First Blog!)

Viacom is one of the largest media conglomerates (Specializing mainly in entertainment media) in the world.

They describe themselves as…

“…a leading global entertainment content company, we know what our viewers want and proudly deliver it across the globe through television, motion pictures and a wide range of digital media.” (Viacom’s Official Website)

Ownership

In regards to who owns this media beast, we can look towards Sumner Murray Redstone. Sumner Murray Redstone is a media tycoon who has majority control over National Amusements. National Amusements owns voting control over Viacom and the majority of it's shares.

National Amusements…
“…holds controlling voting interests in CBS Corporation, Viacom, and Midway Games.”
(Wikipedia)

The National Amusements conglomerate consists mainly of media companies who specialize in entertainment. We can therefore assume that Viacom’s main form of product is entertainment.

Philippe P. Dauman is the man in the top spot at Viacom, he is the current President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Viacom Inc. since the 5th of September 2006. Prior to joining Viacom, he was Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a private equity firm specializing in media and telecommunications investments that he co-founded with Mr. Thomas E. Dooley (Vice president of Viacom Inc.) from May 2000 until September 2006. Mr. Dauman also held several positions at the former Viacom Inc.

Formats and Types of Program

Viacom does specialize in entertainment media. They split themselves into two media types, Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment.

Under ‘Media Networks’ you will come across such household names as MTV which they own full and exclusive rights to including the MTV Logo and it’s international channels; ‘Comedy Central’ who introduced the world to ‘South Park’ who intern made ‘Comedy Central’ a household name across America in the late 90s. Finally, for the kiddies, ‘Nickleodeon’.

"The World’s Most Valuable Media Brand for seven consecutive years."

Business Week

MTV aims to serve the youth of America with topical programming regarding fashion, politics, lifestyles, sports and trends. MTV's main triumphs have been their deliverance of music and 'unique' products to a global audiences over several media platforms.

Along with their strong grasp on American youth culture, Viacom aim to serve the Black community in America with their ‘BET’ Brand.

"An authentic, unapolagetic viewpoint of the black experience."

BET

“Bet Networks presents the best in Black media and entertainment featuring traditional and digital platforms. Brands including BET, BET J, BET Gospel, BET Hip Hop, BET.com, BET Mobile, BET Event Productions and BET International deliver relevant and insightful content to consumers of Black culture in more than 84 million households.

(Viacom’s Official Website)

Viacom also specialize in filmed media. Their jewel in the crown of Filmed Entertainment is Paramount Pictures Corporation.

"Where audiences go for the movies they love."

Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures is responsible for distributing filmed entertainment from Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Marvel Studios, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.

Paramount as a company have made hundreds of successful, high grossing movies. They are one of the leading film studios in the world and offer a range of cinematic styles and genres for all ages and genders.

With Dreamworks we see more examples of childrens films with the recent 'Shrek The 3rd' grossing $121,629,270 in it's first weekend.

For a full list of Viacom's Companies, please click here.

(Wikipedia)

Means of Distribution

Viacom distribute their media using television, film and a range of 'Digital Media Platforms'. Their extensive use of Television, Film, Internet and other platforms enable them to distribute their products to a very large audience 24/7, thus constantly advertising and fueling the brand and their stock performance.

"Viacom connects with audiences around the world through our brands represented in more than 504 million households in 160 countries and territories. We entertain, engage and educate in 32 languages via our 138 locally programmed and operated TV channels and more than 270 websites. And our global presence grows every day."

For a comprehensive look at Viacom's corporate timeline, please click here.

(Columbia Journalism Revue)

Funding and Revenue

Viacom is funded by it's products.

Through it's distribution of cable telvision products, Viacom gains income from subscribing to it's channels by the public, much like the Great British public subscribing to the BBC's license fee.

Viacom's film products bring in revenue from tickets sales in cinema's, merchandise, DVD and VHS sales. (As well as new media's like blu-ray and HD disc)

Viacom also manufacture video games and video game software for the internet, bringing them further revenue.

Due to Viacom's scale and presence in the global media industry, Viacom earned itself $9.609 billion dollars as of the end of 2005.

Financial results for halfway through 2007.

Viacom's Second Quarter Financial Results 2007

A list of the main shareholders in Viacom.
Viacom's Primary Shareholders

Audience

From these separate companies under the wing of Viacom, we can come to the conclusion that Viacom is aiming itself at an audience who are young at heart and are aware of the changing world that they live in. Their emphasis on knowing what their audience wants suggests that they are confident in their products and their global status as a whole.

The Filmed Entertinment side to Viacom appears to cater for the young market of media consumers, with Dreamworks, Nickleodeon Movies, Marvel Studios and MTV Films all producing media for younger audiences.

Along with its predominantly young audience base, Viacom appear to want to push their audience forward into the future, encouraging them to embrace technology and the means to enjoy the products to their full potential. There mission statement mentions 'digital media' and 'media platforms'. Viacom are leaving behind the days when television, radio and print were the only mediums to get information to the masses, even the internet to some degree. Their focus is very much an exploration of how to get as many of their products to as many people as possible over as many platforms and become the largest media entertainment source in the world.

Their attention to the black audiences of America and their focus on worldwide distribution shows that they have an interest in their image and wish to be regarded as a multi-cultural organisation who care and provide for everyones needs.

It is my opinion that the products Viacom are producing and the clues from their mission statement suggest that their main target audience age ranges from around 5-35, with the exception of specific companies inside Viacom like Paramount Pictures who cater for all ages.

The Effect of Funding and Audience on Viacom

As Viacom are funded by their distribution of products, their audience demographic is essential to their continuation.

Viacom have their fingers in very large pies. Pies that appeal to lot's of people.
MTV (As an example of one of Viacom's pies) is one of the largest entertainment networks for young people in the world.

Young people are often focused on by media companies as not only are they considered important in regards to trends in products but they will potentially become part of the industry in the future.

The BBC sum up the differences in age demographics and how important they are to take into consideration when media companies plan new ventures. Click here for more information.
(www.bbc.co.uk/commisioning)

In regards to funding, Viacom are obviously an enormous company with resources and influence all over the globe. There has been debate over the last few years as to whether it is a good idea to allow a company to grow so large.

This is epitomised by allegations that the News Corporation or rather, Rupert Murdoch is reportedly bias to the right sided (conservative) political climate in American politics. This is apparently demonstrated on the Fox Network.
(Wikipedia)

The big hoo ha behind this is that if a company or tycoon does own a large stake in media across the world, he/she/they have the ability to broadcast products which are specific to one viewpoint, namely their own. The worry behind this is suggesting a state where we are semi-goverened by our media consumption.

This is already true to some degree as people often follow trends created by the media regarding entertainment, fashion and sport. We can therefore assume that with the right type of product, the public can begin to be swayed politically and eventually to the point where they agree whole heartedly with the broadcaster.

This raises concerns for the broadcaster. Organisations who regulate the media become increasingly aware of new techniques the mediauses to better itself. In our ever increasingly PC climate, the media must take into account the type of products they are making and how they are presented to the public.

More and more people feel the need to voice their dissatisfaction with various aspects of the media. Viacom will only continue to grow if they take into account the influence of their audience as a regulatory body against themselves.