Parents receive threats from head teachers regarding video games
Parents from 16 schools in the country have been warned by head teachers in Cheshire that if they allow their children to play video games that have been classified as an 18, such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, then they will report them to the authorities. A letter was sent out to the parents by the Nantwich Education Partnership group and they were warned that they could be reported for neglect in some cases. The head who drafted the letter, Mary Jones, quotes: "We are trying to help parents to keep their children as safe as possible in this digital era. It is so easy for children to end up in the wrong place and parents find it helpful to have some very clear guidelines." Quoted from BBC news: The heads state that playing such games or accessing certain social media sites can increase early sexualised behaviour in youngsters and leave them vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation. How I feel: I can see why the head teachers are worried because there is a lot of controversy around games such as Grand Theft Auto V. However, I believe that they are over-reacting slightly because it is very common for young people to play such games and they often just use it for entertainment so I don't believe it affects their behaviour as most people are mature enough to understand that they shouldn't repeat the actions they see taking place in the games.
Man arrested for Facebook hoax suicide threat 48 year old Shane Tusch, a part time electrician from San Mateo, California has been arrested and put in a psychiatric institution for nearly three days for posting a hoax suicide threat onto Facebook. In this post, he threatened to hang himself from the Golden Gate Bridge and he claims to have done this in order to test Facebook's revamped suicide prevention programme. As a result of doing this, a Facebook user who is "almost a complete stranger" to Shane flagged his post and alerted the police who then went on to arrest him. He quotes that he was denied "any humane care" and that "Facebook needs to leave suicide prevention to family and friends. There are no checks and balances! I was only proving a point that Facebook should not be involved in this..." How I feel about the news story: I personally feel that Shane Tusch only had good intentions but probably went too far when posting the status because it clearly caused un-necessary panic within other people and the police. Additionally, Facebook are only trying to make things better by having the suicide prevention feature because it can potentially save lives however, there is still the risk of people not taking it seriously or carrying out similar actions to what Shane has done. I got this information from BBC News. This video gives an insight into the Facebook suicide prevention
This is the cover for Lady Gaga's debut album called 'The Fame'. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Interscope Records and Gaga produced it alongside Redone, Martin Kierszenbaum and Rob Fusari. Personally, I really like this album cover because it is meaningful and visually pleasing which means it would stand out in a store and therefore attract different audiences. The album has proved very popular and as of March 2015, it has sold 4.6 million copies in the United States alone. Based on this cover, I believe the audience for Lady Gaga is females between the ages of 15-30 because the overall feel to the cover is quite ' girly and glamorous' so they may be able to relate to that compared to a male audience who may not show any interest. The deeper meaning of this album cover is made clear by the use of visual codes. She is wearing large, diamond sunglasses that cover the top half of her face and a hood which covers most of her hair. I believe this represents how she is hiding her identity because she is revealing very little about herself which provokes a sense of secrecy and mystery. This therefore represents her as an anonymous character and the audience can only find out more about her if they listen to the songs on her album which are likely to contain enigma codes which give away aspects of her personality. Additionally, this links into the title of her album 'The Fame' because celebrities often cover their eyes with sunglasses when surrounded by the press in order to protect their privacy and this could furthermore show that Lady Gaga has chosen to re-present herself as a well-established artist in her first album to attract a broader audience and possibly so people will take her more seriously. The main image consists of an extreme close up of Lady Gaga's face to make it clear that she is the artist and the main text of the cover says 'LADY GAGA' in a font that is much larger than the actual title which is almost hidden in the corner of the sunglasses. I think this has purposely been done because this is her first album so people may not recognise who she is purely by the main image so by having this text, her name is emphasised meaning the audience are more than likely to understand which artist the album is for. Although this cover is reasonably simple for an artist like Lady Gaga, the sunglasses she is wearing are still quite peculiar and are unlikely to be seen on the average person so they are hinting at what is to be expected of her songs and it represents her as unique and having originality. Lastly, I believe Lady Gaga is being represented as 'perfect' because her facial features have very clearly been airbrushed to give the illusion of flawless skin which gives her audience the false idea of what it is to be beautiful and they may aspire to be like her for the wrong reasons.
This is the cover for Lady Gaga's second most recent album called 'Artpop'. It was released on November 6, 2013 through Streamline and Interscope Records and Gaga produced it alongside many people including Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, will.i.am and David Guetta. I think this cover is successful at showing Lady Gaga's personality in comparison to her first cover because it is very expressive and we are able to see her full body as opposed to a close up of her face. I also believe the audience is different when looking at this cover and I think it will attract both males and females ranging from 15-30 because Lady Gaga has been sexualised as she is being shown practically naked which is likely to attract men as well as those who are already fans of her music because they will buy the album to support her. In this cover, bright colours such as pink and blue have been used and these are stereotypical colours that represent females and males which hints at her mixed target audience. Also, these colours generally have positive connotations so could be a reflection of the upbeat, pop music that plays in her album so she is giving her audience an idea of what to expect. The background image is creative looking which links to the title 'Artpop' as we can see an 'explosion' of art due to the image being split up into different sections. Lady Gaga is the only aspect to the cover that is not broken up which immediately draws our attention to her and she gains full focus from her audience. There are definitely contrasting representations of Gaga in this cover when compared to 'The Fame'. In 'The Fame', she is completely hiding her identity and she reveals hardly anything about herself which leaves the audience curious which is a clever way of drawing them in. In this cover, she appears to be very comfortable with revealing a lot of her body which represents her as having a lot of self-confidence and the fact she is using direct address by staring straight into the camera suggests that she is speaking out to her audience by saying "I am proud of who I am". This is the preferred reading that the producers would have intended the audience to have when responding to the cover. However, the people who created and produced this cover are very likely to be a part of our dominant ideology (white, straight, middle-aged, middle-class, male) so would have designed it for them which could be the reason she is being portrayed as a sexual object for the entertainment of men and it is almost as if her strength and independence has been taken away in order for her to be 'gawked' at (in my opinion) so this is therefore the oppositional reading. There is a similar representation in this cover that has been developed from her first album and this is how Lady Gaga is being represented as almost too perfect. Again, her body has been airbrushed and manipulated which gives the audience an illusion of a 'barbie doll' like figure which is unrealistic and fake looking. Although this may just be Gaga's personality and the way she chooses to portray herself, I still believe this is a negative representation as it again could manipulate the audiences views on what perfection is and it just follows the stereotypes of females in the media which include sexualisation and just being there 'to look pretty'.
The video games industry involves the design, development,
marketing and sales of video games. Thousands of people across the world are
employed in the industry and there is a wide variety of jobs available which I
am going to be talking about, along with many other topics, in this essay.
The games industry first began in 1971, when an arcade game
named Computer Space was released byNutting
Associates however, it did not prove very popular as people found it too
complicated to grasp quickly. The
first commercially successful game was the arcade game Pong, which was released
in the November of 1972 by Atari, Inc. Pong was a two-player tennis game which
had a very simple concept involving hitting the ball back and forth across the
screen using the paddle and the person playing could either go against the
computer or another person. The graphics
were also basic and they consisted of two sticks for the paddle style tennis
rackets and a square for the ball; the screen was black with everything else
was white and the players scores were shown at the top of the screen. Despite
its simplicity, it was still hugely popular as it was something people had
never seen before and it sold to about 12,000 arcade units. In 1975, Atari
released a home edition of Pong which proved even more popular and sold 150,000
units. The game itself was a key milestone for the games industry because it
was a representation of how successful the industry could be and it resulted in
the format for Pong being copied by many other companies.
The first home video game console was called The Magnavox
Odyssey and it was released in August, 1972 by a man named Ralph H. Baer. Ralph
had the idea in 1951 but he was instructed by his bosses to work on a different
project however, this did not put him off and in 1966, he re-visited the idea
and developed it and by 1968, he had completed a working prototype
(sample/model). This prototype was known as the Brown Box and it was a major
milestone for the game industry because it was from this point onwards that it really
developed and it is thanks to Baer that the industry is what it is today. He
quoted when receiving the Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award in 2008: “Had I
listened to all those people… who were telling me to stop the nonsense or
making comments like ‘are you still screwing around with that stuff’ we might
not all be here today”. I agree with what he has said because today, the game
industry is huge and it is making billions each year. For example, in 2013, the
worldwide revenue was $70.4 billion and it 2014, it was $75.2 billion. It is
constantly increasing and in 2015, it is predicted to be $80.5 billion so from
these statistics, we can see that it is increasing by about $5 billion each
year. I looked at some more video game statistics online and I discovered that the
game industry made twice the amount of money than the film industry did in 2013
(the film industry made $35.9 billion) which shocked me as I did not expect the
difference to be so large and like the game industry, the film industry is
still extremely strong and in high demand from a very wide variety of
audiences.
There are thousands of people worldwide who are employed in
the game industry and in the UK, there were 19 thousand employed individuals in
2013 which is a reasonably large increase compared to in 2011, when there were
13 thousand employed individuals. There are many different job sectors within
the games industry and these include: game designers, game developers, game
publishers and game testers. Game designers create the rules, goals and challenges
within a game that will meet its desired audience’s expectations; they must
apply design and aesthetics for different purposes including entertainment and
education. Game developers have the task of creating the game and it is split
into individual tasks such as: programmers, artists, musicians and writers.
Game publishers are responsible for funding and managing the development of
games and they additionally have to take control of the marketing, sales and
manufacturing of the game. Game testers have to test a variety of games in
order to make sure they are of a high quality so they have to look for issues
of the game, e.g. bugs, and recent studies show that game testing is both
financially and emotionally unrewarding.
There are a variety of game genres within the industry
including: action, action-adventure, adventure, simulation, sports,
survival-horror and shooter. Every game will have its own individual narrative
and representations depending on its genre, here are a few examples: action-adventure
is a hybrid genre which combines both problem-solving and reflexes to appeal to
a broader audience compared to pure action or pure adventure games. An example
of an action-adventure game is Grand Theft Auto V, published by Rockstar Games
and set in the fictional state of San Andreas and based around crime. The
player must complete a series of heists, swapping between three protagonists-
Michael, Franklin and Trevor. The game is classified as an 18 due to violence,
profanity, sex and offensive remarks however, it attracts people below this age
due to word-of-mouth. I personally think the game attracts males aged 15-25 as
they will be able to relate to the characters and they will be used to the conventions
of violent games so can purely use the game for entertainment. I do not think
Rockstar intended for the game to attract females because there are only
negative representations of women either as strippers and prostitutes or as
housewives which may put a female audience off. Survival-horror games make
strong use of horror themes which aim to scare the audience and provide them
with a thrilling experience and they focus on the survival of the character. An
example of a survival-horror game is The Last of Us, published by Sony Computer
Entertainment. The narrative is set in a post-apocalyptic world and the player
controls the male protagonist, Joel who leads the female protagonist, Ellie
across the US to protect her from hostile humans and zombies. I believe the
target audience is both males and females aged 12-25 as they are likely to
understand the narrative and both genders will have a protagonist to relate to.
However, I still feel there is a negative representation of females and age in
this game because both protagonists are young, which portrays younger people as
stronger and more capable than older people. Joel leads Ellie which is a
representation of male dominance and it presents the idea that woman need to
rely on men and that they are incapable of doing anything for themselves.
This video sums up The Last Of Us really well as it gives us an insight into the narrative and into the main protagonists. Even in this short clip, we can still see a slightly negative representation of woman as is a number of times in which Joel is carrying Ellie, so it protecting her therefore is bringing across the idea that females need someone to look after them.
Audiences are one of the most important things producers
have to consider when designing games because they will have to live up to their
expectations in order to be successful when it comes to sales and marketing. I
looked at some audience statistics online and this is what I discovered. The
amount of female gamers is increasing and in 2014, 47% of gamers in the US were
women and this has risen from 2012 in which it was 42%. I believe the game
industry needs to take more notice of this because currently, there are not
enough female protagonists for women to relate to and it is even quite rare to
be able to play as a female character. I also discovered that the older
generation are playing more and more games and currently, 29% of gamers are
over the age of 50. Here are some very interesting statistics I found about the
average UK gamer: the average age is 35, most are male and play for almost three
hours a day, they have fights with their partner over their gaming hobby twice
a week and 15% say they have broken up with their partner over the amount of
time spent gaming.
In conclusion, the game industry is clearly a massive
success which will continue to grow and develop, especially with a wider
variety of audiences showing an interest in different games. It is incredible
to see how it has grown since 1971 regarding both technology and the game
concepts and the statistics I have found out are both informative and shocking.
After 30 years of existence, Comic Relief has managed to raise over 1 billion pounds and it claims to have helped around 50 million people. The founder and vice chair of Comic Relief, Richard Curtis says "This is a very strange moment for me. When a bunch of comedians got together all those years ago we dreamed of raising a million or two, and never imagined the generosity that would be shown by the British public for so many years. Figures tell us that the billion pounds have helped around 50 million people in the UK and overseas, 50 million people whose lives have been changed or saved by the generosity of people they've never met."
On Friday 13th, 2015, the Comic Relief show raised over 78 million pounds which is the highest total that has ever been raised on Red Nose Day. The show was hosted by Claudia Winkelman and there were many memorable events that took place including:
Radio 2 DJ and X Factor host, Dermot O'Leary completed a 24-hour danceathon and by doing so he raised over £643,336
James Bond stars Daniel Craig and Sir Roger Moore in a 007 Mockumentary
Comedians Johnny Vegas, Patrick Kielty, Vic Reeves, Jack Dee and Mick Helm took to the stage as No Direction- A spoof version of One Direction
How I feel:
I think it is incredible how much money has been raised, especially as the people who first started it only dreamed of raising a couple of million. It is amazing that within 30 years, 50 million people around the world have been helped because of Comic Relief and I know that more and more money will continue to be raised.
Liam Scholes, aged 11, dressed up as Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey for World Book Day at his school, Sale High School. He wore a grey suit and carried cable ties and an eye mask, resulting in him being excluded from any photographs by his school and he was not allowed to join in with the celebrations until his costume had been modified. Liam's mother, Nicola Scholes believes that "it has been massively blown out of proportion. It was meant as a laugh and tongue-in-cheek." and all of his classmates found it funny whereas the school had no sense of humour.
Ms Scholes also believes that some of the costumes worn by others were much more inappropriate than Liam's and many dressed up as characters "that kill others" such as James Bond and turned up to the school with toy guns which were deemed acceptable and she claims: "personally, I'm more offended by a murderer".
How I feel about the news story:
The book trilogy and film, Fifty Shades of Grey has been given an 18 certificate and contains strong sex and nudity so it is reasonably obvious why the school reacted in such a strong way to Liam's costume. However, it should not have been taken so seriously as Liam did to aim to offend anyone and I believe dressing up as a murderer should be more of a concern to the school as it could influence the behaviour of their pupils.
'Jihadi John': Mohammed Emwazi's school not aware of radicalisation
What has happened:
The former head teacher, Jo Shuter, of Mohammed Emwazi claims he was never suspected of being radicalised at school and she describes him as being "quiet and reasonably hardworking" so was completely shocked to discover the extremist acts he has carried out in Syria. She also quotes: "I am not prepared to say when the radicalisation took place. All I can say is absolutely hand on heart, we had no knowledge of it. If we had we would have done something about it".
Unusually, Emwazi wanted to appear in the IS videos and in these videos, he was known as 'Jihadi John'. When his Mother saw one of the first videos that was posted online, she immediately recognised his voice and it soon became known that her and Emwazi's Father had not been aware of his activities for months and Mr Emwazi was "emotional and upset at what had happened to his son".
This is the timeline of events which led to Emwazi entering Syria:
1988: Born in Kuwait, moves to UK in 1994 2009: Completes computing degree at University of Westminster August 2009: Travels to Tarzania with two friends- he says for safari- but refused entry at Dar as Salaam. Put on flight to Amsterdam. After questioning there, returns to Dover September 2009: Travels to Kuwait to stay with father's family July 2010: Returns to UK for short stay but told he cannot return to Kuwait as visa denied 2012: Passes Celta English language teaching course 2013: Changes name by deed poll. Tries to travel to Kuwait but is stopped. Disappears. Parents report him missing. Police tell family four months later that he has entered Syria.
