How are the audience positioned by media producers through the lens of Christmas adverts?

I explored 5 different Christmas adverts from 2015, John Lewis, Sainsburys, the Spanish Lottery, Cadburys and Very A theme I noticed throughout all of these adverts was community spirit and joy amongst people. This itself causes the audience to link Christmas to happiness, giving to others and being nice to the people around you. 

What I noticed in the John Lewis, Sainsburys and Spanish Lottery adverts was the trigger of emotion. These three adverts are highly likely to play on the audience's guilty, empathetic and sympathetic conscience, especially the John Lewis and Spanish Lottery. This is done by putting the protagonist of the advert into a situation we as an audience would be upset to be in...loneliness. Further increasing this sympathy we feel for the characters in the adverts is that they use elderly men, who we already as a society already relate to being vulnerable and lonely and therefore feel sorry for them. Playing with the audience's guilty triggers immediately makes the advert more intriguing to watch, resulting in it being memorable and therefore promotes the company more. 

Another thing I noticed when watching these adverts was the constant use of unrealism. For example, a man on the moon without breathing appliances (John Lewis), a cat with human reflects and thoughts (Sainsburys) and the personification of boxes that can move and walk on their own (Very). This could be a representation of miracles, suggesting that Christmas time is when miracles happen. This idea made me think of when people, mainly children, believe in Santa Claus and elves etc. This then brings in the theme of innocence. All of these things, such as miracles, are already related to Christmas so the producers using them in their adverts then makes us vulnerable to watching them and make us feel more connected to Christmas when watching the adverts. 

In my opinion, the reason Christmas adverts are so popular and work well is because of various reasons. Firstly, I imagine that due to the content involving miracles and myths, they take many people back to a time when they had no worries or stress and therefore make them feel peaceful. Secondly, I think they connect with the audience emotionally by using conventions and themes of emotion such as lonely old people who have no one with them at Christmas, typically a time of joy and love shared with the people you are close with. Lastly, these adverts have a strong theme of happy endings, community spirit and hope. This is what most people wish for and it therefore uses the audiences viewpoint of a "perfect world" and exploits it before their eyes, causing them to watch the advert more and remember it.

Christmas adverts have such a big impact on the audience that they go viral. People always then go and speak about or share what they have seen, causing more people to watch it and then pass it on, whether this is done via sharing on social media or word of mouth. This is what makes the Christmas adverts so popular and well known. This then spreads the word of the company, possibly bringing them more customers and sales-exactly what they want.

-Weekly News ep.4-

'Google Self Driving Car Pulled Over By Police'. Before even reading this article frin Sky News, I knew it was going to be bizzare and humerous.

On Thursday 12th November, in Mountain View, California, a police officer stopped a protype vehicle for moving too slowly as it travelled at 25mph on a 35mph road, causing a back up of traffic.

The police department stated that it wasn't untill the officer got closer to the car that he realised it was one of Google's autonomous vehicles. 

Google responded to this news by saying that the cars are made to travel at that maximum speed for safety reasons, to prevent any accidents etc. Furthermore, Google said that they have travelled 1.2 million miles through autonomous driving and have never been ticketed, that is equivilent to 90 years worth of driving for the average human.

Google also hope for these cars to be available to the pulic by 2020!

I find this article ammusing due to a few different reasons, one being the irony of the car moving too slow. We tend to read about caotic fast drivers causing road accidents but this contrasts that. I also find it exciting that Google plan for the cars to be available to the public by 2020. That will be interesting to see them possibly becoming a trend.

-CENSORSHIP-

Censorship has had an important role in media, on TV and in films for a long time. 

It is used in order to protect underage civilians and the vulnerable people in society who may be affected by explicit content. 

There are many ways in which content can get censored. These include water shedding, the ban of explicit scenes being broadcasted on the television before a certain time of the evening. Another example of censorship is beeping out swear words or inappropriate language, this is usually done on radios, especially during the daytime when the likelihood of people sensitive to explicit content is increased. 

There are many more examples of censorship we are protected by everyday. 

Limits and restrictions on what some people can search up and see is all censorship too. 

Censorship is all about deciding on what people can or can not see at certain times, based on opinion of how dangerous it may be, or how sensitive people may be to it. 

Over time, there has been small controversy on whether censorship is a good or bad idea. I personally think it is a good idea because it protects vulnerable members of society and also prevents the risk of them, especially children, being influenced to act a certain way or do a certain thing that they should not be doing or knowing of. In the current era, we are constantly surrounded by media, we live in a digital world full of phones, tablets, televisions and magazines. This itself shows that media plays a big role in our lifestyle and also strongly influenced choices we make on a daily bases, even if it is subconsciously. Because of how much access we have to the internet, the chances of citizens being exposed to material such as pornography, violence, drug use or abuse, gambling etc. is very high. This content can be damaging to children and other vulnerable people of the world. Therefore, censorship allows these people to go online in a good manor, without risk of entering a non safe zone.

Age ratings on films are a type of censorship because they express the level of adult content is in the film and therefore allows the viewer to know what they can expect in the film and know if they are prepared to see it. It also prevents children from viewing films involving content they shouldn't be exposed to at such a young age. This then becomes their parents or guardians responsibility to ensure they do not watch it. Same regards to gaming. Thousands of children across the world play online gaming, whether it be on a playstation, Xbox or PC. All of these can have highly explicit graphics in them including drugs, violence, sex and more, especially violence. Ratings are also put on games for the same reasons as films, and again the responsibility is then down to the parent or guardian to ensure their child is safe with what they are playing. 

Over the years, restrictions and bans on indecent exposure have become stronger. Even books have been banned. A prime example would be the book 'Naked lunch' by William S. Burroughs. It was banned due to the language used in the book and other controversial matters. Although I agree with censorship and the blocking or banning of adult nature, I don't think this book should have been banned. I think it should have just got given a rating the same way films and games are. Furthermore, I think if some books, such as the one I mentioned, are going to banned, others should too. 50 Shades of Grey is a huge seller across the UK and U.S. This book contains the extreme exploration of sex and s&m. 

I think that people who decide to read it should know what kind of nature they are going to be exposed to and therefore make up their own mind if they want to read it or not. It is another case if someone who should not be reading such an explicit book gets hold of it accidentally, but that is where responsibilities get involved. 

I think the most dangerous access to dangerous content is the Internet because although what is searched in can get monitored and certain sites can have blockage on them, it is the most uncontrolled type of media. What is published in a magazine or shown in a programme is completely under control of producers who know what they are publishing and are also careful with it because it could put their company at jeopardy if they produce something involving exploitation without warning or without being careful with it. The Internet does not have this extent of protection because anyone can access, post and publish anything they want. These people can include mentally disturbed or issued people who are trying to influence dangerous messages or disgusting content. 

Although I think the Internet is dangerous and very risky, I know there is nothing that could be done to prevent certain things ever being posted. Therefore I agree with Internet regulations and site blocks on sites with an adult nature.

Overall I agree that censorship is useful and safe option and should be encouraged by all types of media. Certain content can scar some people and therefore we as a community of people who use the Internet, watch TV and watch films on a daily bases should be considerate to what we exploit to certain people.