News International - the biggest media audience database?

The Guardian reports that Rupert Murdoch's News International holds information on its database about a third of the UK population.

This information has been provided willingly, when consumers sign up for Sky TV, or subscriptions to the Times, Sun, Sunday Times, and News of the World.

In a period of recession it was quite amazing to read that around 200,000 users are rated as 'high value', meaning that they were potentially worth as much as £600 a year each to News International.

When we talk in Media Studies about the relationships between institutions and audiences, it's useful to remember that often these relationships are predicated on financial transactions - the consumer pays, the institution delivers content, and increasingly, enhanced services.

However, the newspaper industry itself seems to be in terminal decline, with readership figures falling and ad revenues getting hammered by the move of advertisers to online sources. It should come as no surprise, then, that News International and the Guardian Media Group have been making noises recently about Google's dominant position. Not only does Google reap advertising revenue from visitors, but, say its detractors, it's 'stealing' revenue via its Google News aggregation service. This provides access to a range of news headlines, but also enables Google to make cash from associated on-screen advertising. This, claim NI et al, is not fair, because Google is in effect recycling someone else's news and making cash from it.

It's an interesting debate, since Google is driving more users to respective news providers, and evidence shows that online browsers are more likely to click on ads if they're using a search engine, and indeed, are more likely to make a purchase. There's a great article here that explains this in more detail.

And, as an end-note, it's worth observing that the Office of Fair Trading has ruled recently that it won't be referring Google to the Monopolies Commission, as it is a major driver for innovation, change and consumer satisfaction.

For the newspapers, they're going to need new business models. For those of us passionate about the media and the future of newspapers, it's going to be fascinating to see if the news print industry can respond to changing market dynamics faster and more effectively than the music industry managed, when faced with threats from online, MP3, and Apple.

I'm looking to hire a teacher!

I've not tried this before, but it struck me that maybe one of my blog's readers might fancy coming to work with us at Berkhamsted School.

You will need a permit to work in the UK. You should also have experience of teaching Media Studies within the British secondary curriculum, ideally using the OCR examination board.

We have a vacancy for a Media Studies teacher, with some teaching of ICT at KS3.We're an independent school with excellent resources, lovely students and beautiful surroundings, located in a town 25 minutes north of London by train. Currently we have two classes in years 12 and 13, each with about 12 students per class.

We're based in former art studios (the top floor of the left hand building in the photo) and have a room for teaching and another for filming/photography. There is a full time technician. We're kitted out with an increasing number of HD camcorders, Apple Macs (you'll get a Mac laptop), lighting rigs, MP3 recording kits, and an assortment of other kit to make your life easier and enable the students' creativity to blossom.

The classroom is equipped with an HD projector and surround sound system, plus a digital lectern, so everything you do can be delivered digitally. There is significant investment each year in the provision of new technology. Currently, the school network is being overhauled, to allow us to run audio and video at HD levels into classrooms and the outside world.

The Principal of the school chairs the Independent Schools' Council ICT committee and is a big champion of Media Studies as a discrete subject. His vision for the school includes the adoption of Media and Web 2.0 technologies across the curriculum. There is a new learning platform being installed over the next couple of months, and part of the job spec for the successful candidate will be to work with colleagues, enabling them to produce new learning materials. Currently, we are piloting using Flip camcorders and MP3 kits in a number of departments, and I'll be running Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom INSET for staff after Easter.

It's an exciting time for the school and will place digital literacy right at the heart of how the school operates.We have extensive sports facilities, incuding a fitness centre, which are available for staff use. Accommodation may be available as well.

We use OCR for A level Media Studies, teaching the TV drama option at AS, with film making as the preferred medium for coursework. The ICT will involve teaching years 7+8 only. It is possible that we may extend to offering the ECDL qualification in years 9+10 in the future, although that is subject to review. Full training would be provided.

If you're interested then please do get in touch, either with me directly - svanstraten@berkhamstedschool.org or have a look at the advert here. 

Please note that the advert states the teaching of ICT to A2. That is incorrect.

The closing date for applications is March 13th.

I hope to hear back from you.

With kind regards, 

Sacha

Media Studies comes of age?

The UK's higher education institutions have just been rated by the RAE, the Research Assessment Exercise, which determines how British faculties are doing, compared to their counterparts in the UK and internationally.

The Times reports good news for Westminster University's Media faculty.

You can read the article here.

Facing up to production planning

So here I am, having bought a couple of cheap but rather useful Flip camcorders a few weeks ago. A quick reminder - they look like mobile phones, are cheap to buy, as close to idiot proof in terms of operation as a piece of techno-kit can get, and seemingly irresistible to staff and students alike.

Finally, I got one of my test models back yesterday and figured it was time I had a little play with them myself. One of my lower sixth classes was ready to give me and their peers quick pitches about the film ideas they're developing. Filming will begin in the new year, and with only a week to go before the Christmas break begins, it seemed like a perfect moment to put them on camera.

So, I popped the Flip on a tripod, let it record the presentations, including audience questions, then flipped out the USB stick that's inbuilt, connected the camera to my PC, went to YouTube, hit upload, and got on with something else.

As if by magic, when I came back there were the three videos online. Now, these aren't going to win any awards for cinematography, sound or anything else. In fact, with perfect timing, a workman started using a noisy drill half way through our recordings. But, it does mean we have a moving image record of what happened, which is a useful piece of research data to own.

Here are the three presentations. There'll be some more coming tomorrow, and I will also start, now that I've created a Berkhamsted Media channel on YouTube, to upload other student produced material.

A new year a new syllabus

So, here we are at the start of a new academic year.

The big change for those of us teaching in secondary schools is that AS levels now consist of two parts. One part is coursework worth 50%, and the other part is a textual analysis paper, also worth 50%, that will combine elements of the old system of deconstructing a film extract (selected from British TV Drama), together with an essay based on an institutional case study.

In practice a great deal of what we did before will be subsumed into the new scheme. However, there are significant changes, that should make the new syllabus that much better than the old.

The main benefit will be the linking of theory to practice, which in the past had been too easily split apart. Now, the two sides of the Media Studies coin will have far more explicit links made between them. Students will formally use practical assignments to help them comprehend the numerous theories deployed in analysis of the media.

The other change is the move to electronic delivery of coursework assessment. Students will need to create blogs of their own, documenting the development of their portfolios. This is a great idea and I'm hoping to link to their blogs, once they're up and running in the next week or so.

This term the students will be making a preliminary film task, followed by the opening sequence to a thriller film. 

It should be fun.