Archive for September 2014
Ofcom (The Office Of Communications) are the United Kingdom's regulatory body for telecommunications. This means they are responsible for making sure that the law is followed by television and radio broadcasters. They regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate, they make sure that people in the UK get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that their is competition.
Ofcom operates under a number of Acts of Parliament and other legislation, (which is also called the 'Ofcom Act'). These acts include (but they are not limited to) The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006; The Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996; The Digital Economy Act 2010; The Postal Services Act 2011; The Competition Act 1998 and The Enterprise Act 2002. Ofcom must act within the powers and duties set for it by Parliament in legislation. The Communications Act says that Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and of consumers, where appropriate by promoting healthy competition. Meeting this duty is at the heart of everything that they do.
Accountable to Parliament, they set and enforce regulatory rules for the sectors for which they have responsibility. They also have powers to enforce competition law in those sectors, alongside the Competition and Markets Authority. Ofcom is funded by fees from industry for regulating broadcasting and communications networks, and grant-in-aid from the Government. Ofcom's main decision making body is the Board, which provides strategic direction for the organisation, it has a Non-Executive Chairman, Executive Directors (including the Chief Executive), and Non-Executive Directors. TheExecutive runs the organisation and answers to the Board. The Ofcom Board meets at least once a month (with the exception of August). Agendas, summary, notes and meetings are published regularly on the Ofcom website.
What Ofcom do
Their main legal duties are to ensure the UK has a wide range of electronic communications services, including high-speed services such as broadband, a wide range of high-quality television and radio programmes are provided, appealing to a range of tastes and interests. Television and radio services are provided by a range of different organisations, people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material. People are also protected from being treated unfairly in television and radio programmes, and from having their privacy invaded, a universal postal service is provided in the UK - this means a six days a week, universally priced delivery and collection service across the country; and the radio spectrum (the airwaves used by everyone from taxi firms and boat owners, to mobile-phone companies and broadcasters) is used in the most effective way.
What Ofcom do not do
On the other hand they are not responsible for regulating any disputes between you and your telecoms provider, the premium-rate services, including mobile-phone text services and ringtones, the content of television and radio adverts, any complaints about accuracy in BBC programmes, the BBC TV licence fee, post offices, or newspapers and magazines.
The key personnel for ofcom currently stand as the following (17th December 2013):
Ofcom operates under a number of Acts of Parliament and other legislation, (which is also called the 'Ofcom Act'). These acts include (but they are not limited to) The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006; The Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996; The Digital Economy Act 2010; The Postal Services Act 2011; The Competition Act 1998 and The Enterprise Act 2002. Ofcom must act within the powers and duties set for it by Parliament in legislation. The Communications Act says that Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and of consumers, where appropriate by promoting healthy competition. Meeting this duty is at the heart of everything that they do.
Accountable to Parliament, they set and enforce regulatory rules for the sectors for which they have responsibility. They also have powers to enforce competition law in those sectors, alongside the Competition and Markets Authority. Ofcom is funded by fees from industry for regulating broadcasting and communications networks, and grant-in-aid from the Government. Ofcom's main decision making body is the Board, which provides strategic direction for the organisation, it has a Non-Executive Chairman, Executive Directors (including the Chief Executive), and Non-Executive Directors. The
Ofcom launched on 29 December 2003, they inherited the duties that had previously been the responsibility of five different regulators:
- the Broadcasting Standards Commission
- the Independent Television Commission
- the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel)
- the Radio Authority
- the Radiocommunications Agency.
What Ofcom do
Their main legal duties are to ensure the UK has a wide range of electronic communications services, including high-speed services such as broadband, a wide range of high-quality television and radio programmes are provided, appealing to a range of tastes and interests. Television and radio services are provided by a range of different organisations, people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material. People are also protected from being treated unfairly in television and radio programmes, and from having their privacy invaded, a universal postal service is provided in the UK - this means a six days a week, universally priced delivery and collection service across the country; and the radio spectrum (the airwaves used by everyone from taxi firms and boat owners, to mobile-phone companies and broadcasters) is used in the most effective way.
What Ofcom do not do
On the other hand they are not responsible for regulating any disputes between you and your telecoms provider, the premium-rate services, including mobile-phone text services and ringtones, the content of television and radio adverts, any complaints about accuracy in BBC programmes, the BBC TV licence fee, post offices, or newspapers and magazines.
The key personnel for ofcom currently stand as the following (17th December 2013):
- Chief Executive, Ed Richards
- Legal Group, Polly Weitzman (General Counsel)
- Content, Consumers and External Affairs, Claudio Pollack
- Strategy, International, Technology, Economist Group, Steve Unger
- Competition Group, Stuart McIntosh
- Spectrum Policy Group, Philip Mamick
- Operationas Group, Jill Ainscough (chief operating officer)
1.
Why do you think music artists and other people working in the media
are concerned about the digital reproduction of their work?
The
main reasons music artists and the other people working in the media
are concerned is due to how easy it really is for music and other
content to be shared and found online at the click of a button, it
can present many problems for songwriters, the agents of these
songwriters who need to keep track of the artists earnings, ensuring
that the copy rights that are created for these artists etc are not
breached and also the simplicity of sharing content can also become a
problem for musicians. Music creators rely on receiving royalties
whenever and wherever their work is used. Royalties are vital in
nurturing creative music talent. They make sure music creators are
rewarded for their creativity in the same way any other person would
be in their work, with work being copied and shared for free artists
are not getting the money they deserve for the hard hours spent in
the studio. On the other hand, fair play for creators believes
that fans should have access to the music they love, and that the
work of music creators should be paid for by the online businesses
who benefit from its use.
2.
Why is a website such as this a help to organisations like the PRS?
Fair
play for creators is a website where songwriters, artists and people
working on issues related to the rights, earnings and copyrights of
artists and how to help overcome these issues. Primary research is
extremely important to the PRS but it also helps inform the general
public so the artists get rewarded exactly what they deserve for the
work they completed, the site has three main aims:
That
Google should re-instate all music it has removed from YouTube to
enable UK music fans to to enjoy a wide range of music across all
genres and that Google should properly recognize and reward creators
for providing them with the business benefit they derive from their
work.
o
That composers and songwriters should earn what they rightfully
deserve from the use of their music in the online space.
o
That this should highlight the importance of royalties in nurturing
creative music talent and providing them with an income stream which
rewards their creativity in the same way any other creative person
would be e.g. fashion designer, playwright or author.
3.
What might happen if sites like You Tube are
forced to pay to much money to show digital media on their website?
The
problems that might occur are You Tube then not being able to afford
the content to be played online, therefore it would go out of
business and the artists music would no longer be able to be
shown/viewed on this website which would then lead to other sites
having to become more well known for these artists to place their new
videos/songs on these new websites to be able to gain more
popularity. A lot of artists are found online on these types of
websites and receive the publicity they do due to them being found
here, You Tube seems to have a lot of connections with other major
video viewing sites like Vevo, if You Tube ended up going out of
business Vevo may no longer be known as You Tube is the major
foundations of a lot of these websites. You Tube shows a lot of adverts before videos and songs are viewed also, which means a lot of the adverts would have to find somewhere else to put these and maybe pay a lot more for these to be shown, which would then cause more problems for the advert producers not just You Tube.
Also when people upload their videos people are payed for this but there is no fixed rate, the amount you earn varies based on the subject matter of the video, the popularity of your video, the advertising that has already been bought on YouTube before you have even made your video, demographics, the day of the week, what's trending in pop culture, and fickle chance. The best thing to do is simply monitor your Ad Sense revenue daily and try to guess what works best based on the days you make more money, users also get payed for advertising on their videos which can earn you more money overall. Spotify is a new and very popular way for people to stream the music they want at pretty much any time they want, on desktop and laptop you can have spotify for free but this means listening to adverts and when on a mobile device, you cannot pick any song you want. But for a very low cost per month for spotify premium (£9.99) it allows them to:
Also when people upload their videos people are payed for this but there is no fixed rate, the amount you earn varies based on the subject matter of the video, the popularity of your video, the advertising that has already been bought on YouTube before you have even made your video, demographics, the day of the week, what's trending in pop culture, and fickle chance. The best thing to do is simply monitor your Ad Sense revenue daily and try to guess what works best based on the days you make more money, users also get payed for advertising on their videos which can earn you more money overall. Spotify is a new and very popular way for people to stream the music they want at pretty much any time they want, on desktop and laptop you can have spotify for free but this means listening to adverts and when on a mobile device, you cannot pick any song you want. But for a very low cost per month for spotify premium (£9.99) it allows them to:
- Stream any song available on spotify.
- Gives better sound quality.
- Listen offline, so no internet connection is needed to stream any song you would like.
- Also listen to uninterrupted music, so the music will no longer contain any ad's.
There are many ways to research, you often have to adjust to the field you're working in and to the environments/people you are working with.
The purpose of Primary research is to gain a general understanding of the topic you're exploring. For example, the difference between focused research and basic research, would be the amount of specific information, rather than general information gathered. In terms of a research paper done on the African Society, for example, basic research would be researching a general overview of the country's history, while if you wanted a focused research this would mean analyzing the events that happened during main events in the history of the country, also smaller incidents/events that happened to show in depth knowledge of the country and how ultimately, they effected the country and how it stands now, if these events affected how the country stands now, including the various movements and lifestyles that arose due to these events or how they changed because of them.
Overall, basic research allows you to take hold of the basic facts/the points of a topic, which allows you to formulate a hypothesis or a possible course of action before you look into more focused, specific research. Some data gathering agencies for primary research are Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) and Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd (RAJAR).
Secondary research is a method of research, that can also be
known as desk research, relies entirely on information that has already been
collected, it can also help enhance and extend primary research. These sources
can be found in reference-based books, journals, film archives, film ratings,
circulation figures, government figures, newspapers, printed magazines and
information that is shared on the internet.
Research based on secondary data should precede primary data research. It should be used in establishing the context and parameters for primary research. If the researcher is doing secondary research, there is no need for them to start from scratch, he or she uses the data or information collected and published by other organizations.
Purposes of Secondary Research can start from business relying on this sort of information due to limitations on time and a low budget, Secondary research might even be able to help you identify demographics of your community that you can use to your advantage. Most times, secondary research is all the marketing research you’ll need to do. However, when you need to do primary research, a good, ongoing system of secondary research can help you discover new information so that you can explore and pursue different avenues in your primary research.
Research based on secondary data should precede primary data research. It should be used in establishing the context and parameters for primary research. If the researcher is doing secondary research, there is no need for them to start from scratch, he or she uses the data or information collected and published by other organizations.
Purposes of Secondary Research can start from business relying on this sort of information due to limitations on time and a low budget, Secondary research might even be able to help you identify demographics of your community that you can use to your advantage. Most times, secondary research is all the marketing research you’ll need to do. However, when you need to do primary research, a good, ongoing system of secondary research can help you discover new information so that you can explore and pursue different avenues in your primary research.
The
important thing is that there are advantages and disadvantages for
both methods. Primary research is more time consuming and costly,
while some secondary research does not suit the researcher's needs. The purposes of any research within media industries has three main purposes: audience research, market research and production research.
Market research is where the collection and analysis of information about the current market within a particular product will compete with other products for an audience and for revenue. Production research is the collection and analysis of information for the content and production of a media product, this research is needed to provide content and gather material to allow the company to develop the new product, investigating the technology and personnel available, thoroughly research and plan production and post-production stages to ensure that it all runs all smoothly as smoothly as possible and research the commercial viability of actually making the product.
Market research is where the collection and analysis of information about the current market within a particular product will compete with other products for an audience and for revenue. Production research is the collection and analysis of information for the content and production of a media product, this research is needed to provide content and gather material to allow the company to develop the new product, investigating the technology and personnel available, thoroughly research and plan production and post-production stages to ensure that it all runs all smoothly as smoothly as possible and research the commercial viability of actually making the product.
Qualitative
research is a type of research that requires a more in-depth response, it
allows you to ask a question and receive a more thorough response and
collect more data from that person and their opinion. This is best
used in T.V shows as they can receive a personal view
from the person they are asking the question, it allows them to find
out and understand how someone may feel about a certain story line,
film/game reviews, attitudes towards media products, discussion,
responses to news coverage and responses to advertising campaigns are
part of this type of research also. Qualitative research is easily
accessible, it is very useful for companies who need to access the
information without difficulty and quickly.
Audience
research can be an effective way to collect qualitative research as
you have the chance to profile the audience and get an in-depth and
detailed understanding of their experiences.
While quantitative research which is a type of research
engages with larger numbers that have a statistical relationship to a
population as a whole, qualitative research
provides descriptions of the responses of particular audience members
to particular performances at a certain time and place.
Audience research can be an effective way to collect qualitative research as you have the chance to profile the audience and get an in-depth and detailed understanding of their experiences. Audience research is about investigating:
statistical data about the size and profile of the audience members for a particular media product.- How aware audience members are of a particular media product or service
- What the members of the target audience think about certain products and services and their patterns of behaviour and the potential use of these products.
For more information on Primary, Secondary, Quantitative and Qualitative Research please visit the specified pages at the top of my blog.