LO2: Task two: job roles in a chosen sector.

I have chosen to show the roles performed by a journalist in this task:

Practical and technical skills:

An average journalist would have to be familiar with different types of writing so that their work can be targeted towards a particular audience, This could include the usage of restrictive and elaborate coding or the interchanging use of the three modes of address.  They would also have to be confident in terms of approach people and to critical analyse what people are saying/ writing.
In terms of technical skills a journalist would have to be familiar with the software used to produce text professionally. As well as this depending on what they are trying to gain information on they would also have to make sure that they are skilled in using the Internet to research a story.

Specific industry knowledge:   

A Journalist would have to be aware of the industry they are working in, producing content that would suit the publication they are working for. For example if the journalist was working for a music publication then that is what they would create content for as opposed to political or social writing.
This means they would have to have a good understanding of the codes and conventions of the publication which they write for.

Communication skills – oral and written:

Due to the nature of the role of a journalist it is vital that they have the communication skills in order to approach people to find more information which they need to present their story. This requires a great deal of self confidence and a person that is capable of behaving in a professional way as that they will be representing an organisation. 
 as well as this they need to be a competent writer so that the findings they gain from a story can be accurately recounted and presented to a viewer/ reader. 


Organisation
a journalist would need to be able to organise different events for their stories. For example it would be up to them to contact people for an interview. 

Creativity

            A journalist would need to ensure that they can write or present stories in a way that will be able to engage their target audience and make them interested in it. As well as this a journalist would be responsible for deciding the mode of address of the article creating a tone/ atmosphere for their work. Therefore, it is important that a journalist can decide how they want to portray their story

Problem solving
A Journalist would also need to work their way around obsticals  in order to reach their end goal.  this may include not having access to a particular person or location thus prohibiting their access to a story. The Journalist would be required to find someone who could accurately recount events that have taken place while ensuring that they are not ,without trying, giving an biased view. As well as this they may have to cover stories very quickly so that the public have immediate access to them this may mea giving up personal time in order to do their job. 

Working as part of a team
 A journalist would need to be able to work with other people in situations where the story which they are trying to cover requires several different people investigating various aspects. This team would need to know what their specific roles are so that the end result is a story that is accurate and encapsulates the whole situation. 
Due to the fact that there are so many different kinds of  journalists this team would likely all be responsible for different aspects of the gathering of information (photo- journalist for photography, reporter for interviewing people etc.)  

Why I would be suted for this job role?

I feel that I would be suited to the role of journalist as that I have shown in my work that I am capable   of writing in different styles (my Magazine and newspaper article from unit 7 and 3) 

  

LO2, Task one: Job roles and skills.

LO1 Cross Media product case study

Cross Media Product Case Study.

Product used- "Deadpool"

In 2016 20th century fox released "Deadpool" an adaption of a successful comedic comic book series. 

1) How was the product cross- promoted on different platforms?

    Deadpool is now known for it innovative online marketing however it is clear that this could not be the only way that they attempted to appeal to their target demographic. Being a dark humor film the production company approached the usual cross promotion targets (film magazines, etc) however the company also met with slightly more abstract companies for example a US Television show Called "The Bachelor" ran two Public service announcements from the lead character of the film explaining to men and women how to check themselves for breast/ testicular cancer (I have embedded one of these videos below.) as well as this deadpool worked with Manchester United football club to produce a short video entitled "Dreaming of Manchester United" in which Deadpool dreams of scoring a vital penalty for Manchester United and then celebrating with the team. 

    The reason for the production company of Deadpool partaking in such abstract advertising campaigns (I Believe) is a perfect understanding of the way that the audience of the film (typically men between the ages of 16- 35) consume online media and how they can use this to promote the film. It is common for people of the audience i have just described to consume "Memes" on the internet (an online joke) and the producers of Deadpool clearly understood that if they could make people associate Deadpool as a product that is up to date with the way that people consume media online then they would be much more likely to watch it. 

Another example of cross promotion in the case of deadpool was their involvement in a company callled "Lut Crate" whch describes itself as "the #1 Mystery subscription box for gamers and nerds." This company makes a profit by charging subscribers to have a box full of items pertaining to a certain theme (in deadpools case the months them'e was "dead" and the box contained items relating to other brands with this theme such as the walking dead. This example was effective, i beleve because it helped to keep the idea of the film in peoples minds particually the minds of the target audiance who are likely the "Gamers and nerds" being discussed here. I have included an image of the crate below.  

The above mentioned "dead" themed Lut crate

Other examples of cross promotion for Deadpool: 

2) How was the product marketed and distributed?

A screenshot of the spoof newsletter

Deadpool has become infamous for it's online advertising campaign which ran for about a year before the films actual release date. This type of adverting was obviously very much below the line as that they were mass distributed rather than aimed at an individual. However the online adverting did include some examples of above the line marketing. A great example of this was the now notorious Tinder campaign where the protagonist of the film had his own tinder account made to that people could state weather they wanted to date him or not. Other below the line methods included posters and billboards which again were done very comedic with one billboard even being a spoof of the conventions of a billboard for a romantic comedy film when the film, in actuality, was a dark comic book, comedy. This was meant to spread the word of the film using the humor that the character of deadpool has been established to have in the comic book. There was even a satirical newsletter that fans could sign up for in the run up to Christmas called the "12 days of deadpool"

The tinder account created for Deadpool

There were also two apps created to advertise the film, the first of which being a Live wallpaper app which was simply to allow people to have an official deadpool wallpaper on their phone and the other was an app that allowed users to download Dead pool inspired Emojis to send to people in conversation. The emoji app gained notoriety due to the lewd nature of some of the ones featured (shown below:)

The final part of advertising i want to talk about was Ryan Reynolds's interview on Fox 5 in the run up to the films release. The reason that this is so beneficial is because it will draw attention to both Fox 5 and the film, both of which are owned by 21st century fox. This creates equity and generates more revenue for both products while not having to pay to include the interview on any other platform.
This campaign took advantage of technological convergence in several different ways. Firstly the people promoting the film took advantage of Web 2.0 (Tim o' Riley 2007) wherein the marketing materials being promoted online via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as well as the prominent video sharing platform YouTube. These are all products that their young target audience would likely be familiar with. The second example of technological convergence would be in the creation of Emojis which are used in communication between smartphone (often recognised as a "black box device" or one that is capable of dozens of technological functions.)




The product was distributed via the cinema and then on dvd, blu- ray and digital download from a number of sellers.



3) Who was the target audience for the product (age, gender, spending power)

I have already stated the i feel that this film's main target audience was men between the ages of 16 and 35 due to the nature of the comedy in the film. As for spending power i would say that they would defiantly fit into the ABC1 demographic due to the emphasis on online marketing and the cost of owning a devise that can access the internet.
The film was able to reach this adiance  by including some very dark humor which was also understandable to this quite young audiance. For example the openig credits of the film parody those of other comic book films by including graphics that say Things like "Directed by: an overpaid tool" and "written by: the real heroes here"



4) How can the audience access this due to technological convergence and what is the advantage of this?


It is possible for audiences to download this film onto devises such as laptops, smartphones and tablets which are portable. This means that they are able to take the product with them wherever they go. As well as this portability also allows viewers to show the product to other people easily and discuss it with other people online over social media. This is a great example of the logical end of technological convergence which is clearly the "Black Box" theory which states that eventually it will be possible to access any kind of technology on one device. As well as this this kind of multi platform experience would not be available if it was not for the beginning of the Web 2.0 era which made the internet interactive and therefore made it possible to use to talk to other people on.


5) was the product successful?

Dead pool was praised for being a fresh take on what many consider to be a worn out genre of film. The film was made on a budget of 58 million us dollars and pulled in over 500 million within two weeks of its release. almost 10 times what it was expected to make (60 million)
as well as this the social media campaigns for the film have been praised as one of the best film marketing campaigns of all time.
On the 11th of January the star of the film Ryan Reynolds tweeted a promotional image (the spoof romantic comedy billboard) with gained over 9000 retweets and 16,000 likes. As well as this on the 22nd of may ,months after the films release the official Deadpool twitter account posted a promotional video with got almost 2,000 likes. This shows that the fans of the film are still very invested in the characters and story which they were presented with and therefore they want to see more.

On march 4th 2017 the trailer for the sequel was released to YouTube and as of writing this report it has over 4 million views.