Media Language and Representations of The Big Issue

Minecraft Essay

Minecraft is a sandbox mini game created by Marcus ‘Notch’ Persson. A sandbox game is one where players roam virtual worlds and approach objectives freely, as opposed to games with more linear gameplay. Players in sandbox games are free to explore an environment and can choose what tasks they do and allows the player to express themselves creatively within the game. The game was fully developed and published by Mojang in May 2009, which is their most popular independent game.

Minecraft is set in a 3D world and has no specific goals to complete. This gives the game freedom and allows creativity to each player. A player can either play in a first person perspective or a third person one. The world is made up of textured blocks which represent materials such as dirt, sand, water, trees and lava as well as others.  Players can also encounter non-player characters known as mobs such as animals, villagers and hostile creatures.

Minecraft has several types of mode. Survival mode is where players have to gather natural resources to craft certain blocks and items. These natural resources may include wood and stone. This mode has a health bar goes down when the character gets attacked by monsters, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar which must be occasionally refilled by eating food in the game. Players acquire resources to craft tools, such as axes, shovels, or pickaxes, used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine ores.

Other modes include creative where players have access to all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu, and can place or remove them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating large projects. Another mode is adventure. It was designed specifically so that players could experience user-crafted custom maps and adventures. Gameplay is similar to survival mode but introduces various player restrictions, which can be applied to the game world by the creator of the map. This forces players to obtain the required items and experience adventures in the way that the map maker intended. Adventure mode was added to version 1.3.

Minecraft was first released in May 2009. Since then, many new versions and updates have been added to make Minecraft better for the player’s benefit. There are still updates to this present day and at this point of development, the game was considered "complete", both having an "ending" and being ready for ratings and reviews. The game's price also increased from what it was in Beta, but users who previously bought the game were not charged extra.

Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In 2014, Mojang sold Minecraft to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion). Since this deal, Minecraft has been spread onto many different platforms. Some of these include Microsoft’s own Xbox, Windows 10 and Window phones, as well as Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Android phones. As well as this, spin-off games have been used in education facilities global. In 2019, a Minecraft movie is set to appear in cinemas.  

Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators.

Radio 1 Powerpoint

Timeline of Minecraft

2009

May

17^th- First release of game.

21^st- Accounts can now be registered.

24^th May- Official Minecraft forum is opened.

June

8th- Mulitplayer release.

October

Beginning of survival test.

2010

January

29^th – Introducing of the crafting system

June

17^th- Minecraft passes 20,000 sales.

July

22^nd- First over internet test of survival mode multiplayer.

October

16^th- Mojang is founded.

December

22^nd- Minecraft beta version is released.

2011

January

12^th- Minecraft reaches 1 million sales.

July

Minecraft passes 10 million registered users.

August

16^th- Minecraft pocket edition released for Xperia play only.

November

17^th- Pocket edition released on IOS

 

2012

May

Released on Xbox 360.

2013

October

25^th- Java update 1.7.2 released ‘the update that changed the world.’

December

13^th- Minecraft for Java surpasses 13 million sales

2014

September

4^th- PlayStation 4 edition released.

5^th- Minecraft Xbox one edition released.

December

10^th- pocket edition released for windows phone.

2015

June

30^th Minecraft for Java surpasses 20 million sales

October

13^th- Minecraft story mode released.

December

Minecraft WiiU edition released.

2016

June

2^nd- Minecraft sold over 100 million times across all platforms, and makes second bestselling games.

27^th- Minecraft announces release of minecraft the movie for May 24 2019

November

Minecraft education edition released.

December

19^th- Minecraft pocket edition released on Amazon Fire tv an Apple tv

 

2017

May

11^th- Minecraft Nintendo switch edition released.

September

13^th- Minecraft released on Nintendo 3DS

December

Minecraft hits 74 million active players and 144 million total sales.

 

Circulation of Minecraft

Radio Stations

Popular radio Stations & their audiences:

• Heart FM- middle age
• Smooth- senior citizen
• Capital- youth
• Absolute 80s- middle age
• Kiss FM- youth
• Radio 1- youth (15-29)
• Radio 5- serious & sports
• Classical FM- senior citizen
• Gaydio
• BBC Asian
• Encore- musical lovers
• Capital Xtra- more urban & dance
• Talksport- football, rugby, cricket

Introduction to Radio

 Notes:

• 90% of adults tune in, 71% of these adults tune in live.
• 24% of 16-24 year olds tune in.
• 26% listen on personal digital radio.
• 25% listen on audio streaming services.
• In 2015, over 40% of all reported radio listening was through a digital device.
• A 2nd national DAB network of transmitters were switched in 2016, bringing 15 unique radio services.
• The BBC's USP is the ability to find new music, such as BTS and K-Pop.

Task 1: 

Go online and have a look at the BBC radio programmes on offer today - Look at Radio 1 through to Radio 6:
- Which programmes are most clearly fulfilling their PSB remit?
- What range of programmes are offered?
- Which audiences are being targeted?
- Which one of the 3 principles are most in evidence in which programmes:

Radio 1: Their remit is to entertain a broad range of listeners who are young by playing chart music and relatable chat that engage a young audience. They do this by offering shows such as; Breakfast show, Official chart with Greg James, Newsbeat etc. Playing a mix of new music and artists who are emerging. Their target audience is 15 - 29 including youths and young adults.
Radio 2: Their remit is to be distinctive in their music and their speech. They offer shows such as; The Chris Evans breakfast show, Simon Mayo drive time, sounds of the 80's etc. They offer entertaining popular music and more speech based content focussing on news, current affairs, religion, documentaries etc. They target a broader audience appealing to over 35s
Radio 3: Their remit is to play music  and cultural programs that engage its audience. They play shows such as; Essential classics, lunchtime concert etc. Showing that they focus more on classic music and their chat which both informs and entertains its audience. This radio appeals to an audience that prefer listening to radio that will educate, mainly an older audience.
Radio 4: Their remit is to inform, educate and entertain listeners through speech programmes appealing to audiences that prefer intellectual chat. They play shows such as; Woman's hour, Book of the week etc. Showing more mature chat on news and current affairs.
Radio 5: Their remit is to cover live news and sport that bring stories that have just happened. They provide shows such as; The Friday's sport panel, 5 live breakfast etc. Showing that they focus more on discussion and analysis of sport and news rather than music. Their audiences targets sports fans and mostly an older audience as it is just chat.
Radio 6: Their remit is to entertain listeners with popular and alternative music. They provide shows such as; Iggy pop, Tom Ravenscroft etc. They play songs outside the mainstream market  supported with live music and new artists. They target all ages music lovers.

Task 2:

 Who was the first Breakfast show presenter on Radio 1?
Tony Blackburn

Other DJ's who have presented the show:
Nick Grimshaw, Simon Mayo, Chris Moyles, Mike Read

Biographical information on Nick Grimshaw:
 He is best known for having hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1 and has been host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show since 2012, Grimshaw grew up in the town of Oldham, Greater Manchester. He is now known for his roles in T4 and The Album Chart Show and being a judge on the twelfth series of X Factor.


 What are the current listening figures for the Breakfast Show?
The show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September - down from 5.5 million last quarter.

Who is the controller of BBC Radio1?
Ben Cooper

How is Radio 1 funded?
Principally by an annual television license fee which is charged to all British households, Companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch up.

How does Radio 1 try to be distinctive?
Radio 1 plays nearly 10 times as many different tracks in a month as its commercial rival, Capital. This is because as well as playing chart music, they also play music by emerging artists which would not be played on other commercial radio.

What is the difference between BBC Radio & Commercial stations?
Commercial stations including Capital, Kiss and Heart play chart music to keep their listeners happy and up to date with new music whereas BBC plays a wide variety of music and discussion. BBC radio spread different content between their stations which means they can reach a broader audience whereas commercial stations tend to only focus on current affairs and music.