Minecraft Essay

Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox computer game created and designed by Swedish programmer Marcus ‘Notch’ Perrson in 2009 and fully developed and published by Mojang. Perrson got the idea for the game from another procedurally generated game, named ‘Infiniminer’, in which platers would co-operate to tunnel through the earth in search of minerals. Minecraft was originally called ‘Cave Game’, but the name was dropped in favour of ‘Minecraft: Order of Stone’ when Perrson realised he wanted to create a game with Role-playing elements. Eventually, this was shortened to just ‘Minecraft’.

In Minecraft, a single world is built from millions and millions of cubes, each covered in a distinctively low-res texture. If each block were to be a single metre cubed, it would follow that each world is around eight times as big as planet earth. There are hundreds of different blocks to choose from, with more than 450 different variants and other items with which to fill your created worlds. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft allow players to build with a variety of different cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. Multiple gameplay modes are available, including a survival mode where the player must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, a creative mode where players have unlimited resources to build with and the ability to fly, an adventure mode where players can play custom maps created by other players, and a spectator mode where players can freely move throughout a world without being affected by gravity or collisions. The PC version of the game is noted for its modding scene, where users create new gameplay mechanics, items, and assets for the game.

The very first version of the game was created in just six days, between May 10^th and May 16^th 2009. This version was released the very next day, alongside an official forum where players could discuss it. The game reached 100,000 players in January 2010. The crafting system also came to be in early 2010, along with the crafting system and infinite maps. The game reached the 200,000-player mark in June 2010, and officially entered the alpha stage of its development and its price rose to $10. Just six months later, in the run up to Christmas 2010, the game entered the beta phase and rose in price further to $15. By July 2011, the game had more than 10 million registered players. In November 2011, the full version of the game was released for PC. It cost $20. In May 2012, the game was released for Xbox and sold nearly half a million copies in less than 24 hours. In November 2014, Microsoft stepped in and brought Mojang, the games developers, for an estimated $2.5 billion.

On the basis of conventional video game sales leader boards, Minecraft sold over 144 million copies across PC, mobile and console in the pocket, as of January 2018. Minecraft is now officially second only to that all-time, all-platforms, indefatigable puzzling juggernaut, Tetris. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on Usgamer’s the 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.

New Technology and PSB

New Technology:

• New technology has helped the radio industry evolve and increase in popularity.
• There's been a huge increase in the number of people downloading podcasts and streaming internet radio. Most radio stations archive past broadcasts on their official websites, for listeners to access on-demand.
• Studio webcams and social media have changed the audience relationship with radio by making listeners feel more connected to the presenters.
• This type of media convergence is also achieved through the use of blogs and forums on radio websites.

PSB:

• Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. It has to be for PUBLIC SERVICE (the responsibilities of the broadcasting authorities such as ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Five as dictated by the state).
• PSB broadcasters have to cater for all ages/gender/race/religion/class etc. They also have to achieve a mix of education, information and entertainment.
• Different remits for different channels:
• The BBC has a 100% PSB remit.
• ITV has a much smaller PSB remit.
• Channel 4 has a large, but slightly different PSB remit (this is mostly tackled through its enforced aim of showing lots of niche programming.).
• Channel 5 has a tiny PSB remit (basically news) and all digital channels have no PSB remit

• OFCOM are in charge of ensuring broadcasters keep to their PSB remits.

Radio Facts

Radio Facts:

• Radio remains resilient- As the oldest broadcast medium, since it's creation at the turn of the 20th century, radio has witnessed each technological development that has brought different and competing media to consumers' media diets.
• The reach of radio is still high- almost 90% of adults tune in on a weekly basis- and time spent listening to radio increased in 2015. But there are differences across age groups.
• While for all UK adults the majority of time spent listening to any audio is accounted for by live radio (71%), 16-24s spend similar amounts of time with live radio (29%), personal digital audio (26%) and streaming services (25%)
• Overall, commercial stations their revenue in 2015, with overall growth of 1.4% to £519m, as national advertising offset declines in local advertising revenue.
• In 2015 over 40% of all reported radio listening was via a digital device.
• AQ second national DAB network of transmitters was switched on in March 2016, bringing 15 unique radio services to 75% of the UK's population.

Radio research pt.2

• Radio 1: this station prides itself on discovering new artists all the time, it was responsible for the discovery of artists such as; Ed Sheeran and James Bay. It describes itself as having a distinctive mix of music and speech to interest its target audience of 15 to 29 year-olds. It aims to offer a range of new and contemporary mix of music whilst supporting emerging artists in order to stay within its remit. This station stays true to the value of being the most creative organisation in the world.
• Radio 2: the remit of this station is to have a distinctive mix of music and conversation that is designed to interest a target audience of people aged over 35.  They do this by tailoring their music to that the target audience would have listened to particularly that which was played in the 1980s and 1990s. They tend to have a lot of phone in's during this show to discuss matters that are going on in the world currently. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate.
• Radio 3: this station is designed to offer a mix of music and cultural segments in order to interest their target audience of people aged over 55 years of age. It has a lot of classical and jazz music and has more relaxed themes in order to cater to its older audience. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate as well as being the most creative organisation in the world.
• Radio 4: this station provides minimal music coverage and is designed to be a mixed speech service, with a wide coverage of news and other speech (drama readings, comedy, factual and magazine programmes). It is targeted at an ABC1 audience aged 34-39 year-olds. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate.
• Radio 5:
  The remit of this station is to provide live news and sports coverage, to a target audience of mainly sports lovers from all ethnic backgrounds. It is seen as the main BBC station to bring listeners live and up to date news stories as they happen. Regarding sports, the station often has viewers ring up, or guests in the studio to analyse recent sporting fixtures.
  The station has a multi-purpose to entertain, inform and involve.
  Programs on this station:
  - 5 live Breakfast
  - 5 live Sport.
  - 5 live Drive.
  - Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy.
  - Up All Night.
  - Morning Reports.
  
  
  Radio 6:
  The remit of BBC 6 Music is to entertain lovers of popular music with a service that celebrates the alternative spirit in popular music from the 1960s to the present day.
  
  

  Its programmes juxtapose current releases outside the mainstream, including music from the BBC Sound Archive. It should provide context for the music it plays, and support live music and new artists.
  Programs on this station:

  
  

  - Chris Hawkins.

  
  

  - Laura Laverne.

The sites that are most clearly following their PSB remits most clearly in my opinion are BBC radio 4 and BBC radio 5 live. Radio 4 has taken on a strong reputation as being a relaxing radio station with a variety of conversation to retain the same target audience year after year with very minimalist changes to their programmes despite drastic changes in technology. Secondly, BBC radio 5 live has stayed to true to it's sport fans by not adding anything different and still having lots of interactivity with listeners.

Radio Research

Who was the first ever Breakfast Show Presenter on Radio 1?

• The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years.

List some other DJs who have presented the show.

• Noel Edmunds- 4 June 1973- 28 April 1978
• Dave Lee Travis- 2 May 1978- 2 January 1981
• Mike Read- 5 January 1981- 11 April 1986
• Mike Smith- 5 May 1986- 17 May 1988
• Simon Mayo- 23 May 1988- 3 September 1993
• Mark Goodier- 6 September 1993- 24 December 1993
• Steve Wright- 10 January 1994- 21 April 1995
• Chris Evans- 24 April 1995- 17 January 1997
• Mark and Lard- 17 February 1997- 10 October 1997
• Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball- 13 October 1997- 25 September 1998
• Zoe Ball- 28 September 1998- 10 March 2000
• Sara Cox- 3 April 2000- 19 December 2003
• Chris Moyles- 5 January 2004- 14 September 2012
• Nick Grimshaw- 24 September 2012- Present

Biographical Information on Nick Grimshaw
Nick Grimshaw was born as Nick Peter Andrew Grimshaw on 14th August 1984 in Manchester, England. He is the son of Peter Grimshaw and Eileen Grimshaw. He has two siblings, Andy Grimshaw and Jane Grimshaw.
Nick Grimshaw joined BBC Radio 1 and started presenting Switch, the BBC's youth strand along with his mate DJ Annie Mac where he worked for nine years. Nick Grimshaw is one of the famous celebrity of British industry. According to the BBC, his salary is in between $410,000-$470,000. He is also named the highest paid Radio 1's DJ in 2017. In total sum, he has an estimated net worth of $2 million. Grimshaw is often seen riding a Mercedes G-Wagon car worth $80 thousand. He was spotted looking to buy a house in Islington, London worth $2.1 million.

What are the current listening figures for Radio 1 Breakfast show? On October 26th 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million listeners between July and September- down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low.

Who is the controller of BBC Radio 1?
The controller of BBC Radio1 is Ben Cooper.

How is Radio 1 funded?
The BBC is funded principally by an annual television licence 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 try to be distinctive by playing different game shows and having live guests in to change up the schedules and so you almost have a live concert on your concert on your radio to attract all audiences and can promote their own festivals if they have a good live act on their live lounge as almost a live preview for their concerts that are coming up.

What is the difference between BBC Radio stations and commercial stations?
BBC doesn't make much money as they are all government funded so do not have sponsors and make money from adverts and sponsors making them money but have bigger pauses in between music so people tend to turn over to BBC radio stations. 

Key Terms- FILM, RADIO, VIDEO GAMES

INDUSTRY VOCAB HOMEWORK – DEFINITION AND EXAMPLE, WHAT INDUSTRY MAY IT APPLY TO? UPLOAD TO BLOGS LABEL INDUSTRY, AUDIENCE, VOCABULARY

·      BARB- The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom.

·       WEBCASTING LICENSE- A license to legally play a media presentation over the internet.

·       TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE- Media technological convergence is the tendency that as technology changes, different technological system sometimes evolves toward performing similar tasks.

·       WEB 3.O OR SEMANTIC WEB- a proposed development of the World Wide Web in which data in web pages is structured and tagged in such a way that it can be read directly by computers.

·       INTERNET OF THINGS- the interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.

·       BINGE-VIEWING- watch multiple episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.

·       DAB- Digital audio broadcasting (DAB), also known as digital radio and high-definition radio, is audio broadcasting in which analog audio is converted into a digital signal and transmitted on an assigned channel in the AM or (more usually) FM frequency range.

·       TRADITIONAL MEDIA- Any form of mass communication available before the advent of digital media. This includes television, radio, newspapers, books, and magazines.

·       GOOGLE ANALYTICS- Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

·       RAJAR- RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK.

·       NRS- The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey (NRS) to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research.

·       MIDAS- MIDAS media is a specialist PPC advertising agency

·       CULTURAL IMPERIALISM- Cultural imperialism comprises the cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism here refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations, favouring the more powerful civilization.

·       DEMOCRATISATION OF THE MASS MEDIA- Democratisation is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It also refers to substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.

·       EFFECTS OF PIRACY- Decrease in Sales of Legal Copies, the street price will rise if most price-sensitive consumers switch to illegal copies while the most price-insensitive consumers do not.

·       HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION- the process of a company increasing production of goods of services at the same part of the supply chain.

·       VERTICAL INTEGRATION- the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

·       DIVERSIFICATION- the action of making or becoming more diverse or varied.

·       ALTERNATIVE MEDIA AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA- Alternative media is media that differs from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production and distribution.

·       CONGLOMERATE- a thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together.

·       GRA- Graph

·       PEGI- Pan Europen Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions when buying video games or apps through the use of age recommendations and content descriptors.

·       MEDIAWATCH UK- Formally known as the National viewers’ and Listeners Association (National VALA or NVLA), is a pressure group in the UK, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex and homosexuality.

·       IPSO- The Independent Press Standards Organisation.

·       WATERSHED- Protecting children from harmful material on TV and radio is one of OFCOM’s most important duties.

·       OFCOM- The Office of Communications, is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

·       MEDIAWATCH- Journalists analyse the print and electronic media.

·       BBC CHARTER- An Accompanying Agreement recognises its editorial independence and sets out its public obligations in detail.

·       SYNERGY- the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of the separate effects.

·       PSB- Programming produced for the benefit of the public, rather than pure commercial reasons.

·       BROADCAST CODE- The Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, also known as the Television Code, was a set of ethical standards adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) for television.

·       IWF- The Internet Watch Foundation is a registered charity based in Cambridgeshire, England. It states that it’s remit is to minimise the availability of potentially criminal internet content.