LO1 Purposes and uses of social media channels

There is two sections to the exam we will be sitting. The first section is theoretical and the second is practical where you are given a short brief and are tasked to create a social media marketing campaign. 

Globalization is production distribution a consumption of media products on a global scale, facilitating the exchange and diffusion of ideas cross-culturally. This would be via representation off genders and ethnicities. The ideas are being diffused and certain representations are being diffused as well. This could be quite negative (friends in India is one of the most popular shows and its lead to Indian women wanting to look as perfect as the characters from that show as they don't have the same genetics) (same with the American influencer who changed their face with plastic surgery to look like the KPOP star Jun Cock) 

This is an example of the Bang energy drink that sponsor creators for money. As you can see the creator makes a normal video while also promoting the product and showing them consume it, which influences their young audience to consume the product as-well. 

Sorry for the awful quality of the picture but this shows the spam comments that fill the comments of popular artists songs. The almost infamous layout that they use has been parodied and made fun out of for a long time due to how annoying it can get. The sentence "I am a ___ year old rapper from _____ check out my new song ____ out on all platforms. Help me out greatly please thanks!!!!!" 

Is so overused that it has been memes and is now a stigma of the Soundcloud comment section. 

Task two: KTA1 Funimation profile and how they distribute products globally

The conglomerate company Funimation distribute their products to forty nine countries and also make their own anime content and release it on their streaming services. They distribute mostly to countries such as the UK and America and include subtitles and dubbed versions of the shows for each country. Audiences in America and UK would then access there media products via their owned websites and streaming services. However, because representation of gender norms and sexuality are so different in Japanese culture, Funimation take the dubbed version of the show and rewrite them to include content and dialogue that appeals to western audiences. 

An example of this is within Miss Kobayashi's dragon maid in which they changed dialogue to express their views on gender roles and how women's clothing is presented as revealing in anime (Obviously making a comment about the male gaze within anime.) While if you watched the sub these changes are never present. This was changed in an attempt to more appeal to women in an attempt to make more women buy their streaming services. 

Similar to this, while Funimation was releasing the Dragon ball z dubbed series to North American audiences many changes were made such as certain scenes and dialogue being censored in order to make the show more kid friendly. This resulted in a lot of the show being rewritten and changing drastically from the original. For obvious representation purposes they also changed to colour of the former character Po Po who originally resembled the appearance of blackface. This was changed in an attempt to remove the awkward and racist character design that may have been an accident in the original Japanese version, due to cultural difference and the stigma that is featured with blackface in Western countries due to their history. 

Audience's could either use the Funimation website or their app that you can download on PC, iPad, and phone. This allows audiences to reach the product on the go or In their own home, It also features a manga section, which is accessed after buying a subscription, which is targeted to people who enjoy reading comics and manga meaning they have a lot of Japanese content which can appeal to a wide range of people. The website version of the service features a news section showing new content and talking about important news that may interest explorers or mainstream audiences. 

On Twitter, the Funimation twitter handle is constantly posting new content and using below the line market strategies to advertise new anime products to people who follow them. They also sponsor Japanese and anime content creators on Youtube or Twitch, which advertises their product to a mainstream target audience. 

Due to the popularity of these streaming services, and the introduction of other services like Netflix and 9Anime, in the west anime content has become increasingly popular among younger adults and teens. This has resulted in Japanese culture being transferred to the western youth, such as certain phrases and views that have been shared over social media and the internet. It has also shown to have influenced fashion, with many fashion companies such as Adidas and Nike using a neon, Tokyo aesthetic within their products. Furthermore, American animated content such as Steven Universe and Rick and Morty have referenced Japanese pop culture from anime and even use plot elements from some anime to influence their products. This however, has lead to western audiences romanticising cities like Tokyo due to their portrayal in anime, with many western people comparing Tokyo to cities similar like New York or Shanghigh.

Task three: KTA1 Wandavision profile

Wandavision is the first product to come from the fourth phase in the Marvel cinematic universe. Introducing new characters and changing old ones in an attempt to bring new and interesting ideas to the series for monetisation purposes. The product was advertised and marketed so much as it was the introduction to the newest phase in the Marvel chapter and needed to be commercially successful to ensure the future of their brand and the products. The production company, Marvel studios created the product as an episodic nine episode show that would be featured on the Disney owned Disney+. The product Wandavision was made to carry on the story of the Marvel serious, and also bring traction to the new Disney streaming service as it was advertised as a Disney exclusive, similar to shows featured on Netflix.

Wandavision's was targeted to young teens and adults mainstreamers who were previous fans of Marvel products. However, the show features a romance subplot and includes many references to older sitcom shows such as Modern family, The Brady bunch, and I love Lucy which are used to appeal to an older generation of people and gain attraction towards the product on media products like Youtube and Tok Tok. The show also features a large mystery element which would appeal to explorers or people who enjoy products like Sherlock or Knives out. By combining all of these elements they managed to create a product that can appeal to a wide range of audiences and people. Proving that they created the show as a way to bring a lot of traction towards Disney+ and other future Marvel products. 

Using Youtube, the marketing team for Wanda vision release two trailers for the show which combined garnered over thirty million views and were reposted and shared via movie, fan, and super fan channels over Youtube and social media.