Oxfam and Wateraid

Oxfam is an organisation made up of around 20 different charitable organisations to try and get rid of global poverty. In some of their adverts that they make they use depressing music to make you think about how lucky you are compared to others and will try guilt trip you into donating to them. Also in adverts that they've make to show progress they like to mention how "they've" done something to help almost in the sense of bragging. One thing that does raise a question is instead of going out to these places and filming all the poverty they should just start helping straight away not spending money to advertise. I think the demographic for this advert 

However, in this advert the music is quite exciting rather than depressing. In the advert they show his dreams as he says he wants a 6 room house for his kids to experience a good lifestyle. With the water tap they have now it saves him 15 trips to the Nile and back. I think this advert is more effective then some of their other adverts as it gets the message across positively and doesn't try to guilt trip you into donating.

WaterAid is another charity that wants to help get rid of poverty and there slogan is "Extreme poverty won't end until everyone, everywhere has clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. That's why we're here". WaterAids adverts does show poverty but in comparison to Oxfam they like to use upbeat/ exciting music to show how happy everyone is after receiving all the help. For example in one advert it showed a man who would carry around a ridiculous amount of water in a day but now he doesn't have to travel as far now they have the taps at a closer position. Also WaterAid doesn't say "look what we did" like Oxfam does in their advert. 

However, in this advert there is no music but the girl is singing about finding positivity even in the situation they're in but also shows the water tap and everyone around it laughing having a good time. Again like the above advert I think this is a more effective advert as it uses positivity and makes us all feel inclusive and that we are all working together to exterminate poverty.


Both advert use a voice over and will directly address "you" which makes it more powerful and will make you feel like you need to help. This could be seen as another way to try and guilt trip you into donating. Another phrase they use is "with your help" which makes you feel responsible for their current situation and only you can help them. 

Media question

With reference to your own detailed examples explore how media texts attract different audiences.

Media text = any constructed media product or piece of communication, whether print or audiovisual, which can be analysed and deconstructed.

Different media texts can be used to draw in different audiences for example if you use social media then it will target most people except maybe elderly people who don't really use it as much. What a lot of companies will do is see what you usually look at and place ads to do with what you usually search to try and get you to buy there products and reach out to whoever is viewing their product.

Using newspapers and print based media in my opinion will be good to reach out to the people aged 30 onwards because I think the younger generation will usually use their phones/ tablets instead of picking up a newspaper.

Television is another form of media which will cover a large audience because most people will have a TV and even though they might not directly watch it it could be on in the background with the news on to briefly listen to. 

Another form of media used to attract a large audience is music. I think this is a really good form of media because each genre of music targets different people for example rap/ grime could target people aged 14 - 25 whereas classical music could target an older generation however it is all opinion based. Magazines/ newspapers might start music artists on the front to try and get the target audience to read their print based media.

Advertising is another way for companies to try and communicate with customers and other people. By showing their product and showing you reviews and low prices to try and attract new customers.

Weekly news No.18

School shooting prevented. Teen had a "Kill list".

In Northallerton a teenager has planned to try and re-create an American high school shooting. The teenager who hasn't been named had carved his name into one of his ex's girlfriends back. Most people described this teenager as insane and a bit of an outcast. I think maybe the kid didn't have very good social skills and was usually picked on or bullied due to people saying he is an outcast and that this could probably lead to him thinking and feeling like no one likes him and in his head the "shooting" is the right thing to do. There could be a lot of different factors that influenced him into wanting to do this but we don't know all the factors.

According to the ex he would talk to her about all of the things he had under his bed such as chlorine bombs and a kill list. The girl said she didn't report this because she was scared that he would hurt her or her friends and she didn't want anyone hurting them.

The two boys involved have both been trying to re-create the Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold case were they both killed 12 students, a teacher and then themselves. Both boys are denying the "conspiracy to murder" and have both pleaded not guilty to intentionally carry out any act of violent behaviour. The boy who carved his name into his ex's back is denying aggravated burglary and actually wounding the girl.

Overall, I think this is a very serious case and i'm glad they caught them before they got to carry out this act. It is one of those crimes that can happen so fast that no matter how many pre-cautions you take it can still happen but luckily it didn't.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-44042179