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smst318-luyao feng

Name:  luyao feng (1246367)

 Essay title: Uncanny valley & 3D animation

 Date: 19/04/2017

 Course:  FASS

 Word count: 2387

   Uncanny valley & 3D animation

Introduction

The uncanny valley effect assumes that people tend to show growing empathy and positive feeling when the object in an animation is made more human until it reaches a threshold that makes people feel creepier, unease or revulsion due to the high resemblance of the object to the human being (McCallum, 2003). In line with the advanced technology, it enables animators to create human-like realistic characters in animation. 3-D technology further enhances the realism of characters in animation. The full motion video, facial and body motion capture techniques and 3D technology have been used to make the characters as realistic as possible (Beane, 2012). Based on the uncanny valley effect, viewers tend to have negative and critical feeling towards human-like characters instead of enjoying (Geller, 2008). Viewers usually experience cognitive dissonance towards the human-like characters if the movement, sounds, emotion and facial expression of the character are made to be too similar to a real human (McCallum, 2003). The objective of this paper is to discuss uncanny effect in relation to 3-D animations.

 Uncanny valley concepts

Uncanny is defined as the feeling towards the objects that are presented and made to contain realistic and human-like characteristics (Hanson et al., 2005). It is a feeling and emotional response to the deliberately made human-like characters which blur the distinction between human and un-human objects (McCallum, 2003). In the 3-D animation, it may contain both human-like characteristics in the process of creating and presenting the characters, but also contain symbols that are beyond the reality and realistic common sense and nature. It means that the unrealistic and imaginary objects, activities and context are combined with the highly human-like and realistic characteristics in creating 3-D animation in contemporary world (Tinwell, 2014). It suggests that the mix of realistic and unrealistic factors in 3-D animation not only fulfill the curiosity of human being on exploring the endless possibility of human being and the technology in the future, but also affect viewers’ responses and feelings towards the human-like character and context in 3-D animation (White, McKay, & Pollick, 2007).  

 Previous literatures identified three major theoretical factors underlying uncanny, which are intellectual uncertainty, surveillance, and the double situation (McCallum, 2003). Intellectual uncertainty is about the link between the insecure feeling and the uncanny (McCallum, 2003). The double situation indicates that uncanny arises when viewers are exposed to both the familiar and unfamiliar/unexpected elements in animation (McCallum, 2003). It needs to contain both sides in order to create uncanny feeling and response. A purely novel object is not able to create uncanny, neither a real human can. Surveillance/control refers to the surveillance feeling and mode (McCallum, 2003). The viewers have high power in the viewing process as they surveillance the context in the animation and have the power and authority to make comments on the characters in the animation.

 Uncanny valley effect assumes that people tend to show growing empathy and positive feeling when the object in an animation is made more human until it reaches a threshold that makes people feel creepier, unease or revulsion due to the high resemblance of the object to the human being (Power, 2008). The emotional response to the human-like character has a curve shape which becoming more positive as the character becoming more human-like while suddenly reducing to the bottom (negative response) at a point that the character become highly human-like, and then gradually returning to the positive emotion again (Mäkäräinen, Kätsyri, & Takala, 2014). This uncanny response to human-like characters in 3-D animation shows the paradoxical nature of being repulsed and attracted by the human-like objects and high-tech at the same time, which reflects the curiosity and fear (Hanson et al., 2005).

 Uncanny in 3-D animation

Club of the Discarded – puppet animation

The animation featuring puppet can be considered as a type of ‘3-D’ recording. Jirí Barta’s ‘Club of the Discarded’ (1989) is an example of Puppet animation. In this puppet animation, Barta depicts several laid-off old mannequins who are ‘alive’ (Banger, 2016). They can move and have emotion like human being. They live together in an old and abandoned building. Although their lives are seemed to be cracked and broken, they do have the human-like behaviour and emotion. They talk, hug, eat, dance and even have sexual intercourse. Although their appearance show that they are puppet rather than human being, their appearance and behaviour are strange enough to frighten people due to their human-like characteristics. From this animation, viewers tend to experience uncanny in terms of experiencing fear, annoying and negative feelings (Hanson et al., 2005). The appearance and behaviour of puppets in this animation may reach the specific point that triggers the uncanny feeling of viewer due to the controversial boundary between human-like and puppet. All the human-like behaviour of puppets is performed when human are absent. In the animation, some workers come and bring more puppets to the abandoned building, while the puppets pretend to be non-human-like objects at that time. They turn into human-like objects only after workers leave.

 This setting contains the three elements of uncanny. It contains intellectual uncertainty as it creates the connection between the uncanny feeling and the uncertain situation. It contains double situation as viewers are familiar with these human-like behaviour, while they are not familiar with the situation that puppets perform these human-like bahviour. The viewers are also at the surveillance position. By fulfilling these three uncanny elements, it can consider viewers would experience uncanny when watching this animation.

 This setting also represents the position of human being in contemporary world where are full of manipulated things and objects (Hanson et al., 2005). The people behind the scene control the behavior of puppet. In the modern puppet performances, it suggests that the appearance of puppet is human-like despite it lacks certain human-like characteristics such as realistic skin, hair and facial expression (Mäkäräinen et al., 2014). However, the modern puppet performance usually gives viewers a kind of threatening and anxious feeling because the behaviour of puppets usually makes viewers consider they do not take full control over the contemporary world and technologies. The machines, technologies, projected images and objects are likely unsettled due to the controversial issues and atmosphere they create. This makes people doubt about the mastery of the material world (Tinwell, 2014). The puppet performance usually exists between the material world and mastery. It also argues that the appearance of human-like puppets makes people reconsider whether or not people have the superior power over the material world because every person is going to end up with lifeless objects (White et al., 2007).

 Image 1: Jirí Barta - Club of the Discarded (1989)

  Final fantasy & The Incredibles

Final Fantasy is a famous Japanese 3-D animation series. The setting is in the year 2065 (Butler & Joschko, 2009). The story is that Aki Ross saves the earth from an invading race from other planets. The storyline actually is not the core of the animation, but the technologies used in the animation itself. Final Fantasy has been considered as one of the most successful and famous anime creates digital 3-D human-like realistic character to date (Butler & Joschko, 2009). The degree of realism of the characters in Final Fantasy has reached the frightening level. The characters in the animation present the human-like flowing hair, skin blemishes, body movement, emotional expression, and even breathing. In contemporary high-budget 3-D animation, the facial expression, response and body movements of a character are pre-recorded by the full motion video, facial and body motion capture techniques, which are then combined and treated by 3D software (Beane, 2012). Although the process of creating human-like character in animation is complex, it has reached the capability to create ultra-realistic animated characters in contemporary world.

 Image 2: Final Fantasy

  The review and market response to Final Fantasy are generally negative. First, the box office of Final Fantasy was low which contribute to a financial loss of US$52 million (Butler & Joschko, 2009). The low box office cannot cover the high investments on the complex 3-D technologies used to produce this animation. Second and most important is the negative response to the ultra-realistic aesthetics of the animation. It suggests that the technology is the greatest strength of this animation but is also its biggest weakness(Butler & Joschko, 2009). The human-like characters are criticized as the flat, expressionless objects despite they are 3-D and ultra-realistic (Butler & Joschko, 2009). They are considered to be coldness, creepily artificial, and mechanical without real emotion (Butler & Joschko, 2009). This reflects to the uncanny response of viewers as the characters are depicted too real to believe. These characters frightened viewers and made them feel to be threatening by machine.

 In the Incredibles (3-D), it depicts a superhero family. The parents Bob and Helen were superheroes who wanted to live a normal life (IMDB, 2017). As Bob did not let the former heroism gone, their family was involved into a series adventures. The aesthetics of the characters differ significantly from those in Final Fantasy though they are both 3-D animation. The characters in the Incredibles emphasize caricature, whereas characters in Final Fantasy focus ultra-realism. The Incredibles do not focus on depicting the appearance of the characters such as flowing hair and skin, while it focuses on exaggerating physical expression and characteristics (Butler & Joschko, 2009). The settings of both animations are in caricatured or unrealistic environment. Although the high-technologies and software such as Shake and Maya are used in developing The Incredibles, it intentionally did not emphasize the ultra-realistic and human-like elements in portraying characters(Butler & Joschko, 2009).

 Image 3: The Incredibles

  Contrary to the market response of Final Fantasy, The Incredibles had received great market success and positive responses from viewers. The rating of the film on IMDB was around 92% (IMDB, 2017). The screenplay and the animation style had received high ratings. Viewers indicated that they experienced warmth and empathy from the flatness (IMDB, 2017). They considered the characters are realistic but they can feel warmth and kind from their behaviour. Viewers tend to be impressed with the strong and vivid characters and compelling story instead of overwhelming by advanced technologies.

 The aesthetic style of Final Fantsy and The Incredibles play key role in affecting the way audiences respond to technologies and characters in animations. The concept uncanny valley can be applied to 3-D animation in relation to aesthetic engagement in characters in animations (Power, 2008).  In The Incredibles, characters are cartoonish but they are also acceptable as having many human-like characteristics such as breathing, emotional expression, feelings and problems. They encounter many problems and things that human would encounter in their lives. Although the characters are not depicted to be ultra-realistic, their personality and physical attributes have made viewers engage with these characters. The overweight father Bob encounters problems with his unfulfilling job. The three children had different personality and problems. For example the daughter Violet is an outsider compared to a typical girl in high school. The characteristics and personality of these characters are depicted close to realistic persons in the society that makes viewers to engage with characters and have empathy to the characters (Tinwell, 2014). On the contrary, if these characters are depicted to be ultra-realistic as the technology would achieve, viewers may focus on the technical aspect of characters and may not fully engage with the characters and show empathy with their situation. This may be the reason underlying uncanny in relation to 3-D animation. As in Final Fantasy, viewers may focus on the technical aspect and focus on the problematic aspects of characters instead of the warmness to their humanness. The engagement and empathy issues related to the ultra-realistic animated characters could be another reason to cause uncanny, besides the fear and threatening feeling in relation to the human-like objects (Butler & Joschko, 2009).

 Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper discussed uncanny in relation to 3-D animation with the examples from the puppet animation ‘Club of the Discarded’, 3-D animation Final Fantasy and The Incredibles. The uncanny valley effect assumes that people tend to show growing empathy and positive feeling when the object in an animation is made more human until it reaches a threshold that makes people feel creepier, unease or revulsion due to the high resemblance of the object to the human being. Viewers usually experience cognitive dissonance towards the human-like characters if the movement, sounds, emotion and facial expression of the character are made to be too similar to a real human. Viewers could be frightened as they may not distinguish between characters and live actor. The fear and threatening feeling causes negative feeling towards human-like characters. Ultra-realistic characters also make viewers focus on the movement of the character instead of the emotion and warmth to humanness, which avoid viewers engaging with characters and show empathy. As a result, viewers tend to experience uncanny towards ultra-realistic animated characters. This has implications on the future development and aesthetic style of animation.

 References

Banger, R. (2016). Jirí Barta - Club of the Discarded - 1989.   Retrieved 20th April, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdCPdy3wf54

Beane, A. (2012). 3D animation essentials. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Butler, M., & Joschko, L. (2009). Final fantasy or the Incredibles. Animation Studies, 4, 55.

Geller, T. (2008). Overcoming the uncanny valley. IEEE computer graphics and applications, 28(4), 27-35.

Hanson, D., Olney, A., Prilliman, S., Mathews, E., Zielke, M., Hammons, D., . . . Stephanou, H. (2005). Upending the uncanny valley. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the national conference on artificial intelligence.

IMDB. (2017). The Incredibles.   Retrieved 20th April, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/

Mäkäräinen, M., Kätsyri, J., & Takala, T. (2014). Exaggerating facial expressions: a way to intensify emotion or a way to the uncanny valley? Cognitive Computation, 6(4), 708-721.

McCallum, D. (2003). Encountering and countering the ‘uncanny’ in Descartes’s Méditations. French Studies, 57(2), 135-147.

Power, P. (2008). Character Animation and the Embodied Mind—Brain. Animation, 3(1), 25-48.

Tinwell, A. (2014). The uncanny valley in games and animation. New York: CRC Press.

White, G., McKay, L., & Pollick, F. (2007). Motion and the uncanny valley. Journal of Vision, 7(9), 477-477.

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treamtment

Treatment

Working title- long distance relationship

 Genre- short film

 Duration- 15mins maybe

 Target Audience- people who in love or have long distance love with their boy/girl friend.

 Character Breakdown- Male’s name is B, Female’s name is A, A is 24 years old and B is 27 years old in a well-off family.

 Visual Elements-

             Lighting: gathered

             Camera movement: fade in/out, POV, Flat

             Editing: a coherent

             Setting: street, airport, office, classroom, home

             Actors: A man and a woman(boy/girl)

             Props: computer, flower, phone, food, etc

             Costume- normal costume in the daily life

 Audio Elements-

            Music: Pure music

 Rationale: why I want to shot this short film is because I see some pictures in instgram. For me, I do not think long distance relationship can last long, but after I see these pictures, I want to shoot a short film about the good ending of long distance love. zoom in/out will be a good techniques for this short film

Primary and secondary Research:

Cahani, L. (Producer). (2017, February). Short Film - Long distance relationship.

    Retrieved from:

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd8hZylMDeFxAg8Y2WYAgLw

Seok Li. (2016, April 11). Touch，[Instagram update]. Retrieved

     from：https://www.instagram.com/p/BECuhERxb0I/

  Seok Li. (2016, March 19). Bridge，[Instagram update]. Retrieved

     from：https://www.instagram.com/p/BDHkQ7pxb-3/

 Seok Li. (2016, March 12). Meals，[Instagram update]. Retrieved

     from：https://www.instagram.com/p/BC0VR2Exb-E/

 Seok Li. (2016, March 4). Juice，[Instagram update]. Retrieved

     from：https://www.instagram.com/p/BCftMkPxb5W/

 Seok Li. (2016, January 14). $ x ₩，[Instagram update]. Retrieved

     from：https://www.instagram.com/p/BAffw95Rb6O/

 Requirements＆Resources:

cast and crew: a man and a women age around 20-25/ a camera man,the director,lighting engineer, editors.

Scene: china street view, outside of the cafe, airport, office, home, NZ class room.

Constraints and contingency: I think its no problem will be encounter.

 Budget: around 50 nzd

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smst318 script

Long distance relationship

 A and B fall in love with each other in China( A is a girl while B is a boy), but A need to go abroad to NZ to study, they kiss goodbye in the international terminal. A arrived to NZ and start to study, while B work hard, they keep contact after B finish his job at evening around 5 o’clock, while NZ time is 10 o’clock at night. they do all the things like eating or reading in front of the video communication. They say “goood morning/afternoon/evening/night.” to each other. Tell about how was the day, who they met, what they do during the day. But when A feel sick B can not be in her side, day after days, A become more and more independent. She is thinking what is the purpose for this relationship like this. She wants to go out to play with friend instead of stay at home to wait B’s phone call. She goes to the pub, go camping with friends, to the the concert and etc. But B still go to work day by day. And try to connect with A after work. But no one answered him anymore. So he send the message to A: I THINK ITS TIME TO SAY GOODBYE.

One day B received a phone call, A appeared in the street of China, she holding with a bouquet: though we have different life, different time,but our heart are always together. Will you marry me ?

The end

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The selected two music videos are Beyoncé - Super Bowl and Taio Cruz – Dynamite. In Beyoncé - Super Bowl, this is a song presented on Beyonce’s live concert (Moises NYC., 2015). There are a number of female dancer danced together with Beyonce on the stage. All of whom wore very sexy cloth, dark makeup, and have a variety of sexy gesture and activities. All of the dancers are around 20 to 25 years old who also have long hair and sexy body. Thus, in this video, it emphasizes the physical characteristics of female and emphasizes the sexy characteristics of female. It can consider that female is portrayed as sex object in this music video that emphasized the stereotypes and traditional social roles (Byerly & Ross, 2006). The media in this aspect acts as a platform that propagates, reproduce and reinforce the stereotypes of female and reproduce the social role of female in the old days (Byerly & Ross, 2006). It also emphasizes the narrow concept of beauty of female – young, slim, sexy, long hair, and wearing sexy clothes.

In contrast, in Taio Cruz – Dynamite, the singer Taio Cruz is a African American who have the typical physical characteristics of this ethnic group (short black hair, and black hair) (TaioCruzVEVO, 2014). He wears denim and leather jacket, and wears sunglass. The music video portrays him as a typical playboy as he is the only one male character in this video who is surrounded by more than 30 young and sexy female. There are lots of scenes depicting fire, car, and dance that make the male character looks very strong and powerful who is admired by all of these female. The single also shows his Tatoo and behave in an exaggerated way to show his authority. Thus, in this video, it expresses two ideas about identity. The first factor is about the negative stereotype of African American who is dangerous (e.g. drunk, and tattoo). The second factor is the portray of male as the figure who control the dominated authority and power while females are substitutes (Byerly & Ross, 2006). Thus, this video also reproduces and reinforces the social stereotypes on gender and ethnic groups.

References

Byerly, C. M., & Ross, K. (2006). Women and Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Wiley.

Moises NYC. (2015). Beyonce – Super Bowl. Retrieved on 10th September, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2cBXvuDf8

TaioCruzVEVO (2014). Taio Cruz – Dynamite. Retrieved on 10th September, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUjdiDeJ0xg

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smst102-blog4

Blog 4: funding the media

Media funding is the fundamental factor to ensure the continuous operation and edition of a traditional media platform such as a newspaper (McMillan, 1998). There are different funding approaches currently used by a traditional media like Nzherald. Advertisement is one of the major funding sources for media to make money to finance its operation (McMillan, 1998). This has been used by Nzherald as well. There are different types of advertisements presented on Nzherald. Blocks in the newspaper are sold to local businesses to present their product which can be the commercials and also can be some types of public relations activities and reports such as interviews. The prices depend on the sizes of the blocks, which is usually very expensive. This is one of an important way for Nzherald to make money to fund its daily operation and edition.

 In the contemporary market, increasing numbers of media have established their electronic version in order to adapt to the market trend (Lowe & Berg, 2013). Nzherald also has its official website to present news and different types of reports and information. This is a way to adapt to the reading habits of consumers especially for the young readers. Thus, online advertising is also a major way to get funds for Nzherald.

 Kurpius, Metzgar and Rowley (2010) also suggests that sponsorship is also an important way to get fund for the media. The sponsorship is usually made to support local communities, which requires the media to not just sponsor the events, but should organise the events. For example, holding and organising conferences for local businesses and food tasting events for local communities and businesses. In one aspect, well organised events can generate huge buzz for the media which enhances its awareness and its prices for advertising (Kurpius et al., 2010). It also can attract sponsorship and donation from different institutions. In the other aspect, organising these events can bring direct earnings from selling tickets or getting financial returns from participated parties. It also serves important functions in the local communities. Nzheral has held a variety of events such as the Warriors skills and drills events for school children and the food show Auckland 2016 (Nzherald, 2016). Thus, these sponsorships can generate funds for Nzheral as well.

 References

Kurpius, D. D., Metzgar, E. T., & Rowley, K. M. (2010). Sustaining hyperlocal media: In search of funding models. Journalism Studies, 11(3), 359-376.

Lowe, G. F., & Berg, C. E. (2013). The funding of public service media: A matter of value and values. International Journal on Media Management, 15(2), 77-97.

McMillan, S. J. (1998). Who pays for content? Funding in interactive media. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 4(1), 37-45.

Nzherald. (2016). Sponsorship  Retrieved 5th September, 2016, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sponsorship/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1500909

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Blog 3: Environmental impacts of production of computer

The production and manufacturing process of computer has been suggested to incur high level of energy and material consumption, high green gas emission, and low cost-effective outcomes on the use of computer (Ravali & Kumar, 2011). These consequences show high level of pollution associated with the production of computer which is one of the first steps in the media consumption in the media industry.

 It found that more than 81% of energy consumption of a computer during its life cycle is expended during the production stage, which means a computer costs more energy to be produced than to run it for the entire working lifetime (Ravali & Kumar, 2011). Thus, this makes quite non sense for computers to market and promote its green and low energy consumption because majority of energy associated to its production and use have already been consumed. According to the UN statistics, it indicates that manufacturing a computer requires approximately 500 pounds of fossil fuels, 48 pounds of different types of chemicals for producing and assembling parts, and 1.5 tons of fresh water (Responsibility, 2016). In the contemporary market, a computer’s life time is usually set to be 2 years by the manufacturer purposively in order to encourage re-consumption and stimulate market demands (Ravali & Kumar, 2011). The durability and effectiveness of its functions are not the priority for the manufacturer, which further enhances the negative environmental impacts due to its low durability and high production rates.

 As computer is the platform to deliver media message and information to audiences, it functions as the bridge to connect the media (producers and information) to audiences (Cubitt, 2005). It needs to consider the benefits and drawbacks associated with the computer making and the media industry to all stakeholders. According to Utilitarianism, the consequences of an action must bring the largest amount of pleasure and happiness to the largest amount of stakeholders in order to be considered as ethical and moral (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). For computer production, the benefits and drawbacks are seemed to be quite controversial to evaluate based on the consequences. For example, the high pollution level of production of computer would have prolonged and unreserved impacts on the environment that would ultimately affect all people on the earth. But, the lack of computer to support the media consumption and distribution will make all people isolated and negatively affect industrial development and economic development. Thus, it would be controversial to draw a conclusion on this issue.

References

Cubitt, S. (2005). Distribution and media flows. Cultural Politics, 1(2), 193-221.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. New York: Nelson Education.

Ravali, K., & Kumar, P. A. (2011). Techno-Pollution. Computer, 1(4), 1416-1420.

Responsibility, D. (2016). Technology Depleting Resources and Pollution Retrieved 1st September, 2016, from http://www.digitalresponsibility.org/technology-depleting-resources-and-pollution/

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Blog 2: Audience research

Audience research is about the study of investigating audiences’ usage of different medias, their preference and use patterns, and the relationship and reciprocal effects between the media and audiences (Zanker & Lealand,  2010). This audience research was conducted between 18th August to 21st August 2016. During these four days through Thursday to Sunday, I kept a record of my media use and a record of the manager of the McDonald’s that I am currently working as a part-time. The manager is 42 years old. She was born in New Zealand. The media use for us during the four day is presented in the table below:

“the picture”

Based on this record, it shows obvious differences on the media use between the manager and I. It suggests that different media has different target audiences who have different demographics, psychographics, needs and preferences (Zanker & Lealand,  2010). Thus, media tailors and ascribe values and messages to the target audiences to build, retain and expand its audiences (Zanker & Lealand,  2010). My media use concentrates on the internet such as watching online video and Chinese and American drama free on websites, download music through iTunes, using social media to update my photos and messages to friends, and also check school email and Blackboard for studying. I also used internet for online shopping. These media use and activities are active but is induced or determined by a variety of factors. For example, the nature of the text (such as the language and the entertainment style) of Chinese programmes made me to us internet to watch Chinese drama and programmes instead of watching New Zealand made programmes on TV. This is based on my prior media experience due to the familiarity and preference of Chinese media programmes and the unfamiliar of western-style programmes. In contrast, the manager watches New Zealand TV programmes and news frequently because there is not cultural and textual differences between her experience with the messages in these local media.

My frequent usage of social media is because the context and the social cultural factors. Most of my Chinese friends use Chinese social media tools such as Weibo instead of Facebook, hence I am addicted to the social media in order to embrace the young adult group norms and keep in touch with my friends. In contrast, the manager who is in the middle-age group only uses the internet as a working tool. This shows the difference in the media usage pattern and preferences between age groups.

References

Zanker, R. & Lealand, G. (2010). In search of the audience, in Goode, L. & Zuberi, N. eds. Media Studies in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand Limited.

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luyao feng-1246367

News Corporation (News Corp) is an American multinational mass media company which focuses on newspaper and publishing. It is funded by Rupert Murdoch in 2013. Its publishing operations was split in order to form a new and publicly traded news company due to the scandal the former company had in hacking celebrities’ phones and the damaged reputation. News Corp current holds a number of companies specialised in different areas in the news reporting, media and publishing. It initially sold the newspapers group, while acquired companies specialising social networking and user-generated content services. It also owns a number of publisher, establishes subsidiaries in Australia, acquired radio station group in UK.

 Due to its close link with Fox Entertainment Group (which is also owed by Murdoch) and the newspapers owned by Murdoch (such as Sun, the Australian, and The daily telegraph), News Corp has businesses and influences on publishing, news reporting, entertaining, and social media news service areas. With the extended network in news reporting and publishing, Rupert Murdoch's long-time business strategy is to use reporting as blunt weapons of influence people. One key area is about political and social issues and activities such as election and the reports of social events and crises as well as international issues and events reporting. This creates the marketing synergy of News Corp that uses different channels to present the similar voices on news and social issues. This strategy creates greater and consistent influences on viewers and promotes the view of points that the company and the owner Murdoch wants to promote. In New Zealand, News Corp also controls Independent Newspapers Limited, INL, New Zealand's largest publishing group. This therefore makes the company to dominate and greatly control the country’s publishing and reporting industry in terms of power, positions on reporting, and contents. As the network of News Corp not only include traditional media platforms such as TV and newspaper, but also include new media such as social media, and internet. This influence would be even greater as it can reach large number of people including different age groups.