Industries: Ownership and control blog tasks

 

Media conglomerate research

1) Type up your research notes from the lesson - what did you find out about your allocated media conglomerate? Selection of companies: Alphabet, The Walt Disney Company, National Amusements, Meta, News Corp, Time Warner, Comcast. If you were absent or didn't have time in the lesson to make these notes, research any one of the companies above and find examples of all the terminology outlined in the notes at the start of this blogpost.

Big Five media conglomerates - Comcast, Disney, National Amusement, News Corp and AT&T; they reach nearly 100% of US households.

Monopoly - a market structure with a single seller or producer that assumes a dominant position in an industry or sector.

Conglomerate ownerships- a large company  composed of a number of smaller companies.

Vertical integration - when a business owns  a ranges of business within  the same chain of production

Horizontal  integration- is when a media companies  own a range of different  media companies  that are largely unrelated.

Convergence - refers to the way we can consume a range of media

synergy- is a process through which is a series of media products  derived from the same text or institutions promoted by each other e.g Marvel comics.

diverse faction- when  media companies branch out to the different part of the industry

Cross media regulation when 2 companies merges  with to merge  it needs to be cleared by a regulator.

  

2) Do you agree that governments should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant? Write an argument that looks at both sides of this debate.

I agree with this statement because  if one business is control of the industry that means their wont be a diverse in production of films and will  stop  smaller companies having the ability to develop and grow this will also filter the different opinions in the industry as certain companies back certain ideas and beliefs and  allowing  the big companies to absorb the small companies is removing their voices and opinions  so creating a monopoly  in the industry is very dangerous so the government is doing a good thing as they are stopping the creation of a .dictate totalitarian society.

on other hand  America and England are capitalist's country's so they should have the right to absorb other companies now matter how big. But the big 5 are still technically controlling society as  directly and indirectly  they own  outright of most  f the media industry 90% exact  their was also an example of this is about 5 years ago when a multitude of news stations  sated the  exact distinct the same message. The stations were talking about how biased news becoming all too common on social media but it's funny considering their doing that exact thing showing the 5 conglomerates are dangerous and have created the illusion of free will but in the end they are just  the puppeteer's.

Media Magazine reading and questions

Media Magazine 52 has a good feature on the changing relationship between audiences and institutions in the digital age. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM52 and scroll to page 9 to read the article 'Two Key Concepts: The Relationship Between Audience and Institution'.

1) Briefly describe the production, promotion and distribution process for media companies.

Production process - Considers what audiences with the gratification theory expect with the media products they want.

Promotion process - identify target audience then advertise to that audience  by using different social medias and  technology's.

Distribution process - getting the product to audiences using cinema or popular streaming services .

2) What are the different funding models for media institutions?

BBC 

• License fee paid by the public.
• Sales of DVDs, 
• magazines, 
• merchandising 
• and other BBC products, 
• Sales of programmes and formats to other broadcasters.

ITV 

• Fees paid by advertisers buying advertising space on the channel
• .Programmes sponsorship.
• Sale of its programmes and formats to other broadcasters.

Sky On 

 Income is generated by subscription fees and advertising revenue.

Sony- 

• Sales of hardware such as PS4.
• Sales of games and associated merchandising.
• Advertising and sales via online community.
• Sales of music.
• Film sales.
• Licensing of music (for advertising, gaming, film
• soundtracks etc.).
• Profits from online games and standalone gaming products.

The Mail Online

•  Sale of advertising space. 
• Advertorial features.
• Sponsorship.

3) The article gives a lot of examples of major media brands and companies. Choose three examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them. 

Disney -are family friendly and a brand that focuses on entertaining  children, it has original image for its animations in the early 20th Century. through this Disney have built a massive advertising brand through merchandising and branded products such as Disneyland, as well as the Disney Princess franchise Disney also has a number of iconic logos attached to their brand eg. Walt Disney signature  

Marvel - It is associated with the superhero genre. Their superhero films  contain violence but they focus on different values such as morality and responsibility

.

4) What examples are provided of the new business models media companies have had to adopt due to changes in technology and distribution?

BBC - Reconsidering its funding structure now that on-demand viewing has become more popular. 

Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo - Producing, creating and releasing   their own TV shows.

Google - Now owns YouTube and as revolutionized how we access music as well as moving image entertainment and information. 

5) Re-read the section on 'The Future'. What examples are discussed of technology companies becoming major media institutions? Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo and Google

6) Do you agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive?

 traditional media such as newspaper, radio are struggling to adapt and  got left behind due to the rapid release of different platforms where people can get a multitude of different information. 

7) How might diversification or vertical integration help companies to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape?

  the news industry or the film industry. It provides  reassurance or these media companies and allows them to capitalize when one of their media outlets are doing better than the others.

8) How do YOU see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media conglomerates maintain their control?

the media landscape is ever changing and something new  could appear to change how the landscape works  but I  have no clue how the dynamic between institutions and audience could change for better of for worse