Industries: Ownership and control

 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 blog post.

Name of media conglomerate: National Amusements

Conglomerate ownership: Paramount Global, Showcase cinemas, Multiplex cinemas, Cinema de lux

Vertical and horizontal integration: An example of integration is owning Paramount Global which is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate and also owning the cinemas which can screen movies owned by Paramount

Convergence and synergy: With the recent rise of streaming services people became less likely to visit the cinemas and so Paramount created the streaming service 'Paramount plus' in order to compete with other competitors such as Disney+ and Netflix.

Diversification: Other than expanding online into a streaming service i couldn't find any examples of National Amusements moving into new areas or adopting new technology to stay ahead of the competition.

Cross-media regulation: The attempted takeover of Endurance American specialty insurance company

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 believe that governments should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant as if one person was able to control all of the media that people had access to it could lead to limiting information and controlling what the people are able to view.

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 - Provides audiences with the media products they want, needs to consider the audience's desires and provide the gratifications the audience expects.
• Promotion - Researches and identifies the target audience of the product, uses advertising/marketing strategies to inform and persuade them of the value of the product.
• Distribution - Uses the most appropriate methods for getting the audience and making it accessible for them

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

• BBC - Licence fee
• ITV - Advertisement income
• Sky one - Subscribers
• The MailOnline - Time spent on the site

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. 

1. Disney - Known for their family-friendly brand that focuses on children's entertainment. It's built on it's original reputation for animation through merchandising and branded products (Disneyland and Disney princess). Parents can be sure that a Disney product will provide appropriate entertainment for their children. They have used a number of now iconic logos across all of their products to aid in brand recognition.
2. Marvel - Associated with the superhero genre as the film production studio originated as a hugely popular comic book publisher. Marvel films may contain lots of violence; but they will also reinforce mainstream values around duty,sacrifice, personal responsibility and the need for the strong to protect the weak. Like Disney, the Marvel brand creates a familiar and reassuring expectation for the audience. Going to see a Marvel film is unlikely to offer many surprises, but it is due to this that they have been able to produce enormously successful films since the late 1990's.
3. The MailOnline - They receive a profit the longer the reader spends on their website, so stories will feature lots of images, videos and sensationalised/controversial headlines in order to tempt the readers to click through.

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

• Spotify was created in the mid 2000's in an attempt to counter the free download culture of the time. People could either enjoy free music with ads or pay a monthly subscription and get access to music without ads.

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

• Google owns YouTube and has revolutionised the way we access music and moving image entertainment and info
• Amazon, Netflix, Yahoo now create, produce and 'Broadcast' their own TV shows, such as 'Transparent', 'Orange is the new black' and 'Community'
• Facebook has bought the VR technology "Oculus Rift".

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

• I don't believe that every traditional media institution is struggling to survive as many of them have adopted similar techniques to tech companies by expanding onto the internet in order to keep themselves from falling into obscurity.

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

• Diversification can help companies survive as if one of their more traditional forms of media distribution is no longer successful they are able to rely on one of their other forms of income in order to prevent the company from going bankrupt. Vertical integration can also help companies survive and thrive by making sure that its their product that will be viewed the most by a consumer and it can also make production costs cheaper if they own the companies that will work together in order to create the product.

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?

• In the future I believe that the audience will have a greater amount of power then they do currently as as technology progresses audiences will have access to a larger amount of competition and so will be able to decide how and where they want to spend their money making the companies have to try harder in order to stay relevant and not fall out of business meaning they have to follow what the customers want.