Industries: Ownership and control blog task

Industries: Ownership and control blog task

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.

 A conglomerate is a large company composed of a number of smaller companies (subsidiaries).
A media conglomerate, or media group, is a company that owns numerous companies involved in creating mass media products such as print, television, radio, movies or online.
Examples include Comcast, 21st Century Fox or Disney.

I believe that Media conglomerates becoming too dominant will affect the media industry since small media companies will be unable to raise awareness for their and company or get recognition. Not many small media companies  will be able to become a competitor in the media industry due to every company being owned by media conglomerate. However, Media conglomerate becoming too dominant doesn't breach any law therefore,is acceptable in the economy. Also this will benefit the audience since audiences have a less of an option when selecting a good media company                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 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'.

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

Production companies are the people who produce the media e.g. movies. Promotion companies are the people who raise awareness to the public/audience for the content being created. Finally, distribution companies are the people who distribute the media, for example a movie is distributed through a cinema.

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

   

License fees

Programme sponsorships
Sales of programmes to other broadcasters 

5) 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. 

ITV:
Relies on income generated by advertisers. This means that appealing to a larger audience is seen as much more valuable than the ones with smaller niche audiences. 

Disney:

It is known as a family- friend brand that focuses on children entertainment. It has built on its original reputation for animation, created early in the 20th century, through the construction of a ‘universe’. Diney has used many logos( the dream castle, Walt Disney's signature, Mickey's ears) to allow brand recognition across all their products.

Marvel: 

Is inextricably associated with the superhero genre as the film production studio developed from its hugely popular original comic book publication. Marvel superhero films may well contain alot violence;but they will also reinforce mainstream values around duty, sacrifice, personal strong to protect the weak. 

 

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

Music:

The music industry can no longer generate profits through sales of music itself, so other ways to make money have been sought. Sponsorship, Merchandising. Income is also generated through live shows by musical artists. 

Movie:

The movie industry has invested enormous sums of money into 3D technology, in order to encourage audiences into cinema. 

BBC is reconsidering its funding structure now on-demand viewing is becoming more popular.

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

Google now owns YouTube, and has revolutionised the way we access music and the moving-image entertainment and information. 

Facebook has bought the virtual reality technology Oculus Rift; one potential benefit for the audiences is that is allows users to 'attend' and 'experience' events without leaving their own homes.  

Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo now create, produce and 'broadcast' their own TV shows, such as Transparent, Orange is the new black and Community 

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

The traditional media institutions are struggling to survive since audiences reject traditional TV programming, newspapers and cinema exhibition. The Traditional media institutions will not maintain their place in the media marketplace since young audiences and the upcoming generations are entertained by the British media institution.  

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

 Diversification would help companies survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape as the company would be expanding by branching out to a new stream within the same industry which would enable the company to access a different or wider range of audience

10) 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 my opinion, i think that the audience will gain increasing power over what is shown in the media institution since the media conglomerates are focused on customer needs and what interests do audiences have in that media industry. Whereas, major global conglomerates will only maintain their control for a limited times until another media conglomerates buys the other. There are very competitive competitors therefore, not every media conglomerate will maintain at the top.