MIGRAIN: Industries - Ownership and control

Industries: Ownership and control blog task

Create a new blogpost called 'Industries: Ownership and control' and complete the following tasks:

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, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Facebook, Viacom, News Corp, Time Warner. If you were absent or don't have the notes, research any of the companies above and find examples of all the terminology outlined in the notes at the start of this blogpost.

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.

Media conglomerates are becoming too dominant as they create biased news through the shared opinions they possess furthermore, they stunt the growth of other media outlets due to the size and popularity of these big media conglomerates. However, the growth of these conglomerates may ultimately lead to better content provided due to the competitiveness.

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: produces content
promotion: advertises according to the target audience
distribution: Getting content to the audience

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. 

Disney is a successful family-friendly conglomerate and is well known for its animation and has a lot of brand recognition with its logos.

Marvel has a lot of action and violence also, it supports societal values.

Google has a lot of influence and has changed the way we do things such as listen to music, access media etc.

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

Music industry: Money is mostly made through merchandise, sponsorships and live shows.

Advertisers: Advertisers find it harder to target audiences via traditional media (TV and magazines, for example) and alternative strategies are employed, for instance, using targeted marketing based on social media data-mining (see Nick Lacey’s article in this issue), or sponsoring YouTube stars to include their products in their lifestyle blogs.

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

-Google
-amazon
-facebook
-yahoo

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

I believe the traditional media institutions are struggling because of the continuous growth of the internet and all the services that it provides which are more convenient for everyone.

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

Diversification will be helpful as it allows companies to branch out into various aspects increasing their incomes through versatility, it will increase the 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?

I believe that the audiences will have the increase in power as at the end of the day, the media conglomerates must always need to meet the audiences needs therefore they will be providing for the audience.