Industries: Ownership and Control

Industries: Ownership and control blog task

Create a new blogpost called '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. 

-->THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY.

Best known: Channel, Theme parks, animated characters and shows.

Vertical Integration:  Walt Disney, Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm Ltd.
Horizontal integration: ABC Owned television and ESPN
Synergy: Disney Store, toys, press and publisher
Diversifcation: Internet Group, ESPN
Cross Media Integration:N/A

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 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 - provides the audiences with the product they want. This involves developing a product that is suitable enough to meet the desires of the audience and create gratifications.
Promotion - This is when the target audience for the product is identified. Advertising is used to ensure that consumers can be persuaded to purchase this product.
Distribution - Using appropriate methods to get this product to the audience.

4) What the different funding models for media institutions?

-->Income is funded from subscribers, Investments, Licence Fees and Length of time consumer spends on site.

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. 

-->Waitrose: Has a sophisticated brand reputation for a grocery store. It's food is seen to be of much higher quality than that of Asda or Morrisons, who are known for their cheap prices and bargains. Because of this 'luxury' branding, people know that they are going to be satisfied with the quality/product.
Disney: Disney is a family friendly brand that is often associated with children's animated TV/Film. Their brand success has allowed them to develop merchandise and branded products (e.g. Disneyland). Signature images allow audiences to immediately understand what brand it is - for example, the famous mickey mouse ears are recognised globally as Disney's logo

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 no longer makes a large amount of profit through the sale of music itself. It now generates profit via: streaming, merchandising and live shows.
The movie industry - creating 3D technology to encourage audiences to continue going to the cinema.
Online newspapers - requiring subscriptions for premium/ specific content to be available for audiences.

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

-->Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo all broadcast their own shows. This encourages members to sign up for memberships. Google owns YouTube: This has changed the way audiences access music and entertainment.

8) Do you agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive?
--> I agree they are struggling to survive because people are not interested anymore. People are more interested in modern reality TV shows and shows that relate to us. Also, the acting in the past seem fake therefore people just wont like it; forcing themselves to watch modern day TV.

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

-->Veritical integration will help companies gain profit and spend less on production work. Furthermore, if they have Diversification, this means that it will be streamed to more people. Therefore,the more viewed the more income flow. Therefore, also leading to a great profit in towards the company.

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 think the media give audiences what they want. Therefore, giving the ultimate power to the audience. Global conglomerates, in my opinion, will not maintain a lot of controle as they listen or read the reviews from the audience to improve there work. So overall giving the control to the audience.