Ownership and control

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.

Alphabet 

 It was created through a corporate restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. The two founders of Google assumed executive roles in the new company, with Larry Page serving as CEO and Sergey Brin as president.

Alphabet's portfolio encompasses several industries, including technology, life sciences, investment capital, and research. Some of its subsidiaries include Google, Calico, Chronicle, GV, CapitalG, Verily, Waymo, X, Loon and Google Fiber.

 The Walt Disney Company

It is the world's largest independent media conglomerate in terms of revenue, ahead of NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia which are owned by telecommunications giants Comcast and AT&T respectively.

The company was founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before officially changing its name to The Walt Disney Company in 1986.

Comcast

 It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable televisioncompany in the world by revenue and the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. 

Comcast owns and operates the Xfinity cable communications subsidiary, over-the-air national broadcast network channels (NBC and Telemundo), multiple cable-only channels (including MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSN, and E!, among others), the film studio Universal Pictures, and Universal Parks & Resorts.

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 think the government should's control the media, but it's practically in their responsibility to prevent the media from becoming dominant. Media, as everything is let by people and with different people come different views about certain subject. Government is there for public benefit. 

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.

The production process provides audiences with the media products they want. It needs to consider the audience’s desires and should provide the gratifications the audience expects. 

The promotion process researches and identifies the target audience for the product, and uses advertising and marketing strategies to inform and persuade them of the value of the media product. 

The distribution process uses the most appropriate methods for getting the product to the audience and making it as easy as possible for them to access it.

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

Different institutions have different models of income generation, These different business models and potential income streams will impact on the way each institution produces, markets and distributes its

products.

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. 

BBC- it's not led by the government and is paid off by licence fee, screening regional content. 

Marvel- superhero genre, constructs a familiar and reassuring expectation for the audience. Marvel Studios is owned by Marvel Entertainment – which is owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Sky One- needs an income from subscribers and may well invest in programming that attracts a loyal

audience.

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

TV programmes, films, music and all that is on offer on the internet on tablets and smartphones.

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

Movie industry, the BBC,Google, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo 

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

I strongly agree. In no more than 10 years TV Broadcasting, Newspapers and Radio lost a huge amount of audience due to development of online industry. I think that in the next years or so the traditional media will be just a history.

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

It definitely helps when it comes to promoting the product e.g movie or series. It also helps to find new audience and to be more flexible when it comes to developing new content.

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 that after some time the audience will have more control over the product that an actual producers. Even now we have interactive movies where we can choose what happens. I think the biggest impact would be on the audience commenting and demanding a content that they want e.g a couple on the show.