13)Industries: Ownership and control

 Media conglomerate research

1) Research notes from the lesson - what did you find out about your allocated media conglomerate? Company: Viacom

Conglomerate ownership- Nickelodeon,CBS,MTV,Comedy central,Paramount network

Vertical integration- Film studios(paramount pictures), animation division (paramount animation) and distribution (paramount network) 

Convergence- shows added to paramount+ app can now be viewed from one device

Diversification- streaming services(paramount+ and Pluto TV), books(Simon and Schuster)

Cross media regulation-they got in trouble for copyright striking thousands of you tube videos that didn't have licenses for their products

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.

Even though I do believe companies should be able to make their own decisions without government intervention I think that media conglomerates should be regulated in some way as if one company monopolises the media industry they'll have a much larger influence on peoples thoughts/feelings and this might lead to scandals in the future.

Media Magazine reading and questions

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

The production process focuses on creating media products that meet audiences expectations/desires to provide gratification.Then the promotion process is where they identify a target audience and use marketing strategies to advertise the media product to possible paying viewers. Finally, in the distribution process uses the most appropriate method to make it easy for the audience to access the good.

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

One example of funding is revenue from advertising, some media companies such as ones in TV will charge companies a fee to advertise their product in their media (e.g between TV shows).

Subscriptions - Some companies use a subscription based model where they charge users a monthly/yearly fee to access their products (usually seen in streaming services and newspapers/magazines)

Sponsorship- Companies will often fund media projects in exchange for the product providing the company with brand visibility  (e.g. in sports: football teams are sponsored by companies and will wear the company logo on their kit and have it around the stadium) 

Government funding- some institutions such as the BBC are given funding by the government to produce their media products.

Crowdfunding- producers raise money from the public (independent media producers are likely to use this as they don't work for a big company with a lot of funding)

Pay per view- audiences pay each time they use/watch a product (e.g. buying/renting a movie)

Licensing- companies license their products to other institutions who pay to distribute that media on their own platform (e.g. TV shows will license episodes to streaming services such as Netflix)

Product sales/merchandising- some media companies sell products related to their media such as books/merchandise and hardware (e.g. Sony sells play stations that consumers buy to play their medi product on and amazon sell the amazon fire stick which allows consumes to have access to their media product.) 

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. 

BBC- use licensing,subscription and product sales/ merchandising

ITV - licensing and advertising

TheMailOnline- advertising and sponsorship

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

Cinema- feared losing its consumers due to new TV so they invented 3d movies and 4d movies where electric shocks could be given to the audience through their seat.

1980s - VHS invented which meant cinemas were losing customers due to them being able to view at home so they created multiple cinemas that allowed consumers to have more choice

Music industry - companies feared that people would no longer buy CDs due to being able to download music from the internet so they sued Napster for allowing this and after this used new marketing techniques to sell people songs they already had but in different forms.

Spotify -used ads to fund free music service but also provided subscription based service that allowed customers to listen freely without ads

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

Google - purchased YouTube and massively improved the way we consume music and moving image media

Facebook - purchased the oculus rift technology which allows consumers to access media in virtual reality 

Amazon,Netflix and Yahoo- Produce and distribute their own media such as films and tv shows

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

I somewhat agree as i believe through convergence we now have access to the majority of media in just one device which means we no longer need more traditional forms of media such as print and CD's and therefore companies that are focuses on these forms of media are likely to be losing money and eventually having to close (e.g. movie rental shops such as blockbuster which was forced to shut own its many chains due to advancements in technology that meant people no longer needed to physically rent/ buy movies)

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

Companies can use diversification to help them survive in the constantly changing media landscape where they need to constantly adapt to new technology/forms of media as they can use their current experience to expand to more modern forms of media, therefore preventing them from specialising in only one sector which could one day no longer be needed and then their entire company would fail. 

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?

I believe that because of new technology and social media, audiences will one day be equally as if not more powerful than media conglomerates as they're given the opportunity to produce their own content and upload it online freely. They also have easy access to their smartphone cameras which are improving massively in quality which allows them to produce high quality movie-style content.