Media conglomerate research
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, Meta, Viacom, News Corp, Time Warner. If you were absent or didn't have time in the lesson to make these notes, research any one of the companies above and find examples of all the terminology outlined in the notes at the start of this blogpost.
Disney-
- Disney studios -disney pictures, animations and pixars
- Disney channel and national geographic
- Hulu and disney plus
- Books, recording, theme parks - resort themes
- Horizontal- Abc network = sports and news
- Vertical -distribution and exhibition through hulu- how they will distribute their products and production part of the progress
- Synergy - everything disney
- Diversification - continuous movies, animation and high quality movies.
Media Magazine reading and questions
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'.
1) 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.
2) What are the different funding models for media institutions?
The BBC is funded by a licence fee and it has a public service remit, it is more likely to screen programmes with a regional interest than other broadcasters.
TV relies on income generated by advertisers. This means that appeal to a large audience are seen as more valuable than ones with smaller niche audiences.
Sky One needs an income from subscribers and may well invest in programming that attracts a loyal
audience, who are more likely to invest in a long term subscription to guarantee early access to the
shows they enjoy.
The MailOnline receives more income the longer a reader stays on the site, so stories will feature
lots of images and videos, and sensationalised or controversial headlines will be constructed to ‘tempt’ readers to ‘click through’.
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.
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4) What examples are provided of the new business models media companies have had to adopt due to changes in technology and distribution?
The movie industry has invested enormous sums of money into 3D technology, in order to encourage
audiences into cinemas.
The BBC is reconsidering its funding structure now on-demand viewing is becoming more popular.
Some online newspapers now require audiences to subscribe to access their content or provide premium content to those who pay for mobile apps.
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.
5) 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 moving-image entertainment and information.
Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo now create, produce and ‘broadcast’ their own TV shows, such as
Transparent, Orange is the New Black and Community.
Facebook has bought the virtual reality technology Oculus Rift; one potential benefit for audiences is that it allows users to ‘attend’ and ‘experience’ events without leaving their own homes.
6) Do you agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive?
Traditional media institutions are having to adapt to survive. It is clear that not all traditional media
forms, outlets or institutions will be able to maintain their place in the media marketplace.
7) How might diversification or vertical integration help companies to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape?
Audiences reject traditional TV programming, newspapers and cinema exhibition, the only thing we know for sure about the future is that institutions will continue to come up with increasingly sophisticated and creative ways to try to find and attract an audience.
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 the major global media conglomerates will maintain control since they are the one who manage the type of content the audience likes and majority of the time the audiences are more than satisfied with the content they receive.
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