Wednesday 13 March 2013

Media Ownership

1. What is horizontal and vertical integration in the media industry and can you provide an example?
Horizontal integration is where an organization develops by buying up competitors in the same section of the market, it is the 
absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level and allows companies to reach a wider audience. For Example: Disney buying the rights to Star Wars.

Vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. 
The combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies. It allows media organizations to make profit
 at every stage. For Example: News Corp owns the forests from which their newspapers are printed. 


2. What does Melody (1978) believe happens to the 'media market'?
Melody made a statement of, only 37 cities out of 1519 in the USA had two or more daily newspapers. By 2000 the number had decreased and the one-newspaper town had become the national norm. Fewer owners have control over more newspapers and their circulation, and most of the media have been absorbed by chain families. 

3. What does Neuman (1991) believe happens to media content? Why is it a problem for the audience?

What most people hear and see in the mass media is remarkably uniform in content and worldview. The media have a double relation to democracy. On the other hand, the emergence of a global information society is a powerful democratizing force and yet television and the other media tend to destroy the very public. Gidden calls is the democratising of the democracy'. 

4. What does Sterling think about the level of research?

"Surprisingly little research has been done- only margining more than we could draw on two decades ago. Too much is assumed or anecdotal, merely suggesting results from ownership changes'.

5. What does the media reproduce according to Gomery (2000)?

Gomery believes the marxist argument that the capitalist society controls the media and tells people with less power what to do and where to stay.  It makes out that if you believe the message of keeping you in your place. Therefore people keep paying money to see their films. It persuades the people not to question or challenge the capitalist the society.  

6. The media industry and corporate power form a powerful cartel. What does it do to local cultures (Mier)?

Corporate power creates a powerful cartel which in turn encourages the spread of certain values. There are strong incentives for the displacement of the public with commercial infotainment. This strengthens a conservative 'common sense' view of th eworld eroding local cultures.

7. How have media corporations influenced the law? What impact does this have on new businesses entering the market?

The largest media giants have achieved alarming success in writing the media laws and regulations to favor the interests of their corporation rather than the interests of the general public. They are more selfish when it comes to marketing, they market their needs before the publics needs. 

8. What issue does convergence pose for media ownership?
In Europe and the USA, many cross-media ownership rules have been relaxed or have gone completely. Convergence widen the audience range and could possible have positive impacts towards the owners of the modal product. Media owners are keen to advertise the advantages of horizontal, vertical, diagonal and international concentration. 


9. What does the FCC believe about program diversity?
The Federal Communications Commission once believed that programming diversification was necessary to maximize public service. It was argued that the number of independent broadcasters, the greater the chances for achieving the desired diversity.  





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