Industries - Ownership and control blog task

 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.
 
Conglomerate ownership:
 
Disney are the worlds the third largest conglomerate company and own many companies such as:
-Marvel
-Pixar
-Lucasfilm
-ABC
-Hotels in Disneyland
 
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 that from one perspective it should be said that many of the large companies have worked hard to get to the position which they are in, however it prevents many of the smaller companies from even having a chance as the larger conglomerates would have a much larger advantage of the smaller companies as they have already a much larger revenue built up. This may however cause only one perspective to be seen by audiences as the other perspectives shown by other companies would be irrelevant when there is a large conglomerate giant giving the opposite perspective.


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

The production requires many people and you can see this when you see the credits of a film and can actually see how many people are actually involved in creating the film.
There is a need for the directors, the actors, the producers, the people requires to produce the set and designers in the production of the film and of course the post production team who will create the final edit of the film and add special effects and adapt and improve the sound and transitions within the film.

Film promotions usually include press releases, advertising, releasing new merchandise for the form of media, interviews with the actors and releasing new trailers or snippets of the film.
 
There are many forms of media distribution, for example to find out about the news, there are many different forms of distribution, for example you can find out your news from your phones from apps or going to news websites to find out the news, however there are others, such as newspapers, the radio and even on television.

4) What the different funding models for media institutions?

 

-license fee paid by public

-Paid by advertisement
-Subscription fees
-Sale of hardware

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. 

The writers compare different large brands such as the BBC and state how they receive their revenue and provide their services by a public licensing fee and how that is different to Sky and how they have a subscription fee and also generate revenue from having advertisements on their channels and how that is very different from Sony, who provide their media by selling their actual hardware for a certain price to make revenue.

 

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

 

There is an example of how the music industry can no longer generate its profits through selling singular tracks and have to provide a very large range to receive the revenue they once did. They also have to sell merchandise and get sponsorships from companies in return of advertising and do live shows to generate money from tickets to create enough revenue to be considered successful. 

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

-Google owning YouTube
-Amazon -------->
-Netflix --------->    these three are mentioned for beginning to create their own TV shows
-Yahoo  --------->
-Facebook for buying the rights to the AR technology of the Oculus Rift.

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

I think that traditional media institutions have an advantage as they already have built up revenue to invest on capital equipment to produce new technology for their companies so that they are not left behind and can become larger companies where as other companies would have to start fresh and would not have as much investment and would more then likely have to take out a loan which would have interest and put them in a worse position then when they started, where as companies can do this in their prime so that even if money is wasted it can be made back.
 

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

Diversification or vertical integration can help companies to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape as they have spread the risk of their companies so that if one of their companies were to become obsolete they can rely on the others. In media it often occurs that one part will become very successful and some would become out of use. This allows them to spread the risk and spread the source of income.

 

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 believe that audiences are already gaining power in terms of making it clear what they want, and the major global conglomerates are often there to provide a response in the way that the audience would want, however there is not much the consumer can do if the companies do not provide what the want as they are large conglomerates and are the only ones who are providing this sort of content at a high standard, where the users are already hooked on the series, an example of this is how Disney provide most of the animations for the entire industry and even movies which are Pixar are owned by Disney, so in truth the major global conglomerates will maintain their control over the industry.