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.

- Walt disney owns companies such as:

• Disney/ABC Television Group. Disney/ABC Television Group operates Disney's broadcast television, cable television and radio businesses. ...
• ESPN, Inc. ...
• Walt Disney Parks & Resorts U.S., Inc. ...
• Lucasfilm Ltd. ...
• Marvel Entertainment, LLC.

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 agree that the government should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant seeing as they could then have too much power and could indoctrinate people and could use their power for negative reasons such as influencing their audience to do things that are not positive. 
However you could also argue the opposite and say they can use their power to make people do good, e.g donation, charity, helping out. This also means that these media conglomerates are taking up peoples time so they have less time to commit crime.

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

Promotion - This in basic words means "advertisement", this is to persuade their target audience to purchase whatever is being sold

Production - Gives the target audiences with the products they want. They create something which specifically meets the expectations of their audience. 

Distribution - Using appropriate methods to get this product to the audience.

4) What the different funding models for media institutions?

Licence fees

Subscribers

The amount of time a costumer spends on a site

Investments

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. 

Marvel: Works with Sony, Disney and Fox Marvel is a well known superhero comic company.This is a company that is divided in many different types of media with Movies, Comics and Toys. 

Waitrose: They are highly popular for their expensive prices compared to other supermarkets e.g Tesco, Sainsburys. This way people have a higher expectations for them

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

-For cinemas, they advertise the greatness of IMAX, which encourages people to go to the cinema. For music due to being able to download so easily the industry has made streaming services that are much easier to access rather than physical alternatives.

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

- Netflix, Amazon and Yahoo broadcast their own shows which encourages more audience members to sign up for subscriptions/memberships.

- Google owning youtube  changed the way we access music/ other entertainment.

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

  - I disagree with this view seeing as media as a whole only seems to be improving and becoming more of a necessity in the society we live in therefore we need to use these media institutions which means they are only becoming more and more successful. For example media such as SKY will always be successful seeing as they have loyal customers and they also make great deals with good quality so it would be very unlikely for SKY to struggle.  

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

-  Diversification can help companies that are not doing as well as normally so they could receive a bit more profit and  vertical integration helps businesses save money therefore they can use their profit to improve their company. 

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?

- In my opinion Media conglomerates will remain in control because it is only growing more and more