UNIT 3

AUDIENCES AND INSTITUTIONS

SECTION B – MEDIA OWNERSHIP

 ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES AND EXAM INFORMATION

Audience and Institutions – Section B- Media

Ownership
THIS UNIT IS A CASE STUDY UNIT – THIS MEANS THAT THE
MAIN ESSAY ANSWER WILL BE BASED ON TWO MEDIA
ORGANISATIONS WHICH WE WILL STUDY IN DEPTH

THE UNIT ITSELF IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS –SECTION A AND

SECTION B

WE ARE ONLY DOING SECTION B – MEDIA OWNERSHIP.

YOU SHOULD TURN STRAIGHT TO SECTION B IN THE EXAM.
SKIP SECTION A – NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
• The exam is is one hour long and will be completed after the Media Studies
Textual Analysis exam. The section that you are doing is in two parts –

• Questions 1 and 2 are a comprehension (45 Marks). This will test your
knowledge of the key concepts concerning Media Ownership that we
are going to learn.

• Questions 3 and 4 are on your Case studies (45 Marks).

• You chose to answer either question 3 or 4
• The focus for Questions 3 and 4 are:

1. Media Ownership Patterns and how these maximise an

profit
2. The Effects of Media Ownership on Audience and audience
consumption

You are required to carryout and learn the case studies given. You must
include detail about the case studies in your answer.
• AO2 “Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media institutions,
production processes, technologies and audiences and apply this
knowledge to issues concerning consumption and reception.”

• What we are going to do is look at how Media Ownership – who

owns the media - has an effect on:
• Production Practices
• Media Audiences
• Media Institutions
• Media Technologies

in short - this means that we are going to look at how media

ownership, and the changes to it, in relation to new technology and
production affect the audience – in terms of what kind of media texts
they receive and how.

Link to pg1
TASK 1
THINK OF ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF AUDIENCES YOU CAN
IN RELATION TO DEMORGAPHICS – AGE, GENDER, ETHNICITY, CLASS.
THINK OF CERTAIN GENRES – E.G. KID’S TV,
SOAP OPERA, SITCOMS AND THE TYPE OF AUDIENCES THEY MIGHT ATTRACT.
Media Institutions can be divided into three types:
1. Commercial
2. Public Service
3. Independent

Commercial institutions have to make money to

survive so they cannot afford to produce texts which will
attract small audiences as advertisers where a lot of their
money comes from will want access to large and stable
audiences. Many commercial institutions are media
conglomerates – a conglomerate is a collection of
companies owned by a single organisation. (News
Corporation)
Global commercial conglomerates are often referred
to as the Major media organisations. Link to pg 2.
A Public Service Institution is a different type of
organisation – a Public Service Broadcaster is required
to provide a public service and not driven by commercial
influences. PSB companies must provide a range of
programme for different social groups including minority
and niche audiences. (BBC)

Independent Institutions– these are hardest to

categorise but in general independents (or ‘indies’) are
essentially commercial as they need to sell sufficient
copies/music/programme to survive. Independents stand
alone and are not owned by global commercial
conglomerates.
TASK 2
MAKE A LIST OF ALL THE MEDIA INSTITUTIONS – OR COMPANIES- THAT YOU

CAN THINK OF AND WRITE NEXT TO THEM WHAT THEY DO .

KEY CONCEPT!

CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Although the two main media organisations
originated within the broadcasting sector, they
have to expand into other areas of the media
to make maximum profit and to reach a wider
audience. When a media organisation expands
on a global level to own media in more than one
or many other media sectors it is known as
CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP.
TASK 3
• Using the media sectors given, start to
investigate both conglomerates. In
your booklets, write down what sectors
of media they own/operate within, the
company, product or evidence from
this sector and who you think the main
target audience is and where they are if
possible.
Week2

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA SECTORS

• BROADCASTING – TV (ANALOGUE AND

DIGITAL)
• FILM
• MUSIC
• PRINT – MAGAZINES, BOOKS
• PRESS – NEWSPAPERS
• INTERNET/WEB
• RADIO
• MERCHANDISING
 OLD AND NEW MEDIA

OLD MEDIA – MEDIA THAT IS STATIC – VERY OFTEN CONTENT

BASED AND INTERACTION IS ONE WAY COMMUNICATION –
TV PROGRAMMES, RADIO SHOWS, MAGAZINES,
NEWSPAPERS – OLD MEDIA IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS
ANALOGUE – SWITCH OFF DATE 2010.

NEW MEDIA – MEDIA THAT ALLOWS PROVIDES THE CONSUMER

WITH A SERVICE OF SOME KIND – NEW MEDIA IS
INTERACTIVE INTERACTION CAN BE BOTH ONE AND TWO
WAY COMMUNICATION – DIGITAL TV, INTERNET, MOBILE
PHONES. ALL NEW MEDIA IS DIGITAL – DSB, DTB.
TASK 4
In your booklets list all the media that you
use on a daily basis, the services it
provides you with and the technologies
that you think have come together to
provide you with the service.
KEY CONCEPT! CONVERGENCE

The coming together of technologies provides a wider range of media

services.

Changes in communication technology in the past 10 years have taken many

people by surprise.

10 years ago people had a cordless phone at home and a computer at work.
Nowadays mobiles are everywhere and computers and laptops are at both
home and work.

Convergence means that media technologies are coming together and

that smaller institutions offering new media are becoming part of the
larger
institutions

It is the coming together of different communication devices and processes.

Hardware is now multi-functional, TV is digital and interactive ( bank, shop,
watch TV, send/receive emails) mobile does same.
 The convergence of technology
brings the opportunity for media
institutions to provide consumers
(audience) with a range of media
services and products.

In terms of Media Ownership CONVERGENCE is a key

concept because the convergence of new technology and
the capabilities it has to provide services is the reason that
diversification of companies and changes in ownership
patterns - towards full cross media ownership - will take
place as the main goal of institutions is to make profit.
Convergence has therefore led to changes in ownership, with
conglomerate institutions realising more profit can be made
by becoming involved in all aspects of bringing an all-
inclusive product to the consumer.
• KEY CONCEPT - DIVERSIFICATION
• If old media companies in one industry or sector join
/take over media companies in other sectors they will
have the ability to offer their products in an interactive
way, market and merchandise their products via a range
of different and accessible media and reach a wider
audience.

• This is called DIVERSIFICATION into other industries

and it is essential that we link this to the reasons why the
changing ownership patterns of conglomerates find it
important to become cross media institutions – more
control of marketing reach = more profit.
TASK 5
• List the ways in which our two case study
organisations have diversified, taking
advantage of convergence, combining
their old media content with new media
services for the consumer.
• PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
PRODUCTION PROCESS
• Primary products need to be constructed with high
production values if they are to be successful. Both the
BBC and News Corporation endeavour to produce
strong primary products with a good cast and narrative,
special effects as this ensures maximum profit from
secondary distribution and secondary production.
Mainstream primary products are inevitably the most
successful as they have the largest target audience.
An example of a successful primary product
produced by the BBC is mainstream
television show Dr Who.
An example of a successful primary product
produced by the BBC is mainstream film :
The Simpsons Movie.
TASK 6
Make a list of 5 secondary products,
including their prices, for- Dr Who & The Simpsons Movie
Week 3

We are now going to progress to looking at how and why

Media Institutions diversify into other areas in order to
achieve full control of the production process and why
Becoming a cross-media institution is crucial to
maximising profit and gaining ever increasing access and
reach to global audiences.
Media institutions that dominate production and distribution to achieve control of the
Production Process do so through vertical and horizontal integration.

KEY CONCEPT: VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION

VERTICAL INTEGRATION means that a media institution has

ownership of every stage of the production process (production +
distribution + exhibition), thereby ensuring complete control of a media
text.
A media product can therefore be sold, publicised and marketed to an
audience through many different media forms, and maximum audience
reach (blanket coverage) is possible if a company has ownership of
the following media as part of their vertical integration:
• films
• videos/dvd
• soundtracks
• television stations
• radio stations, newspapers, magazines
• the internet
HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION means that an institution acquires
competitors/ companies in the same section of the media industry – for
a global conglomerate this means horizontal integration on a
worldwide scale.
TASK 7
Select a film produced by Twentieth Century
Fox for exhibition in the UK
www.foxmovies.com Research the many
different ways it is brought to the attention of
an audience through the use of other media
companies associated with Fox and News
Corporation.
KEY CONCEPT: MEDIA SYNERGY

MEDIA SYNERGY refers to when a media institution

in one industry establishes a relationship with an
institution in another industry for mutual benefit
(profit and reach) – this may or may not be in the same
organisation, with global conglomerates such as News
Corporation in an advantageous position owing to the
extent of their cross media ownership.

Media products are released or sold in unison to make

profit, such as the release of the film alongside
merchandise and a CD soundtrack or internet downloads
of the film trailers or music.
TASK 8
• Find a television programme on the BBC – one produced
in-house or commissioned – and list the channel it is
shown on first, the channels/places it is secondary
distributed to and all the ways it is marketed to its target
audience.
• For News Corporation’s The Simpsons movie find the
name of the company(s) who produces the merchandise
and state whether this is an example of synergy within
the cross media ownership of the inistitution or a
mutually beneficial link with another media institution.
KEY CONCEPT: GLOBALISATION

People from all over the world can communicate with

one another simultaneously. This is part of the process
of globalisation – the idea that the world has shrunk,
notably as a result of new technology and the media.
As technology has continued to grow in the 21st Century
institutions continue to converge and we are moving
towards an environment in which all our media - from
television to the telephone – will be accessed by a single
device, creating new forms of interaction across and
among media – look at what your mobile phone can
already do!
We can now watch television from many different countries,
read newspapers overseas by accessing them online and
we can literally view events as they happen from the other
side of the world.

With increased access to global media and increase demand for

consumer choice, it is the largest media conglomerates that are
supplying more of the content audiences consume – all
commercial institutions have a profit motive for the media texts
that
they produce, and part of globalisation is the idea that the main
media conglomerates are expanding their cross media
ownership all over the world to extend their horizontal and
Vertical integration in order to reach a global audience to
maximise their profit.
• Paddy Scannall (1995) divides the development of public service
broadcasting into 3 phases:
• National service – establishment of BBC in 1927 – 1954. In 1923
Sykes Committee – broadcasting ‘was of great national importance
as a medium for the performance of a valuable public service and
the potential of such power over public opinion ought to remain with
the state’. Moved from just radio to television in 1935. BBC had
monopoly over broadcasting.
• Competition – began in 1954 when government passed the
Television Act, introducing first commercial channel – ITV and
funding came from advertising. This was regulated by ITA
independent television authority. Duopoly was achieved. ITV was
said to operate to lower moral standards and was regulated by ITA
under PSB guidelines.
• Cultural pluralism and Commercialism – from 1977 onwards
broadcasting entered era of pluralism – meaning wider range of
choice – Channel 4 began in 1982 to widen programming – was
public sector but funded by advertising revenue. Entrance of C5.
Over the last 20 years broadcasting has changed to a multi-channel
environment.
Ofcom have tried to secure PSB ethos as an ‘institutional
framework’ across all channels in UK. They describe the
purpose of PSB:
• provide programming with a wide range of subject
matters
• television services that meet the needs of as many
different audiences as possible
• balance of programming
• services which maintain high standards of programme
making
4 key components are –
- range and balance – different genres and availability
- quality – decency and challenging content
- diversity – of audiences, opinions
- social values – informed democracy, education.
TASK 9
2) Show how we can link the increased global cross
media ownership of the BBC and its desire to become
a vertically integrated company to the theory of
globalization using examples of the distribution
companies it owns outside the UK.

2) Show how we can link the global cross media ownership

of News Corporation as a vertically integrated
company to the theory of globalization using examples
of the distribution companies it owns outside the US
and the UK.
For high marks an expert knowledge of your Case study is required
Extra knowledge is easy to find by logging on to the following sites
which give you the very latest update in BBC information
Main BBC site
www.bbc.co.uk
www.bbcshop.com

Guardian/Observer sites
www.guardian.co.uk
www.mediaguardian.co.uk

Other sites you will use for this unit

www.bbcworldwide.com
www.bbcamerica.com