Industries: Owner and Control

Comcast notes:

• There are many different brands under Comcast such as NBC, Illumination, Focus Features, Dreamworks and Universal.
• One example of vertical integration is the universal branches (studios, music and films).
• One example of horizontal integration would then be NHL because it is not related to the film industry in any way.
• One example of synergy would be TV crossovers. 
• Diversification comes in the form of streaming.

Do you agree that governments should prevent media conglomerates from becoming too dominant?

I believe that yes the government should do something about conglomerates to prevent them from being too dominant on the society, however, it can be argued that there is no guaranteed negative impacts towards anyone. Although it is not certain but the dominance of conglomerates can cause immense damage towards businesses by taking out the competitive market. This shows the damage conglomerates can cause if they gain too much power so even though I believe that government should try to prevent their dominance, I think that the idea of forming media conglomerates can be useful because one element can present their way of thinking to another different type of element.


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

• Production - The media company makes what the audience want.
• Promotion - The company carries out research on their target audiences to market their product more effectively to them.
• Distribution - The company finds the more easiest and efficient wat to get their product to their audiences.

What are the different funding models for media institutions?

• BBC - License fees, merchandise selling
• ITV - Adverts, Program sponsorship
• Netflix - Subscription fees

The article gives a lot of examples of major media brands and companies. Choose 3 examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them.

Google - Google has taken over many big companies such as YouTube in order to change the way most of the population sees music, films, news and more.

BBC - Since on-demanding viewing is being more ad more well known and used, BBC's strategy of license fees are not working as effectively. They are reconsidering to change.

Facebook - Facebook as a large company has taken over other large social media companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp. To further extend their range of markets, they have also taken over VR technology such as oculus rift.

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

The music industry - As time goes on, people start to buy less and less physical copies of music because internet downloading has grown so much over time that people can get songs they want straight off the internet. They now rely on sponsorships, advertising and income from live shows that they put up.

The BBC - The BBC is reconsidering its funding to structure because on-demand viewing is growing rapidly.

The movie industry - Huge investments are being put into 3D technology (CGI) so that they can maintain audience members.

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

Facebook - Now owns Oculus rift allowing people to experience new sorts of technology with ease.

Google - Now owns YouTube which is now one of the biggest online platforms people search to go on. 

Streaming platforms - All companies such as Netflix, Amazon now create, produce and broadcast their own content which has been overall successful.

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

I agree with the view that traditional media institutions are struggling to survive mainly because of the ever growing technology. The majority of the things we could do in person can now all be found online. This includes actions like reading newspapers, watching movies, speaking to people, shopping, telling others about what you're doing. In fact, doing the above online can be much easier and efficient which may be a reason why people are choosing the internet over physically going out to socialise. Although a lot of sites charge subscription fees to watch, that can be overcome very easily because there are sites out there that don't require anything in order to stream films and series.

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

It will allow a company to cover all bases that are required to manufacture a media product instead of having to outsource certain aspects required for the production. Instead of having to outsource certain aspects required for the production, which would see the media companies losing profit, whereas diversification would see the media companies as making more profit.

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 personally believe that conglomerates will continue growing because the more companies they can buy, the bigger their profits grow and with the increase of profits, they would be able to continue buying and buying other companies. Without the big companies buying certain companies wouldn't be able to survive because the physically don't have the funds to expand or even keep it going. Individual companies will be able to do well under a bigger company as a support.

Audience Theory: Effects debate sheet

1)
Do you play violent video games and/or watch violent films? Are you violent in 'real life'?

I don't play violent video games but I do watch a lot of action films with violence in it. I don't see myself as violent in 'real life' either.

Do you ever see a product advertised on TV or on the internet and decide you want to buy it?

Yes, especially as I am now into cardistry, I watch a lot of videos on card tricks and deck reviews where YouTube sells off this information and I get a lot of card adverts on the side of websites. When I do see it, I search it up, look at the design and if I like it, I would want to buy it.

Have you ever seen a documentary which has drawn your attention to an issue which you now feel strongly about?

I don't watch many documentaries because I am not that interested in them. I have watched a few about schools and education, more about how people are taught. This has really gotten me to think about the education system and how I feel teachers should teach in schools.

2)

• Direct effect theories
• Diffusion theories
• Indirect effect theories
• The pluralist approach

3)

• Child's play; The murder of Jamie Bulger
• Marilyn Manson: Columbine High School Shootings
• Natural Born Killers; Murders committed by romantically involved couples

4)

The Columbine Massacre in 1999 was a school shooting that took place on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School. On that day, 21 people were injured and 13 people lost their lives. The plan was planned two years ahead of time. After this incident, there were a few copycat incidents. They had a habit of playing violent games, they were exposed to online echo chambers, they loved listening to Marilyn Manson's angst heavy mental music which were all reasons the media said was the cause. Another aspect to their violent actions later on in the future. 

5)

• Marilyn Manson's music they always listened to
• The alienation felt by teenagers who felt like outsiders
• The acceptance of gun ownership
• Living in a less socially and economically developed area
• Exposure to incorrect and harmful content is increasing as it is becoming more and more easily accessed for them

6)

Gerbner's cultivation theory suggests that when someone is constantly exposed to a certain side of one argument, it becomes normal for them meaning they instantly accept what they have read with no chance of even thinking out both sides of the argument.

7)

The title of the front page is 'under-5s glued to screens 4 hours each day'. There is an emphasis on the phrase each day showing that time spent online isn't occasionally but a continuous day to day routine. This supports the cultivation theory as they are trying to portray young children as being too exposed to the internet that they naturally believe what they see online.

Audience Theory 2

1)
I think the media takes part of the blame for anti-social behaviour and violence. The media not only consists of social media but television, radio, video games etc. As time goes on, more and more people are starting to use technology which means more people on social media and watching things on their phones and playing video games. When one person posts something on their social media, it is seen by another person and then another and then another until huge number of comments are made because of one persons views. This especially applies to those who are opinion leaders (referring to the two-step flow theory) where many people will listen to them ad agree with them. Video games are getting more violent and more people are turning towards more violent games and people are nurtured very easily as a child therefore when these children at young ages are already playing games like Grad theft auto or call of duty, they, in a way, immerse themselves in that world where violence is seen as acceptable.

2)
In my opinion, I think that social media and the internet have a very large impact on young people especially as more and more young people are downloading different social media. On social media, If one celebrity posts something on lets say Instagram with their point of view on a certain topic. Just in a short amount of time, there will be thousands of comments and likes some to disagree some to agree. Young people today are too heavily influenced by the media partly because of the power these opinion leaders have on their audiences. This could link to the dependency theory are the fact that young people now obtain most of their information and socialise through the internet and social media.

3)

1. The satanic ritual abuse - This occurred in the 1980s to the 19090s (in the United States). The satanic ritual abuse was also known as the 'satanic panic' where people were scared that it would spread to other English speaking countries. In this moral panic, many wrong convictions were made and although at that time, there wasn't as advanced technology, word of mouth was much more effective and relevant to the time period. People would tell each other everything and in no time, everyone seemed to know about it. The panic ended in around 1992 to 1995.      
2. HIV/AIDS - Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired immune deficiency syndrome were a major disease that was looked out for since the 1980s. People often misunderstand this disease because of the media. The media has grouped HIV and AIDS into their made up term called the 'gay plague'. This caused a huge number of the population to see what HIV and AIDS really is. I would say that the media takes a lot of the blame for this moral panic as even today the media still mentions AIDS and HIV in a way that makes people see it differently to what it actually is. It is no longer just 2 diseases causing harm in our world but diseases that determine who you are because the media says so.                                                                         
3. Sex Offenders - Sex offence has been classified as a moral panic since the 1990s to present day. The media has so much control over cases about sex offence to the point where some facts are altered yet not questioned about because of how much influence the media has over people. Terms such as paedophilia are being used on cases that do not fit with it. For example, you would not expect a high-profile cases about child abduction to use the term paedophilia. You would expect more arguments based on other terms that are more fitting and relevant to the case. Even though this all started up around the 1990s when the moral panic was first put in place, it still occurs to this day, people have tried to change it or improve it but progress has been extremely slow.                                                                                                                        
4. Human trafficking - Human trafficking has been around for a long time but it has been hugely emphasised on since the 2000s. More and more groups of people are smuggling people from places to places for mostly prostitution work or other sex work. The media uses this to make people more aware and more scared of it. Many critics of contemporary anti-prostitution activism argue that much of the current concern about human trafficking and its more general conflation with prostitution and other forms of sex work have all the hallmarks of a moral panic. They further argue that this moral panic shares much in common with the 'white slavery' panic of a century earlier as prompted passage of the 1910 Mann Act. Human trafficking is still getting worse in today's society, more people are seeing this as a way of earning money quick so you could say that it's not been getting better in any way but its growing at a rapid and frightening speed.                                                                                                                             
   
5. Suicide Communities - In the last 2 years, there has been an increase of suicide communities who encourage people to commit suicide. The media has the power to both make the communities bigger or to completely destroy them. Some people decide to make them grow and others decided to try ad shut down as many of them as they can. Even the government decided to take legislative actions by strengthening internet censorship and introducing new felonies in the wake of the panic. These communities started to form at around 2016 and even today there have been groups of people still attempting to encourage people to commit suicide in alternative reality game form. Some have said that this panic had started with an article in the newspaper and some people have said that the aim of these communities aren't really to encourage people to commit suicide but to force the government to finally increase internet censorship as we all know a lot of sites and software's are not filtered in any way.

4)

• Child Safety
• Digital privacy
• Cybersecurity

5)

• Ongoing societal learning
• experimentation
• resiliency and copying strategies

6)
I personally think that the internet should be regulated because there are a lot of cases of people using the internet for bad reasons. People take advantage over the fact that the internet is not regulated and as a result of that, people are posting a lot of inappropriate, harmful or even illegal stuff. Furthermore, number of cases of illegal acts over the internet has been increasing over time and more people are finding more ways to find out new ways to carry out these actions. If the government doesn't do anything about it then people will constantly take advantage over this leaving more people in danger and being harmed over the internet. I think that the government should regulate the internet but solely to filter out any negative or harmful content to people. The age range of people who use the internet vary with a huge difference between them. Some as young as 10 and some as old as 60 all use the internet in some sort of wait whether its on your phone, on a computer or other technology with access to the internet. Not all content is suited for every. One problem I think about government control is that I feel like they shouldn't look into peoples personal information as every has their own thoughts that they don't want anyone to know about therefore, it is almost like respecting them and allowing them to have their own privacy. Overall, the government should be filtering appropriate content or any illegal activities from the internet.

7)
The cultivation theory suggests that people who use the internet often are more likely to accept what they are being told based upon what they have seen or read on the internet. I think that this is very relevant to today's society, especially as technology is evolving, the digital age is growing with more and more people going on the internet to find out information. Social media plays a major part in this as people are exposed to a range of one sided arguments and made up information. As time goes on, the audience members who are exposed to this have a higher chance of believing it too because of the constant feeding of false news to them. When someone sees the same type of information time and time again, it sticks into their heads and when they start telling people, they are spreading what they think is true around to everyone else. This means just one person constantly on the internet reading these one sided arguments or fake statistics can affect not just them but their friends and family and their friends friends and family and so on.

8)
I feel like the increasing amount of time spent on technology devices has definitely kept on increasing and having negative effect on people, however, I also feel that technology advancement must go on as we are still evolving. I also believe that the person using the technology must also take part responsibility if they start having negative effects as they are the one who is choosing to use it so much and often. In my opinion, I would say that if you're using tech for fun to the point where you must have your phone with you to get through the day then it is heavy internet use. I say for fun because most internet users are students and people who are working, they need to access the internet a lot because of homework or work reasons, if that is the reason why you are always on the internet, I feel like yes it is heavy internet use however it is no longer your fault because you would get in trouble if you didn't do it. Heavy internet use is definitely increasing in today's society as more and better types of technology which allows you to use the internet is being made and made more accessible to people.