MEDIA STUDIESLU 1 Cont’d

MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Media ownership

• Manual pg. 13• You need to know . . .• WHO OWNS WHAT = WHAT CONTROL AND INFLUENCE DO THEY HAVE

• In media there are CONGLOMERATE:• One corporation owning and controlling various media outlets – TV stations, radio, book publishing, internet

• E.g. News Corporation (Australia, USA, UK, China)• Naspers (South Africa)

News Corp –International Conglomerate

21st Century Fox/News Corporation

Holdings include: the Fox Broadcasting Company; cable networks Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, FX, FXX, FX Movie Channel, and the regional Fox Sports Networks; print publications including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; the magazines Barron's and SmartMoney; book publisher HarperCollins; film production companies 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios.

$30.4 billion

National - Media owners

Naspers-

Media 24

Newspapers

&

Magazines

Daily Sun, Beeld, City Press

Drum, Heat ,YOU

Online News24, Sport24,Fin24

Avusa

Newspapers &

Magazines

Sowetan, Business Day

Financial Mail

TV BroadcastDSTV: Home

Channel, Summit TV

• MEDIA = Is a business

• So what is the bottom line?

• How will this influence how media products are produced and consumed?

CONGLOMERATE• POSITIVESMedia companies have GLOBAL reach

e.g. war region Powerful and are owned by the government = no

influence

• NEGATIVES

Controlled by profits i.e. making money

Focus may not be public interest

ISSUES WITH THE CONGLOMERATE

• 1. If the focus is on PROFIT. Where do these media conglomerates get there money from

• Advertising, merchandising

• So will a newspaper owned by the media conglomerate be willing to write an expose on a major advertising sponsor?

• 2. VERTICAL INTEGRATION

One conglomerate owns several companies and is able to produce at every stage of media production

• Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner, which is a huge multi-national media conglomerate.

• An Example of Vertical Integration in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

• Harry Potter, a huge movie franchise, is a good example of how Warner Bros. has used vertical integration in order to maximise the potential earnings from productions.

• Production• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two, was created by Warner Bros.

pictures, in association with Heyday Films.

• Distribution• It was then distributed by Warner Bros. Distribution.

• Marketing• The film was marketed using several of Time Warner's companies. For

instance, HBO ran a behind the scenes making of HP. CNN, another Time Warner company, was able to use its position as a news station with worldwide reach to promote HP.

• Time magazine also ran special features on Harry Potter before and after the film was released: people went to watch it at the cinema but keep interest up for DVD sales.

• Exhibition• In terms of exhibition, Warner Bros. was able to use its Warner Bros.

International Cinemas chain to show the film to a worldwide audience. • In the US, HBO broadcast the HP7 television premiere. This allowed HBO to

profit by having exclusive rights to show a worldwide box office hit, but also meant that Warner Bros. profited from the integration of Time Warner companies because their product was marketed by HBO across several different media before it was shown.

Vertical integration

• Positive

• As a conglomerate owns the various companies they can save money by doing everything themselves

• Negative• HOMOGENSATION

• Different news channels: TV, radio• Will have similar angles and coverage

• Who controls what will be published to the public

• Bagdikian pg 15 of manual• Media conglomerates not always ethical.• Subtle in their control• The public has no idea about who is controlling what they see/read.

• You need to consider WHO OWNS THE MEDIA YOU ARE CONSUMING and WHAT ARE THEIR VALUES

• profit or public interest