Industry theories

Question 1

Curran and Seaton- Power and media

Answer 1

• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power
• Media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity and quality
• More socially diverse patterns of wondership help to create the ground for more varied and adventurous media products

Question 2

Livingstone and Lunt- Regulation

Answer 2

• There in an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of consumers and protect the needs of citizens
• The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to regulation at risk

Question 3

David Hesmondhalgh- Cultural industries

Answer 3

• Comapnies try to minimise risk and maximise audience through the use of horizontal and vertical integration, and by the formatting of cultural products
• The largest comapnies now operate across a number of cultural industries
• The radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries