Media Industries and Institutions Flashcards
2003 Communications Act
the key piece of legislation that outlines the UK’s current regulatory approach. The act brought OFCOM into being and shifted UK regulation from a citizen to a consumer based model
AIDA Model
Awareness Interest Desire Action
a four-step process to describe how consumers come to a decision to purchase a product
Awareness
people need to be aware of a product, so adverts must grab people’s attention
Interest
people must be interested in the product, this involves decoding the preferred reading of an advert
Desire
using the preferred reading and brand personality, people need to be made to want the product
Action
people then need to go out and buy the product
ASA
Advertising Standards Authority
independent body that oversees the regulation of broadcast/print advertising in the UK, requires advertisers to self-regulate content using their industry standards codes
Anonymised Content
a lot of online content is anonymously authored. This anonymity makes it hugely difficult for regulators or online services to take action when harmful material is published
Artificial Scarcity
media makers control commercial risks through the careful supervision of distribution and promotion practices, effecting ‘artificial scarcity’ restricting access to products by limiting their availability to platforms that are owned by the parent company of the product
Audience Loyalty
describes a product’s capacity to maintain audience engagement. Audience loyalty is often enabled when the brand values of a product align with those of a product’s audience
BBFC
British Board of Film Classification
independent body that oversees the regulation of film distribution in the UK. The BBFCs age rating code guides parental viewing choices and protects vulnerable audiences
Big Six
six media companies that control almost all media in the world
National Amusements
the biggest of the Big Six, owns CBS
Disney
the second-biggest of the Big Six, owns Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, ABC, National Geographic and Vice
TimeWarner
the third-biggest of the Big Six, owns DC and Hulu
ComCast
the fourth-biggest of the Big Six, owns Universal
NewsCorp
the fifth-biggest of the Big Six, owns Fox and Harper Collins
Sony
the smallest of the big six, owns Columbia Pictures and TriStar
CAP Code
Committee of Advertising Practice Code
a non-voluntary code that governs UK print advertising that provides detailed guidance to stop the publication of material that might cause physical or moral harm
Channel Proliferation
term used to describe the expansion of media content provision. Media proliferation occurs when more products or channels become available for audiences
Citizen
a person who is a member of a particular country
Citizen Based Regulation
a regulatory system that outlines a civic role for the media, achieved by setting quotas for public service programming and by closely monitoring content so that it doesn’t cause harm or offense
Civic Republicanism
Livingstone and Lunt argue that the media, ideally, ought to contribute to the wider health and well-being of audiences to produce content that educates and informs
Commercial Media
an organisation that makes or distributes products for economic gain; they usually craft products to have mass appeal, using entertainment to garner large audiences
Commercial Viability
describes a media product’s capacity to make a profit. Commercially viable products tend to attract large audiences - creating profits from sales/subscriptions as well as advertising
Concentration Effects
Curran and Seaton tell us that media concentration is problematic because it has resulted in the production of formulaic mass market products and has given media owners too much power
Conglomerates
a company made of lots of companies merged together
Consumer
a person who purchases goods and services
Consumer-Based Regulation
regulatory system in which censorship of content is largely left up to audiences to decide for themselves. It also gives producers the freedom to produce more risqué programming
Convergence
moving towards union; coming closer together and meeting at a point
Creative Business Managers
look after marketing, distributing and financing of media products
Creative Symbol Makers
Hesmondhalgh suggests that those workers who create media products are the media’s creative symbol makers. Traditionally, creatives were given lots of freedom in the media industry, but, Hesmondhalgh argues, creative decision making is increasingly sidelined in favour of a business-orientated approach
Digital Literacy
Sonia Livingstone argues digital literacy skills are essential tools that audiences - particularly young audiences - need to be taught so that they can safely engage with online products
Diverse Ownership
term used to describe media companies or organisations that produce content for reasons other than commercial gain, includes public service broadcasters
Economies of Scale
achieved when two or more subsidiaries are owned by a media company, allowing conglomerates to make savings through bulk buying or by sharing resources
Genre-Based Formatting
according to Hesmondhalgh, it takes considerable marketing efforts in order to break a writer or performer as a new star, yet star power, once enabled, can deliver ready-made audiences for products
Genre Formatting
positioning a product to emphasise its genre driven features. This marketing strategy helps audiences to understand the narrative satisfactions that a media product offers prior to consumption
Guest Diversity
occurs in shows like game shows, where guests are invited from a range of cultural, professional and academic backgrounds
Hesmondhalgh Theory
involves cultural industry, media producers are caught between the balance of creativity and profit and profit will trump creativity to avoid alienating the mainstream, meaning all media products exist as a result of their economic context and there is a constant tension between shareholders and creatives in the media industries. Hesmondhalgh suggested various ways to increase profit
Vertical Integration
where a production company buys companies that do other parts of production, such as distribution to minimise risk and maximise profit
Horizontal Integration
where companies buy companies to reduce competition
Work across a variety of media platforms and topologies
where companies not only make films, but other media formats such as video games
Focus on popular genres
look at what is currently popular and copy it
Controlled Release Schedule
this can be achieved in two different ways
o Releasing everything at once reduces risk
o Limited Release
Detailed Marketing Campaign
involves trailers, websites and various other media platforms, creating a vortex of publicity
High-Mid Budget
£30,000,000 - £50,000,000
Apocalypse Now (1979) The Girl on the Train (2021), Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
Hysterical News Value
term used by Curran & Seaton to describe sensationalised or exaggerated news content, usually used to increase sales or readership figures
Impartial Reportage
news reporting that offers a balanced or non-biased viewpoint, usually found in quality press titles
Independent Labelling
independents provide a useful means of engaging audiences that are reluctant to consume mainstream media and conglomerates also delegate production to independents to shield themselves from the impact of content failure on their brand identity
Industrial Process
there are three stages to the industrial process
Production
how a film gets made
o Pre-Production
o Production
o Post-Production
o Marketing
o Distribution
o Circulation
Distribution
how a film gets seen, for example, cinema, digital products, streaming, on-demand
Circulation
how a film aims to build its audience via marketing and promotion
Industry Influence
citizen-oriented regulation was scrapped as a result of industry lobbying. Producers wanted to ditch educational programming quotas so they could broadcast more commercially viable content
Institutions
commonly used in writing about media to describe the modern day equivalents of those media organisations seen to be of cultural significance in shaping how we view the world today
Internationalisation
refers to strategies adopted by media makers to maximise their profits and audience reach using global distribution
Internationalism
allows media makers to maximise profits and audience reach via global distribution. Media conglomerates strive to operate in multiple countries to create this global reach
Jean Chalaby’s Theory
states that transnational television highlights how contemporary media producers, particularly on global platforms like Netflix, intentionally crafting content that transcends national boundaries; whilst maintaining elements of cultural specificity, shows are shaped to engage global audiences through genre familiarity, universal themes and platform-driven accessibility
Legacy Power
a term used to describe the continued influence of traditional media organisations
Leveson Inquiry
a public inquiry into how NewsCorp had hacked phones belonging to celebrities, politicians, members of the royal family, relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of the 7/7 bombings
Limited Distribution Company
term applied to companies who have limited capacity to sell their products. Independents, in particular, struggle to distribute their products because they aren’t vertically integrated
Low Budget
£150,000 - £5,000,000
The Blairwitch Project (1999), Saw (2004), Psycho (1960), The Full Monty (1997)
Low-Mid Budget
£5,000,000-30,000,000
Blinded by the Light (2019), The Exorcist (1973), The Shining (1980), La La Land (2016)
Mass Market News
news designed to engage mainstream readerships, presenting hard news as entertainment and often critiqued for trivialising political issues, also known as ‘news depoliticization’
Media Concentration
where media products are increasingly controlled by fewer companies. Curran and Seaton argue that the process of media concertation has accelerated since the 1960s
Media Diversity
Curran and Seaton celebrate the BBC because it provides minority interest programming, has a duty to be unbiased, and, moreover reflects the diverse members of UK society
Media Institutions
established regulated organisations that own and produce different media, products, platforms and brands
Media Pluralism
media landscape with a healthy balance of products made by different media company types, including public service broadcasters, commercial media and citizen-generated media
Micro Budget
less than £150,000, for example, El Mariachi (1992)
Minority Audience
very small target audience. Curran & Seaton argue that commercial imperatives push minority products to the margins of broadcast schedules because they don’t make a great deal of profit
Minority Issue Debate
where media products choose to focus on minority issues not normally covered in commercial media
Multinational Company
media company that operates in multiple countries. Curran and Seaton argue that this maximises profits because producers can collect revenues for the same products across multiple countries
Multiple Revenue Streams
media brand that generates income from a number of different sources. Films, for example, often create revenue through merchandising (toys, clothing and video games) as well as ticket sale
Multi-Sector Integration
buying companies across the culture sector allows for further cross-promotion opportunities and the deployment of brands across media platforms
Murder of Milly Dowler
Milly Dowler was a 13-year-old girl who was strangled by Levi Bellfield in 2002. Originally, police believed Dowler was still alive as her voicemails were being listened to. It later transpired that her phone had been hacked by NewsCorp and they were listening to her voicemails whilst she lay dead. This led to the formation of the Leveson Inquiry
Nation State Powerlessness
a concept that acknowledges that digital media regulation is difficult and the global nature of online media means that individual countries can’t easily regulate products/services that are distributed from outside their borders
Ofcom
The Office of Communications
has regulated the UK media sector since 2003, centralised the responsibilities of the multiple regulators that previously existed in broadcasting and telecommunications, it regulates through a mixture of measures to promote competition, plurality and diversity
PEGI
Pan-European Game Information
age-rating system that provides consumers with information about gaming content, tells parents whether games contain depictions of violence, swearing or gambling
Pre-Sold Audiences
usually constructed through the use of star power or because a product is heavily marketed as genre driven. Both of these formatting techniques create pre-release fan-based appeals
Proprietor Influence
Curran and Seaton suggest that news owners often control the agendas of newspapers. This means that UK news titles are biased and construct problematic ideological effects
PSB
Public Service Broadcaster
media organisation that doesn’t make products for commercial gain, such as the BBC
Regulation
the act of controlling something
Regulation Overload
the volume of authors making online content poses a massive challenge to regulators. The scale of online social media platforms, for example, makes it impossible to vet all published material
Regulator
an authority who creates and maintains rules
Remakes
the media industry further reduces risk by recycling archived material that has enjoyed prior success; retellings often seek to recapture audience engagement through nostalgia-based appeals, whilst also rebranding content so that it fits the needs of a contemporary audience
Risk Aversion
when produce content deliberately lacks controversy. Newspapers, for example, might pursue a risk averse editorial mix to maximise advertising income or to cultivate a mainstream audience
Rupert Murdoch
the owner of NewsCorp
Self-Regulation
devolves regulatory decisions to industry practitioners. Self-regulation means that producers assume responsibility for policing/gatekeeping content they make and broadcast
Self-Regulatory Influences
producers largely police their own content in the UK’s consumer-led regulatory system. Self-regulation is guided by audience and advertiser needs, as well as a producer’s ethical stance
Serialisation
enables producers to reduce risk by formatting content so it that appeals to an established audience. Serialisation strategies include: prequels, sequels, spin-offs and remakes
Speed of Change Effects
Livingstone & Lunt argue that the rate of technological change has been so rapid that governments have been unable to devise meaningful regulatory systems to police online content
Star Power
foregrounding the presence of celebrities in a media product. Including star personas brings an inherited audience to a product or is used to suggest high production values
Studio Budget
over £50,000,000
WALL-E (2009), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Tangled (2010)
Subsidary
company controlled by a much larger company
Synergistic Relationship
two separate media organisations working together in a manner that benefits both organisation
Synergy
where two or more people or businesses work together an therefore gain a mutual benefit, increasing the effectiveness of results
Tech Giant Control
online tech giants - Google, Facebook and Twitter - are so powerful that individual governments are reluctant to take action that might control or regulate their activities
Technological Convergence
advancement of technology, merging and integrating
Transnational Television
refers to how television goes beyond national boundaries
Vulnerable Audience
Livingstone & Lunt suggest that the principle function of the independent bodies who regulate the UK’s media is to protect children and other vulnerable groups from the effects of harmful content
