Media Organization Flashcards
What trend has been observed in media ownership and control in recent years?
The number of companies controlling global mass media has significantly shrunk.
How many corporations controlled the vast majority of media in the USA in 1983?
40 corporations.
According to Bagdikian
By 2004, how many corporations controlled media ownership in the USA?
7 corporations.
Who are the powerful individuals that have historically controlled British newspapers?
According to Curran: Press barons.
In 1937, how many men owned nearly half of the national and local daily newspapers sold in Britain?
4 men.
Today, how many individuals dominate the ownership of British national daily and Sunday newspapers?
7 individuals.
Which company mainly controls the content of commercial terrestrial TV in Britain?
ITV plc.
Which two companies control access to satellite, cable, and digital TV in Britain?
News Corp and Virgin Media.
What does horizontal integration refer to in media ownership?
Global media corporations often cross media boundaries and invest in a wide range of media products.
What is vertical integration in the context of media companies?
Increasing economic control over all aspects of the production process to maximize profits.
What is diversification?
Media companies expanding into other fields other than media products
Give an example of diversification in media corporations.
Virgin expanded from a music label to other products like cola and banking.
What is synergy in media companies?
Using diverse interests to package products in different ways.
A company may use its global interests to market one of its own films through its TV channels, magazines etc in dozens of countries at the same time
What recent trend involves combining several technologies into one media product?
Technological convergence.
such as: mobile phones
According to Doyle (2002), why is examining ownership and control patterns important?
To ensure all points of view are heard for a truly democratic society and free media monitoring abuses of power and influence by elites
What does Doyle say about the dangers of ownership and control of media?
Media has the power to make or break political careers and have a considerable influence over public opinion
What do pluralists argue about media owners?
They are generally responsible in managing information.
Editors, journalists and broadcasters have a strong sense of professional ethics which acts as a system of checks and controls on potential owner abuse of media
What do pluralists believe shapes media content primarily?
Consumer demand in the marketplace.
Only give the buying public what they want
According to pluralists, who holds the real power in media?
Media audiences.
- If they didnt like the choices made avaliable to them or suspected it was bias - wouldnt buy it
- If some viewpoints have greater range of media representations - result of what the audience wants
What do pluralists argue about the concentration of ownership?
Product of economic rationality rather than political motives.
Driven by the need to keep low costs and maximise profit
Globalisation results from the need to find new audiences (rather than cultural imperialism)
- Impossible for owners to interfere due to complexity
What do pluralists say about democracy?
Media is an essential part of it due to the electorate today gaining most of their knowledge of the political process from newspapers and TV
Owners, editors and journalists manage and protect this process
What legal obligations does public service broadcasting (BBC) have?
To inform, educate, and ensure programming is pluralistic and diverse.
What do pluralists argue about PSB?
Impartial and objective, balance out any potential biases in private sector
Media restricted by state or government controls
- like The Press Council and The Office for Communications
Many countries have cross ownership rules preventing people from owning multiple types of media
What do Marxists believe about media owners?
Use their cultural power to dominate media outlets and transmit ruling class ideology.
What is the function of mass media according to Marxists?
To socialize the working class into accepting capitalist ideology.
Socialise the proletariat into false class consciousness and ISA (althusser)
What is the role of the media according to milliband?
Shape how we think about the world we live in through monitoring our consumption
Rarely inform the audience about important issues (eg: poverty)
Only conformist and pro-capitalist views are approved by owners
What do Tunstall and Palmer say about gov and media ownership?
Government no longer interested in controlling the activities of media owners because they need their support to gain/hold onto power
What evidence did Curran (2003) find regarding owner interference in the British press?
Strong evidence of manipulation of newspaper content by owners.
1920-50: Press Barons openly boasted about owning newspapers for politcial propaganda
What did Curran argue about Rupert Murdoch’s motives?
Murdoch’s motives are primarily economic rather than ideological.
His newspapers are conservative in content - supportive of capitalism
believes that right wing economies policies - key to vast profits
According to the GUMG, what social backgrounds do most journalists come from?
Male, white, and middle class.
54% privately educated
What do the GUMG say about journalists?
Generally believe in consensus beliefs (unthreatening), exclude any content that may be offensive to readers
No desire to defend capitalist interests
Media companies - profit making businesses, too much of a risk to show extreme views and lose profit
What is the agenda-setting theory?
The media sets the agenda and decides which issues are discussed in society.
A form of cultural hegemony
Little choice for audiences
How has the amount of serious news programming changed according to Barnett and Weymour?
Time allocated to serious news has fallen dramatically.
What trend has been observed in the content of media programming over time?
Increased focus on celebrity news and human interest stories.
According to Barnett and Weymour
Education, info and news increasingly side lined
