Ownership Trends

Question 1

ownership concentrated in a few hands

Answer 1

Concentration

Question 2

all stages in production owned by one company

Answer 2

Vertical Integration

Question 3

Horizontal integration

Answer 3

all companies in that section of media

Question 4

Diversification

Answer 4

variety of companies owned (media and other)

Question 5

companies owned all around the world

Answer 5

Transnational ownership

Question 6

When various tools are merged e.g. the internet can be accessed on mobile phones

Answer 6

Technological convergence

Question 7

Synergy

Answer 7

large media companies bring together various aspects of their business to develop a range of connected products

Question 8

Concentration doesn’t necessarily lead to lack of choice, media companies are not static entities – they grow, develop, evolve and sometimes disappear – all of which leads to diversity in media despite concentration

Answer 8

Compaine

Question 9

Concentration leads to the ‘appearance of choice’ but in reality, lots of different products sell the same ideas. E.g. MTV: adverts, music videos etc all sell certain looks and music etc.

Answer 9

Mc Chesney

Question 10

Corporations which have control of a total process, from raw material to fabrication to sales, also have few motives for genuine innovation and the power to seize out anyone else who tries to compete.

Answer 10

Bagdikian

Question 11

The profits gained from vertical integration can be enormous

Answer 11

Mc Chesney

Question 12

with the continuous advance in communication technology, people are able to reach each other with less money and less time – this will lead to more public contribution to the media

Answer 12

Nawal El Saadawi

Question 13

There is a trend towards concentration of ownership in the media which strengthens the control of owners.

Answer 13

Murdock and Golding

Question 14

The ruling class uses the mass media to control society by creating a false picture of reality – making inequalities in society seem inevitable and justifiable.

Answer 14

Miliband

Question 15

An investigative journalist who has created many films, news articles and books which run counter to mainstream products – perhaps Marxists fail to take account of this.

Answer 15

Pilger

Question 16

Media ownership doesn’t necessarily equal control, owners don’t share common interests – their goal is to compete and so they provide different choices, owners cannot physically control huge global companies so this leads to diversity produced by the controllers

Answer 16

Negrine

Question 17

the desire for profits and to increase ratings actually leads to less diversity e.g. soap operas have increased fivefold over the last 20 yrs but single dramas have halved – due to the pressure to bring viewers back again and again

Answer 17

Barnett and Weymour

Question 18

Programme makers avoid anything too challenging because they know they have to boost ratings, they stick to programmes we can relate to

Answer 18

Humphreys

Question 19

When studying news coverage of the miners strike they found that media professionals reported the events in a very similar way due to their common background and experience (typically white middle class male – the gaze)

Answer 19

GUMG

Question 20

symbolic annihilation of women in media (they are not shown much)

Answer 20

Tuchman

Question 21

working class families are underrepresented and middle class families are over represented

Answer 21

Glennon and Butsch

Question 22

In 600 British drama programmes, only 2.25% of actors were from minority social groups

Answer 22

Manuel

Question 23

there has been lots of legislation in recent years and a changing social climate to turn the tide and include more ethnic minorities in the media

Answer 23

Colle

Question 24

large scale companies (through concentration) tend to have the resources for more high quality reporting

Answer 24

Collins and Murroni

Question 25

studied the media’s influence on political opinion in USA in 1940s. They found that people had different amounts of exposure to the media, different media had different degrees of influence (e.g. TV vs papers), messages did not directly affect how people voted.

Answer 25

Katz and Lazerfeld