Media organisations

Increasing concentration:

There has been an increased concentration of ownership into a few media corporations. Media companies have become more and more transnational, more diverse with many interests and have branched out into other areas of economic activity. Fewer and fewer media conglomerates increasingly own what we see, hear and read. This process is known as the concentration of ownership. This concentration of ownership by media conglomerates is the result of three major developments. http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/ml/bagdikian.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL5DzTxDnLk

Media Conglomerates / Organisations include: Time Warner, Walt Disney Corporation, News Corporation, NBC Universal, Sony, General Electric, Virgin Media, Liberty Media Organisation, Bertelsmann. 

Vertical Integration: This is when a company attempts to control every stage in the production and distribution and consumption of media content i.e. one company acquiring all aspects of the production and distribution of a single type of media product. A film production company, for example, may own transport and distribution companies and cinemas, and this control every stage of the film industry from shooting the picture to showing the film, even selling pop corn and ice cream. Hollywood companies have operated like this since the early 1930’s. Today in the UK…