Cross Media Ownership

What is Media Ownership?

All Media products are owned by a particular producer. Bauer produce Heat magazine News Corporation produce The Sun New Line Cinema produced Lord of the Rings

Legal Ownership
Each of these producers has legal ownership of the particular media text they produce This means that they profit from the distribution of the media text. They are also legally responsible for its content (complaints, regulation, legal action)

Historical Media Ownership

Historically, Media ownership was reasonably restricted Media producers tended to stick to one channel of distribution (film, TV, radio, magazine) The producers were smaller, specialist companies

1980s What changed?

Since the 1980s, the world economic climate has altered rapidly, with companies either merging or being taken over by other companies with similar interests. This happened in all industries and not just Media. Bigger companies = bigger profits

1980s onwards Media

As well as the economic changes, the Media industry has changed rapidly in the last 20 years. Since the late 1980s, the technology available to distribute Media texts has exploded. This has impacted upon the companies that produce these texts.

1980s onwards Media

To take advantage of the changing technology, Media companies have seen a significant amount of merger, takeover and buyout. IPC now owned by Time Warner (originally 2 companies, Time and Warner Brothers) New Line Cinema now owned by Disney

Cross Media Ownership

As a result of the size of the companies which now operate, they are able to diversify into more than one Media area. IPC Film/Magazine/News/TV The term to describe this is CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Cross Media Ownership - Advantages

1) Reduced Costs big companies have more purchasing power (think Tesco) and produce products at a reduced cost. They can then either pass on this reduction to the consumer or increase their profit margins. 2) Synergy they are able to pool the resources of the underlying companies to produce a better product at a reduced cost

Cross Media Ownership - Advantages

3) Wider distribution the markets into which the media text can be distributed are increased bigger audience = bigger profit 4) Business Security the diversity of the products on offer increases the security of the business one market fails, can focus on another think Sony

Cross Media Ownership Disadvantages Media Power

The Media is very persuasive much of this persuasive power lies in the hands of fewer producers. Bias and partiality severely restricted. Campaign for Press Freedom: When media are concentrated in the hands of powerful proprieters deep damage can be inflicted on democratic societies.

Cross Media Ownership Disadvantages Media Power

The issue was again raised in parliament in 2008 when a Lords Select Committee investigates these concerns. They concluded that It is possible for one voice to become too powerful and that any future mergers need to be carefully scrutinised by the government. They also insisted that the current system of regulation remain to protect media recipients. Many believe little has changed.

Cross Media Ownership other disadvantages

Privacy massive databases of personal information Flow of Information information providers control selection, organisation and flow of information. Time Warner own 1,000,000,000 Google shares. Google own You Tube. ITV own Facebook. Branding media texts become part of a brand and lose their individual status.

Cross Media Ownership Conclusion

There are both advantages and disadvantages of this global change. What is clear is that change is happening NOW. TASK = Rewrite your Ownership section of your Learned Response now to take into account what you have learnt today.