Power and Media Industries

James Curran and Jean Seaton:

'Diversity is in the public interest- but modern societies suffer from collective attention deficit disorders... the public interest has to work harder to be noticed, and we need agile but resourceful media to do that'

Digital technologies- have access to the internet

Monopoly-  the exclusive ownership or control of something

Conglomerate- A large corporation consisting of multiple smaller companies

Subsidiary- A smaller company owned by a large corporation

Who owns British newspapers?
The Times and The Sun are owned by a company called News International. The owner is Rupert Murdoch. Right winged newspaper

The Mirror is owned by Trinity Mirror.































Disney buying VICE meant they then had access to a wider target audience. People who are wealthy into drugs in their early twenties.
Disney is a huge conglomerate. 

News Corp owns: The sun, National Geographic, Fox News channel, ITV, SKY, 20th century fox, Harper Collins Publishers, FOX (Rupert Murdoch) 
They are close to becoming a monopoly.

Advantages to owning a monopoly:

• Removes the competition 
• Audience manipulation 
• Control
• Extends their range of business and political connections
• Increases  their corporation prestige 
• Distortion of democracy

An issue with a conglomerate owning media companies in different industries means lack of diversity.

Key Facts:

• Having a monopoly means domination of multiple media industries
• If the focus is on creating profit, generally conglomerates don't take risks with the media products they produce (similar films)
• This often results in limited variety, creativity and quality

'Anti-monopoly media regulation is needed not only to maintain fair competition but also to prevent the distortion of democracy'

Alternative of conglomerate ownership:

• A partnership instead of ownership
• Pass a law on how many companies you can own
• Unionisation- where people make their own decisions
• Boycott 
• Make our own media

' Media policy should seek... to create the conditions of greatest possible competition, thus enabling consumers to exercise sovereign control. This produces media that people want, a wide range of choice, and media independence from government.'

 
 
Independent producer- Free from outside control 

Institution- A media industry with its own specific identity