MEDIA ECONOMICS
Media Economics
Media economics as sub-field of economics analyses the firms, industries, and activities of media enterprises, drawing on theories and concepts from economics. It encompasses economic theoretical and practical economic questions specific to media of all types. The major concern with regard to media economics are the economic policies and practices of media companies and disciplines including journalism and the news industry, film production, entertainment programs, print, broadcast, mobile communications, internet, advertising and public relations. Media ownership and concentration, deregulation of media, market share, intellectual property rights, competitive economic strategies, company economics, "media tax"
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Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence or media concentration) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. It refers to the idea that the ownership of various media is restricted to a relatively small number of companies. The majority of the major media outlets are owned by a proportionately small number of conglomerates and corporations. Globally, large media conglomerates include Viacom, CBS Corporation, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and News Corp ,Bertelsmann AG, Sony, Comcast, Vivendi, Televisa, The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Corporation, Organizações Globo and Lagardère Group. The development in communication technologies made it technologically possible and economically feasible for media conglomerates to establish distribution and production networks across continents. A number of U.S. media conglomerates that dominate the U.S. media markets, along with a few Asian and European media conglomerates such as Sony Corp., Bertelsmann, Vivendi, and Pearson, dominate the global media landscape. These media conglomerates have operations worldwide and distribute their content or provide services to a world …show more content…
All these media consolidations have concentrated ownership over the U.S. media market—these media consolidates controls more than half of the total media revenue in the U.S. As a result this concentration of media ownership in the hands of few, these media consolidates have a great impact on what the audience listens to, watches, and reads via different media platform such as television, newspapers, the Internet, radio and
Michael Parenti (2002) declares media in the United States is no longer “free, independent, neutral and objective.” (p. 60). Throughout his statement, Parenti expresses that media is controlled by large corporations, leaving smaller conglomerates unable to compete. The Telecommunications Act, passed in 1996, restricted “a single company to own television stations serving more than one-third of the U.S. public,” but is now overruled by greater corporations. (p. 61). In his opinion, Parenti reveals that media owners do not allow the publishing of stories that are not beneficial and advantageous. Parenti supports his argument very thoroughly by stating how the plutocracy takes control over media in multiple ways: television, magazines, news/radio broadcasting, and other sources.
In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act thereby lifting restrictions on media ownership that had been in place for over sixty years (Moyers 2003; Bagdikian 2000: xviii). It was now possible for a single media company to own not just two radio stations in any given local market, but eight. On the national level, there was no longer any limit on the number of stations a company could own – the Act abandoned the previous nation-wide ownership cap of forty stations (20 FM and 20 AM). This “anti-regulatory sentiment in government” has continued and in 2004 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a new rule that would allow corporations to own “45 percent of the media in a single market, up from [the] 35 percent” established by the 1996 Act (Croteau & Hoynes 2001: 30; AFL-CIO 2004). Companies can now also own both a newspaper and a television station in the same city (AFL-CIO 2004). This deregulation has led to a frenzied wave of mergers – most notably the Viacom/CBS merger in 1999, the largest in history (Croteau & Hoynes 2001: 21). Ownership of the media has rapidly consolidated into fewer and fewer hands as companies have moved to gobble up newspapers, television stations, and radio stations across the country.
When discussing the media, we must search back to its primal state the News Paper. For it was the News paper and its writers that forged ahead and allowed freedoms for today’s journalism on all fronts, from the Twitter accounts to the daily gazettes all must mark a single event in the evolution of media in respects to politics and all things shaping. Moving on in media history, we began to see a rapid expansion around 1990. With more than 50% of all American homes having cable TV access, newspapers in every city and town with major newspaper centers reaching far more than ever before. Then the introduction of the Internet; nothing would ever be the same.
Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and internationally. The aim of these companies is to generate revenue and in order to do this they create and air shows that cater to popular demand. In doing so, they sometimes compromise on the quality of their content. This is where public broadcasters come into perspective.
B) The critical issue is that Comcast, the biggest internet and cable provider in the nation, is seeking to become even bigger in merging with Time Warner Cable, the second biggest company in the market. This merger will increase the influence Comcast has on TV channels and internet content providers, leaving consumers with fewer alternatives and will reduce competition to the amount where Comcast will control two thirds’ of the cable TV market and about 40% of ...
Today in the late 1990’s we can not escape advertising it bombards us from all types of media and every aspect of our lives. It is a multibillion-pound industry that stereotypes genders and tells us what we could become if we use certain products.
Freedman argues that the individuals and groups who own and finance the mass media control media content – or the information that is available to the public (Freedman 106). One prominent issue that the Canadian media industries encounter is the excessive concentration of ownership in the mass media. In their 2014 article, “Media Ownership, Public Participation, and Democracy in the Canadian Mediascape,” Leslie Regan Shade and Michael Lithrow state that the concentration of ownership occurs when a tiny number of media corporations “end up (through mergers and acquisitions) owning the majority of media [outlets],” thus limiting the amount of information and content the public has exposure to (Shade & Lithrow 177). Moreover, the excessive concentration of ownership results in less competition in the mass media industries; an increase in the political and economic power of these concentrated media corporations; and a lack of diversity of viewpoints in the media content, as marginalized communities have little to no ownership or control of the mass media (Freedman 106; Shtern and Blake 89). Shade and Lithrow assert that Canada has “one of the most consolidated media systems in the world,” with four mass media corporations – BCE Inc. (Bell), Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor – owning and controlling a majority of the media outlets (Shade &
For years, the population has been exposed to different forms of media. Newspapers, magazines, television, films, radio, and more recently the Internet are ways of promoting ideas, spreading news, and advertising products.
The ownership and national culture of media system is the basic cause of the different media systems of the United States and China. Media system of the United States is considered as a free-market system. Large corporations control most the print media and the entire American broadcast media and, and wealthy individuals own these corporations. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the US, with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom CBS Corporation and NBC Universal ranking second, third and so forth respectively (Lutz, 2012). Together, the "big six" dominate 90% news, radio, magazines, movies and other entertainments in the United States. The Walt Disney Company owns 10 television stations, 277 radio stations, Pixar Animation, and other entertainments. This large and diverse proportion of media holdings make sure that the power of speech is on peoples` side. Thus, the American government has less power to interfere the free speech of media industry.
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity.
Becker L.B and Schoenbach K (1989) Audience Responses to Media Diversification, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
The major constraint of mass media is competition. Each form of mass media wants to be the one to target the audience, so therefore competition between mass media is very strong, because capturing the inside of the sports world is critical. Apart from the competition among the various forms of media there is also competition among each form of the media example Fox network competes with all television networks for a market share of the audience. Network companies such as Fox buy the contracts to show American football games for millions of dollars, which they in turn make their money back through companies wanting to advertize on their network during these football games.
Finally, observing the traditional organizations and how they used to associate themselves to the physical forms by which they distributed their products – television broadcasting company, radio broadcasting company, newspaper, book or magazine publisher. Recently, these media firms had to restructure their business in order to be successful in this digital world. Hence, they had to widen their delivery medium rather than limiting it, and be exploiters of content wherever content is available to be exploited.
Inevitably we have found significant evidence of Western (particularly US) media influences. More specific examples include Pan-Latin American television networks include the US-based CNN en Espanol, Univision, and MundoVision, as well as Spain’s Canal 24 Horas. Some part of their media is a commercial media market which is controlled by a small number of wealthy individuals (e.g. Mexican media Remigio Angel Gonzalalez’ Albavision encompasses 26 TV stations and 82 radio stations, and includes La Red (Chile), ATV (Peru), SNT (Paraguay) and Canal 9