MEDIA STUDIES LU 1 Cont’d MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Media ownership Manual pg. 13 You need to know... WHO OWNS WHAT = WHAT CONTROL AND INFLUENCE DO THEY HAVE In media there are CONGLOMERATE: One corporation owning and controlling various media outlets – TV stations, radio, book publishing, internet E.g. News Corporation (Australia, USA, UK, China) Naspers (South Africa)

News Corp –International Conglomerate

21st Century Fox21st Century Fox/News CorporationNews Corporation Holdings include: the Fox Broadcasting Company; cable networks Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, FX, FXX, FX Movie Channel, and the regional Fox Sports Networks; print publications including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; the magazines Barron's and SmartMoney; book publisher HarperCollins; film production companies 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios.Fox Broadcasting CompanyFox News Channel Fox Business NetworkFox Sports 1Fox Sports 2National GeographicNat Geo WildFX FXXFX Movie ChannelFox Sports NetworksWall Street JournalNew York PostBarron's SmartMoney HarperCollins20th Century Fox Fox Searchlight Pictures Blue Sky Studios $30.4 billion

National - Media owners Naspers- Media 24 Newspapers & Magazines Daily Sun, Beeld, City Press Drum, Heat,YOUOnline News24, Sport24,Fin24

Avusa Newspapers & Magazines Sowetan, Business Day Financial MailTV Broadcast DSTV: Home Channel, Summit TV

MEDIA = Is a business So what is the bottom line? How will this influence how media products are produced and consumed?

CONGLOMERATE POSITIVES Media companies have GLOBAL reach e.g. war region Powerful and are owned by the government = no influence

NEGATIVES  Controlled by profits i.e. making money  Focus may not be public interest

ISSUES WITH THE CONGLOMERATE 1. If the focus is on PROFIT. Where do these media conglomerates get there money from Advertising, merchandising So will a newspaper owned by the media conglomerate be willing to write an expose on a major advertising sponsor?

2. VERTICAL INTEGRATION One conglomerate owns several companies and is able to produce at every stage of media production

Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner, which is a huge multi-national media conglomerate. An Example of Vertical Integration in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Harry Potter, a huge movie franchise, is a good example of how Warner Bros. has used vertical integration in order to maximise the potential earnings from productions. Production Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two, was created by Warner Bros. pictures, in association with Heyday Films. Distribution It was then distributed by Warner Bros. Distribution.

Marketing The film was marketed using several of Time Warner's companies. For instance, HBO ran a behind the scenes making of HP. CNN, another Time Warner company, was able to use its position as a news station with worldwide reach to promote HP. Time magazine also ran special features on Harry Potter before and after the film was released: people went to watch it at the cinema but keep interest up for DVD sales. Exhibition In terms of exhibition, Warner Bros. was able to use its Warner Bros. International Cinemas chain to show the film to a worldwide audience. In the US, HBO broadcast the HP7 television premiere. This allowed HBO to profit by having exclusive rights to show a worldwide box office hit, but also meant that Warner Bros. profited from the integration of Time Warner companies because their product was marketed by HBO across several different media before it was shown.

Vertical integration Positive As a conglomerate owns the various companies they can save money by doing everything themselves

Negative HOMOGENSATION Different news channels: TV, radio Will have similar angles and coverage

Who controls what will be published to the public

Bagdikian pg 15 of manual Media conglomerates not always ethical. Subtle in their control The public has no idea about who is controlling what they see/read. You need to consider WHO OWNS THE MEDIA YOU ARE CONSUMING and WHAT ARE THEIR VALUES profit or public interest