• Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

A company owning a large number of companies in a media based industry eg. film, television, radio

• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration

A single parent company owning multiple companies within an industry eg. film industry

Horizontal – Owned companies at the same stage of the industry eg. multiple production companies

Vertical – Owned companies at different stages of the industry eg. production, distribution, exhibition

• Gatekeepers

A secretary who controls who gets an appointment with a president of the company is an example of a gatekeeper.

• Regulation / Deregulation

government stopping large monopolies from forming / continuing to make it more fair for smaller businesses

• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

a single person or company that owns the majority of a industry. positive and negative effects

• Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right

• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

‘ for every individual who succeeds, there are many who do not. For many, it will be the result of a perfectly reasonable personal decision that the commitment and determination required is not for them’ ~ Creative Britain (2008)

Media working practices

Journalistic practices

Althusser says that we are socially constructed and what socially constructs us is ‘despite its diversity and contradictions . . . the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’ In relation to journalistic practices, they are effected by this ‘ruling class’ and in turn construct our society. For example, Murdoch visited his editor of the sun after writing a report supporting Tony Blair saying he got it all wrong , making him rewrite it supporting the entire labour party and their ideologies as well as Blair.

Journalistic practices:  Noam Chomsky presents his thoughts on how the mass media works against democracy’s best interests in his documentary Manufacturing consent, this relates to the leveson inquiry, a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal. The Murdoch dynasty was also affected by the inquiry, it was found out that his company was paying the police for information, however nothing came of it. This can also relate to Hesmondhalgh’s theory, he points out that societies with profitable cultural industries tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

• Rupert Murdoch has a net worth of $18.2bn USD
• By 2000, Murdoch’s News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries

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• critically analyses relationship between media work and the media industry in his book ‘the cultural industries’, 2019
• ‘the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out’ – meaning working in the media isn’t what you think it is, it’s carried out in a way you wouldn’t think it was
• ‘there must be serious concerns about the extent to which this business-driven, economic agenda is compatible with the quality of working life and of human well-being in the creative industries’ (written with banks). – this suggests that the higher ups in the media industry care more about succeeding and becoming the dominant media business
• ‘creative work is now imagined only as a self-actualising pleasure‘ – suggesting people only work in the media industry to achieve a sense of self worth and not to help people in escapism, all they want is to be successful and make money from it, so rather than being driven making a difference and making something people enjoy, people in the media industry are narcissistic and are driven by money.

Murdoch media empire

• individual net worth to be $6.53 billion as of July 31
•  the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including The Sun and The Times in the UK, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian in Australia, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post in the US

Key words:

media conglomerate – a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises

vertical integration – an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company

horizontal integration –  the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain

regulation – the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends

David Hemondhalgh is among a range of academics who critically analyse the relationship between media work and the media industry. In his seminal book, The Culture Industries. He argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximize chances of commercial success.

Hesmondhalgh discusses the way the cultural industries operate and explores their effect on audiences: “Of one thing there can be no doubt: the media do have influence.”

He points out that societies with profitable cultural industries (e.g. USA, UK) tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

He also suggests that;

“the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out”

Murdoch Empire Media

Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, The Wall Street Journal, and Harper Collins. In March 2019, Murdoch sold the majority of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company for $71.3 billion.

• Hesmondhalgh discusses the way the cultural industries operate and explores their effect on audiences: “Of one thing there can be no doubt: the media do have influence.”
• He points out that societies with profitable cultural industries (e.g. USA, UK) tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

Key words:

Media concentration – When the majority of companies in one market are owned by a small number of people/organisations

Conglomerates – a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises

Globalisation – the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas

Vertical Integration – a strategy whereby a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors or retail locations to control its value or supply chain.

Horizontal Integration – the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain

Gatekeepers – Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered

Regulation / Deregulation – rules that are put in place to prevent companies from getting to big and becoming monopolies 

Key words: 

• Media concentration: Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
• Conglomerates: A conglomerate is a multi-industry company
• Globalisation:the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.
• Horizontal Integration:  is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. 
• Gatekeepers: information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication. … Individuals can also act as gatekeepers, deciding what information to include in an email or in a blog.
• Regulation: Tax, government, police
• Deregulation: lack of tax, government, police
• Free market: an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
• Monopolies: A monopoly is a business that is the only provider of a good or service, giving it a tremendous competitive advantage over any other company that tries to provide a similar product or service. 
• Mergers: A merger is an agreement that unites two existing companies into one new company. 

Hesmondhalgh’s key ideas are:

• Hesmondhalgh discusses the way the cultural industries operate and explores their effect on audiences: “Of one thing there can be no doubt: the media do have influence.”
• He points out that societies with profitable cultural industries (e.g. USA, UK) tend to be dominated by large companies, have minimal government regulation and significant inequality between rich and poor.

• the idea that the largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
• the idea that the radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries

major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success. 

Murdoch Empire