recap: media institutions

Hesmondhalgh- it’s difficult for media companies to make every product successful however they rely on a few main products to get revenue by using star names and easy to follow narrative. Companies have to make a lot of money out of their products initially, because they don’t often resell the same product repeatedly. 

  1. Products exist as a result of their economic context
  2. The media industry is a high risk business- only a few products are successful and take all the money in the business

Ways media companies expand:

  • Horizontal integration- acquiring media companies that operate in similar sectors (achieves scale-based cost savings and maximise profits)
  • Vertical integration- one company takes control over one or more stages in the production or distribution of a product (achieves significant cost-saving efficiencies)
  • Multi-sector integration- buying companies across the culture industry (allows for further cross-promotion and employment of brand across media platforms

Primary audiences are those who receive the communication directly. Secondary audiences is anyone who may indirectly receive a copy of the communication. Tertiary audiences are audience is almost unaware they are consuming for example adverts in a magazine they are reading or on a billboard they walk past

Link to CSP’s

  • No Offence is produced by Abbottvision and broadcast on Channel 4. Abbottvision is a production company
  • Channel 4’s commitment to be innovative and distinctive.
  • Prior to No Offence, Abbott’s most successful programme had been Shameless which was a realistic representation of the lives of people at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale
  • Channel 4 buys programming from production companies
  • Having a distinctive production background and being a ‘Channel 4 programme’ adds to the branding of No Offence itself and helps audiences know what to expect from the programme
  • Channel 4 uses series such as No Offence to add value to the channel through the availability of the ‘box set’ on All4

  • The Killing was the catalyst for the wider distribution of foreign language crime programming on UK television
  • was produced the Danish national public service broadcaster DR
  • specialised nature of media production, distribution and circulation within a transnational and global context
  • it was broadcast in the UK nearly five years after its success in Denmark (doesn’t follow Hesmondhalgh’s theory that media companies make products as a one time thing)
  • Produced by DR and German company ZDF, the police drama was created and written by Søren Sveistrup. – This allowed more opportunity for global networking and international release, bringing more viewers and therefore, money.
  • The character of Sarah Lund is a familiar detective stereotype

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