Vertical integration the process whereby several steps in the production and distribution of a product are controlled by a single company, and this manages to further the company's power in the marketplace. There are three different kinds of vertical integration; backward integration whereby the company aims to control the production aspects of a product, for instance if a company produces the film in a studio that they own, and forward integration where the company aims to control the distribution side of the product. There is also balanced integration, where the company uses a mix of both.
A company that uses vertical integration is Warner Bros Entertainment. They own film studios and the means to distribute their films. They also own some cinemas in which their films are shown; the company also owns factories whereby their physical product is made. This allows them to make profit at more stages in the production and distribution of their product.
Horizontal integration, on the other hand, is where a company takes over a similar company in order to gain more control over the marketplace and reach a wider audience. This is quite common and an example of this in the media is Disney merging with Pixar in order to form a strong brand.
2. What does Melody (1978) believe happens to the 'media market'?
William Melody felt that the monopolisation of the media marketplace is the greatest threat to freedom of expression in the United States, due to the private entrepreneurs having interests more based in economic efficiency and private profit as opposed to any more democratic messages.
Melody felt that the economic conditions and circumstances of these monopolies meant that the 'marketplace of ideas' was restricted to only a few privileged media owners.
3. What does Neuman (1991) believe happens to media content? Why is this a problem for the audience?
Neuman believes that the result of 'standardised production and marketing [processes]' is that most of what the audience see and hear in the mass media is very uniform in terms of it's content and world view. Anthony Giddens went further than this to say that we can solve this by 'democratising of the democracy'.
4. What does Sterling think about the level of research?
Sterling felt that 'surprisingly' little research had been carried out on the domination of the global media market, and found that only marginally more information has been discovered on companies now than what could have been found out 20 years ago. He felt that too much about this issue was 'assumed or anecdotal', and that it suggested results from the changes in ownership, but that was all.
5. What does the media reproduce according to Gomery?
Gomery believes that the mass media reproduces the 'structure of class inequalities from which they benefit', and that the media industry is said to play a very significant role in legitimating these. These inequalities may be in wealth, power or privilege. He states that when those who are in control of power control the flow of information the audience receives, the knowledge, values and images shown are all done so in the interest of others. This is a relatively Marxist theory, and hence it can be said that it helps to instill ideologies into an audience to make them believe that the messages they are shown through the media are right and that they should believe in these too.
6. The media industry and corporate power form a powerful cartel. What does it do to local cultures according to Meier?
Meier speaks of how the global interlocking of the media industry and traditional corporate power creates this powerful cartel, and that this encourages the transmission of certain generic values, such as consumerism, shareholder value, individualism and egoism. With commercial infotainment, reality shows and trivialised news programmes, Meier believes that local cultures and communities have become eroded, due to a conservative 'common sense' view on the world.
7. How have media corporations influenced the law? What impact does this have on new businesses entering the market?
The fact that media conglomerates have so much economic strength means that they have a very high position in society, which effectively means that they are powerful in terms of politics too. Bagdikian (2000) states that the largest of media giants have achieved shocking success in rewriting media laws and regulations in order to suit the interests of their corporations, rather than to appease the interests of the genera public. In Europe and the US, multiple cross-media ownership rules have either disappeared or been severely relaxed; for instance the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) once enforced stringent ownership controls for the media, and believed that programming diversification was necessary to maximise public service. However, they take a more laissez-faire approach to the diversification of messages nowadays.
This makes it very difficult for a new business to enter the market because they can easily be targeted by or swallowed up by conglomerates.
8. What issue does convergence pose for media ownership?
The problem with convergence in an industry that is becoming owned by so few people is that if the conglomerates look to purchase not only film-related companies, but also games companies, comic book companies and toy manufacturers, their generic messages will continue to be spread through and the messages in the market will become further diluted with the conservative views Meier speaks of in the article.
However, convergence may work well in terms of media ownership. A good example of this is where companies own different types of companies and then merge their intellectual property to create a new product. Although the image shown to the right is not a real media product, it is a good metaphor for the way that Disney could potentially merge their properties - the rights to the Lilo & Stitch franchise, as well as their rights to the intellectual property of Lucasfilm (Star Wars).9. What does the FCC believe about programme diversity?
The Federal Communications Commission once believed that programming diversification was necessary to maximise the service companies could offer the public. It was said that the greater the number of independent broadcasters there was, the greater the changes of achieving the desire diversity, whereby there were messages broadcast to suit all kinds of audiences.
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