Media Products and Audiences

Media Products and Audiences

Institution - A company that produces media products.

Ownership - Media institutions are often owned by parent companies or conglomerates, or are independent.

Meaning -Technical, creative and business decisions are made by institutions to have a certain effect on audiences.

Distribution - How a media product is advertised, promoted and made available to potential audiences to raise awareness of the product.

Specialist Provider - An institution that exclusively operates within a specific media sector, such as a film production company or video game production company.

Conglomerate - A large organisation made up of lots of different businesses. For example, Pixar, LucasFilm and Marvel are individual companies that are all part of The Walt Disney Company.

Subsidiary - A company that is owned by a larger parent company.

Independent - A company that is not a subsidiary of a larger company.

Independent companies often work with other companies on "Joint ventures" so that they can pool money and resources together to make large-scale media products.

The biggest challenge for independent companies is distribution - support from larger companies is necessary, particularly in film and music, to get a product to cinemas, television and reach the audience.

Media Sectors

Media Sector	Company	Product/Brand
Film	Disney	Marvel, Star Wars
TV and radio	BBC	BBC Radio 2
Video Games	Valve	Half Life
Print and Publishing	The New York Times Company	The New York Times
Web and online technologies	Facebook	Facebook
Music	Universal Music Group	Despacito

Public Service Broadcaster - A company that delivers services beneficial to public interest. This type of company often offers products to audiences beyond entertainment, with many products made specifically to inform or educate.

Cross-media Company - A company that produces media products in multiple different sectors.

Horizontal and Vertical integration - Horizontal integration is the reach of a company into multiple media sectors that produce different products. Vertical integration is the involvement of a company in multiple stages of product production, such as control over the production and distribution of a product.

Cross-promotion - When a horizontally-integrated company uses their platforms in other media sectors to aid in the marketing of products. This creates synergy between their media sectors that benefits the company.

Technological Convergence - The process of new technology moving towards single platforms for media consumption, where a single device can be used to access a range of media forms. A smart phone can access film and television, radio, news, games and music without the need for separate devices.