Media, Information and Technoculture 2100F/G Lecture 5: LECTURE FIVE – OWNERSHIP

• School: Western University
• Department: Media, Information and Technoculture
• Course: Media, Information and Technoculture 2100F/G
• Professor: Nick Dyer- Witheford

Document Summary

Monopoly: industry owned by a single company: ex. Google in the search engine business (not a full monopoly) Oligopoly: industry owned by a few companies: ex. Emerges from a process of mergers and acquisitions, in which companies either agree to combine, or buy other companies: this is the process by which we see the creation of conglomerates. Results in creation of conglomerates, large corporations with many subsidiary units. Horizontal integration: buying companies involved in the same activity: ex. owning a chain of movie theatres, or newspapers, or several animation studios. In practice, large media corporations practice both types. The big media conglomerates do both: they are built out of simultaneous vertical and horizontal integration. In 2013, following scandals in the news division, the entertainment interests were split off into a separate company, 21st century fox, but both were chaired by owner rupert murdoch. 56% of media is owned by four vertically integrated companies: bell ctv, rogers, shaw, gmi.