COM 338 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Harpercollins, Jane Akre, Product Placement
Document Summary
Media workers work within the economic constraints of media firms. Media texts are not necessarily independent of economic forces. Follow principles of business (primary directive: make money) Concentration - media concentrated in several companies worldwide. Conglomeration - media companies have become part of much larger businesses. Vertical integration: integrate all aspects of media production and distribution. Talent filters down to film studios, which filter films down to movie theatres. Buying up music labels, book publishers, and tv. You get to build and maintain a monopoly on the entertainment industry. You can save money and make profits. Facebook, apple, google, amazon, at&t, and yahoo!, while they are not generally known as media companies, they now invest in projects that make them media companies. In investing their money into these projects, they end up following the same integration plan as media companies like time warner or cbs.
