Use this sheet to help guide your essay on the structure and ownership of the media sector.
1. Define the major media industry sectors. To include: film, radio, television, music, print, computer games, advertising & marketing, interactive, and press. Give examples of different companies, ensuring you do not mix up media products with media companies.
2. Define and explain different types of ownership. To include: private ownership, public company, public service, multinationals, independents, and comglomerates. Give examples for each type. Consider if there is cross-media ownership, and how much diversification the company has achieved. To achieve a distinction, you should present recent and relevant examples of changes within different media companies and be able to offer lucid and coherent arguments about the implications of these changes.
3. Define and explain what vertical and horizontal integration means. Again, you must give examples of each. When discussing each type of ownership consider the impact on production and distribution, linking this to the point below.
4. Take a media company, and produce a case-study on that company. Discuss:
a. Who owns it.
b. What media sector it belongs to.
c. How it is organised, i.e. is it vertically or horizontally integrated
d. What products it produces (cross-media?)
e. Who are its competitors?
f. Who are the customers?
g. Impact on production and distribution
h. What changes in organisational structure has there been and what were the implications.
Further details on what we are looking for at Pass, Merit and Distinction:
Pass: You will describe the structure and ownership of the media sector accurately but in very general terms. However, the impact of ownership on production and distribution will not be considered. You will not, for instance, discuss whether this pattern of ownership makes global companies powerful but limits choice and diversity for the consumer. It is also expected that at this level you will require guidance on seeking out and researching suitable media organisations. You will make some simple connections between the size and structure of the media organisation and the market trends which affect it.
Merit: You will use relevant terminology such as cross-media ownership and diversification appropriately to explain the structure and ownership of media companies. Examples will be carefully chosen to connect the ownership and structure of media organisations to opportunities for production and distribution, linking these to market trends. For example, a case study of television broadcasting in the UK today might focus on how digital and satellite provision creates a competitive market for national broadcasters, including the BBC as a public service broadcaster.
your language skills will be good enough to express fairly complex ideas and to handle material
of moderate difficulty.
