GLOSSARY

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TERMS

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A MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANYA multi-national company is basically a company which has branches,

or is set up in other countries.

An example of this is Time Warner, whose movies are shown is several countries.

An example of a Time Warner movie which has been shown across the world is Harry Potter.

AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY

An independent company is a small company which is privately owned, and doesn’t belong to a big company.

For example, Pixar WAS an independent company, but it was bought by Disney so they could incorporate Pixar animations into Disney. This also eliminated competition from Disney, because, although Disney was bigger, Pixar were good at what they do.

An example of an independent film company is ‘Caravan Corporate’, which produces short animations and documentaries.

CONGLOMERATE, PARENT COMPANIES AND SUBSIDIARIES

A conglomerate is a large company that owns smaller companies. These smaller companies can be in any part of the media sector, whether it be in animation or sound or editing (examples). An example of a conglomerate is Time Warner. An example of a company they own is Framestore, who worked on several of Time Warner films. They worked on ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1’, on a scene Time Warner needed to be animated.

Framestore is an example of a subsidiary, which is basically a small company which is owned by a bigger company, usually a conglomerate. Time Warner can always get their animations done because they own Framestore. If they didn’t own an animation company, then Time Warner would have to pay out for another company to do the animations. Owning a subsidiary means less of a payout for the conglomerate.

A parent company owns enough ‘voting stock’ of another company to help control management by employing its board of directors. This is also known as a holding company. Time Warner is also an example of a parent company.

This picture is from Framestore’s work in Harry Potter.

A MONOPOLY AND AN OLIGOPOLY

A monopoly is when one organization controls or owns more of the market share of an industry or product than is allowed. Meaning it is against the law to own too much. At the moment, News Corps is thinking about increasing ‘its shareholding in BSkyB from 39% to 100%’ (info found from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/19/observer-leader-bskyb-murdoch )

An oligopoly is when the market is owned/controlled by a small number of organizations. An example of this is Sky and Virgin, and the competition between them. It is said that the media industry as a whole is an oligopoly, but this is subjective.

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CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Cross media ownership fits in with a conglomerate. The six big conglomerates are: General Electric, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corp, Disney and CBS.

Cross media ownership fits into this because these conglomerates own companies in all media sectors. For example, newspapers/ magazines, radio, TV shows etc. (see www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main )

This helps the conglomerates because they have to pay out less money to other companies to advertise, as they have their own TV channels or magazines, so they keep more money.

GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is basically when something becomes worldwide. Meaning we can all consume the same products all over the world. For example, you can consume a Big Mac from McDonalds in most countries, and it is the same taste. The negativity is it is eroding cultures, as other cultures eat differently, but they won’t carry on eating their own food because of the influence of the dominant Western World.

A media type of globalization is Facebook. This is because people all over the world can use Facebook, but it also lets us communicate globally.

THE ADVERTISING ‘CAKE’

The advertising ‘CAKE’ is to do with advertising. When there was only four channels, these four channels would get more money from advertisers.

However, there are now more channels, meaning each channel gets less money from advertisers.

The whole cake metaphor is to do with the slice of money the channels get from advertisers. Cake= money for adverts. Smaller piece of cake = less funding

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATIONVertical integration is when a film is made, and instead of a company

buying people to do each part of the production, they would buy the different companies to do it for them. So in the long run, they would save money.

Horizontal integration is, for example Time Warner. Time Warner own different film companies, for example, Warner Bros, and each film company makes films, so does the same thing, but usually of different genres.

A FRANCHISE

A franchise is an authorisation granted to an individual or a group of people enabling them to advertise and sell products from a company. Most people think of a fast food franchise, such as McDonalds, because it is a fast food store, but they also have TV advertisements for new food or the ‘classic’ McDonalds foods, such as the Big Mac or the pound saver menu. However, a media franchise would mainly appeal to films, such as Harry Potter, as, a part from the books and films, they have more than 3 films and merchandise to promote the films, such as soundtracks, wands and figures.

A MEDIA FORMAT

A format is how something is set out or arranged. This would imply that a media format is how a type of media, whether it be a TV programme or a magazine is arranged. For example, a TV show has to have certain elements in it to be aired. For example, a magazine show, such as Top Gear, has to have certain information in it, but also has to be educational (in Top Gear’s case, cars), but also has to be quite entertaining.

WEB 2.0

Web 2.0 is associated with allowing users to interact with each other in social media. Web 2.0 also lets you add to stuff. For example, a site such as Wikipedia because users can now add information to the website for other users.

A MERGER AND A TAKEOVER

Mergers and takeovers are similar corporate actions as they combine two firms into one. This boost economies and helps generate more sales.

A merger is for both companies are equals, and is a mutual decision. The old heads of the firms become joint heads of this new firm, and money goes between both companies equally.

A takeover is generally the opposite, where one of the companies are smaller, and is bought by a much larger company. The larger company can initiate a takeover, whether it be friendly or hostile.

An example of a merger is Sony with Ericson and universal

An example of a takeover is Disney with Pixar.

CONVERGENCE

Convergence is the different media sectors are combining into a single media. For example, the Internet has films and songs on them, but that is what TV and MP3’s/iPods were used for. Now they are all used for the same thing. For example, a phone used to be for just texting and ringing people, but now it can be used for the internet, music and gaming.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND PUBLIC OWNERSHIPPrivate ownership is the right of a persons and firms to obtain, own,

control a piece of property. For example, somebody owning private land.

Public ownership is when something is owned by the people as a whole, not really being owned by anyone.

An example of private ownership is Vertigo Films

An example of public ownership is the BBC.