Distribution and Marketing: Revision

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/distribution/distribution1.html

Tips on how to survive the exam on Section B

AS Level Media G322: Section B:

Institutions and Audiences

Tips on how to write a good answer for this part of the exam….



1. The three-step introduction

Place your three main points that answer the questions - and preferably a counterargument - in your introduction, then use them as a guide to the content of each paragraph.


2. Debate & weigh up both sides of the argument:

e.g. ‘However’, ‘having said this’, ‘an exception to this is the film……..released in……..’


3. Try to cover 3 case studies or more:

a. Thin Man Films (production)

b. Working Title (distribution)

c. Film4 (was all 3, now only exhibits films)

d. Cineworld/ Odeon vs. Electric Palace/ Curzon (exhibition)



4. You must mention a variety of different films to support your points/ ideas:

Your first film

Your second film

Other films too


5. Mention specific audiences and how they are targeted

-through age/ gender/ time era/ taste/ lifestyle/ location

-do British audiences prefer British films? Is this a misconception?

- where do they consume?

- how are your habits indicative of wider behaviour



6. Mention the threat and opportunities of Digital Cinema to all institutions:

a. Growth of internet

b. Downloading/ live streaming/ file sharing

c. Piracy

d. DVD sales

e. Cost/ inflation/ credit crunch

f. +ive: IMAX cinema/ digital reels



8. Engrain your essay with your own point of view and ideas.



Plan

Stay Calm

Good Luck!

Past papers, answers, mark schemes!

Section A: Representation of...

Jan 13: Age
Jun 12: Disability
Jan 12: Sexuality
Jun 11: Status and class
Jan 11: Gender
June 10: Gender
Jan 10: Ethnicity (race)
June 09: Gender
Jan 09: Age

Section B:

Jan 13: Impact of media ownership on range of products
Jun 12: Convergence, synergy, and marketing
Jan 12: Digital distribution
June 11: Marketing, distribution, production.
Jan 11: Media ownserhip and production
June 10: Impact of digital technology on film industry.

Much more detailed links to past papers, answers and mark schemes here:
http://mediachs.edublogs.org/film-industry/as-exam-past-papers-answers/
 

Revising Section B

Work through every slide, making notes and following the links. Stay focused!
http://www.slideshare.net/robertclackmedia/media-as-institutions-and-audiences

YOUR PASSWORDS

Apparently you can't remember your passwords for the media edusites website. This is terrifying, because this website should be part of your daily life. Sigh.

Pick any of these usernames (left) and passwords (right).

THEY GO ALL THE WAY UP TO THIRTY.

moss01	bourne01
moss02	bourne02
moss03	bourne03
moss04	bourne04
moss05	bourne05
moss06	bourne06
moss07	bourne07
moss08	bourne08
moss09	bourne09
moss10	bourne10
moss11	bourne11

Homework - the state of film

YOU MUST CREATE:

1 POSTER

WITH FIVE IMPORTANT BULLET POINTS THAT EVERYONE MUST LEARN

AND 2-3 RECENT EXAMPLES TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR POINTS.



Ella
Brolin
Topic: The effect of convergence British film industry
Link: What the BFI thinks



Charlie
Chante
Topic: The effect of convergence British film industry
Link: http://heworthmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/convergence-and-british-film-industry-i.html



Daniel
Ava
Topic: The effect of globalisation on the British film industry
 Search: globalisation British film / globalisation UK film effects

Mica
Nile
Topic: Horizontal and vertical integration and its effect on the British film industry
Link:    http://media.edusites.co.uk/article/vertical-horizontal-integration/

Nga
Nasmine
Topic: The effect of convergence on the American film industry
Google: converge US film industry


Kayla
Nathan
Topic: The effect of convergence on the American film industry
Google: converge US film industry

Yusuf
George
Topic: The effect of piracy on the UK film industry

Jodie
Reanne
Topic: The future of British film

Theories: Section B revision

http://www.slideshare.net/mccabekat/media-studies-theory-for-as-and-a2

Synergy and convergence - examples

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14824216/Synergy-and-Cross-Media-Convergence

really useful website for revision

http://mediachs.edublogs.org/

Section B - revision

http://www.slideshare.net/tessiemedia/ocr-media-g322-section-b-revision-guide-ppt

 

Distribution - videos

http://www.launchingfilms.tv/distribution.php

Tuesday - work

Below are some theories on creativity.

I would like you to read them very carefully, and begin to respond to each area in turn - linking what you read to your own work OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS. Example in red.

Do this in word - not on your blog.

CREATIVITY  - THEORY

Anthony Storr ‘creativity has been defined as the ability to bring something new into existence’.

With my documentary I have brought plenty of new things into existence, as per Anthony Storr's definition. Although we were documenting reality we were still creating new things: the titles, the sound, the adverts, and even the mis-en-scene.

For example...

’the making of the new and the rearranging of the old.’ (Bentley 1997)

Ken Robinson has identified some Creative Habits of mind

• Creativity - enquiring mind
• Flexibility - lateral thinking and connection making
• Willingness - to think the impossible
• Confidence - to try things out
• Ability - to handle uncertainty - perseverance in adversity
• Self-reflective awareness

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote that the creative process normally takes five steps (Creativity, 1996, p.79):

o    Preparation - becoming immersed in problematic issues that are interesting and arouses curiosity.

o    Incubation - ideas churn around below the threshold of consciousness.

o    Insight - the "Aha!" moment when the puzzle starts to fall together.

o    Evaluation - deciding if the insight is valuable and worth pursuing.

o    Elaboration - translating the insight into its final work.

Spontaneity takes practice Csikszentmihalyi  says that it typically takes someone 10 years of acquiring technical knowledge by immersing themselves in a discipline before they create anything significant. Malcolm Gladwell makes a similar argument in his new book, Outliers – according to Gladwell, the magic number is 10,000 hours of practice.

Csikszentmihalyi : ‘Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.’

Csikszentmihalyi Divergent thinking involves fluency, or the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas; flexibility, or the ability to switch from one perspective to another; and originality in picking unusual associations of ideas. …Divergent thinking is not much use without the ability to tell a good idea from a bad one, and this selectivity involves convergent thinking.

David Gauntlett has written extensively about creativity and the idea that ‘making is

connecting’. His main argument is that ‘through making things, and

sharing them with others, we feel a greater connection with the world, and more engaged with being more active in the environment rather than sitting back and watching.’

Banaji, Burn & Buckingham have researched into the extent to which technology makes us more creative. They conclude that ‘creativity is not an inevitable consequence of using technology’.

George Steigler (an economist) : In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable that it'll go well."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Learning – pushing yourself, taking on challenges – creates a feeling he calls ‘flow’. Flow is a fancy name for being so engrossed, absorbed, rapt by something that time flies and you forget your worries.

Ken Robinson

‘Individual creativity is stimulated by the work, ideas and achievements of other people. We stand on the shoulders of others to see further.’ (11)

‘To promote creativity it is essential to understand the main elements and phases of the creative process including:

-          the importance of the medium;

-          the need to be in control of the medium;

-          the need to play and take risks; and

-          the need for critical judgment

‘Creativity is not only a matter of control; it’s about speculating, exploring new horizons and using imagination.’ (133)

‘As Carl Jung puts it, the creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect alone but by the play instinct. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Creative activity involves playing with ideas and trying out possibilities. But creative achievement does not always require freedom from constraints or a blank page. Great work often comes from working within formal constraints….The creative achievement and the aesthetic pleasure lie in using standard forms to achieve unique effects and original insights.’ (133)

‘Creativity is not only a process of generating ideas. It involves making judgments about them….creativity is not just a matter of being original, but of producing outcomes that are of value.’ (133)

‘creativity can be inhibited by trying to do too much too soon or at the same time.’ (136)

‘Our best ideas may come to us when we’re not thinking about them…As the writer E.M. Forster said, in the creative state we are taken out of ourselves. We let down a bucket into out subconscious and draw up something that is normally beyond our reach.’ (154)

‘Creativity is incremental. New ideas do not necessarily come from nowhere. They draw from the ideas and achievements of those that have gone before us or are working in different fields….conceiving new ideas is often promoted by knowledge of the achievements of others – by cultural literacy.’ (182)

‘Creativity often comes about by making unusual connections, seeing analogies, identifying relationships between ideas and processes that were previously not related.’ (188)

‘Creativity relies on the flow of ideas. This happens best in an atmosphere where risk is encouraged, playfulness with ideas is accepted and where failure is not punished but seen as part of the process of success.’ (190)

Analysing posters using uses and gratifications

Analysing posters - media A level from NDimechkie

Reception theory - Hall

RECEPTION THEORY

At the same time that audience-centered theory was attracting the attention of U.S. empirical social researcher, British cultural studies researchers were developing a different but compatible perspective on audience activity.

Birmingham University Centre for Contemporary cultural studies headed by Stuart Hall is most prominent in this regard. Hall argued that the researchers should direct their attention toward:

• Analysis of that social and political context in which content is produced (encoding)
• The consumption of media content

The essence of the reception approach is to locate the attribution and construction of meaning (derived from media) with the receiver. Media messages are always open and polysemic (having multiple meanings) and are interpreted according the context and culture of receivers.
Stuart Hall emphasized the stages of transformation through which any media message passes on the way from its origins to its reception and interpretation. It drew from the basic principles of structuralism and semiology which presumed that any meaningful message is constructed from sign which can have denotative and connotative meanings, depending on the choices made by an encoder. He accepted some of the elements of semiology on these two grounds:
First, communicators choose to encode messages. For ideological and institutional communicators choose to encode messages for ideological and institutional purposes and manipulate language and media for those ends (media messages are given a preferred reading, or what might now be called spin.
Secondly, receivers (decoders) are not obliged to accept messages as sent but can and do resist ideological influence by applying variant or oppositional readings, according to their own experience and outlook
In laying out his views about decoding, Hall proposed an approach to audience research that has come to be known as reception studies or reception analysis.
A central feature of this approach is its focus on how various types of audience members make sense of the specific forms of content.
Hall drew on Semiotic theory to argue that any media content can be regarded as a text that is made up of signs , these signs are structured; that is , they are related to one another in specific ways to make sense of a text- to read a text- you have to be able to interpret the signs and their structure. Example when you read a sentence you must not only decode the individual words but you also need to interpret the over-all structure of the sentence to make sense of the sentence as a whole.
Hall argued that most texts can be read in several ways but there is generally a preferred or dominant reading that the producers of a message intend when they create a message, as a critical theorist, Hall assumed that most popular media content will have a preferred reading that reinforces the status quo.
But in addition to this dominant reading, it is possible for audience members to make alternate interpretations.
They might disagree with or misinterpret some aspects of a message and come up with an alternative or negotiated meaning that differs from the preferred reading in important ways, and…
In some cases audiences might develop interpretations that are in direct opposition to a dominant reading. In that case, they are said to engage in oppositional decoding.
So media reception research emphasized the study of audiences as sets of people with unique, though often shared, experiences as in charge of their own lives.
The main features of the culturalist tradition of audience research can be summarized as follows:- The media text has to be read through the perceptions of its audience, which constructs meanings and pleasures from the media texts offered.
The very process of media use as a set of practices and the way in which it unfolds are the central object of interest.
Audiences for particular genres often comprise “interpretative communities” which share much the same experience, forms of discourse and frameworks for making sense of media.
Audiences are never passive, nor are their members all equal, since some will be more experienced, or more active fans than others.
Methods have to be qualitative and deep, often ethnographic, taking account of content, act of reception and context together.

Uses and gratifications / dependency theory

Uses & Gratifications/ Dependency Theory

          The uses and Gratifications Approach has five basic assumptions.  As Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch explain in the book Mass Communication Research, the first assumption is that “the audience is conceived as active.”(Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch 15)  This idea focuses around the assumption that the viewers are goal oriented and attempt to achieve their goals through the media source.  This directly reflects and responds to the needs of the audience member in obtaining the media source.

 

            According to the book, the second basic assumption is that “in the mass communication process much initiative in linking need gratification and media choice lies with the audience member.”(Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch 16)  This is encompassing the idea that people use the media to their advantage more often than the media uses them.  The receiver determines what is going to be absorbed and does not allow the media to influence them otherwise.  The individual opinion is more powerful than what the media is portraying.
            The third basic assumption that Mass Communication Research directs us to is that “the media competes with other sources of need satisfaction.”(Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch 16)  This focuses on the idea that each individual has several needs.  In response to this, they have created a wide range of choices that will meet these needs.  The strongest rival to media based sources include face-to-face communication.  This can often help an individual cope with circumstances surrounding them most effectively.  Because of this, mass communication must compete strongly with non-media related sources and help create a need for itself as well as a proper balance between the two.
            The forth basic assumption that the book points out is that “many of the goals media use can be derived from data supplied by the individual audience members themselves.”(Katz, Blumler, &Gurevitch 17)   This idea claims that people are very aware of their motives and choices and are able to explain them verbally if necessary.  There have been several studies in all parts of the world that have sampled viewers and come to conclusions about the type of media used as well as the content explored.  Furthermore, it was found that audience members use these media forms to shape their own identities.
            The final basic assumption taken from the book Mass Communication Research is that “value judgments about cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience operations are explored on their own terms”(Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch 17).  The theorists believe that the audience can only determine the value of the media content.  It is the individual audience members who make the decision to view the media; therefore, they place the value on it by their individual decision to view it.
            These basic assumptions provide a framework for understanding the exact correlation between the media and the viewers.  In addition, it provides a distinction as to how the audience is more or less active and the consequences of their involvement in the media as a whole.
            When one explores the Uses and Gratifications Approach, another theory that has emerged becomes quite prevalent, The Dependency Theory.  Melvin DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach first described The Dependency Theory in 1976.  It was, in a sense, an extension or addition to the Uses and Gratifications Approach brought about a few years earlier.  The theory is in essence an explanation of the correlating relationship between the media content, the nature of society, and the behavior of the audiences.  It states that people in an urban society have become dependent on mass communication to assist them in receiving the information that they need, in order to make a variety of decisions concerning their everyday lives.  As Stephen Littlejohn explains in his book Theories of Human Communication, “First you will become more dependent on media that meet a number of your needs than on media that provide just a few.”(Littlejohn, 325)   Since each persons needs are different, what they depend on is clearly going to fluctuate.  Therefore, if a person finds a medium that provides them with several functions that are central to their desires, they will be more inclined to continue to use that particular medium in the future.
            In his book, Littlejohn goes on to explain, “The second source of dependency is social stability.”(Littlejohn, 325)  In times of conflict, such as in war periods, society as a whole tends to become more dependent on the media for a sense of stability.  Furthermore, one may see an increase in media usage when something important is coming up, such as a presidential election.  These special circumstances make viewers more dependent on the media to find out what is happening in society.
            The dependency theory brings forth many unique propositions and functions.  As Sandra Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur explain in the book Communication Research 3,  “The basic propositions of The Dependency Theory can be brought together and summarized as follows:  The potential for mass media messages to achieve a broad range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects will be increased when media systems serve many unique, and central information functions.”  This again reiterates the idea that the more the medium has to offer, the more useful it will become.
            The cognitive changes that the Dependency Theory bring forth are multi-fold.  The media brings forth attitude formation and an impact on agenda setting.  Since the theory complies with the idea that people rely on it for information determining their decisions, it clearly can help individuals develop certain attitudes regarding given subjects.  In addition, it encourages them to converse about certain things.  The affective nature of the media is quite distinctive.  It can create many different feelings such as fear, anxiety, and happiness.  The media also can promote behavior changes.  This can result in an audience member doing something that they would not ordinarily do.  The mass media possess these three abilities and because of that, society has become dependent on the media for virtually all it’s outside resources in order to make decisions.
            When analyzing any theory, one must looks towards some form of criteria to judge it by.  The criteria that seems to be appropriate for the Uses and Gratifications Approach and The Dependency Theory seems to be logic, consistency, testability, and simplicity. 
            First, when analyzing the logical approach to both theories, they seem to pass. One can see with these theories that it is logical that individuals would choose what they want to view and can clearly gain from that.  This is why we see an increase in viewers when important circumstances are happening within our country.
            Second, when focusing on the consistency aspect to the theories, this area is one that is somewhat differential.  Although the theories are not highly contested, they do not correspond completely with previous research.  One may find it hard to believe that the media has no influence over the viewer at all.  There are several circumstances within the field of advertising that suggest that people are influenced by the media.  This suggests that people can be persuaded.
            The testability aspect seems somewhat unreliable.  The way that the theories were primarily tested were through sampling the audience viewers.  The results could possibly be biased because individuals may not realize the power that the media has over them.  In essence, the sampling was one sided.
            Finally, when one looks at the simplicity of the theories, they seem to pass.  Both of the theories are extremely easy to understand and comprehend.  In addition, they link together, which helps the perception of them become more explicit.
            With every theory, some criticism must be expected.  Both the Uses and Gratifications Approach and The Dependency Theory are no exception to this act.  One main criticism is based on the idea that the audience is completely active.  It seems as though the theorists feel that there is not room for any middle ground.  In many cases people turn to viewing the media as a result of habit.  This factor is not mention in their theory.
            Other critics argue that the broader public does not effect individual decisions regarding the media.  According to Ronald Rice, in his book The New Media, states, “Larger social purposes and effects have to do with why an individual, for the most part, reads a newspaper”(Rice 108).  This is simply stating that the reason why most people view media or read newspapers is to gain societal information.
            Mass Communication has come a very long way over the last thirty years.  Many different perspectives have been brought forth and analyzed in terms of effectiveness.  The Uses and Gratifications Approach and The Dependency Theory were two theories that brought forth a new genre of ideas and aspects of cognition to mass communication.  The mass media is an extremely complex system that responds to the foundation of these theories in media’s everyday production.

Uses and gratifications

Uses, gratifications and your work

The Uses and Gratifications Model of the Media

The mass media is a huge phenomenon. Through the various different platforms, print or broadcast, the media is able to reach millions of people like no other force. Without the media, powerful speeches by politicians would affect no one, local events would remain local, and performances by great actors would be seen only by the people in the immediate audience. The media overcomes distances, and builds a direct relationship with the audience. Many sociologists have attempted to explore what effects this has on society, and how the media fits in to our social network. Through many programmes of research, including focus groups, surveys, questionnaires, clinical studies and plain hypothesising, a number of models describing the media's relationship with audiences have been drawn up.
Initially, researchers approached the subject from the angle of how the media is able to manipulate audiences, injecting messages into their minds. This 'hypodermic' model, as it was later termed, became rejected after closer examination. The 'Uses and Gratifications' model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences. The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the television programmes that we do, why we bother to read newspapers, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap. The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So rather that asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.
The model is broken down into four different needs.

 

Surveillance

The surveillance need is based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them. One of the genres this is often applied to is news. By watching or reading about news we learn about what is happening in the world, and as the news is usually bad news, this knowledge leaves us feeling more secure about the safety of our own lives. This idea might seem a bit strange, that the more we know about tragedies the safer we feel, but sociologists argue that ignorance is seen as a source of danger, and so the more knowledge we have the safer we feel. When looking at the news it's easy to spot news items that give us this reaction. For example if it wasn't for watching the news we might be unknowingly left with five pound notes that are worthless1, or become vulnerable to the latest computer virus2, or end up in a hospital with an awful track record3.
It's not just news that fulfils the surveillance model however, the theory can also be seen in many consumer and crime-appeal programmes such as Watchdog4, Rogue Traders5 and CrimeWatch6. These appeal directly through the idea that they are imparting information that people need to know. The programmes talk far more directly to the viewer, and even try to get the viewer involved in the programme. Because these programmes deal purely with national and local concerns, without such vagaries as world news, the issues ostensibly have the potential to affect the viewer directly. By watching the programme we are finding out about which particular insurance companies are a con, how mobile phone muggings are taking place and the tricks plumbers use to charge us through the roof. This knowledge of life's potential pitfalls gives us the feeling that we are more able to avoid them (though in reality it's hard to see how this actually happens).
The surveillance model then is all about awareness. We use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security.

 

Personal Identity

The personal identity need explains how being a subject of the media allows us to reaffirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. This can most be seen in soaps, which try to act as a microcosm of society as a whole. The characters in soaps are usually designed to have wildly different characteristics, so that everyone can find someone to represent themselves, someone to aspire to, and someone to despise. For example you might feel close to a character who is always falling victim to other people, and this connection might help you to understand and express your own feelings. You may also really like a character who seems 'cool' and leads a lifestyle you'd like to lead. This relationship could act as a way to channel your own life, helping you to set goals to work to. Finally there may be a character you really can't stand. By picking out their bad characteristics and decisions ('oh, she shouldn't have done that'), it helps you to define your own personal identity by marking out what you're not like...
The use of the media for forming personal identity can also be seen outside soaps. Sports personalities and pop stars can often become big role models, inspiring young children everywhere (which is why there's such an outcry when one of them does something wrong). Even the 'seriousness' of news can lend itself to gratifying personal identity, by treating news anchors as personalities, rather than simply figureheads relaying information:

Watching the news with my grandma is a nightmare. She's always commenting on the newsreader's clothing, hairdo or mannerisms.

Personal Relationships

This section comes in two parts. We can form a relationship with the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others.

Relationships with the Media

Many people use the television as a form of companionship. This may seem sad, but think about how many times you've watched the TV on your own, or with other people but sitting in silence. The television is often quite an intimate experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel very close to them, as if we even know them. When presenters or characters in a soap die, those who have watched that person a lot often grieve for the character, as if they have lost a friend. Some events can even cause media outcries, such as the imprisonment of Deirdre from the TV soap Coronation Street, which caused many national newspapers to campaign for her release. We also talk to the TV a lot. Not many football fans can sit through a televised match without shouting at the players or the referee, and many people tell characters what to (or not to do) next.

Don't go down the stairs in your nightie! No don't open the door! No...!!!

The more we watch the same personalities, the more we feel we get to know them. Reality TV shows such as Big Brother give us such a feeling of intimacy with the participants that they can become part of our lives. Even though the relationship is completely one-sided, it's easy to see how we can fall in love with TV personalities.

Using the Media Within Relationships

Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people. The EastEnders strapline 'Everyone's talking about it', despite being a clever marketing tactic, does hold up when looking at social uses of the media. Having a favourite TV programme in common can often be the start of a conversation, and can even make talking to strangers that much easier. There's also some studies that suggest that some families use sitting around watching the television as a stimulus for conversation, talking to each other about the programme or related anecdotes while it is on. This kind of use (as well as some of the others), is heavily satirised in the BBC sit-com The Royle Family.

 

Diversion

The diversion need describes what's commonly termed as escapism - watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else. This can work with positive programmes, such as holiday shows or the constant happy endings in the Australian soap Neighbours, which help to cheer us up and forget our own problems, and with negative programmes, such as the bleak EastEnders or a tragic film, which help to put our own problems into perspective ('At least my life's not that bad!').
The diversion model also accounts for using the media for entertainment purposes, such as a good spy film, and for relaxation (slumping in front of the telly, don't care what's on). The media can give us emotional release and also sexual arousal, which includes a sexy scene in a film as well as pornography.
Altogether, the Uses and Gratifications model outlines the many reasons we have for using the mass media, and the kind of functions that the media can play within our lives.

Top grossing films of 2012

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/uk/yearly/?yr=2012&p=.htm

Good revision presentation

Check out slide 13 in particular...

http://www.slideshare.net/tessiemedia/ocr-media-g322-section-b-revision-guide-ppt

Revision lecture 2

Take turns discussing these issues before preparing the 3-step introduction...

Globalisation and Media Ownership

Globalisation describes the spread of ideas and culture around the world. This is not an even process. The media companies who own and distribute 'culture' around the world are in charge, and they are, mostly, American.

The dominance of US-based media companies has some pretty obvious effects - with some counter-arguments, of course.

Firstly, on culture. "Everyone must come to look a little bit like an American, or to love a little bit like an American, or two walk a little bit like an American. That's why television and cultural industries are so critical, because you don't know quite how to qalk and think in American until you look at enough television." (Hall, 2007)

This is a little bit exaggerated. Perhaps you're into Far Eastern culture, or Taoism, or French films. But to a large extent our behaviour, speech patterns (using the word 'like', for example), and definitions of 'cool' all stem from America's dominance over media as the world has gone global.

Secondly, other countries have copied American media strategies for success:
- using branding and advertising to fund expensive production
- copying American-style filming and plot devices
- changing film titles and posters to fit different audiences (going 'glocal')
- buying franchise like Big Brother and making a local version of them.
Everyone wants to be Hollywood: Bollywood; Nollywood. The result is that a lot of the world's culture has become homogenised. The same. Diversity, it seems, is disappearing.

Thirdly, truly 'local' films struggle to compete with the giant juggernauts of US media companies, who have far more money pumped into production, distribution and marketing. Their passage is made even easier by their horizontal ownership of distribution companies that give them a virtual monopoly.


The locals strike back

However, this view is simplistic, for several reasons:

- Local English films now have easier access to the US market. And if the world is getting more fluent in English, that's good for British film (if not world cinema). So in some ways, UK cinema is surfing the wave of US global domination

- The US is a declining force. Sony (Japanese) bought Columbia and TriStar picture in 1989; Rupert Murdoch (Australian) owns 20th Century Fox; Indian company Reliance BIG pictures own a big stake in Dreamworks (2008)

- Local companies will always be able to draw on better knowledge of their audience's tastes, culture and language to make films that are more relevant than those of giant international companies

- While the expensive side of new technology plays into the big companies' hands, the 'user-generated content' aspect will make it possible for smaller companies to drum up support for their product without spending too much money, allowing them to compete.


And Nollywood and Bollywood have their own very distinct stylistic conventions.