Media, Information and Technoculture 2100F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Nicki Minaj, Ubisoft, Prosumer
29 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Tendency for a sector of the economy to be dominated by a small number of companies. Monopoly: industry owned by a single company. Oligopoly: industry owned by a few companies. Emerges from a process of mergers and acquisitions, in which companies either agree to combine, or buy other companies. Results in creation of conglomerates, large corporations with many subsidiary units. Horizontal integrations: buying companies involved in same activity o. Ex: owning a chain of movie theatres, or newspapers, or several animation studios. Vertical integration: buying companies involved in different but connected activities o. Ex: in cinema - owning films, studio, movie theatres, television network, theme parks, video game companies. In practice, large media corporations practice both types. Film, tv, newspapers, magazines, book publishing, cable network. "deep pockets" of perspective, lack of competition reduces checks on prices and quality of media. Tendency towards homogeneity ("sameness") as conglomerates recycle franchised content through various outlets, and pour resources into blockbuster hits.
