The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change

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• The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change

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Program Overview

• 3-week-long summer session for rising
  undergraduate students and for graduate students
  still in course work
• 2010 25 July - 14 August
• 50 students from 10 Countries
• Students will attend classes, eat and live in
  residence at the Salzburg Seminar, in Salzburg,
  Austria
• 2 for-credit, upper (400/700) level courses
  Global Media Literacy and Global Change,
  Global Cooperation, Global News.

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In Around the Schloss
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ACCESS

• Can anyone own information?
• Who has access to this information?
• What are the barriers to entry?
• What are the implications of media concentration?
  
• How has the Internet changed ownership?
• From the Digital Divide to the Participation Gap

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Regulators vs. De-Regulators
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MR. MEDIA

you
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Mr. Media Grows
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Mr. Media Grows
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• FOUNDATIONS OF THE EXPLORATION
• Who are the big Media Companies, and what are the
  implications of their growth?
• Do we (citizens) really have a voice? If so, what
  does it sound like?

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Who is Mr. Media?

• Can you name the 6 media conglomerates that own
  and operate over 75 of the mass media messages
  you see today?

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(No Transcript)
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Table 1 Worlds Largest Media Companies

• Worlds Largest Media companies
• (total revenue in 2008)
• Company Revenue (in Billions)
• General Electric 183
• Walt Disney Co. 37.8
• News Corporation 33
• Time Warner 29.8
• Viacom 14.6
• CBS 14
• approx. 25 USbillion revenue from media
  ventures

Source FreePress Ownership Chart
http//www.freepress.net/resources/ownership
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How Do they Grow?
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1. Merge Acquire

• 1996 Congress passes Telecommunications Act.
• FCC continues to ease ownership regulations.

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Merger Media
Approximate number of daily newspapers in North America 1800
Approximate number of magazines in North America 11,000
Approximate number of radio stations in North America 11,000
Approximate number of television stations in North America 2,000
Approximate number of book publishers in North America 3,000
Number of companies owning a controlling interest in the media listed above in 1984 50
Number of companies owning a controlling interest in the media listed above in 1987 26
Number of companies owning a controlling interest in the media listed above in 1996 10
Number of companies owning a controlling interest in the media listed above in 2002 6
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2. Synergy Branding
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Synergy

• Definition refers to the dynamic in which
  components of a company work together to produce
  benefits that would be impossible for a single,
  separately operated unit of the company

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Branding
If a brand is associated with a quality or image
that a consumer likes, the consumer tends to
choose the branded version of a traditional
product or to try a new product from the same
brand
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Branding

• Spin offs ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic
• Publication ESPN, the magazine
• Web site espn.com
• Retail outlet ESPN, the Store
• Sport-themed restaurant The ESPN Zone

Owned by
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3. Globalization Growth/Expansion Globally
One product, that is adapted to be viewed in the
following countries
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Globalization

• India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan,
  Japan, Brunei, South Korea, Philippines,
  Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
  Vietnam, Hong Kong, Papa New Guinea, Australia,
  New Zealand, Brazil, UK, Ireland, Austria,
  Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Greece,
  Israel, Romania, 30 territories including
  Russia, Middle East, Egypt, Faroe Islands,
  Liechtenstein, Malta, Moldova.
• AndSweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy,
  Bolivia, Caribbean, Central America, Colombia,
  Ecuador, Mexico, United States (select Hispanic
  markets) Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay,
  Peru, Uruguay, Russia, many countries in
  Africaand on and on and on totaling MTV being
  tailored for viewing in
• 164 Countries!
• Cultural imperialism

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4. DEREGULATION Markets and the General Electric
Conundrum
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Table 1 Worlds Largest Media Companies

• Worlds Largest Media companies
• (total revenue in 2005)
• Company Revenue (in Billions)
• General Electric 157.2
• Time Warner 43.7
• Walt Disney Co. 31.9
• News Corporation 23.9
• Bertelsmann 22.2
• CBS 14.5
• Viacom 9.8
• 14.7 USbillion revenue from media ventures

Source FreePress Ownership Chart
http//www.freepress.net/ownership/chart.php
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General Electric owns these
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And they also own
Military Production Manufactures and maintains
engines for the F-16 Fighter jet, Abrams tank,
Apache helicopter, U2 Bomber, Unmanned Combat Air
Vehicle (UCAV), A-10 aircraft, and numerous
military equipment including planes, helicopters,
tanks, and more. GE COMMERCIAL FINANCE GE
HEALTHCARE GE ADVANCED MATERIALS GE
INFRASTRUCTURE GE CONSUMER INDUSTRIAL GE
INSURANCE GE MONEY GE TRANSPORTATION GE
ENERGY
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What are the ethical implications of GEs
portfolio of companies?

• Is there autonomy across their sectors of
  business?
• Can they maintain neutrality with their
  portfolio?
• How do their holdings help harm them produce
  information?

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Markets (De-Regulators) vs. the Public Sphere
(Regulators)
A comparison of models
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The Market Model (deregulators)

• societys needs can best be met through a
  relatively unregulated process of exchange based
  on the dynamics of supply and demand. This model
  treats the media like all other goods and
  services (15).

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The Public Sphere (regulators)

• media are more than simply profit-making
  components of large conglomerates. Instead, they
  are our primary information sources and
  storytellers (20).

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Are the media different than Other Industries?
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• Profit seeking and public service are not
  either/or propositions. Instead, the civic
  responsibilities of media have historically been
  met within the framework of commercial
  businessin the 80s that delicate balance
  shifted even further in favor of pursuing greater
  profits over concern of public service (31).

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What is the Public Interest?
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• Market Whatever the public is interested in
• Sphere Media responsibility to.
• a. Promote diversity (Avoid homogenity)
• b. Provide Substance (w/out Elitism)

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Which side do you fall on?

• The medias role in facilitating democracy and
  encouraging citizenship has always been in
  tension with its status as a profit making
  industry (38)

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• Are these part of Mr. Media, or part of you?

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2006 Most Visited Site, USA
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2007 Most Visited Sites, US

• 1. Yahoo.com - Yahoo! Inc.
• 2. Google.com - Google Inc.
• 3. Myspace.com - News Corp.
• 4. MSN.com - Microsoft Corporation
• 5. ebay.com - eBay Inc.
• 6. YouTube.com - Google Inc.
• 7. Facebook.com - Facebook
• 8. wikipedia.org - Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
• 9. craiglist.org - craigslist, inc.
• 10. live.com - Microsoft Corporation

11Amazon.com - Amazon.com, Inc. 12. Blogger.com -
Google Inc. 13. Go.com - The Walt Disney Co. 14.
AOL.com - Time Warner 15. microsoft.com
Microsoft Co. 16. CNN.com - Time Warner 17.
Comcast.net - Comcast Co. 18. IMDb.com -
Amazon.com, Inc. 19. Flickr.com - Yahoo! Inc. 20.
Photobucket.com - Photobucket, Inc.
http//www.freepress.net/content/top20websites
alexa, 2007
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2009 Most Visited Sites, US
1. Google (6.79) 2. Facebook (4.99) 3. Yahoo!
Mail (4.26) 4. MySpace (3.06) 5. Yahoo!
(2.82) 6. YouTube (1.76) 7. Windows Live Mail
(1.66) 8. MSN (1.53) 9. Yahoo! Search
(1.43) 10. eBay (1.10) 11. Gmail (0.92) 12.
Bing (0.73) 13. AOL Mail (0.57) 14. AOL
(0.55) 15. Google Image Search (0.47) 16. My
Yahoo! (0.44) 17. Wikipedia (0.43) 18.
Amazon.com (0.39) 19. Yahoo! News (0.38) 20.
Craig's List (0.36)
http//www.businessreviewonline.com/internet-weblo
g/archives/2009/08/top_20_websites.html
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Most Visted Sites, Globe
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Internet is shifting our fundamental Access to
Information
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You as information gatherers
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http//video.winzy.com/play/1042416194030 http//v
ideo.yahoo.com/video/play?vid1114772555
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Kevin Sites in Yahoos Hot Zonehttp//hotzone.yah
oo.com/
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How are the major News Outlets using this
phenomenon?

• CNN IReports
• http//www.cnn.com/exchange/
• Yahoo YouWitness News
• http//news.yahoo.com/you-witness-news
• MSNBC Citizen Journalism Report
• http//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6639760/
• Neighborhood America
• http//www.neighborhoodamerica.com/

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You as expressive.
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• I think that understanding that there might not
  be any difference between what people are doing
  online and offline is something really important
  
• (M. Zuckerberg, 2006)

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Facebook facts

• Originated on February 4, 2004
• Originator Mark Zuckerberg
• Microsoft owns 1.6 of Facebook (240m)
• Estimated Total Worth 15 Billion
• More than 57 million active users
• Sixth-most trafficked site in the United States
  (comScore)
• More than 65 billion page views per month
• More than half of active users return daily

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Changing Communication

• Facebook members invariably cite its usefulness
  for keeping up with friends, but clearly one of
  the reasons that the site is so popular is that
  it enables users to forgo the exertion that real
  relationships entail. (Me Media, 2006)

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Zuckerberg on Facebook

• What does facebook change about how we think of
• Access and Trust
• Privacy
• Expression of real selves
• New forms of social interaction

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You as Movers

• When Social Media Become movers

The collapse of transaction costs makes it
easier for people to get togetherso much easier,
in fact, that it is changing the world (48)
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Shifts in Access

• We now have communication tools that are
  flexible enough to match our social capabilities,
  and we are witnessing the rise of new ways of
  coordinating action that take advantage of that
  change (20).

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Shifting Information Flow

• Sharing
• Cooperation (Production)
• Action (Collective)
• Ridiculously easy group-forming matters because
  the desire to be part of a group that shares,
  cooperates, or acts in concert is a basic human
  instinct that has always been constrained by
  transaction costs (54).

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• New media and new Access are not always
  strengthening diversity and choice

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• How do/should/will corporations respond to
  trends in new media?
• How does new media shift the access we have to
  information?
• For better or for worse?