SONY SONY SONY!!!!

Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of mass media. I know I know that definition sounds so blahh doesn't it. When I had to do my research on this for class i found so many amazing things about  concentration of media ownership.

             In my studies I found that the six media companies in the world are CBS, VIACOM, Walt Disney, Time Warner, News Corp, and General Electric and without these different and independent ownerships of television and radio stations and other media outlets, citizens wouldn’t be able to access news and entertainment from a variety of sources and viewpoints.  

         

              When choosing my company I wanted to  focus on I choose Sony. Sony has many subsidiary companies, which you can find at Sony Corporation dot com. These subsidiary companies are companies that are completely controlled by another company. In this business they have cross media ownership, which is where one parent company owns many smaller companies in several different media.

     

 

When I was reading about cross owner media I came across a very interesting You Tube video that was a band called the Fray. In the video it asked “how might cross ownership media help a band make it big?” In the video it began to explain how it can. It said in 2004 the Fray was signed by Epic Records owned by Sony. The Fray then released their first single ‘Over My Head’ and was then used in action film ‘Stealth’.  ‘Stealth’ was distributed by Sony Pictures. Their Next hit How to save a life was played on Grey’s Anatomy, SCRUBS, and Cold Case (which is a CBS show). After that their second single How to Save a Life came out, they were asked to come on The Late Show (also on CBS). Time Inc., new musical express is owned by Time, which is owned by Time Warner, which is owned by Warner Brothers, who make the films that the fray has been on. So as you can see just from that cross media is very helpful in the business aspect of everything. It’s a lot like the internet you stream to one site, which can lead you to another and another and so forth.

 As I continued my research on the topic of concentration media ownership and cross media there was only one website I found that had a positive overview of media concentration but had concerns with the government getting involved," media outlet being influenced by various corporate interests. Other times, the ownership interests may affect what is and is not covered. Stories can end up being biased or omitted so as not to offend advertisers or owners. The ability for citizens to make informed decisions is crucial for a free and functioning democracy but now becomes threatened by such concentration in ownership."  The positive side to everything Ive been speaking about is the example I gave about the musical group the Fray. Media Concentration can also help with business and just people trying to get information out there and so on.