AQA Media Studies for A Level: Revision Guide

116 AQA Media Studies for A Level Revision Guide Some companies invest heavily in media companies that create the same type of media products. For example, in October 2017 the publisher of Men’s Health magazine (Rodale) was bought by Hearst. Hearst is a well- established magazine publisher and its acquisition of Rodale has several bene ts. Rodale owned the most successful health and tness magazine for men and now Hearst owns that brand. By buying Rodale there is now less competition for Hearst’s other titles. This is called horizontal integration . Large media conglomerates consist of a collection of media companies that have been bought as part of both vertical and horizontal integration. This has led to a concentration of ownership , where a small number of massive media companies produce the majority of media products. This monopolising of media production makes the companies enormously powerful and so raises concerns about the reduction of competition in the marketplace and the fact that this limits the variety of voices and ideas that can be accessed by audiences. Some of the larger global media conglomerates are: • Bertelsmann • National Amusements • Disney • Comcast • AT&T • News Corp • Hearst. It is dif cult for smaller media producers to compete with the larger, more powerful media producers, as they often have to ‘buy in’ services to help them produce and distribute their products. Production – distribution – circulation Media industries engage in the production, distribution and circulation of media products. • Production : the construction of the media product, preparing it to be accessed via print, broadcast and/or online. • Distribution : the act of making the product accessible to the audience. • Circulation : activities that attempt to encourage the audience to access the product and to engage as many audience members as possible. OWNERSHIP OF SIMILAR MEDIA COMPANIES Bertelsmann owns many media- related companies, including BMG, an international music company that is both a publisher and a record label. The London Evening Standard is distributed free of charge to readers.