Institutions and the  Media

         Media institutions arrange, create, illustrate, design, put together, print or broadcast , advertise and distribute media products to the masses via existing delivery systems. It’s important to understand how these media institutions work and how they work can influence the media products. How a text is influenced by various institutions? How ownership and other organization controls and affect text?

          When we use the term institutions in Media Studies, we usually mean the people who have a role in the production of media texts.             That covers a huge amount of ground, as you can imagine. A brief list might include:

1. Companies/organisations;

2. Producers;

3. Distributors;

4. Marketing;

          So we're talking editors, directors, producers, scriptwriters, screenwriters and so on and so on.

       Concentration of media ownership is a serious concern for many. Though, there are few who would still align with the cultural imperialism thesis, but very few will disagree on the fact that six global media giants regulate the entire world opinion. It is also important to realize that concentration of media ownership seems to work against the alternative sources of opinion, voice of the dissent, diversity and ultimately against democracy.

        However, as global patterns of ownership change, so does the concept of Institution. Media ownership is now concentrated in the hands of a few companies worldwide, and these companies own examples of many different media. So, it is true to say that the 'Institutional Values' of, say, Disney, are reflected in a number of different media companies that they own (e.g. Marvel Studios, the Discovery Channel), which can therefore be grouped together and considered as part of the same institution (the Disney Corporation).

 

          Basically, understanding institution is about understanding:

 

1. who produces media texts;

2. what their set of codes and values is;

3.  and their relationship to us as individuals;