An Unpredictable Future

Media is constantly changing, evolving, and growing due to the influence of countless factors.  The media today is nothing like the media of ten years ago and the media ten years from now will be nothing like todays.  While knowing what the media of the future will look like is impossible we can look at how media has evolved up to this point, and how other major influences are currently evolving to make assumptions as to what media might look like in the future.

Technology, in my opinion, is the biggest influence on the media currently.  I believe this because of the power it gives media producers and consumers.  It is rapidly evolving, opening new possibilities for media consumption and distribution.  In recent years technology has given the former consumers the power to produce media and to gatewatch more effectively.  This has taken some of the power to gatekeep from the large media producers.  As technology evolves it will continue to change the dynamic between large media companies and the general public, hopefully for the better.

Over the past 50 years one of the most controversial and influential trends in media is the concentration of ownership.  We are down to so few companies owning most of the media that it is hard to imagine ownership getting any more concentrated.  This past week Comcast agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion, formerly the nations two largest cable companies will soon be one.  As greedy companies like Comcast continue to buy out every competitor how long will it be until our Big 5 become consolidated into a single conglomerate?  While the formation of one mega conglomerate is very unlikely, even the consolidation from five to four major media companies would give each company a great increase of power and influence.

Technology and ownership concentration are just two of many influences on the future of media.  Technology has given more people access to information and the ability for the consumers of media to become producers of media.  With this new increase in information and power the consumers can be better informed.  This will hopefully lead to larger concern about ownership consolidation.  The media has a enormous effect on everyone viewing it, and so it is important for the viewers to have an interest in knowing the truth about that media.  As we move into the future it will be increasingly important to be active viewers.  Looking to the future we can only hope that everyone does their part in staying informed and keeping the media working for the people.

The Scope of Media: Time Warner’s Broad Target Audience and International Presence

     For this blog post, I chose to focus my research on Time Warner Inc.. Time Warner is one of the “big 5” (or 6) entertainment conglomerates and they own a wide variety of companies prevalent within the media industry. Although many people are familiar with the name Time Warner, few people, including myself until doing this research, are familiar with exactly how wide the company’s reach extends. In order to give an idea of just how powerful Time Warner is, I will list some of the company’s assets below.

Time Warner Inc.

Home Box Office

–       HBO

–       Cinemax

Time Inc.

–       Fortune

–       Health

–       In Style

–       Life

–       Money

–       Time

IPC Media (U.K.)

Grupo Editorial Expansión (Mexico)

Turner Broadcasting System

–       truTV

–       TBS

–       TNT

–       TBS

–       Cartoon Network

–       Adult Swim

CNN News Group

–       CNN en Español

–       CNN Latino

–       CNN International

–       CNN Radio

Warner Bros. Entertainment

–       Warner Bros. Consumer Products

–       Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures

–       Warner Bros. Pictures International

–       DC Entertainment

• DC Comics

(Extensive list of companies can be found at http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=timewarner)

 

     While researching the corporate web of Time Warner, there were many interesting thoughts that popped into my head regarding the relationship between the companies and the influence they may have on the public. First, I was surprised at how many international companies are a part of Time Warner. Before realizing this, I had only been thinking about the effects of the “big 6” on citizens of the United States. However, seeing the number of foreign outlets on the Time Warner list makes me wonder just how far reaching the influence of large media conglomerates really is.  With American corporations controlling media in foreign countries, it is not outrageous to assume that those countries could be influenced by any American culture included within the media. Furthermore, the American owned outlets could be giving off a pro-American bias. This bias could be shedding America in a more favorable light, which would benefit the U.S. making the global view more positive, but in a less-than-truthful manner.

     A second major idea that came to mind during observations of Time Warner was the audience range within the variety of companies. Time Warner owns media geared towards children, adolescents, and adults. From cartoons to news, Time Warner feeds information to all ages. This means that any agenda the company has, be it a set of ideals or simply an opinion on a certain matter, could be directed towards each age group. This would be a powerful tool in the sense that it would be received by an even larger number of people than if it were directed towards only one age group. It could also have the potential to be more effective because it would get everyone on the same page, ingraining the idea even deeper. I think the notion of children and adults alike being influenced by the same company is a frightening one  because it really bring to light the fact that from youth through old age we are under the thumb of media conglomerates.

     On a similar note, having to take an in depth look at one of these media conglomerates has given me greater overall knowledge of just how broad the reach of the media stretches, as well as making the concept of media influence all the more real. Seeing the sheer number of assets possessed by Time Warner all laid out in front of me forced me to think more critically about not only the influence of Time Warner, but how I have been influenced over the years by companies and products in general. Concluding my thoughts for this blog, I just wanted to express how doing this exercise has improved my critical thinking by giving me the tools to look deeper into the world around me. In the future, I will be better prepared for the daily bombardment of media.

– Andrew

 

 Sources

http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=timewarner

http://www.timewarner.com/our-content

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Time_Warner

Time Warner Inc.

Time Warner is a large multinational media corporation. The company was founded in 1990 as Time Warner and is now the world’s second largest media and entertainment conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company). Time Warner was spawned from a merger of two companies, Warner Communications, Inc. and Time Inc. Since then Time Warner has amassed a huge network of companies all funneling money to this mass media corporation.

Ownership Map

Below is a list of the major divisions of Time Warner. They also show some of the major companies owned by these various divisions. If you are looking for a more detailed map click HERE.

• Owning’s
  • Time Warner Global Media Group
  • Time Inc.
    • Golf Magazine
    • InStyle
    • Money
    • Sports Illustrated
    • Time
• Warner Bros. Entertainment
  • DC Entertainment
  • Flixster
  • New Line Cinema
  • Warner Bros. Studio
• Turner Broadcasting System
  • Adult Swim
  • Cartoon Network (Worldwide)
  • CNN
  • TBS
  • TCM (Worldwide)
• HBO
  • HBO
  • Cinemax
  • MAX
  • @ Max

Time Warner seems to concentrate a lot of its focus on both the TV and Film side of media as well as magazines. They are actually number one in total magazine circulation with about 32,582,300 magazines in circulation all over the world. They are also number two in cable news viewership with 1,040,00 viewers. Time Warner grows and changes constantly. Actually many groups owned by Time Warner have been able to branch off and become strong independent companies, including AOL and Time Warner Cable to name a few.

In 2012 Time Warner made total revenue of $28.7 billion, which is amazing to say the least. Their expert use of horizontal integration, especially, helped them reach this mass income that year. Time Warner spans many media outlets including TV, Film and magazine and each can and has completed the other through various forms of advertising. There TV and Magazine companies can promote each other through advertising as well as both can promote new films owned by Time Warner.

I feel that no matter what I will always be surprised at the sheer amount of money these corporations make in a year. Of course I definitely helped Time Warner reach that with my love of HBO and most Warner Bros. movies but its just amazing when you think about all the money made by these groups. Time Warner effectively promotes it corporations by using other corporations it owns to do so. Its plain to see why Time Warner is one of the top mass media conglomerates in the world and will probably continue to be one for many years to come.

Sources:

http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=timewarner

http://stateofthemedia.org/media-ownership/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner