Media Industries

What Media Industries covers

Media Industries is examined in both written papers — the four areas of the theoretical framework and the contexts run through every section of the course, and are applied to whichever set products a centre has chosen. It covers production, distribution and circulation in a global context; the specialised and institutionalised nature of media production; conglomerate ownership, vertical and horizontal integration, diversification and synergy; Curran and Seaton on concentration of ownership, plurality and the news oligarchy online; and Hesmondhalgh on risk, public goods, big hits, repetition, copyright and digital labour. It also covers advertising, subscription and freemium funding; public service broadcasting and not-for-profit funding; marketing to national and global audiences; the shift to digital distribution; Ofcom, press, advertising and age classification regulation in the UK; Livingstone and Lunt on the citizen and the consumer; and individual producers, convergence and the limits of regulation.

The 16 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Production, distribution and circulation in a global contextRecall questions on production, distribution and circulation, why production is the riskiest stage, windowing and staggered release, globalisation and glocalisation, the cultural imperialism argument and its critics, and international co-production.Open →
• The specialised and institutionalised nature of media productionRecall questions on specialised and institutionalised production, the division of labour, commissioning, production companies and broadcasters, gatekeeping, house style, formats, unions, freelance workforces and newsroom routines.Open →
• Conglomerate ownership and vertical integrationRecall questions on media conglomerates, subsidiaries and vertical integration, monopoly and oligopoly, concentration of ownership, mergers and acquisitions, the UK public interest test, and the effect of conglomerates on independents and plurality.Open →
• Horizontal integration, diversification and synergyRecall questions on horizontal integration, diversification and its risks, synergy and cross-media promotion, brand extensions, owned intellectual property, licensing and merchandising, and how franchises earn across divisions.Open →
• Curran and Seaton: concentration of ownership and pluralityRecall questions on Curran and Seaton's political economy approach, their claims about concentration of ownership, the range of opinion and creativity, media plurality, the policy remedies that follow, and the criticisms of their view.Open →
• Curran and Seaton on the internet and the news oligarchyRecall questions on why Curran and Seaton see continuity rather than rupture online, the forces that constrain the internet, and what they mean by a news oligarchy.Open →
• Hesmondhalgh: risk, public goods and the reliance on big hitsRecall questions on Hesmondhalgh's cultural industries, his four reasons for their high risk, media products as public goods, reliance on big hits and overproduction, sequels, cancellation and piracy, and a criticism of his account.Open →
• Hesmondhalgh: repetition, copyright and digital labourRecall questions on Hesmondhalgh's account of repetition through stars, genres and franchises, format sales, copyright and imposed scarcity, and his argument that digital technology has sped up work, commercialised leisure and increased surveillance.Open →
• Commercial funding: advertising, subscription and freemium modelsRecall questions on advertising and subscription funding, the audience as product, freemium models and microtransactions, mixed advertising and subscription tiers, paywalls, product placement and sponsorship.Open →
• Public service broadcasting and not-for-profit fundingRecall questions on public service broadcasting and its purpose to inform, educate and entertain, the BBC's licence fee and Royal Charter, universality, Channel 4 as a publisher-broadcaster, production quotas, market failure and not-for-profit funding.Open →
• Marketing and the maintenance of national and global audiencesRecall questions on marketing campaigns, above-the-line and below-the-line marketing, teaser trailers and viral campaigns, brand identity and audience data, localised campaigns, fanbases and live events, and maintaining an audience over time.Open →
• Technological change and the shift to digital distributionRecall questions on technological convergence and digitisation, cheaper production, disintermediation, collapsing exhibition windows, on-demand viewing, data-led commissioning, the long tail, algorithms, mobile viewing and broadcasters' own players.Open →
• Ofcom and the UK regulatory frameworkRecall questions on Ofcom and the Communications Act 2003, the Broadcasting Code and its sanctions, the watershed, due impartiality, broadcasting licences, regulation of the BBC and on-demand services, and the Online Safety Act 2023.Open →
• Press, advertising and age classification in the UKRecall questions on IPSO and the Editors' Code, whether press regulation is statutory, what a regulator can require, and the bodies classifying advertising and age-rated media.Open →
• Livingstone and Lunt: the citizen and the consumerRecall questions on Livingstone and Lunt's study of Ofcom, the audience as consumer and as citizen, the languages of choice and rights, the regulation each requires, the tension between them, and a criticism of the model.Open →
• Individual producers, convergence and the limits of regulationRecall questions on who counts as an individual producer, how platforms let one person reach a mass audience, the prosumer, crowdfunding, and what all this does to regulation.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Media Industries further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Vertical integration vs Horizontal integration

  Vertical integration: one company owning successive stages of the same supply chain, so it makes a product and then distributes and exhibits it itself. Horizontal integration: One company buying or merging with others working at the same stage of the supply chain, such as one studio acquiring another studio.

• Distribution vs Circulation

  Distribution: the industry process of getting a finished product to its audience, covering the release strategy, the promotional campaign and the physical or digital channels that deliver it. Circulation: The way a product travels on beyond its initial release, including the copying, sharing and reposting carried out by audiences themselves.

• Ofcom vs IPSO

  Ofcom: the statutory regulator of television, radio and telecommunications in the UK, which licenses broadcasters and enforces the Broadcasting Code. IPSO: The body most national newspapers belong to voluntarily, which rules on complaints against them under the Editors' Code of Practice.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What are the three industry processes a media product passes through on its way to an audience?

   Model answer

   It passes through production, distribution and circulation: the making of the product, its delivery to the market, and its movement between audiences after release.

2. 2

   Define distribution as media industries use the term.

   Model answer

   Distribution is the process of getting a finished product to its audience, covering marketing, release strategy, scheduling and the physical or digital channels that deliver it.

3. 3

   What is meant by the circulation of a media product?

   Model answer

   Circulation is how a product moves once it is released, including repeat viewing, sharing on social media, fan redistribution and its afterlife on other platforms.

4. 4

   Why is production usually the riskiest stage financially?

   Model answer

   Production commits large sums to crew, talent, rights and post-production before anyone knows whether the finished product will find an audience.

5. 5

   How does planning for a global release shape the content of a mainstream film?

   Model answer

   Producers favour spectacle, simple universal narratives and recognisable stars, and limit culturally specific dialogue, so the product travels between territories with little adaptation.

6. 6

   What is windowing in distribution?

   Model answer

   Windowing releases a product through a sequence of separate markets, such as cinema, then premium home viewing, then broadcast, so each market can be charged separately.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Media Industries revision questions

What does Media Industries cover in OCR A-Level Media Studies?

16 subtopics: production, distribution and circulation in a global context, the specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, conglomerate ownership and vertical integration, horizontal integration, diversification and synergy, curran and seaton: concentration of ownership and plurality, curran and seaton on the internet and the news oligarchy, hesmondhalgh: risk, public goods and the reliance on big hits, hesmondhalgh: repetition, copyright and digital labour, commercial funding: advertising, subscription and freemium models, public service broadcasting and not-for-profit funding, marketing and the maintenance of national and global audiences, technological change and the shift to digital distribution, ofcom and the uk regulatory framework, press, advertising and age classification in the uk, livingstone and lunt: the citizen and the consumer and individual producers, convergence and the limits of regulation. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Media Industries organised?

By the OCR H409 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.