Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production, distribution and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area.

Media ownership is mostly positive for big conglomerates like The Big Six. One of these advantages is that there is no need to collaborate with other companies to increase funding. This is because of the huge amount of profit that these companies make. Because of this money, conglomerates can travel to bigger, more appealing exotic locations, they can afford well known and well trained actors, and they can also afford to have multiple cameras on set at once to film a scene from many different angles, and can afford to spend a lot of money of special effects. A good example of all these qualities is the film 'Skyfall'. The film contains footage from Turkey, Japan, Scotland and various parts of England. This expands the variation of culture in the audience, but is also more appealing for people who are interested in travelling. Famous actors appear in the film, such as Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Because of these big names, the audience will trust that the film will be good due to the actors reputation. Also, the scene on top of the train is shown from many different angles, which emphasises action. The special effects, for example the house fire, is very dynamic and draws the audience in. On the other hand, films like 'Ill Manors', which was made by a small independent company, do not include these qualities. The budget for the whole film was £100,000, only a fraction of the cost of 'Skyfall'. No exciting locations are used, and the actors are not very well known and not many different or extreme camera shots are used, like in 'Skyfall' which uses helicopter and boat shots.

Another advantage of Media ownership for conglomerates is that they are able to use synergy and cross media convergence in order to boost profits. A good example for this point would be Disney. When the film 'Frozen' was released, tones of merchandise was released around the same time, such as dress-up clothes, dolls, bedding, lunchboxes, etc. Not only does this boost sales for the well known companies producing the merchandise, but also for the film itself. A different kind of example of synergy is when the singer Adele released the song 'Skyfall', named after the film, around the same time the film was released. This also helped boost sales for both institutions, because people who had seen the film and therefore heard the song might want to buy it, and fans of Adele will have heard the song and may be curious to watch the film that it appears in. For small, independent companies, synergy does not work as well, which means they are unable to boost their profits this way.

As conglomerates have a lot of money, it means they are able to spend a lot on marketing and advertisement. They can afford to produce multiple teaser trailers, which will create a buzz within the audience. They are also able to produce a larger variation of advertisement, for example 'Skyfall' was advertised through animated ads in tube stations. A larger variety of advertisement means a larger variety of people will see it. Although smaller companies cannot spend as much on advertising, they can still market quite successfully. 'Ill Manors' was advertised cheaply online, one way being through its website. This site included lots of clips, teasers, information about the film and downloads. Downloads are a free was of promoting the film as the film could be advertised through word of mouth. The film went on to make a profit over 4 times the cost of making the film.

There are quite a few disadvantages of media ownership for smaller companies through distribution. One of these disadvantages is that because the company are not well known and therefore do not have a good reputation, the film is automatically expected to make less at the box office. If this does happen, these companies cannot withstand losses as they do not have as much money as big conglomerates like The Big Six. On the other hand, it is because they do not have as much money which makes them able to take risks when producing a film, as they do not have much to loose. Taking these risks could potentially end up making them a lot of profit. When it comes to exhibition, smaller companies tend to get a backseat due to the amount of big American blockbusters made by big conglomerates with their good reputation.