Economy

Servicing the economy is a major function of the Mass Media. Since the 1920's the economy has been dependant on manufacturing consumers. Advertisers began to poke people insecurities in order to sell to them. They did this by preying upon people's emotions, mainly the dichotomy between fear and happiness.

Advertisers had made people question their appearance and whether or not it made them happy or not they would focus on everything from feminine odour, bad breath, sweating, unmanicured fingernails, obesity and so forth. Positioning their products as the cures for these problems. These adverts were not only focused on women but men too focusing on bald men, overweight men; hairy men no one could escape the focus of the advertisers. The rise of Hollywood in the 1920s also gave advertisers the perfect medium to market their products to an unsuspecting consumer.

To do this, Hollywood had to create the impression of "the perfect woman" and "the perfect man."

They had to convince the public that their "possessions" mattered, and the illusion was, the more stuff the modern consumer possessed the closer they could perceive themselves to their ideal image of beauty or happiness. According to 1920s-fashion-and-music.com the 1920s economy was dependent on the public's needs and wants.

Beauty plays a vital part of the economy, if people did not acknowledge their insecurities then none of the products would sell and as a result the economy would fall. According to the British Advertising Association latest statistics (2011) the United Kingdom's advertising revenues jumped 11%. It has been the fastest growing industry over the past 10 years. This year Britain is expected to total advertising revenue which will reach up to 15.4 billion pounds, compared to the 2009 growth of 800 million pounds, that is an increase of 5.4%. Cinema and television advertising was the most prominent in the second quarter earnings surge 25.5% year on year from the classified advertising industry.

But who owns the media, which companies shape our values, beliefs and decisions?  According to IdeaMines.com The media is basically dominated by five major companies they are:

·         Time Warner: 2009 revenues $ 28.8 billion. Time Warner is the third largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. They own and operate four major business, Home Box Office, Turner Broadcasting System, Time Inc., and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Time Warner owns The CW Television Network in conjunction with the CBS Corporation.

·         VIACOM: 2009 revenues $13.6 billion. Viacom is also one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. They own and operate MTV Networks, BET Networks, and the Paramount Pictures Corporation. Some of their subsidiaries include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Spike TV

·         CBS Corporation: 2009 revenues $13 billion. CBS is another large media conglomerate. CBS Corporation is the parent company for CBS Broadcasting Inc. In addition, they own The CW Television Network in conjunction with Time Warner. CBS also owns Simon & Schuster and CBS Films.

·         Walt Disney: 2009 revenues $36.1 billion. Disney is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. They own and operate the ABC Television Network in addition to Disney Channel, ESPN, and Lifetime. Along with its production studios and theme parks, Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment. Its radio network, Radio Disney, is broadcasts on radio stations in different areas across the U.S.

·         News Corp: 2009 revenues $30.4 billion. News Corp. is the world’s second-largest media conglomerate. With Rupert Murdoch as its founder and CEO, News Corp. has made quite a name for itself since its start in 1979. The corporation owns and operates 20th Century Fox Production Company along with its subsidiaries including the Fox Broadcasting Company, FX, and National Geographic. They own a number of newspapers including the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal as well as HarperCollins Publishers.

Those 5 companies own 95% of all the media that we consume every day. They own the major entertainment theme parks, entertainment movie studios; television and radio broadcast networks and programming, video news and sports entertainment.

They also own integrated telecommunications, wireless phones, video games softwares, electronic media, the music industry and more.

When we look at how these companies have portrayed their films or TV programmes or how they set the image of ideology, they exclude the information and perspectives that don't fit in with their interests. For example when we look at Disney cartoons the audience wouldn’t see a large woman or man represented as the heroes or heroines in a major film, it would go against their perception of ideology. (Explained in depth on later on in the blog)