21st Century Fox vs. The Walt Disney Company - How Do Media Industries Shape Media Audiences?

Summary:

Last Thursday I addressed the question of the week, “how do media industries shape media audiences?” I compared the two biggest media conglomerates in the industry today, 21^st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company. I first addressed both of these major film-distributing companies individually and then compared them to each other. Both of these big players in the industry reach audience in a multitude of ways based on their presence as conglomerates. For example, 21^st Century Fox not only produces films but is also has a dominating presence on television (Turk, S). Disney has numerous ways to reach their desired audience through theme parks, and other forms of media (Turk, S). I also discussed how these big players shape their audience through the MPAA ratings. The last 4 top grossing movies of the year (all put out by Disney) were rated PG-13. This statistic alone shows that the target audience is at least over the age of thirteen. These successful movies shape their audience by their ratings. These main points along with the facts of these big player’s success over the years highlight how major film distributors shape what media audiences watch. Whether it is through one of the many aspects of these major conglomerates, or through their specifically rated films they produce each year.

Discussion:

The class discussion shed more light on the class’ opinions of these two companies. The first question I asked was “do you feel that these key players in the industry will remain the same or are there opportunities for other companies to break into the market?” A response to this question was that there is too much barriers to entry for this industry. It is hard to break into this industry without getting instantly bought up by a bigger company, which makes the big companies even bigger. The second question I asked was, “do you think these conglomerates produce more quality films because of their size or does quality seem to be diminished in films because the attention of these companies are so scattered?” An answer I got to this question was that the conglomerates have more money, therefore more opportunities to make great films. This I definitely agree with because one of the biggest conglomerates, Disney, produced the last top four films, which proves that the quality was not diminished. If anything, it is just the opposite.

Sources:

"Domestic Movie Theatrical Market Summary 1995 to 2014." The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. <http://www.the-numbers.com/market/>.

Eliashberg, J. (2005, February 23). The Motion Picture Industry. Retrieved October 19, 2014.

Motion Picture Association of America. 2014 Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2014. https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system.html

Turk, Sarah. "Movie & Video Production." IBISWorld US. IBISWorld Inc., 1 July 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.