The Sociology Of Media

The sociology of media is the study of how mass media communication impacts people 's views of each other as well as their daily interactions. In order to understand sociology we must take a broader view in order to comprehend why we act in the ways we do. It teaches us that much of what we regard as natural, inevitable, good and true may not be so, and that things we take for granted are shaped by historical events and social processes. Scholars who have studied the sociology of media have previously outlined how digital communication differs from face-to-face interaction (Ritzer 2012). They also document how different forms of media are designed to affect people 's behaviour, especially in advertising and entertainment. (Farrah, A

In 1983 90% of media was owned by 50 companies, by 2011 these 50 companies had been cut down to 6. (Lutz,A 2015) These 6 companies, also known as The Big 6 are; GE, News Corp, Disney, Viacom, The Warner and CBS. The Big 6 control at least 70% of cable TV while 3,762 different businesses contribute to the other 30%. Corporations such as Comcast and NBC control at least one out of every five hours of television. In recent years, media ownership, be it profit, non-profit or private seem to have a direct bearing upon media content. The change in the structure of media ownership has become evident in the past few years. The majority of media ownership is now increasingly characterised by two things; conglomeration and

Rupert owns a great amount of News Corporation, a company that publishes and produces films, books, magazines and broadcasts satellite TV programmes. An example of how privately owned media sources work is when Rupert Murdoch used the ownership of The Sun newspaper in order to promote his new satellite company Sky Broadcasting because he was losing out on money. He had full control over what was being advertised and shown to the audience. In order to promote his satellite company, he used to run competitions to win satellite dishes and subscriptions. He gave Sky programme guides out and publicised Sky Broadcasting through different features and entertainment stories throughout the paper even though at the time he had only a fraction of the newspapers audience signed up to Sky. Murdoch also wanted to lure and attract new subscribers by offering films before they were available to rent. Nevertheless, Hollywood studios refused to allow Murdoch access to screen their films until at least 2 years after the release date. How Murdoch ended up solving this problem was by in fact, buying a film studio which is now 20th Century Fox. Murdoch then supplied Sky Broadcasting with new film releases and after time this forced other film studios to do the same, otherwise they would end up losing both money, and ratings. Because Murdoch was a private owner, he had the