Media Institutions

The Guardian

It was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821 and it was influenced by the Peterloo Massacres and the anti-corn laws campaigns. It is a broadsheet newspaper, which was the first to be fully coloured. It is also globally recognizable as an international newspaper; it covers a range of different media platforms, such as the applications and online.

BBC

The BBC's remit is to inform, educate and entertain, which the Rethian values; the values that John Reith, the founder of the BBC, wanted to achieve. The BBC is a PSB (Public Service Broadcaster) that, we as UK residents, pay for through the TV license fee. BBC also has other channels, having a large synergy basis, BBC2/3/4 and also radio stations. They also have BBC iPlayer for on demand catch up TV. 50% of their expenditure is on TV so most of the things produced are TV rather than radio.

Twitter

Jack Dorsey founded Twitter in 2006. Twitter uses User Generated Content (UGC) to convey it's message as it is a public site. Twitter also owns Vine, which is a rapidly growing video site. Twitter is ranked one of the 10 most visited social media platforms, however the number of users was overtaken by Instagram. There are also some issues associated with Twitter as it is quite controversial due to the fact that it can be used to organise protests and these can spread rapidly. Negative publicity can also be viral very quickly, which is a disadvantage of the social networking site.

News Corporation

It was founded in Australia by Rupert Murdoch and is split into two subsidiaries; News Corporation and 21st Century Fox because Murdoch wanted to focus on both the media and publishing. It is a conglomerate, which has many other assets worldwide used to promote each other. News Corp own some of the most well-known newspapers such as The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times. They also own HarperCollins Publishers, which is the world's largest English language book publishers.

The Walt Disney Company

The company was founded by Walt Disney and is a multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It is the second largest conglomerate, after Comcast, in the world. They use Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) in their family animations; the most iconic of these images and characters being Mickey Mouse. The synergy involved in Disney is so varied; from merchandise to radio. Disney itself is so broad as it has Walt Disney Pictures, Disney Land, Disney Live, Disney Store, Disney Channel, Disney Comics and many more outside the Disney brand, such as Marvel and ABC.

ITV

The ITV was founded in 1955 and is the biggest commercially founded programme, controlled by Ofcom. It is a commercial broadcaster which has synergy, from ITV2/3, ITV player, weather, news ect. ITV is not owned or operated by just one company but instead many licensees. It is regulated by Ofcom and the TV show with the most viewers (20th September) was Downton Abbey, which had 8.08 million viewers.

Sony

Sony Corporation is a multinational conglomerate head quartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1946 by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. It's primary focus is electronics and owns Sony Pictures/Music/Computer Entertainment and Sony Mobile Communications. It is the parent company of the Sony Group. Sony own Columbia Pictures, which is their biggest acquisition so far. They own CBS Record Group, Naughty Dog, Bigbig Studios and many more companies.

Vivendi

Vivendi is a French multinational mass media company, primarily focused on digital entertainment. It owns Canal+ Group, which is a pay- TV channel and movie producer in France. The water company Compagnie Générale des Eaux, branched out into transport, construction, property and more; in the 1990s, they expanded into mass media. They then changed the name to Vivendi and launched digital channels in other countries.

Viacom

Viacom, Inc is an American global mass media company, who focuses on cinema and cable TV. In terms of revenue, it is the 6th largest broadcasting and cable company. National Amusements, which is owned by Sumner Redstone, has voting control over Viacom. Viacom was produced from CBS Corporation. Viacom also owns DreamWorks. The synergy created after Viacom signed a contract with Microsoft allowed both Microsoft and Viacom to advertise with and through each other. Microsoft also collaborate on promotions with the BET and MTV awards, which are also owned by Viacom.