上級 Media Studies (Period 4 class)

Preparation for Class No. 9

Each student will be assigned either a newspaper, a TV channel or another important producer of media products. Please investigate:
a) any company that wholly or partly owns the media organization you are investigating (including any other company that this parent company owns)
b) any company that is wholly or partly owned by the media organization you are investigating
c) any other company that has close financial links with the company

Think about the results of your investigations. What patterns of ownership are there? For example, large media organizations have often developed as a result of horizontal integration, vertical integration, and diversification (see below). Can you find such patterns in Japan?

Horizontal integration in media organizations occurs when one media company takes control of another media company that is in a similar field (or merges with it). For example, a large company might end up owning TV channels, cable networks and film production companies. 21st Century Fox shows this pattern. (See also this page.) It used to be part of the same company as News Corp, and still has the same chairperson, Rupert Murdoch. (What business advantages/disadvantages would horizontal integration bring?)
Vertical integration in media organizations occurs when a media company takes control of the whole process of making, distributing and selling or exhibiting a media product. For example, a large company might end up owning movie studios (to make movies), companies that distribute the movies, and chains of movie theaters to show them. Time Warner shows this pattern. (What business advantages/disadvantages would vertical integration bring?)
Diversification occurs when a media company develops a wide range of activities in order to avoid the risks that might result from becoming dependent on one particular area. For example, a large company might end up owning both media companies and other types of companies, including ones that have a slight connection, such as baseball clubs, and others that have no obvious relation to the media at all. General Electric is an extreme case, since it began as a company producing electrical goods. (What business advantages/disadvantages would diversification bring?)

[The definitions of economics-related vocabulary are all from The Economist magazine's "Economics A-Z". Note that some of the content of The Economist is limited to subscribers. However, since Keio library subscribes to The Economist you can access this content via the Kosmos catalogue when you are at Hiyoshi.]
Make sure that you can explain your results in English.

To find out the media producer you have been assigned, see below.

In the class, we will draw together the information that individual students have collected in order to:
a) see the links between the various media companies
b) compare the range of their commercial interests
c) look for similarities/differences in the organisation of Japanese media companies and the major multinationals. [For information on the major multinational media companies, see the following:
1. Freepress.net has charts giving details of the ownership patterns of the main U.S media companies (and also the major companies in cable, television, print, telecommunications and radio). If you click the various headings to the right of the name of the companies (for example, TV), you will get a list of the holdings in that area.
2. This chart gives details of media ownership in the U.S. in 2014. For media ownership in the UK, see this report. (You do not need to read the whole report! It starts with a summary, and gives statistical information.)
3. For up-to-date information, see the 'Who Owns What' page of the Columbia Journalism Review.]

d) What are the advantages and disadvantages for companies of the patterns of ownership you have found?
e) What are the advantages and disadvantages for customers of the patterns of ownership you have found?

List of assignments
A suggestion: The media links page of the 日本新聞協会 may be helpful. If you have problems in finding out any of this information, please e-mail me for advice.

Newspapers

朝日新聞 Hiroyuki
毎日新聞 Kiyofumi
日本経済新聞 Shoma
産経新聞 Ayaka (or a US newspaper)
読売新聞 Yu
山陰中央新報 (or another local newspaper) Jun (or a Hong Kong newspaper)

TV channels

日本放送協会 Shohei
フジテレビ Yuki M.
日本テレビ Yugo (or a Middle East channel, such as Al Jazeera)
東京放送 Minami
朝日放送 Ryoto
テレビ東京 Anri
テレビ神奈川 (or another local TV station) Takashi (or a TV channel in Hong Kong)
WOWOW Takuya (or a US TV channel)
スカイ
スター Yusuke

Other

電通 Takuro
講談社 (or another major publisher) Yuri
ソニ Daichi
トイズファクトリー (or another major music company) Yuki I.
共同通信社 or 東宝 Sayo