Key Concepts: Institution
Introduction
‘Institutions’ is the term used to mean the companies who are reponsible for creating media products. So this includes, film companies, record labels, magazine publishers and so on.
The Media does not exist of its own accord. Films, magazines, adverts, radio, the music you listen to - all are created by colossal institutions. Some of these are arguably more powerful in this world than governments. Many have a massive influence on how you encounter information and what you think of major events taking place in the world at the moment. When we look at this area there are certain questions that should be asked:
- how do these institutions operate?
- who owns them?
- what influence do they have?
Why it is important to study institutions
When thinking about a media product it is important to understand the people that have input into its creation. Mostly, media companies are driven by money, but they may have other intentions. For example, they may seek to educate us, or influence us to think in a certain way, or even buy certain products. Knowing that a particular institution is behind a particular product may be important. Branding tells us that we will like, or dislike a product. So by studying institutions we learn to expect different things from the BBC than Sky Television, for example.
