As media conglomerates, these large corporations have a lot of money and influence to go around, being able to advertise and produce more content than their competitors. This may be good for those who only want to consume entertainment, but they affect the way producers and media networks operate in the media landscape. Influencing creators to make content that is focused only to the national and mainstream markets then rather local and commutive programs (Kimmelman 2005). When big time television company HBO (now owned by Warner Media) released their show Game of Thrones, production companies attempted to create the “next big thing” and hopped in the fantasy, sword fighting, sex driven soap opera train; with shows like Starz Outlander, History Channels Vikings, and Netflix’s The Witcher. Treading from their off beaten path in order to capture the attention of mainstream audiences.
One company that places a large social imprint is the Walt Disney company. The media conglomerate has over 200 media companies under its belt (StudioBinder, 2021), with television studio like ABC and ESPN, entertainment mediums like Marvel Entertainment and Pixar animations, to owning impressive IP’s such as the Lucas films Star Wars franchise and the beloved Simpsons family under 20th Century Fox. This creates a culture where customers associate their childhood happiness with their experience with Disney, with them being a major producer in family entertainment, they a re able to create what they accepted as the “Model family unit” by cratering its childhood audience (Richard 2019). Here's a glimpse of what the Walt Disney co. owns.
As large-scale media conglomerates, the media outlet works to protect the company’s image and interests with its target audience and competitors. So any content, whether its informational like a news station or creative like a production company is filtered by their owners as a from of “self-censorship” (Chomsky 1988 see Ownership). Before a show or news article gets to the consumer, it goes through a pre-production and marketing phase so that it can be well received by the populace. Any negative response, or flak, towards the conglomerate is snuffed out by the company’s vast resources like legal teams or public relation firms (Chomsky 1988 see Flak). These tactics affect the digital consumer as they receive their understanding of culture, news, and entertainment from these large conglomerates of mass media, they will rarely find a dissenting opinion or different medium to choose from as they are only open to and know about the mainstream media producers.
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- Noam Chomsky Manufactuing consent (Al Jazeera)