Conglomerates & Demassification

Today in class, we had a very interesting lecture about Conglomerates and Demassificaiton. Coming from not very much journalism experience, I had never heard of these things before, but I feel like I've learned a lot. Today, August 29th, marks day two of this lecture, and I absolutely loved how Mr. Miller reviewed what we learned from last week, however, I feel like he spent too much time reviewing the things we had already learned, and we should've moved on to more important matters. Nevertheless, before this lecture, I had no idea that one big company owned so many things. I really got a grasp on conglomeration's benefits with the example he gave in class today. He said that after Marvel was first released, the company saw it as a huge success. Therefore, the company that owns Marvel, decided to expand it - now not only is it comics, but it's books, movies, and TV shows. The examples that were shared today really helped me learn and understand the meanings. 

We also learned about demassification today. It's really interesting because it's almost the opposite of conglomeration. Big corporations use their networks to reach a mass audience, but when a company demassifies, they focus on one niche, or smaller/specific, audience. Mr. Miller gave an example about how the TV demassified radio by saying that first the radio lost its staff (since they went to the TV business), then they lost their audience (who also went to the TV side of entertainment/info, especially since their favorite people had done so that worked at the radio), and then due to the lack of audience, the advertisers pulled out which caused the radio industry to focus on a niche crowd, such as those who like pop music, or who like country music, etc. It really helped me get a grasp on what demassification is. From when TV took over, the radio is still focused on niche audiences - broadcasting Rock on one station, and Rap on another.

Personally, I felt that we talked a little too much about Time Magazine and how they focus on a niche audience as well. While it was helpful, by this point, I feel that we understood the point of demassification already. I will say though, while we knew a lot about demassificaiton already, Mr. Miller gave an example about the movies and the reason why they're still successful to this day, and about the audience (younger people) that go and view the movies. This was really interesting to me, because I had never thought about it before that the movie industry caters towards the younger audience because that's who can afford, and who has time to go see it. 

Overall, today's lecture was very interesting and I feel like I've learned a lot about how different forms of media came to be and how they're functioning to this day, and how they will in the future.