Institutions.

Everything that we do is controlled by an institution of some sort, you cannot escape it, and we follow the rules with questioning it. School and home are institutions which contain rules and regulations that we just follow them without releasing that they are constricting and controlling our lives.

To understand the concept of an institution is knowing 3 important keys terms which are listed below:

1. Who produces the media texts.
2. Their set of values and codes.
3. And the relationship between them and us as individuals

The press and TV give us a general awareness of values on the basics of what it is producing and the producers. For example if a journalists were to post something in a newspaper 'The Sun' we automatically think that they share the same values of that newspaper. However 'The Sun' and 'Daily Mail' are both owned by the same company but have different values and tell different stories.

A key word within institutions is conglomerate this means a company owns and produces different types of the media, but we don't associate them with it.

The 'Big 5' are the worlds five biggest media corporations, one person may just think that they deal with only one type of media because that is what they are taught to believe. Just think that they own so much more and this is where their income builds up, an example of what they own is the film companies.

• Walt Disney > Walt Disney Pictures
• Sony > Columbia
• Time Warner > Warner Bros
• News Corporation > 20th Century Fox
• Viacom > Paramount Pictures

Due to this, it is virtually impossible to escape these 5 companies. For example, I had never before heard of Viacom but I am always watching Paramount Pictures films and that is because Viacom don't want to tarnish their image by producing children's film so they created or bought shares in Paramount Pictures to gain more money.


Walt Disney

Touchstone Pictures - The walt Disney company is known for their pretty in pink princesses but wanted to produce films with many different variety’s to gain a wider audience and make more money from then. They produced over 200 films through Touchstone Pictures, including Good Morning Vietnam, Sister Act, Pretty Woman and Armageddon.

Marvel Comics - In 2009 Disney wanted to become the biggest media institution so they bought shares in Marvel who were independent until then. This deal was expected to strengthen Disney's position as the leading global provider of high-quality branded entertainment and build long-term shareholder value.