Ownership, concentration, conver

gence

Google?

MAC309

1

2

3

?

4

5

6

7

8

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Recent trend: megamedia– fewer and fewer corporations owning more and more

media outlets

(i.e. concentration)

– through merger, hostile acquisition, strategic partnership

– owning across platform; across places; across news/entertainment divide

– corporations that do more than just produce media

9

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

10

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Economics of megamedia1. Media is a ‘public good’, experiences and ‘economy of scale’

– Consuming media does not make it unavailable to others

– Privileges firms with available capital

– Urges firms to seek bigger audiences

11

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Economics of megamedia1. Media is a ‘public good’, experiences and ‘economy of scale’

2. Integration, on vertical and horizontal dimensions

– Vertical: owning steps along the production process

– Horizontal: owning multiple outlets for product

12

13

Production

Distribution

Consumption

Publishing Radio Television Press

Vertical integration

Horizontal integration

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

20th Century Fox

Fox Searchlight

Fox Television Studios

Blue Sky Studios

Sky (+)

Fox

FX

Sky 1, 2, 3

Sky Movies

14

Vertical: film production (eg The Simpsons Movie)

Harper Collins The Sun MySpace IGN STAR

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

20th Century Fox

Fox Searchlight

Fox Television Studios

Blue Sky Studios

Sky (+)

Fox

FX

Sky 1, 2, 3

Sky Movies

15

Horizontal: film production (eg The Simpsons Movie)

Harper Collins The Sun MySpace IGN STAR

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Implications of media concentration?– Homogenisation of content?

– Incessant cross-promotion?

16

17

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Implications of media concentration?– Homogenisation of content?

– Incessant cross-promotion?

– Huge cost of entry for independents, new creators, smaller interests?

– Bottom-line trumps creativity?

– Loss of local character of media?

18

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - convergence

Implications of media concentration?– Homogenisation of content?

– Incessant cross-promotion?

– Huge cost of entry for independents, new creators, smaller interests?

– Bottom-line trumps creativity?

– Loss of local character of media?

– Fewer sources of information?

– Take safe political positions… or agenda-driven ones?

– Unlikely to report fairly on their own public impact

19

20

megamedia – concerns for culture – concerns for news - search

Implications of media concentration?– Homogenisation of content?

– Incessant cross-promotion?

– Huge cost of entry for independents, new creators, smaller interests?

– Bottom-line trumps creativity?

– Loss of local character of media?

– Fewer sources of information?

– Take safe political positions… or agenda-driven ones?

– unlikely to report fairly on their own public impact…• or on the political situations that benefit them

• or on the problems of corporate capitalism?

– Lobbying power, international influence21

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

22

23

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

• Google• 1998: search engine launched

• 2004: public stock offering

• 2006: ‘google’ added to the OED

24<link>

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

25<link>

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

26<link>

<link>

Feb 2010

Feb 2011

<link>

<link>

<link>

<link>

35

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

• Is the search industry concentrated?

36<link>

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

• Is the search industry concentrated?

37<link>

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

• Is the search industry concentrated?

– Dominated by a few firms

– Capital intensive to compete

– Overwhelmingly supported by ad revenue

– Companies are expanding well beyond search and access

– Overwhelmingly American

38

39<link>

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

• Is our use of the web dominated by these providers?

40

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Does concentration matter here?

• Traditional media business: 2 commodities

- Provide content to audience

- Provide audience to advertiser

• Tendency to want to shape content to serve most viewers

41

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Does concentration matter here?

• Traditional media business: 2 commodities

- Provide content to audience

- Provide audience to advertiser

• Tendency to want to shape content to serve most viewers

• Search: provide platform for every user to find exactly what they want

• Generally less interested in the content

• More important to be comprehensive and satisfying

• Automation of search removes some human involvement42

Search?

SEO?

Spam?

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

What explains the corporate presence in our top searches?

• Google’s ‘PageRank’ algorithm?

– Search results based on incoming links, not just content

– Wisdom of the crowd?

– Popularity contest?

– Self-affirming, high-ranked links stay high?

• Corporate power over content production, search merely delivers?

• Do the structures of ‘information access’ shape our engagement with that information?

44

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Does the dependence on ad revenue affect search?

• DoubleClick: serves up banner ads to web pages

• AdSense: matches ads to webpage content

• AdWords: matches ads to search terms

– Sponsored and affiliated links

45

46

47

48

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Are there new implications of concentration in search?

• Established firms curtail innovation?

• Lobbying power?

• Platform lock-in?

Search (+ advertising) + applications

• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back

• Google apps feed users back to search engine

49

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Search (+ advertising) + applications

• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back

• Google apps feed users back to search engine

50

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Search (+ advertising) + applications

• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back

• Google apps feed users back to search engine

GmailNewsReaderMapsEarthAndroidYouTube

GroupsDocsCalendarBooksScholarChrome OSGoggles

CheckoutShoppingImagesDesktopVideoSketch UP

PicassaOrkutTalkBloggerChromeDesktop

Steet ViewLatitudeAndroidWaveBuzzVoice

51

concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy

Are there new implications of concentration in search?

• Established firm curtails innovation?

• Lobbying power?

• Platform lock-in?

• Information privacy?

– Google saves search queries

– Uses Gmail and Deja as consumer data

– Maps, Street View, Latitude…

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/01/10/google-street-view-fails-wins-wtfs/

Latitude

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Oq-9enE-k

• Check out Aka Aki too:

• http://www.aka-aki.com/

61

Other stuff

• Google book deal?

• Behaviourial advertising