Media ownership and control | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: Aug 31
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 75 minutes
Media ownership matters because controlling media organisations may provide individuals and corporations with significant economic, cultural and political influence. This Media ownership and control A-Level Sociology revision page examines patterns of ownership, the distinction between owning and controlling media, and debates about whether owners shape what audiences see and hear. It builds directly on new media [The new media] and prepares you to examine news selection [Selection of news], representations and audience responses. AQA requires students to understand sociological explanations of the relationship between media ownership and control.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Define media ownership and distinguish ownership from control.
Explain patterns such as concentration, conglomeration, horizontal integration and vertical integration.
Analyse ways in which ownership and control may influence media content.
Compare Marxist, pluralist and other sociological interpretations of media power.
Explain how the growth of new media may alter ownership and control.
Evaluate the extent to which media owners are able to determine media content.
Revision Notes 📚
Media ownership and control A-Level Sociology revision: what you need to know
The AQA specification requires knowledge of the relationship between ownership and control of the media. This sits alongside the new media, globalisation, popular culture, news production, representations and audiences within the Media topic.
A good answer therefore needs to go beyond simply identifying who owns media organisations. The sociological issue is power:
Who owns media organisations?
Who actually makes decisions about their content?
How concentrated is media ownership?
Can owners influence representations and news?
How much independence do editors and other media professionals have?
Do audiences and market competition limit owners' power?
Has the growth of new media reduced or increased concentrated media power?
Ownership and control are not the same thing
A crucial distinction is between ownership and control.
Media ownership refers to possession of media organisations or media resources.
Media control refers to the ability to make or influence decisions about the production, selection, presentation and distribution of media content.
An owner may therefore possess a media organisation without personally making every decision about what appears in it.
Day-to-day control may also be exercised by:
editors;
journalists;
producers;
managers;
other media professionals.
This distinction is extremely important in examinations. The 2024 examiner report specifically noted that stronger answers recognised that ownership and control are not the same thing.
Why the distinction matters
Suppose a large corporation owns a range of media outlets. There are at least two different sociological questions:
Who owns them?
How does that ownership translate into control over what they produce?
Different perspectives give very different answers.
Marxists are generally more likely to emphasise the power attached to ownership, while pluralists give greater importance to competition, audiences and the autonomy of media professionals.
Concentration of media ownership
Concentration of ownership occurs when a relatively small number of owners or organisations control a significant share of media resources.
AQA assessment material treats concentration as a key issue when examining the relationship between ownership, control and content.
The sociological concern is straightforward:
If ownership becomes concentrated, fewer owners potentially have influence over a larger proportion of the media.
This might affect:
the range of viewpoints available;
which issues receive attention;
how groups are represented;
which interests are promoted;
which ideas are treated as normal or legitimate.
AQA's 2022 mark scheme explicitly recognised the argument that concentration of ownership may narrow the range of news sources and content.
Evaluation
Concentration of ownership does not automatically prove that all media content is identical.
Owners still operate in competitive markets, audiences can choose between products, media professionals may have some independence, and new media allow content to be created outside traditional organisations.
The key exam question is therefore not simply whether ownership is concentrated, but what consequences that concentration has for control and content.
Media conglomerates
A media conglomerate is a large organisation with interests across a number of media activities or businesses.
Conglomeration may allow an organisation to exercise influence across several forms of media rather than within only one outlet.
AQA mark schemes identify media conglomerates as particularly relevant to debates about ownership and control, including arguments that large corporations remain powerful despite the growth of new media.
This connects with media globalisation [The media and globalisation], because large media organisations may operate across national boundaries.
Why conglomeration matters
Conglomeration can potentially provide:
greater economic power;
access to larger audiences;
opportunities to distribute content through different media;
greater influence over which content becomes widely available.
However, greater size does not automatically mean complete control. Organisations continue to face competition and need audiences for their products.
Horizontal integration
Horizontal integration occurs when a media organisation expands by acquiring or controlling other organisations operating at the same general stage or within similar areas of media production.
AQA includes horizontal integration among the concepts that may be used to explain patterns of ownership and control.
The result can be greater concentration because previously separate organisations come under common ownership.
Sociological significance
Horizontal integration may:
reduce the number of independent owners;
increase the market position of larger organisations;
increase an owner's potential influence over content;
reduce competition between separately owned organisations.
However, pluralists would question whether ownership alone determines content because audiences still have choices and media organisations need to compete for them.
Vertical integration
Vertical integration occurs when an organisation controls different stages involved in producing and distributing media content.
Rather than relying entirely on separate organisations at different stages, a corporation may exercise control across more of the process.
AQA mark schemes recognise vertical integration as relevant to media ownership.
Why vertical integration can increase power
Greater control over production and distribution may make an organisation less dependent on other businesses.
This can increase its ability to decide:
what is produced;
how it is distributed;
which audiences receive it.
The greater the number of stages an organisation controls, the greater its potential influence over the route from media production to audience consumption.
Horizontal and vertical integration compared
Pattern | Meaning | Possible sociological significance |
Horizontal integration | Control of more organisations at a similar stage or within related media markets | May reduce the number of independent owners and increase concentration |
Vertical integration | Control over different stages of production and distribution | May increase an organisation's control over how content reaches audiences |
Conglomeration | Ownership across a range of media or business interests | May increase the economic and cultural power of large organisations |
These concepts describe patterns of ownership. They do not by themselves prove that owners directly determine every piece of media content.
That relationship must be explained, not assumed.
Synergy
Synergy describes the potential benefits that arise when different parts of a media organisation work together.
Media content controlled by one part of an organisation may be promoted or distributed through other parts.
This can increase the commercial advantages associated with conglomerate ownership.
From a critical perspective, synergy may strengthen large corporations by making it easier for them to promote their own products across different parts of their media operations.
From a pluralist perspective, however, commercial success still ultimately depends on attracting audiences.
Technological convergence
Technological convergence refers to previously separate forms of media becoming increasingly connected through digital technology.
For example, different types of media content can be accessed through the same digital technologies.
This matters for ownership because the boundaries between different media industries may become less clear.
It also connects this lesson closely to new media [The new media].
The growth of new media may create opportunities for new producers while simultaneously allowing already powerful corporations to extend their influence into new forms of media.
How ownership may influence media content
The most important examination skill is being able to explain the mechanism connecting ownership to content.
Avoid simply writing:
"Owners are powerful, so they control the media."
Instead explain exactly how ownership might matter.
Direct owner influence
One possibility is that owners directly influence editorial or production decisions.
An owner may seek to determine:
which issues receive attention;
which views are promoted;
which views are marginalised;
how particular groups or events are represented.
AQA mark schemes recognise the possibility that owners may instruct editors or other staff about content.
This is particularly important for Marxist explanations.
Application in an examination
A question might ask how ownership affects news, representations or audiences.
A developed chain of reasoning would be:
ownership provides organisational power → owners influence editorial priorities → certain ideas or representations receive more attention → media content may reflect the interests or assumptions of owners.
Agenda setting
Agenda setting refers to the power to influence which issues receive media attention.
It does not necessarily mean telling audiences exactly what to think.
Instead, media power may operate by shaping what audiences are encouraged to think about.
Owners and controllers may influence the agenda by:
prioritising particular issues;
repeatedly covering some subjects;
giving limited attention to others;
excluding some issues altogether.
AQA's 2022 mark scheme explicitly accepts the idea that owners may act as agenda setters.
This topic is developed further in news selection [Selection of news].
Gatekeeping
Gatekeeping refers to the process through which some information is selected for media attention while other information is excluded.
Control may therefore be exercised by people who decide what passes through the "gate" into media content.
Gatekeepers can include:
editors;
journalists;
producers;
other media professionals.
This reinforces the distinction between ownership and control.
An owner may possess an organisation, but editors and other professionals may exercise important control over everyday decisions.
Your later work on news presentation [Presentation of news] develops how these decisions can shape the meanings audiences receive.
Ownership, ideology and bias
Ideology refers to a system of ideas and beliefs.
Marxist approaches argue that media ownership should be understood within wider class inequalities. Media content may help reproduce ideas that support dominant groups and existing social arrangements.
Possible effects include:
presenting some interests as normal or legitimate;
promoting positive images of wealth and privilege;
presenting disadvantaged groups negatively;
limiting serious challenges to dominant interests.
AQA's 2025 mark scheme accepted the argument that representations may reflect the assumptions of owners and controllers and may promote dominant ideology.
This shows why ownership is relevant far beyond questions explicitly titled "ownership".
It can also be applied to media representations of social class [Media representations of social class].
Ownership and media representations
Owners and controllers may affect how social groups are represented.
AQA directly tested this relationship in 2025 by asking how ownership and control might affect representations of social class.
Possible sociological arguments include:
owners' assumptions influencing representations;
professional controllers such as editors bringing their own assumptions to content;
negative stereotypes supporting dominant ideas;
positive representations of wealth and privilege;
new media reducing owners' ability to monopolise representations because audiences can create content.
The important distinction is between describing a representation and explaining why ownership or control might produce it.
Owners and controllers
Media content is not necessarily produced personally by owners.
Controllers such as editors and media professionals can make important decisions.
This creates two possibilities.
Owners ultimately dominate
One argument is that professional controllers operate within organisations owned by others.
Even if an owner does not personally approve every story, employees may work within:
organisational priorities;
commercial expectations;
established editorial policies;
assumptions about acceptable content.
Owner influence may therefore be indirect.
Professionals have relative autonomy
An alternative view is that journalists, editors and producers have significant professional independence.
Media content may reflect:
professional judgement;
news values;
routines of media production;
audience expectations;
rather than simply the personal views of owners.
This distinction is central to evaluating Marxist explanations.
Marxist explanations of media ownership and control
Marxist approaches focus on class inequality and the relationship between media power and capitalist ownership.
AQA has directly examined Marxist views of the relationship between media ownership and control. Its mark schemes recognise both instrumental or manipulative Marxism and hegemonic or neo-Marxist approaches.
Instrumental or manipulative Marxism
An instrumental Marxist approach sees media ownership as providing the capitalist class with substantial direct power.
The media can be viewed as an instrument through which powerful owners promote ideas that support their interests.
The argument can be developed as follows:
Media ownership is concentrated.
Owners belong to economically powerful groups.
Ownership provides the ability to influence media organisations.
Content can therefore promote ideas favourable to powerful interests.
Alternative or critical views may receive less attention.
This view therefore treats ownership as a major source of ideological power.
Strengths
This approach draws attention to an important sociological fact: ownership provides access to resources that ordinary individual audience members do not possess.
It also provides a clear explanation of why concentration of ownership may matter.
Limitations
It may exaggerate owners' ability to dictate content.
It can underestimate:
professional autonomy;
competition;
audience choice;
variation between media organisations;
the growth of user-created content.
If owners could simply impose any content they wanted, it would also be difficult to explain why commercially unsuccessful content would continue to be produced.
Hegemonic or neo-Marxist explanations
Hegemonic Marxist or neo-Marxist approaches provide a less direct explanation.
They do not require owners to issue explicit instructions for every media message.
Instead, dominant ideas may become embedded within media organisations and wider society.
Media professionals may operate within assumptions about what is:
normal;
reasonable;
newsworthy;
legitimate.
Media content can therefore reproduce dominant ideology without constant direct interference from owners.
Why this is different from instrumental Marxism
Instrumental Marxism | Hegemonic / neo-Marxism |
Emphasises more direct owner influence | Emphasises wider ideological processes |
Media can be treated as an instrument of powerful owners | Media professionals may reproduce dominant ideas without direct instructions |
Ownership is a central mechanism of control | Professional routines and accepted assumptions also matter |
This distinction can significantly improve a 20-mark answer because it shows that "the Marxist view" is not a single argument.
Media as an ideological institution
Marxist explanations may view the media as contributing to the reproduction of dominant ideology.
Media content can potentially:
legitimise existing inequalities;
promote consumerism;
normalise existing social arrangements;
portray powerful groups positively;
present challenges to the existing system as unreasonable or marginal.
AQA's specimen assessment also recognises the dominant ideology thesis as relevant to questions about media ownership.
However, this claim must be evaluated against evidence that media contain disagreement, criticism and competing perspectives.
The propaganda model
The propaganda model is another Marxist-influenced approach recognised in AQA mark schemes.
It suggests that structural features of media organisations can limit the range of ideas that receive widespread attention.
The important point for this lesson is that media control does not have to depend solely on an owner directly ordering journalists what to write.
Control may emerge through the economic and organisational conditions within which media are produced.
This strengthens the broader Marxist case that ownership matters even where direct interference is difficult to demonstrate.
Evaluation
A pluralist criticism is that the existence of competing media, diverse viewpoints and audience choice challenges the idea of a single dominant media message.
New media also provide opportunities for content to circulate outside established organisations.
Pluralist explanations of media power
Pluralists reject the idea that powerful owners simply impose their views on passive audiences.
Instead, they emphasise:
competition between media organisations;
audience choice;
diversity of content;
consumer demand;
professional independence;
the ability of audiences to reject media products.
The basic pluralist argument is that power is dispersed rather than concentrated entirely in the hands of owners.
Competition limits owner power
Media organisations need audiences.
If audiences dislike or reject content, they can choose alternatives.
This creates pressure on organisations to respond to consumer preferences.
AQA's 2021 examination item contrasted the Marxist view with the argument that media organisations must produce what audiences want in order to remain profitable.
Pluralists therefore reverse the direction of power emphasised by Marxists.
Rather than:
owners → content → audiences
pluralists place greater emphasis on:
audience preferences → market demand → media content
Diversity of viewpoints
Pluralists argue that media contain a range of opinions.
Competition gives different organisations incentives to target different audiences.
As a result, the existence of disagreement within the media challenges the idea that all content simply reflects a single ruling-class ideology.
Evaluation
Marxists respond that diversity of content is not the same as diversity of ownership.
Several apparently different media products may still exist within structures of concentrated corporate ownership.
Pluralists may therefore overestimate how widely media power is distributed.
Professional autonomy
Pluralists also argue that editors, journalists and other media professionals may exercise independent judgement.
Ownership does not automatically translate into detailed day-to-day control.
Professional media workers can decide:
what to investigate;
which stories to select;
how stories should be presented;
which sources should be used.
This weakens a simple model of direct owner control.
However, critics argue that professional autonomy still operates within organisations with particular economic interests and institutional priorities.
Audience power
Pluralist approaches give audiences an important role.
Audiences can:
choose between media;
stop consuming media they dislike;
respond to content;
create their own content through new media.
This becomes particularly important when studying media content and audiences [Media content and audiences].
AQA's assessment materials repeatedly recognise audience choice as a challenge to claims of absolute owner power.
Feminist interpretations of media control
AQA mark schemes recognise feminist approaches as relevant when evaluating ownership and control.
Feminist explanations focus on gender inequalities within media power.
They may question:
who reaches positions of media power;
whether male-dominated structures affect media priorities;
whether control contributes to stereotypical representations of women and men.
The key sociological argument is that ownership and control may reflect inequalities based on gender as well as social class.
This provides an important criticism of accounts that focus only on class power.
Evaluation
Changes in media production and the growth of new media may allow a wider range of individuals to create and distribute content.
This may reduce the ability of traditional media organisations to monopolise representations.
However, increased opportunities to produce content do not necessarily remove inequalities in the ownership of major media organisations.
Postmodernist interpretations
Postmodernist approaches challenge the claim that a small number of owners can determine people's media experiences.
They emphasise:
increased diversity;
greater choice;
fragmentation of audiences;
new media;
user-created content;
multiple sources of information.
In this view, audiences are no longer restricted to a small number of traditional media producers.
AQA's 2025 assessment material presented the postmodernist argument that globalised and social media increase choice and allow individuals to create media content.
Evaluation
Marxists argue that this exaggerates the decline of concentrated power.
Large media conglomerates may continue to control important parts of the media.
The digital divide also means opportunities to create and consume media are not distributed equally.
How the new media have changed ownership and control
The relationship between this lesson and new media [The new media] is especially important because AQA directly tested it in 2024.
The growth of new media can be interpreted in two opposite ways.
Argument 1: new media weaken traditional owner control
Digital media may make it easier for audiences and independent producers to create and distribute content.
Relevant developments include:
citizen journalism;
interactive media;
user-created content;
rapid circulation of information;
greater audience choice.
This can make information more difficult for traditional media owners to regulate.
The 2024 AQA mark scheme recognised the argument that active audiences and citizen journalists can reduce the control of established media owners.
From a pluralist or postmodern perspective, new media may therefore disperse power.
Argument 2: new media may strengthen corporate power
The opposite argument is that new media have not removed concentration of media ownership.
Large corporations can potentially gain power through:
controlling important digital media;
operating across national boundaries;
collecting user data;
controlling systems through which content reaches audiences.
AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises data harvesting and increasing international control as relevant ways in which new media can strengthen corporate power.
The debate is therefore not:
old media were controlled, new media are free.
It is more accurately:
new media alter the forms through which media power can be exercised.
Ownership, globalisation and power
Media ownership increasingly needs to be considered in a global context.
Globalisation can allow corporations to:
operate across national boundaries;
distribute content to international audiences;
extend ownership or control beyond a single country.
This may increase the scale of corporate media power.
At the same time, audiences gain access to more international media sources.
Globalisation can therefore simultaneously produce:
greater concentration of corporate power and greater audience choice.
This tension is developed in the next lesson, global media [The media and globalisation].
Ownership and the selection of news
Ownership may affect which stories become news.
AQA's 2022 mark scheme identifies several possible links between ownership and news content, including:
agenda setting;
concentration of ownership narrowing the range of sources;
owners influencing editors;
selection according to business or class interests;
ideology and bias.
However, owners are not the only influence on news.
Journalists, editors, news values and processes of media production may also shape selection.
This is why a good answer distinguishes between ownership as one influence and the claim that ownership completely determines content.
Ownership, content and audiences
Ownership can also matter because content may influence audiences.
AQA's specimen material recognises arguments that owners might use their control to expose audiences to particular political ideas or dominant ideology.
However, this raises a further question:
Are audiences passive enough for owner-controlled messages to have their intended effect?
If audiences actively interpret, reject or challenge media messages, owner control of production does not necessarily translate into control over audience beliefs.
This issue is explored fully in audience responses [Presentation and audience response].
Comparing sociological explanations of media power
Perspective | Where is media power located? | Relationship between ownership and content | Main evaluation |
Instrumental Marxism | Mainly with capitalist media owners | Owners can directly influence content in their interests | May exaggerate direct control and underestimate audiences and professionals |
Hegemonic / neo-Marxism | Within wider structures of class and ideology | Dominant assumptions shape content even without direct owner instructions | Better explains indirect control, but may underestimate diversity |
Pluralism | Power is dispersed among owners, professionals and audiences | Competition and audience demand restrict owner power | May underestimate concentration of ownership |
Feminism | Media power reflects gender inequalities as well as other inequalities | Those controlling media may reproduce gendered assumptions | New media may broaden opportunities for content creation |
Postmodernism | Increasingly dispersed between many producers and audiences | New media weaken traditional owner control | May exaggerate choice and underestimate conglomerate power |
How to evaluate media ownership effectively
A strong evaluation should compare how much power owners actually possess.
Useful questions include:
Does ownership equal control?
Not necessarily. Professional controllers such as editors may make important decisions.
Does control of content equal control of audiences?
Not necessarily. Audiences may interpret or reject messages.
Does concentration eliminate diversity?
Not automatically. Large organisations can produce varied content for different audiences.
Does audience choice eliminate owner power?
Not necessarily. Audiences can choose, but their choices may still take place within systems dominated by large organisations.
Have new media ended concentrated ownership?
AQA assessment material strongly supports a more balanced answer. New media may weaken some forms of control while creating or strengthening others.
A useful overall judgement
The relationship between ownership and control is best understood as a debate about degrees and mechanisms of power.
Marxist approaches provide a strong explanation of why concentrated ownership matters. Ownership gives organisations resources and the potential to shape media agendas and content.
However, pluralists correctly draw attention to limits on that power, including competition, professional autonomy and audience choice.
New media complicate the debate further. They allow audiences to create and circulate content, but powerful media conglomerates can remain influential.
A sophisticated conclusion therefore avoids both extremes:
Media owners are neither completely powerless nor able to control every message and every audience response. Ownership provides significant potential power, but how far that power becomes control depends on media professionals, market competition, technology and audiences.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Media ownership | Possession of media organisations or media resources. | Use when explaining who has the potential to exercise media power. |
Media control | The ability to influence decisions about media production, content or distribution. | Distinguish it carefully from ownership, especially in 10-mark questions. |
Concentration of ownership | A situation in which a relatively small number of owners control a significant amount of media. | Apply to Marxist arguments about media power and restricted diversity. |
Media conglomerate | A large organisation with interests across a range of media activities or businesses. | Use when explaining concentration and corporate media power. |
Horizontal integration | Expansion through control of organisations operating at a similar stage or in similar media areas. | Explain how ownership may become more concentrated. |
Vertical integration | Control of different stages of media production and distribution. | Use to explain how a corporation may increase control over the route from production to audiences. |
Agenda setting | Influencing which issues receive media attention. | Explain one mechanism through which owners or controllers may affect content. |
Gatekeeping | Selecting which information enters media content and which is excluded. | Apply when discussing the role of editors and other professional controllers. |
Ideology | A system of ideas and beliefs about society. | Use when explaining Marxist arguments about media content and dominant interests. |
Pluralism | The view that media power is dispersed and that competition and audience choice limit owner control. | Use to evaluate Marxist explanations of ownership and control. |
Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡
Examiner hint: Make a clear distinction between ownership and control. In the 2024 Media question, stronger answers recognised that the two concepts are different rather than treating them as interchangeable.
Examiner hint: When a question asks for a relationship between two concepts, make the connection explicit. In 2025, some students knew about ownership, control and representations but did not clearly explain how ownership or control produced particular representations. Better answers linked one point to ownership and another to control.
Examiner hint: Develop the point rather than simply naming a concept. In 2024, students frequently identified globalisation, audience choice or citizen journalism but some did not explain sufficiently how these affected ownership or control.
Examiner hint: Strong answers on ownership and news content have explained mechanisms such as owners using their power to shape content, censorship or propaganda rather than simply asserting that "owners are powerful". The 2022 report identified these as features of successful responses.
Examiner hint: Keep evaluation tied to the question. AQA repeatedly warns against reciting everything you know about Marxism or pluralism. Compare perspectives specifically in terms of how far ownership produces control.
Examiner hint: For a 10-mark outline and explain question, give two clearly separated and developed points. There are no marks for evaluation, and introductions or conclusions are unnecessary. For a 20-mark question, use a brief plan and develop a selective range of arguments in depth.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Treating ownership and control as the same thing
Why this is incorrect: The person or organisation that owns a media company does not necessarily make every editorial decision. Editors, journalists, producers and other professionals may exercise control.
How to improve: Define the two terms separately before considering how ownership might translate into control.
Mistake: Assuming concentrated ownership automatically means identical content
Why this is incorrect: Concentration gives owners potential power, but content may also be influenced by audiences, professional workers, competition and the requirements of different media markets.
How to improve: Use cautious analytical language such as "may increase the ability to influence content" rather than simply claiming that concentration completely determines content.
Mistake: Describing media content without linking it to ownership
Why this is incorrect: A question about ownership requires a causal connection. The 2025 examiner report identified this exact problem when students discussed class representations without connecting them clearly to ownership or control.
How to improve: Use a chain such as:
owner interest → editorial influence → particular selection or representation → effect on content
Mistake: Writing "Marxists think the media are biased" without explanation
Why this is incorrect: This lacks conceptual detail and does not explain the relationship between ownership, class power and ideology.
How to improve: Explain why Marxists believe concentrated capitalist ownership can shape agendas and promote dominant interests.
Mistake: Treating Marxism as one completely uniform explanation
Why this is incorrect: AQA mark schemes recognise both manipulative or instrumental Marxism and hegemonic or neo-Marxist approaches.
How to improve: Distinguish direct owner influence from more indirect ideological control. This immediately gives an essay greater theoretical depth.
Mistake: Assuming greater audience choice means owners have no power
Why this is incorrect: Pluralists emphasise consumer choice, but Marxists argue that choice may still operate within structures of concentrated corporate ownership.
How to improve: Separate choice of content from ownership of the organisations and systems providing that content.
Mistake: Ignoring new media in an ownership essay
Why this is incorrect: AQA has repeatedly connected new media with ownership and control. New media can both weaken traditional gatekeeping and strengthen large corporations.
How to improve: Include a balanced new-media paragraph showing both citizen production and continuing corporate power.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Define media control.[2 marks]
Answer:
Media control is the ability to influence decisions about the production, selection, presentation or distribution of media content.
Award credit for an accurate definition that refers to decision-making or influence over media.
Question 2
Explain one difference between horizontal integration and vertical integration.[4 marks]
Indicative answer:
Horizontal integration involves an organisation controlling more media businesses operating at a similar stage or in similar media areas. Vertical integration involves control over different stages of the production and distribution process.
A developed response should make the distinction explicit rather than simply defining one term.
Question 3
Outline and explain two ways in which concentration of media ownership may increase the power of media owners.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Answers may include:
fewer independent owners giving individual owners control over a greater range of media;
greater ability to set agendas;
reduced diversity of independently owned sources;
greater economic resources;
horizontal or vertical integration;
conglomeration;
greater ability to promote particular ideas or interests.
For higher marks, students should develop two distinct ways and clearly explain how each increases owner power.
Evaluation is not required.
Question 4
Outline and explain two ways in which media ownership may affect media content.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Possible answers include:
Way 1: agenda setting
Owners may influence which issues receive attention. If particular issues are repeatedly prioritised while others receive little attention, ownership may shape the agenda available to audiences.
Way 2: ideology and representation
Owners' interests or assumptions may influence how events and social groups are portrayed. Content may therefore support dominant ideas or present particular groups positively or negatively.
Other valid routes include:
instructions to editors;
gatekeeping;
concentration narrowing the range of content;
commercial priorities;
propaganda.
Answers should explicitly connect ownership → mechanism → content.
Question 5
Read Item A and answer the question that follows.
Item A
A large media organisation owns several different forms of media and controls different stages through which its content is produced and distributed. However, editors within the organisation make many day-to-day decisions about which material appears.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the organisation's structure may affect its control of media content.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One route could apply "owns several different forms of media":
conglomeration or horizontal integration;
greater concentration of ownership;
increased ability to distribute ideas through different media;
greater potential influence over audiences.
A second route could apply "controls different stages":
vertical integration;
greater control from production to distribution;
reduced dependence on other organisations.
Alternatively, the point about editors could be used analytically to show that ownership does not necessarily mean complete day-to-day control.
For the highest marks, students should explicitly apply material from the item and develop two separate analytical chains.
Question 6
Read Item B and answer the question that follows.
Item B
Some digital media allow ordinary users to create and circulate content without relying on traditional media organisations. At the same time, large corporations may control important digital media and gather information about their users.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways in which the growth of new media may have changed media control.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One route could use "ordinary users create and circulate content":
citizen journalism;
active audiences;
reduced traditional gatekeeping;
information becomes harder for established owners to control.
A second route could use "large corporations may control important digital media":
continued or increased corporate power;
concentration of ownership;
data harvesting;
global control.
Strong answers should recognise that new media can produce both decentralisation and new forms of concentration.
Question 7
Read Item C and answer the question that follows.
Item C
Some sociologists argue that concentrated media ownership allows wealthy owners to influence media content and promote ideas that support powerful groups. They argue that ownership therefore gives the capitalist class considerable ideological power.
Other sociologists argue that owners cannot simply impose content on audiences. Media organisations compete with one another, professional media workers have some independence and audiences can reject content they do not want.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate Marxist explanations of the relationship between media ownership and control.[20 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Arguments supporting Marxist explanations may include:
concentration of ownership;
conglomeration;
class interests;
instrumental or manipulative Marxism;
direct influence by owners;
ideology;
agenda setting;
gatekeeping;
hegemonic or neo-Marxist explanations;
structural rather than direct control;
the continued power of media conglomerates.
Evaluation may include:
pluralist arguments about competition;
audience choice;
the commercial need to attract audiences;
professional autonomy of journalists and editors;
diversity of content;
new media and citizen journalism;
active audiences;
postmodernist arguments about fragmentation and choice;
feminist arguments that class is not the only basis of media power.
Higher-level answers should distinguish between different Marxist explanations rather than treating Marxism as one uniform position.
A reasoned conclusion might argue that ownership provides significant structural power, particularly where ownership is concentrated, but this does not mean owners exercise direct or complete control over every item of content.
Question 8
Read Item D and answer the question that follows.
Item D
Media organisations depend on audiences, and consumers now have access to a wide range of media. Some sociologists therefore argue that media organisations have to respond to what audiences want.
However, other sociologists argue that the apparent range of choice can disguise continuing concentration of ownership and that those controlling media organisations still have the power to decide which ideas receive widespread attention.
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate the view that audiences have more control over media content than media owners do.[20 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Arguments supporting the view may include:
pluralism;
competition;
consumer sovereignty;
audience choice;
organisations needing audiences to remain commercially successful;
active audiences;
new media;
citizen journalism;
user-created content.
Arguments challenging the view may include:
concentration of ownership;
conglomeration;
Marxist explanations;
agenda setting;
gatekeeping;
dominant ideology;
control exercised by editors and other professionals;
corporate power in new media;
data harvesting;
limits to apparent choice.
Strong evaluation should distinguish between control over what individuals choose to consume and control over what is produced and made widely available.
A well-supported judgement could conclude that audience power has increased, particularly through new media, but ownership still provides organisations with substantial structural power over production and distribution.
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