Attitude - Industry
Attitude magazine was published in 1994, but the website was launched in 2013 /14. They feature breaking news, exclusive interviews, articles and features from travel and lifestyle, as well as fashion and a 'boys' section. The magazine is made with gay men as their main target audience, but they also feature articles that portray all cases of LGBT news, such as Mardi Gras celebrations and pride parades.
Print Circulation Unspecified, digital circulation / subscriptions 11,000.
David Hesmondhalgh:
Hesmondhalgh focuses on culture and industry, which is essentially the battle between having an original and creative product, versus maximising profit and efficiency.
In terms of industry, producers often utilise techniques such as vertical and horizontal integration, in order to buy up and eliminate competition. Furthermore, the products that they produce are often standardised, meaning they are classified into genres, series, and often feature a lot of starts (many typecast such as Dwayne Johnson and Michael Cera).
The term cultural industry essentially means the industry surrounding a specialised culture, these can include films, newspapers, book, videogames, television, and online media. Within these industries, many companies are owned by one parent company, this is called a conglomerate. An example of this could be Newscorp, which owns a lot of the most prolific newspaper companies, and a large chunk of the newspaper industry. In addition to this, many of the largest companies branch out among many cultural industries. An example of this could be Disney, as they own companies across every kind of industry, and essentially have a hand in everything.
One important thing to think about is how when one large conglomerate owns everything, creativity can be stagnant, as risks are not taken in case of a loss of money. Furthermore, with the inception of the internet, companies have been quick to branch out into this, and it could be argued that the internet is limited by these big conglomerates having a large amount of control.
In terms of Attitude Online, they are owned by Stream Media, which is a conglomerate that owns many other companies.
Hesmondhalgh suggests that the advent of online media and increasing digitisation may have essentially killed off a lot of industries due to how easy it is to consume everything online. An example of this could be the traditional music industry such as releasing music through CDs, and how a lot of music promotion has been done through social media rather than having an ad spot on MTV (which shows how it effects the TV industry as well). He also mentions how some people see a revolution, in which the line between producer and audience becomes blurred and eventually disappears, which implies that cultural production and the large industries will become irrelevant. With this new era of users producing content, the implications are that all of the old traditional ways will essentially be done away with, and the new age will include more of a collaborative effort and the users producing their own content.
Internationalisation - Through purchasing or being partnered / working in collaboration with other companies internationally, conglomerates and corporations can extend the amount they sell through having access to different countries. For example, some films that have already had all costs paid for and are released here, can also be released somewhere in China, where there is a completely different audience that may appreciate it more. (See the Transformers films having a large Chinese market, although being regarded as bad films over in the UK.)
Vertical Integration - The act of buying up other companies that are involved in different stages of the production and circulation processes. There are two ways of purchasing in this way, firstly, is buying downstream, which could include a film production company purchases a DVD distributor, which in the long term cuts costs and builds partnerships and industry links. The other method is buying 'upstream' for example a company which distributes and transmits products buys a programme-maker. These two terms are related to buying up or down in order of the production process.
Horizontal Integration - Buying up other companies that work in the same sector as yours, this reduces competition because there is less of a market, and any audience that consumes media in your sector is more likely to consume media from a company that you have purchased, making you more money in the long term.
Multisector and Multimedia Integration - Buying into other areas of cultural industry in order to ensure cross-promotion across these industries. For example, a film production company purchasing a book publishing company to release a novel related to the film alongside it. (This can especially be seen in family / children's animated films, as there is a large audience for merchandise like sticker books and activity books after a successful film release).
As the pack is mainly aimed toward the media or people that would be interested in collaboration with Attitude, I do not think that it portrays the same amount of representation as the actual magazine / website does. I think that this is due to them not having to appeal to their traditional gay male audience. There is also the fact that they are looking to maximise profit as well. This means that the audience is analysed in depth, they are regarded more as objects with a lot of time and money to spare, instead of individual gay people who have their tastes appealed to in the magazine. I think that this is quite contradictory to the magazine's portrayal, although this is fairly obvious due to how Attitude, and as an extent, Stream Media are corporation and conglomeration respectively, they are looking to make profit.
An example of multisector integration is seen in the fact that Stream Media owns Spar, the supermarket company. This ensures that copies of Attitude will be able to be sold in that shop, as they own both of them.
Print Circulation Unspecified, digital circulation / subscriptions 11,000.
David Hesmondhalgh:
Hesmondhalgh focuses on culture and industry, which is essentially the battle between having an original and creative product, versus maximising profit and efficiency.
In terms of industry, producers often utilise techniques such as vertical and horizontal integration, in order to buy up and eliminate competition. Furthermore, the products that they produce are often standardised, meaning they are classified into genres, series, and often feature a lot of starts (many typecast such as Dwayne Johnson and Michael Cera).
The term cultural industry essentially means the industry surrounding a specialised culture, these can include films, newspapers, book, videogames, television, and online media. Within these industries, many companies are owned by one parent company, this is called a conglomerate. An example of this could be Newscorp, which owns a lot of the most prolific newspaper companies, and a large chunk of the newspaper industry. In addition to this, many of the largest companies branch out among many cultural industries. An example of this could be Disney, as they own companies across every kind of industry, and essentially have a hand in everything.
One important thing to think about is how when one large conglomerate owns everything, creativity can be stagnant, as risks are not taken in case of a loss of money. Furthermore, with the inception of the internet, companies have been quick to branch out into this, and it could be argued that the internet is limited by these big conglomerates having a large amount of control.
In terms of Attitude Online, they are owned by Stream Media, which is a conglomerate that owns many other companies.
Hesmondhalgh suggests that the advent of online media and increasing digitisation may have essentially killed off a lot of industries due to how easy it is to consume everything online. An example of this could be the traditional music industry such as releasing music through CDs, and how a lot of music promotion has been done through social media rather than having an ad spot on MTV (which shows how it effects the TV industry as well). He also mentions how some people see a revolution, in which the line between producer and audience becomes blurred and eventually disappears, which implies that cultural production and the large industries will become irrelevant. With this new era of users producing content, the implications are that all of the old traditional ways will essentially be done away with, and the new age will include more of a collaborative effort and the users producing their own content.
Internationalisation - Through purchasing or being partnered / working in collaboration with other companies internationally, conglomerates and corporations can extend the amount they sell through having access to different countries. For example, some films that have already had all costs paid for and are released here, can also be released somewhere in China, where there is a completely different audience that may appreciate it more. (See the Transformers films having a large Chinese market, although being regarded as bad films over in the UK.)
Vertical Integration - The act of buying up other companies that are involved in different stages of the production and circulation processes. There are two ways of purchasing in this way, firstly, is buying downstream, which could include a film production company purchases a DVD distributor, which in the long term cuts costs and builds partnerships and industry links. The other method is buying 'upstream' for example a company which distributes and transmits products buys a programme-maker. These two terms are related to buying up or down in order of the production process.
Horizontal Integration - Buying up other companies that work in the same sector as yours, this reduces competition because there is less of a market, and any audience that consumes media in your sector is more likely to consume media from a company that you have purchased, making you more money in the long term.
Multisector and Multimedia Integration - Buying into other areas of cultural industry in order to ensure cross-promotion across these industries. For example, a film production company purchasing a book publishing company to release a novel related to the film alongside it. (This can especially be seen in family / children's animated films, as there is a large audience for merchandise like sticker books and activity books after a successful film release).
As the pack is mainly aimed toward the media or people that would be interested in collaboration with Attitude, I do not think that it portrays the same amount of representation as the actual magazine / website does. I think that this is due to them not having to appeal to their traditional gay male audience. There is also the fact that they are looking to maximise profit as well. This means that the audience is analysed in depth, they are regarded more as objects with a lot of time and money to spare, instead of individual gay people who have their tastes appealed to in the magazine. I think that this is quite contradictory to the magazine's portrayal, although this is fairly obvious due to how Attitude, and as an extent, Stream Media are corporation and conglomeration respectively, they are looking to make profit.
An example of multisector integration is seen in the fact that Stream Media owns Spar, the supermarket company. This ensures that copies of Attitude will be able to be sold in that shop, as they own both of them.
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