Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production, distribution and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area.

Media ownership has created many different issues for conglomerates and independent companies throughout the production, distribution and exchange of the film. There are many advantages and disadvantages for both conglomerates and independent film companies. 

During the production stage of making a film. For a conglomerate there are many advantages and disadvantages. For a conglomerate they won't need to collaborate with other companies as a way in which to secure funding as they will be able to complete the film through vertical integration meaning that the film is secure from the start. A conglomerate can also be more ambitious with films as they can afford to get bigger stars to be in their films, they can travel and film at bigger and better locations and they have better access to special effects and can afford to do more. However disadvantages for conglomerates include the fact that their films have to satisfy a mass market around the globe meaning that they can not take too many risks while making the film as it has to satisfy everyone. As so much money will be spent on a film by a conglomerate it has to make money that the box office otherwise the film will lose the conglomerate a large amount of money. The production stage for independent companies is very different compared to a conglomerate. An independent company only has to satisfy a niche market and can take bigger risks over the content of the film. Also the film doesn't have to make as much at the box office as films the have been produced a conglomerate as the production cost will be less for an independent company's film. However a low production cost can be a disadvantage for independent as the films are less ambitious, with a smaller scale cast, location and often a lack of special effects. Another disadvantage is that independent films have to secure extra funding and finance from other companies, horizontal integration. This can be hard for independent companies as they can not withstand losses at the box office as they do not make many enough money to go through a lose. 

An example of this is iLL Manors and Skyfall. Skayfall was made by a conglomerate this can be seen by the different filming locations in different parts of the world and the number of special effects features the feature with in the film. This is very different to iLL Manors whose filming locations were very low budget and lack special effects show that the film was created by an independent film company as they would have less money to spend on the film. iLL Manors also dealt with very specific content that would be found in certain parts of the UK as it was only aimed at people in the UK however this isn't the case for Skyfall as they couldn't afford to take risks like that as the film was aimed at a worldwide audience.  

During a distribution a large advantage for independent companies is that the marketing of a  film can now be done with a very small budget as it can be marketed through sties like Twitter and Facebook for no cost at all however there are many disadvantages for independent companies because the marketing campaign has to be targeted at specific people because there is not enough money to make the campaign for everyone. They have to persuade other people to market their film and this isn't easy because the companies will be unsure if they will make money from promoting the film. The advantages are very different for conglomerates, they make up a large part of the market meaning that they can spend more money and have better links to related companies, for example Sony Pictures entertainment is a production company, and Sony Pictures distribute the film before it can be viewed on Sony Platforms. Conglomerate will find it easier to use synergy and cross media convergence to help promote to the film through things such as games and soundtracks. 

iLL Manors benefited from the fact that it could be marketed for free through social media as it had a very small distribution budget as it was such a small budget film compared to Skyfall , a conglomerate film, which had a large marketing campaign shows the difference between the types for marketing that both independent companies and conglomerates as they can both afford different things. Skyfall also used synergy as a way in which to help promote the film through many different types of products whereas for iLL Manors didn't use synergy and only had a CD released along with it, the lack of synergy could have been because the independent film companies don't have the same contacts as conglomerates.  

During the exhibition process there is one main advantage for conglomerates as it will be easier to get there films in to the cinema and on sites such as Netflix as the marketing campaign will have been so big for the film that a large established audience would have been attracted to the film meaning that the companies would earn more money, this is a disadvantage for independent companies because the marketing campaign is much smaller and less people will know about the film and know to go and see it meaning that the exhibition may not make very much money meaning they may not see the point in spending money to get the film if they are not going to make any money from it.

To conclude media ownership benefits both conglomerates and independent film companies however for both there are also many disadvantages. There are equal advantages and disadvantages for production, distribution and exhibition of the process of getting the film to camera to the audience.