This document provides guidance on preparing for an exam on understanding contemporary media institutions. It discusses key topics students should be familiar with, including processes of media production, distribution, marketing and consumption, as well as audience behaviors. It also provides examples of case studies on a major record label and independent label to illustrate differences in approaches. Students are instructed to define important terms and consider how media companies make use of digital technologies and tackle emerging threats.

1. Wednesday 1st
December
How can you improve your essay writing
further?
L.O. To reflect on improvements in essay writing
and to improve further.
TASK 1: Using the mark scheme that you already
have, peer assess your partner’s essay.
What have they done well?
Set them a target to improve.

2. Let’s review what we’ve learnt so far...
• On your copy of the specification, highlight
any areas you do not understand or feel
confident with.
• Annotate it with questions or problems.

3. Let’s review what we’ve learnt so far...
Through specific case studies of the centre’s
choice, candidates should be prepared to
demonstrate understanding of contemporary
institutional processes of production,
distribution, marketing and
exchange/exhibition at a local, national or
international level as well as British audiences’
reception and consumption. There should
also be some emphasis on the students’ own
experiences of being audiences of a
particular medium.

4. Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary
media institutions, as well as the nature of audience consumption and the
relationships between audiences and institutions. In addition, candidates should
be familiar with:
• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production,
distribution and marketing;
• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and
audiences;
• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically,
British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
Let’s review what we’ve learnt so far...

5. Music
• A study of a particular record label within the
contemporary music industry that targets a British
audience, including its patterns of production,
distribution, marketing and consumption by
audiences. This should be accompanied by study of
the strategies used by record labels to counter the
practice of file sharing and their impact on music
production, marketing and consumption.
Let’s review what we’ve learnt so far...

6. Production
Marketing
Consumption Distribution
Define and give examples for each
Definition: Definition:
Definition: Definition:
eg increase in
small scale,
home music
production

7. How are media institutions making use of advantages in digital technology?
Independent label
INTRO: Context
•The music industry is very competitive and music
producers have to respond quickly to developments in
technology to stay abreast of the competition. The
first legal music download chart was launched in 2004.
•Hardware producers such as Apple with its iconic
IPOD, have made digital music files, ever more popular
and the IPODs white headphones are now
synonymous with a young music listener.
•Audiences enjoy the speed and simplicity of sharing
music that is in digital form and can bluetooth a new
track to a friend to ‘try’ in seconds.
•With the fragmentation of broadcast media and the
proliferation of channels brought about by digital and
satellite TV, it is increasingly hard to reach mass
audiences. Digital music however, enables record
labels to distribute their music online – the place
young people increasingly go to find new music.
•The music industry is dominated by the ‘big four’
although there is much more access to success by
independent smaller labels than in other sectors, like
film. The simplicity and speed of producing music in
digital format has greatly enhanced this access.
KEY STATS/FACTS
•In 2009, Major labels took 81.4 per cent of
album sales in the UK by share
•9% of revenue of record industry was from
digital downloads (highest percentage of
music sales)
•In 2009, (UK) 56.1% rise in album
downloads to 16.1 million, now accounting
for one in eight albums sold
•22 million singles were sold in the last week
of 2009 - more than in any previous week.
The sales boom was put down to the use of
new MP3 players received as Christmas
presents, as music fans downloaded a wide
range of tracks, old and new

8. How are media institutions making use of advantages in digital technology?
Major record label Independent label
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
Have you included how they are tackling threats?
Examples Examples

9. Essay title: “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and
services to national audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Major record label Independent label
INTRO: Context
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
KEY STATS/FACTS
Have you included how they are tackling threats?
Examples Examples

10. Essay title: “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and
services to national audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Major record label Independent label
INTRO: Context
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
Production
Marketing
Consumption
Distribution
KEY STATS/FACTS
Have you included how they are tackling threats?
Examples Examples