Croteau/Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition
Chapter 2: The Economics of the Media Industry
Discussion Questions
1. What is the difference between horizontal and vertical integration? Use examples from
two industries to explain the different ownership structures, their benefits to media
companies, and their potential consequences.
2. What is media concentration and conglomeration? How are they similar or different to
each other?
a. What is the relationship between competition and diversity? What variables affect
this relationship?
b. What is the political impact, if any, of concentrated corporate ownership of news
and other forms of media?
3. What is the relationship between media ownership and diversity in media content?
Compare and contrast this relationship in the news and popular music industries.
4. Why was there expanded musical diversity in the 1980s, despite highly concentrated
ownership? What does this suggest about the relationship between ownership
concentration and media diversity?
5. What are the consequences of the network television “logic of safety” for the kinds of
programs that appear on prime-time television? Why do television executives pursue this
“logic of safety”?
6. What are the economic forces that helped to make television “newsmagazines,” “games
shows,” and “reality” programming such a prominent part of the network prime-time
schedule?
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