Institutional Research: Print

Institutional Research: Print

This is the second section of my institutional research. The research into the institutions will allow me to know of background information which may affect what an institution allows to be published in their print media. It will show values that the institution holds and the expectations that the audience have of the institution as a whole. This will allow me to be aware that values as well as content may affect the target audience.

Hearst Corporation (1887)

 Hearst Corporation is a multi-mass media group founded by William Randolph Hearst, which originally created newspapers. However the company has expanded to a range of media interests including television and magazines, totalling 7 different divisions. Hearst is labelled as one of the largest diversified communications companies in the world with its production of 15 daily and 36 weekly newspapers, more than 300 magazines and 29 television stations. More than 150 countries are served by Hearst Corporation and the company itself has been going for more than 125 years.

A variety of media products are produced by Hearst, from ‘Elle’ to ‘Car and Driver’ magazines. The companies’ products can be found on all three of the media platforms with magazines and newspapers in print, television networks such as ESPN in broadcast and Internet sites such as RealBeauty.com in e-media. This shows how a broad, mass audience can be reached through their products. Furthermore, in terms of the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory, Hearst Corporation provides many different uses. This can be seen in the ‘RealAge’ website which provides health information to the consumers. The consumer can use this website to gain information which will benefit their personal wellbeing. In contrast ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine shows other uses in personal identity and personal relationships- it can be used to interact with other people. Also the variety of newspapers allows the audience to use the institutions products as surveillance. However, as the institution was founded in 1887 the ‘Hyperdermic Needle’ theory would have applied to their earlier publications. This is because in the last century, picking and choosing what media you wanted to access wasn’t possible and so only one type of media was consumed, therefore that media would have been more believable. What ‘Hearst Corporation’ may of publicised would have been consumed by a passive audience and they would have had a more direct and powerful influence than they do nowadays.

Allegations facing Hearst Corporations include the case that Hearst Corporation and MediaNews Group conspired together to control advertising rates which violates the antitrust laws. Legal action was taken in this situation. Furthermore the ‘Newsboy Strike of 1899’ was a youth led campaign that tried to force to change the way the Randolph Hearst compensated their child labour force. The strike was successful and increased the pay which newsboy received from Randolph Hearst’s company and Joseph Pulitzer- both accused.

The company’s most popular magazine- Elle reaches a circulation of 6.6 million people every month. In addition, the companies most popular Lifestyle genre magazine reaches 1,641,000 people monthly (statistics from 2012) which is a large circulation for the niche audiences which lifestyle magazines are aimed at. The magazines which Hearst Corporation produces are mainly aimed at a female audience.

American Media Inc. (1936)

American Media Inc. (abbreviated to AMI) is an American publisher of magazines, tabloids and books. The institution takes pride in being the 'pioneers' of health & fitness and celebrity categories and is split into further divisions: AMI Books and Distribution Services Inc. It's most well-known publications are 'Playboy', OK! and Men's Fitness. AMI also runs the website 'Radar Online' which provides up to date information on celebrity entertainment news and gossip. This shows how the institution appears on both the e-media and print media platforms.

American Media Inc. splits its 18 publications into three categories. These are: 'Womans Active Lifestyle', 'Enthusiast Group' and 'Entertainment Group'. Due to the trio of grouping which the institution covers, an appeal reaches a mass audience which ranges from young adults to older ages. In total, the magazines produced by AMI have a circulation of 7.1 million a month, whilst digital properties have a total circulation of more than 27 million and more than 229 million page views a month.

A criticism of American Media Inc. is that the institution has received a considerable amount of complaints about issues concerning people's subscriptions to their magazines. Also some employees have criticised the company with one claiming that a deposit, which has to be put down and is returned upon leave, was in fact not returned to her. Both of these pieces of evidence suggests that the company is not reliable.

IPC Media (1958)

IPC media is a British magazine and digital publisher which was founded in 1958. IPC stands for ‘International Publishing Corporation’ and the institution is split into six divisions. These divisions are: IPC News, IPC Books, IPC Magazines, IPC Trade & Technical, IPC Printing and IPC New Products. The company takes pride in appearing across multiple platforms such as print, e-media, events and mobile, although print is the platform which IPC Media is mostly recognised for. IPC media has a corporate responsibility programme which involves the environment, community and input from employees.

IPC Media’s magazine publications are split into a further three divisions which outline which audience each magazine is targeted for which is a good idea for categorising audience information and demographics. The three divisions are: ‘Inspire’ which covers 38 male targeted magazines, ‘Southbank’ which is aimed at upmarket woman and ‘Connect’ which is IPC Media’s mass market woman’s division. The divisions show how one institution caters for a mass audience of different needs. As the audience is on such a broad spectrum the ‘Reception Theory’ may be applied to the readers understanding of the products. This is because the producer of ‘Essentials’ which falls under the ‘Southbank’ division may have the one fixed intention in its production. However, for example males in the ‘Inspire’ division, may provide an oppositional view on the producers intention which creates a negotiated reading of the intentional information provided by the producer. Therefore polysemic readings are created. In terms of the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory, IPC Media can be used by the audience as surveillance because of the division ‘IPC News’ which is dedicated to topic information. The six divisions allow a mass audience to be reached.

IPC Media’s ‘Southbank’ division is home to the biggest circulation magazine among the ‘home’ sector- ‘Gardner’s World Magazine’. This magazine has a circulation of 254,530 copies a month, although the circulation is down by 4.1% since 2012. Also in April 2012 were given the award of 'Best Production Team of The Year' by the Professional Publishers Association. No serious criticisms have been made of IPC Media.

Evaluation

This research allowed me to see how different institutions reach different audiences and that institutions cover a variety of media platforms. It also allowed me find important information I will need such as readership and circulation figures which will help me when deciding what institution I may publish my magazine through. From this research I have decided that Hearst Corporation is the best institution to publish my print production via. This is because Hearst Corporation already produces magazines which have a similar genre, although this may result in competition, it allows advertisement in the existing similar products. This will enable me to reach and attract the target audience due the content of the productions being similar to my idea. In addition to this Hearst Corporation offer some 300 magazine titles, most of which are in the lifestyle genre. This suggests that although IPC Media and American Media INC. are popular print institutions, Hearst Corporation has a large amount of experience. This allows for clear developments in my print production to be established (such as publication). Furthermore, when comparing the three institutions which I have researched, it can be seen that Hearst Corporation has the largest monthly circulation for one magazine (which is also in the Lifestyle genre). This suggests that being a popular magazine producer, Hearst Corporation will allow for my production to reach a large audience. Also it implies that as Hearst Corporation evidently have a mass audience to please, their values are strong and dedication runs throughout the company; suggesting a positive and reliable company to work with.

Institutional Research: Broadcast

Institutional Research: TV
I decided to summarize my research done on Institutions in two sections: Television and Print. This post shows the institutional research that I found on television institutions that cover the genre of lifestyle. This summary of each institution will allow me to see the values that the institutions hold, the reliability that audiences have on them and what the audience expects if them. This will allow me to understand the sort of expectations that an audience will have of my product and how institutional values may affect the production.

BBC (1922)

The BBC stands for the ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’ and is a mass public service broadcasting statutory corporation. This means that the BBC is a corporation created by a statute (an established law or rule) which broadcasts to the general public. The BBC has the purpose of providing impartial public broadcasting in the UK and Channel Islands which is their legal duty to fulfill and is also a semi- autonomous broadcaster. It is the world’s oldest national broadcasting service (founded in 1922 by John Reith and George Villiers) and serves worldwide, funded principally by an annual television fee which is charged to all British households or buildings which use a line for broadcast.

As well as providing a television service, the BBC also provides radio and online services. In total 9 television stations are broadcasted by the BBC and 17 radio stations. It also provides the service of the ‘red button’ which allows the audience to digitally interact with the television, as well as providing BBC iPlayer where people can watch repeats of their missed programmes. The appeal of the BBC covers all ages including toddlers to OAP’s. This is due to the wide range of genres that it offers from Children’s Television to News. In terms of ‘Uses and Gratifications’ the BBC caters for several different purposes such as: surveillance (BBC News); personal relationships in using the media for personal interaction (dramas such as The Paradise); diversion (Doctor Who) and personal identity. Also gratification can come from the content of the broad array of the programmes on offer, identification to a genre, the social context or identification to the programme or genre being shown (teenagers identifying to Waterloo Road).


The BBC has been criticised that is hasn't stayed true to the purpose of its creation- providing impartial service. Critics have said that the BBC lacks impartiality and objectivity. Competing institutions have argued that the licence fee is unfair as it limits the ability for their competition with the BBC (more people watch the BBC because of no adverts as they are funded by mandatory fees). Furthermore the BBC has been accused of racism and homophobia as well as sex abuse scandals which have recently been uncovered.

Viewing data shows that BBC 1’s average daily reach is 45,940,000. This is the largest daily audience in comparison to other main channels such as ITV (19,604,000) and Sky 1 (2,631,000). Furthermore the average person spends 6.19 hours a week watching BBC 1, almost twice ITV’s audience who spend 3.56 hours.

ITV (1955)

ITV is a Television Institution based in the United Kingdom which was initially created to provide competition to the BBC. It is a network of television channels that operate regional services. ITV is the oldest commercial network in the United Kingdom and is also known as Channel 3 for the sole purpose of being distinguished from BBC 1 and 2 and Channel 4. Three companies hold ownership over ITV: ITV plc, STV Group and UTV Media and most of the income comes from commercial breaks between programmes.

Although ITV is more widely known for television, the institution also provides an e-media service. ITV consists of 5 television channels in total, its own website and ITV Player where audiences can catch up on missed television programmes. This shows the convergence of broadcast to e-media because television programmes which could originally only be viewed on the broadcast platform (such as television) are now being streamed online. Similarly to the BBC, the variety of television channels which ITV offers results in an appeal to a wide range of audiences. For example ITV2 produces reality programmes such as The Only Way Is Essex and Celebrity Juice which have the primary audience of teenagers and young adults. However CITV produces children’s programmes such as Horrid Henry and so appeals to a primary audience of much younger children. In contrast ITV3 produces programmes such as thrillers which appeal more to adults. ITV also provides the channel ‘ITV+1’ which allows programmes to be viewed an hour later.

ITV has received criticism in the past that they do not stick to broadcasting regulations. This is because advertisers do not want to pay to advertise on programmes which are outside of the peak times- and so have a lower audience. This puts pressure on ITV to broadcast these programmes at high peak times and so thwarting regulations such as ‘watershed’ hours. ITV has also been accused on ‘dumbing down’ their programmes to appeal to low demographic categories because of the huge increase in reality shows in broadcasts.

Viewing data shows that the ITV is the second most popular channel in the UK with an average daily viewing reach of 19,604,000. This is 33.9% of the total daily viewing figures for British television.

Channel 4 (1982)

Channel 4 is a British public service television broadcaster that broadcasts throughout the United Kingdom. Although it receives funding from commercial advertising, Channel 4 is publically owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation.

Channel 4 provides 12 television channels of which are most are aimed at a more relaxed and lower demographic category than the BBC or ITV. This can be seen in the channels such as E4 (teenage comedy and drama such as ‘Misfits’ and ‘Skins’), Film4 which shows back to back films and the 7 music channels which Channel 4 provides. However the television station ‘Channel 4’ provides more serious programmes such as ‘Channel 4 News’ and documentaries. The mixed array of channels that Channel 4 provides shows how the institution caters for different audience appeal. Importantly, the essential feature of Channel 4 is that a more laid-back approach is taken than the BBC or ITV. Channel 4, similarly to ITV and BBC, also has its own website in which missed programmes can be watched on 4OD. In addition other channels have been created which show programmes with an hour delay so that programmes are not missed if they clash with other viewings (for example E4+1).

Although Channel 4 is the fourth most popular channel in the UK, it has a weekly reach of only 35,936,000 which is less than BBC1’s average daily viewing rates. Furthermore only 1 hour and 19 minutes is spent watching Channel 4 in a week per person which is significantly less than the BBC. However in terms of younger audiences, E4 is the most popular teenage aimed channel with 3,794,000 daily viewings compared with children aimed channels such as CBBC (produced by the BBC) with only 1,515,000 daily viewings.

Criticisms facing Channel 4 involve its inaccuracy on the programme 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' where it stated that global warming is a big scam. This caused major controversy and bad publicity. Furthermore other programmes which have been broadcasted such as 'Wank Week' has raised a huge mount of criticism and disgust towards Channel 4. In addition  Ahmadinejad's christmas speech on Channel 4 raised a great deal of rage when he aimed some of what he was negatively saying at the United States.

(Viewing data from www.barb.co.uk)

Evaluation
This institutional research has helped me to see what is expected from each institution and what each institution provides to appeal to a certain audience. After analysing these three main institutions I think that Channel 4 would be the most suitable institution to broadcast my new programme with. This is because my aim is to create a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere to the programme- which I have discovered is more acceptable on Channel 4 as it is a more laid back institutuon than the BBC or ITV. Furthermore, Channel 4 caters for a mixed array of ages in different demographic categories, from teenagers to older adults. I think this would benefit my programme because the content of the programme may appeal to different ages. For example the crafts content may appeal to younger adults who are studying arts in university, however the interior and home content may appeal to an older adult or those who are in a lower category as it provides a cheaper alternative to home decor. Also a lot of popular, widely known and respected Lifestyle TV programmes are broadcasted on Channel 4 such as 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain' and 'Location, Location, Location' and so my new Lifestyle programme may appeal to an audience which are loyal to Channel 4's Lifestyle television.