Political Economy of Media
Assignment - Industry analysis
Formatting:
• Assignment length is 750 words (excluding references). You will get a 2% penalty if you go over the word limit, assignments that are more than a 1000 words will not be graded.
• Please use the assignment template (see Q). You will get a 2% penalty if you do not use the template.
Scope and goal:
This assignment is meant to familiarize you with institutional analysis and is based on the material covered in class. Specifically, in week 3 we will discuss the process of "spatialization" or the "institutional extension of corporate power" (Mosco 2009, p. 158) and researching this process will be the starting point of your paper.
That is, an important part of political economic research is surveying industry structures,
concentration, and corporate ownership. For this assignment, you are asked to start following the money yourself and to chart out the structure of a media company of your choice.
It is highly recommended to pick a publicly owned (i.e. stock listed) company in order to have access to company data. Examples of relevant companies include Disney, Apple, Twitter, Netflix, Facebook, Google, Activision Blizzard, Rogers Communications, Tencent or Sina Weibo. Non-media or communication companies, such as car brands (Lamborghini) or fashion labels (Gucci) are not eligible for this assignment. Also note that your assignment should discuss a company, not an individual app or sub-branch.
For example, Instagram is part of Facebook Inc. and therefore, for this assignment you should discuss Facebook if you're interested in the question where Instagram fits into Facebook's company structure. If you are unsure whether your choice of company is acceptable, please ask about this in class or during office hours (and not via email) before writing the assignment. Your assignment must contain the following three elements:
1) Company introduction
o Briefly introduce the company you want to discuss and analyze.
Explain why you think the company is relevant, particularly in relation political economic thought and material discussed in class. Try to use
class readings to explain your choice.
2) Data collection
o Collect relevant company data on how the company is structured. For example, you can use financial data, interviews with key executives, or company documentation.
This material can be obtained via the company's website, via professional magazines ("the trade press"), via one of the many university library's databases, or via government databases.
When you will be using your data (in your analysis, see below in part 3) be sure to very specifically cite where your data is from (i.e. where you found your material), using the reference style
you chose consistently.