Explore some of the ways in which new technologies have had an impact on a media industry you have studied. Make detailed reference to your case study.

Convergence has also had an effect on Bauer as it now distributes its content on more platforms that just traditional print. Some of Bauer’s other non-print platforms are TV (Kerrang, Q), radio (Heat, Magic), internet (most brands) and mobile phone apps (Parkers, Kiss). This convergence has many advantages for Bauer. It allows them to break into different markets with untapped profit, make consumers more loyal to different brands and use different forms of advertising. Overall, it allows them to have greater potential profits and greater power.

Media institutions like Bauer use globalisation (selling their products in different countries) with many of their brands. It first of all allows them to break into markets that may not have any competitors in which will provide them with greater profits. Also, a company with established brands around the world will have much greater power than a company with brands in just one company. International brands all have different types of content: some have translated content, some have localised content.

With technology becoming more and more popular, some people have claimed that print magazines will soon die out. New devices like e-readers (Amazon Kindle) and tablet computers (Apple iPad) as well as magazines on websites on in PDF format make it easy to download media and read it on the go. Currently, these devices aren’t widespread enough to make it viable for Bauer or other similar companies to stop printing their magazines and make them entirely electronic, however as time goes on, new technologies and standards will emerge and print based media will become less and less popular. In many ways this is good: printing costs a lot of money so if a magazine were to go entirely online, this could mean reduced prices or even the magazine being offered for free. The ease of use of getting magazines and the possible lower price would likely mean greater readership and brand loyalty as content could be downloaded straight to your device as soon as a new issue comes out which in turn could mean greater profit from advertising. Getting rid of print based media would also cut down on paper wastage and litter, making the company ‘greener’ from an environmental standpoint. Because of the internet, different multimedia content could be offered inside the magazine like video or audio and different ways to interact with the magazine could be introduced very easily. However, the loss of print based magazines would involve job cuts and for many people, print based magazines are much more preferable, especially for less technologically experienced people.

In conclusion, the growing use of new technologies has had a massive impact on media institutions, specifically Bauer. It’s allowed them to reach new markets and get their media to different people using different mediums around the world. At the same time, it’s had some negative effects such as contributing to the celebrity obsessed culture of western countries and making paparazzi a lot more competitive. However I believe overall it’s had a good effect and in the future will continue to make companies like Bauer innovative.