One issue that media ownership and funding raises is when they can convey the wrong message to the audience. One example of this is in 2006 when Sony and PlayStation introduced a new campaign to advertise their new white version of the PSP that was previously only available in the color black. With the start of the new campaign there were millions of new and controversial billboards put around the country. The billboards showed a white women subduing a black women to show the new white PSP's dominance over the previous black color. Sony later came out and said that they did not want to be racist in any way or offend anyone. When they were getting a lot of hate for the billboards, instead of just apologizing, they decided to state that the ads were "stunningly photographed imagery." This is one way that media ownership causes issues. Even though Sony had most likely reconsidered taking the ads down their was never any driving force by any sort of higher power because they have they right to put whatever media they want out to promote their product. In 2002 Starbucks made a campaign with the title "Collapse into Cool." This seemed like a normal slogan and the Starbuck's franchise meant nothing with the title. They got very negative feedback on the title. People were very mad when they were charging $130 for water after the WTC towers collapsed on September 11. People took the imagery of the words and associated it with the events that occurred on 9/11. This was an example of an oppositional reading where the audience knew what subject that it was supposed to be towards, but they took it and accused it of being about something totally different and not what they were trying to say at all because they were charging so much for the water.
One other example of Media ownership is examples under the Stuart Hall representation theory. This theory suggests that the media gives meaning to events like Brexit. They media decides weather or not to give the story a positive or more liberal appearance to the consumers. In today's society mass media is responsible for the way that we see most things, and they have a very large amount of power because of this. This can cause issues because people will always be spectacle of the things that they see in the news and mass media with the idea that it is not what is the actual reality of the event. Another example of this is Donald Trump. When people formulate opinions about him, their ideas are made from the way that the media has projected him to that one person. Most people have never actually met him so their opinions are controlled by the media because it depends on how they represent him top certain people.
Media ownership can also bring some issues. Conglomerates have control over most of the media. One example of this is cross-promotion. This when a conglomerate like Disney(who owns ABC Family and ABC) will play commercials om ABC Family to promote ABC's, Dancing with the Stars. Another was conglomerates use their media ownership is by cross-production. This is when a conglomerate takes one product and makes it a multitude of different products. An example of this is Batman. Batman started out as just a comic but over time he was made into movies, TV shows, video games, and soundtracks. Another example of how the head of media how large amounts of control is through cross-advertising. This is when outside companies want to advertise through the conglomerates. One example of this is Taco Bell. They want to advertise through NBC's Universal media outlet Hulu. This just shows how much the big conglomerates control the media and advertisements.
Some of the issues that media ownership brings up is the purity of the media that is presented to the public. The public is only shown what the mass media companies want them to see and when they want them to see it. They will edit real life events that happened, like important meetings, special events like the Brexit and other important events. The mass that receives the media will never get the real side of the story and it makes some people curious about what they do not get to see due to the amount that they do not show the public.
Funding also plays a big role in what media is presented to the public as well. If a small company wants to use a conglomerate to advertise their company or product they will have to pay a heavy price. If they cannot pay that price ten they will not be able to get their things put in popular media. If the other companies come in with more money offered or can afford the price to get their things advertised they would get their things on the media first. Funds that the conglomerates are getting in profit can affect how they change the media that they are putting out based on how much that they make him. The funds that mass media companies make is based on how well that their stories gain popularity and if they can push the right message towards the consumers. This can cause issues because it will make them want to edit their media more to be more appealing and make it farther from the truth.