Media Company Profile

We are surrounded by media as you saw in your media diary. All the media you consume is produced by some company - they sign the artists, create the advertisements, set the prices, cancel the tv shows. In this assignment I want you to consider the media companies behind the music you listen to and the tv shows you watch and the video stores where you rent DVD's, etc. in order to answer the question of who are the people and companies behind all these media decisions.

For this assignment you will work in groups of 3. Each group will pick a media company, research it, and write a 12-15 page profile of the company suitable for publication in a mass market magazine such as Business Week, Time, (not too technical, focus on current topics, personalities, opportunities, stock news, etc). It doesn't have to be one long article. You can break it up into sidebar columns, biography paragraphs of key people, charts & graphs

It will be a mass market profile except for one difference. You need to use 10 to 15 references for the paper and you need to put citations in the paper. A real magazine article wouldn't have citations, but this one will. Consider it a hybrid article. Information from 10 different spots on the company webpage = 1 source. Information from 3 different newspapers = 3 sources (as long as they are actually separate articles and not just different papers running the same AP story).

The profile should answer the following questions/deal with the following topics:

  1. A brief company history - for example you could including information on the founding (who, when, where, why), best years, big innovations/achievements, company timeline
  2. Summarize the current news about the company - deals, mergers, current product line
  3. How strong a company is it currently (stock prices, market information, lawsuits/scandals, big problems)
  4. Who are the big players in the company - the names people will know from the news, important people who work behind the scenes that we should know about
  5. What do you think the future holds for this company? (new products, new businesses they plan to go into, hiring patterns, mergers...)
  6. Job opportunities (internships, careers, what is the group consensus on working for this company, how do they rate in the lists of family friendly companies, 100 best companies to work for...)

Grading Criteria

  • Organization
    1. Does the paper have an introduction that sets up the paper as a whole (sections included, big topics) (good) or does it just start off with the first topic (bad)?
    2. Does the intro give me a reason to keep reading (good)?
    3. Does it connect the paper to something currently in the news (good)
    4. Does the paper have a strong conclusion that summarizes the main sections of the paper (good) or does the paper just end (bad)?
    5. Are there subheadings (good)?
    6. Are there page numbers (good)?
    7. Is the report stapled (good)?
    8. Is there a title page with the name of the company and the group member names (good for this report)?
    9. Are there typos, grammar mistakes, formatting problems (bad)?

  • Content
    1. Is it long enough for the assignment? 12 - 15 page (good)
    2. Are all the questions posed here answered (ok) or are there answers to questions that your group thought up on their own (good)?
    3. Are any charts or tables to summarize and compare information (good) or just pages and pages of text (bad)?
    4. Is the paper one big long article (just ok) or are certain pieces spun off into shortside bar articles like in a real magazine (good)?

  • References
    1. Does the report have the bare number of required resources (ok) or did you consult extra resources (good)
    2. Are references included in the bibliography (good)?
    3. Are references cited in the text of your articles (good)?
    4. Are all the references from one source (bad) or from a variety of sources (good)?
    5. Is there a mix of online and print resources (good)?
    6. Are the references old (more than 1 year - bad) or current (at most 6 months old - good)?
    7. Are the references from easy to read sources (local newspaper, USA Today - bad to ok) or from a variety of complex sources (company financial reports, FCC reports, Wall Street Journal - good)

Some things to consider when picking a company - whose media products do you consume most, what company might you want to do an internship with or work for when you graduate, which company's stock are you thinking of buying or does someone in your family own? If it is a huge conglomerate, just pick one division or company that they own to profile.

I need to approve your media company choice by 10/9. Have one person in the group email the group's choice to me, along with a list of group members, and I will respond with an approve or disapprove.

Here are some media companies to get you started. Some of these are media conglomerates involved in print, tv, radio, movies. For this report, pick just one media area that they are involved in. The company you choose must be publicly traded (be listed on a stock exchange in the US) so that there will be information available for you to use in your report. YOu might want to check out a couple of companies before choosing - make sure there are news stories, investor relations or corporate websites, financial analyst reports, etc.

  • World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
  • Yahoo!
  • AOL/Time Warner
  • Clear Channel (Kedon)
  • Knight Ridder
  • Gannett
  • Miramax
  • Dreamworks SKG (Krista, Dave, Amy
  • Cox Communications (cable)
  • Liberty Media (cable)
  • Electronics Boutique
  • Nintendo (Matt, Lindsay, Leo) (Dean, Kevin, vanessa
  • Hollywood Entertainment Corp.
  • RealNetworks
  • MSO (Martha Stewart Omnipedia)
  • EchoStar (DishTV)
  • Nickeledeon (Katie, Angela, Justin)
  • NBC (Cassie, Adrienne)
  • Comcast (Cable) (James, Meredith, John)
  • Walt Disney (Kara, Kaitlin, Lindsay, Kate)
  • Bertelsman
  • Amazon.com (Elyssa, Meredith)
  • Yahoo.com
  • Emmis Communications
  • Westwood One
  • Radio One
  • Viacom
  • News Corp
  • Charter Communications (cable)
  • Cox Communications (cable) (Cara, Lauren, Mary
  • GameStop
  • Atari (part of Infograme)
  • Blockbuster Video
  • Primemedia
  • Playboy (Josh & Deidre) (Katie, Melanie, Rebecca)
  • Apple (Jessica)

Where can you find information on these companies?

Length: 12-15 pages
Due: 12/8 Monday