The documentary below examines the concentration of media ownership in the US. After watching it, refer students back to the notes they made on media consumption in the earlier lesson referred to above. Students should find out about the ownership of each media outlet that they engage with in a typical day. Class discussions should then centre around the extent to which UK media is similar or otherwise to the US.The increased ownership of various media outlets or forms is often referred to as the ‘convergence’ of media ownership. Take for example how Disney now owns Star Wars and Marvel. Here is just one example of how a capitalist media corporation owns and controls several media forms. Or get students to research and consider just how many media outlets and forms are owned and controlled by Sony or News Corps?
A great resource on media ownership can be found on this page (useful to copy on A3 for display in the classroom too):
Discover More Media_ownership1.pdf
and here
Discover More Media_ownership2.pdf
This section of the Channel 4 website has some useful independent learning reading and activities related to power and control within the media:
Discover More Who rules: Ownership and control
Students can read through the material provided before considering the ‘big question’ at the bottom of the page. Does the Internet mean that newspapers will eventually become extinct? They can then play the ‘Spin Doctor’ game (bottom right hand corner).
Begin by asking students what it is to be ‘healthy’? How would they define this? I...
Direct students to this link for a short data response activity on the relationship between le...
Differences in health and wellbeing between ethnic groups have been shown to be at least partl...
Students should by now appreciate that there is a relationship between socio-economic status a...
Begin with a brainstorm activity – what do they anticipate about the relationship between soci...
The biomedical model of health is the most dominant in the western world and focuses on health...
From the links, students could spend time finding out about the specific health needs in their...
The social model of disability suggests that disability arises from the ways in which society ...
The social model of health considers a broader range of factors that influence health and well...
Begin by asking them to consider the ways in which each of these factors could positively or n...
The Sociology of Health looks at how social life and society impact on the health of individua...
Brought to you by the British Sociological Association