Saturday 28 November 2009

3. What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?

The kind of media institution and the only institution that would distribute my site would be an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Examples of ISP's would be AOL, Madasafish, OneTel, TalkTalk etc. These companies are also dependent on another two main companies (British Telecom and Virgin Media) which are responsible for allowing people to access them through their cables. These are the main sources of direct distribution. The main reason why these media institutions choose to distribute media products is for money. If i want to have my media product distributed i would have to pay an annual fee, which in return they make sure my site and everything on it runs smoothy and works properly.

A screenshot of British Telecom's media distribution.

All other forms of distribution are indirect. For example Google are indirect because although they may find the website you are looking for they still have to go to the ISP to retrieve the product for your viewing. Although you have to pay to be listed on Google, the listing will be pointless if you are not being hosting by an ISP. Google simply makes your site available for people to search for, thus making it instantly more available for distribution.

This is very difficult to justify as distributing would be a lot easier if my media product was a film or radio programme rather than a web design. This is because distributing through a media institution like BBC is a lot more simple. To receive a TV program or film all you need is an aerial that can receive signals from the media institution which plays directly through a TV.

Just making sure that your site is being hosted on the internet by an ISP is distributing but also adding it to an indirect distributor like Google, Yahoo, Ask and Bing just increase the chances of your product being seen and therefore increasing the rate of distribution.



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