Nbc Universal

ENGLISH 3268: WRITING FOR THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: WHO OWNS WHAT?
Dr. Aixa L. Rodríguez

Next week we will focus on a situation that defines today’s media industry more than any other
characteristic: concentration of media ownership in fewer hands. Your homework for this week
is to do research on the assigned media company, and to answer the questions presented below.Please type/word process your answers. You may attach copies with the information on your
assigned media company.

Part 1

You have been assigned: NBCUniversal Media/General Electric

Please find everything you can about this company. I am particularly interested in the media
outlets or businesses owned by this media company, but if they own companies in other
industries please report onthose too. Visit its web page, the Columbia Journalism Review web
page and search under media ownership as well as under concentration of media ownership.

Part 2

In your opinion do we have diversity of voices and ideas in today’s media? Yes or no. Explain.
What could be a potential problem of having the majority of mass media in the world owned by
only six or seven companies?

DueSeptember 15, 2011

Jose I. Lopez
802-09-3720
Dr. Aixa L. Rodríguez
INGL 3268

NBCUniversal Media/General Electric

National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is one of the largest media entertainment companies in the world.It was founded as a radio station on 1926 and it was the first mayor broadcast network on the United States and now is one of the biggest in the world and have more than 10own-and-operated stations and more than 200 affiliates in the US and its territories. Today the owners of NBCUniversal are General Electric (49%) and Comcast (51%).

NBC and less than 10 companies on the world own the whole media. Pros of this union, communication is fast and the news travel around the world in just seconds. But what will happened to the freedom of speech if they decide to coversomething or to hide real problems that are happening around us, what if they decide to cover the government or companies that are not doing the wright thing, for money they will make anything possible.

We are so dependant on the media that we will believe whatever they show, this company the NBC have the power to implant an idea on our heads and change our belief, the best 2 examples are that wethink that all the people from Iraq are terrorist and that the USA cannot be defeated and that they are the strongest in the world. This is all because of all the images that they present us on the media (Radio, TV, Ad's, Internet). Today pages like wikileaks that show people other ways to see the outside world showing us what the government and media is hiding from us are been attacked becausethey are educating people to see what they don't what to show.

NBC/GENERAL ELECTRIC

NBCUniversal Media, LLC (formerly known as NBC Universal, Inc.) is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base. The company owns and operates American television networks, numerous cablechannels, and a group of local stations in the United States, as well as motion picture companies, several television production companies, and branded theme parks.
NBC Universal was formed in May 2004 by the merger of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi's Vivendi Universal Entertainment.GE and US cable TV operator Comcast announced a buyout agreement for the company on December 3, 2009. Followingregulatory approvals, the transaction completed on January 28, 2011. Comcast now owns 51% of NBC Universal while GE owns 49%.
Originally, the NBC Universal logo was a combination of the NBC peacock logo and the Universal Studios globe and text. The logo was redesigned in January 2011 to reflect the new Comcast ownership.
NBC Universal is headquartered in the Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan,...