Media Industry glossary

AUDIENCE - is the group of people that something is aimed at or appealing to. A target audience can be people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, etc.

ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY (ASA)- is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom.Its role is to regulate the content of advertisements,sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK by investigating complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing, and deciding whether such advertising complies with its advertising standards codes.

BROADCASTERS AUDIENCE RESEARCH BOARD (BARB)- is the organisation that compiles television ratings in the United Kingdom. It is owned by the BBC, the ITV companies, Channel 4, Five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATION (BBFC)- is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010.

BROADCASTING - is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience for example radio, television, or other, often digital transmission media. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof.

CROSS MEDIA COMPANIES - is a media company that uses cross media. Cross media is a media property, service, story or experience distributed across media platforms using a variety of media forms.

HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION - is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets. Horizontal integration in marketing is much more common than vertical integration is in production.

INSTITUTION - is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation which governs the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community.

NEW MEDIA INDUSTRY - shares an open association with many market segments in areas such as software/video game design, television, radio, and particularly movies, advertising and marketing.

NARROWCASTING - is the dissemination of information (usually by radio or television) to a narrow audience, not to the general public. Some forms of narrowcasting involve directional signals or use of encryption.

NATIONAL READERSHIP SURVEY (NRS)- provides estimates of the readership of Britain’s major newspapers and consumer magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve, the survey covers over 250 newspapers, newspaper supplements and magazines.

OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS (OFCOM)- is the independent telecommunications regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom.

PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION (PCC)- is a regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers,all newspapers and magazines voluntarily contribute to the costs of, and adhere to the rulings of, the Commission, making the industry self-regulating.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP - is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Almost anything may be private ownership, such as, real estates, homes, furniture, appliances, computers and even pets.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP - is property which is owned collectively by the people as a whole. This is in contrast to private ownership, owned by a individual person or artificial entities that represent the financial interests of persons, such as corporations.

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets that receive some or all of their funding from the public. Public broadcasting may be nationally or locally operated, depending on the country and the station.

REGULATORY BODY - is an external organisation that has been empowered by legislation to oversee and control the educational process and outputs germane to it.

SELF-REGULATORY BODY - is an organization that exercises some degree of regulatory authority over an industry or profession. The regulatory authority could be applied in addition to some form of government regulation, or it could fill the vacuum of an absence of government oversight and regulation.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION - The process in which several steps in the production and/or distribution of a product or service are controlled by a single company or entity, in order to increase that company's or entity's power in the marketplace.