Public, commercial, Non-government organisation etc.

There are so many institutions we encounter everyday.  Most of the time we don’t link the word ‘institution’ to Nike when we go in store to buy some new runners… but we have actively made the choice to shop at Nike as opposed to Adidas, because we trust Nike’s reputation… for example. Institutions rely on trust to endure as a business,  A key component to Nike’s popularity is their reputation and consumers’ trust.

A few examples of institutions we spoke about in class are listed below:

• Facebook – designed for ‘everyone’ – very involved for the audience, connectedness, sharing, information/data collection, professional business space to promote yourself, shared fan space – create your own community, huge corporation= trust, casual/informal/collectiveness (we’ve missed you), personalised (ads etc), Default communication, They own Instagram, many websites say “log in through Facebook” etc.
• ABC – more trustworthy because it’s not for profit, Enduring, core values= report… not commercialised, Public broadcast/free to air, audience engagement by ‘call-ins’, designed as family TV (ABC kids, news, Spicks and Specks) and usually educational, They seem to care more – regional news… regional areas are important too, persona ‘Aunty’.
• HBO – Produce new ‘original’ idea TV shows, Enduring, “HBO not television” tag line, Provocative/adult TV, Long form television, Long for narrative
• Community Media – Run by the community for the community, legitimacy/trustworthy, not about profit – more about experience and the love of it/intern, embracing a wider range of voice – diversity, less commercialised, smaller scale, okay to make a mistake (training ground), Volunteer

Institutions are everywhere.  I didn’t realise that these businesses and companies where all institutions.  The topic actually concerned me because it seemed very unusual and difficult, but now we have simplified the idea I can see that we encounter institutions all the time.  I can see that there are particular institutions that I trust more than others and I can understand how the legitimacy of institutions change.