What in the world is an institution? Institution is like one of those words that you know what it means, but its hard to explain it someone.

An institution is: An establishment, organisation or foundation that is created in order to produce and distribute certain products, such as a media institution.

Some examples of famous media institutions are:

  • News Corp
  • BBC
  • Channel 4
  • ABC

Such media institutions are often collectivist in nature, regulating and structuring activities through developing specific work practises.  They often have associated social, political, cultural, religious and economical values, preferences, relationships and associations that members, employees and associated people are expected to align with. These companies are often long enduring, with society at large being very aware of their status.

Along with their known ‘status’, media companies often attempt to create a ‘brand identity or image’. This establishes a difference between themselves and other companies, allowing brands to appeal to different audiences. Brand images often attempt to be positive, unique and instantly recognisable, to create a set of associations within the consumers mind between certain products or feelings and the brand.

Values and ideologies are often transferred through the media texts that brands create, this allows powerful institutions (e.g. the BBC) to influence the attitudes, beliefs, desires and preferences of people on a world wide scale. These leaves the world in an uncomfortable position, whereby individual people at the top of such brands, have an indescribable amount of impact upon potentially millions of viewers. Such as brand heads include Joanna Shields, the managing director of Facebook, Larry Page the chief executive of Google and Sir Jonathan Ive the senior vp of design at Apple.

I think Kendrick Lamar’s – Institutionalised is a great song, that explores that controlling powers of such institutions, maybe not media institutions, but at least institutions at large:

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson