OVERVIEW

The media and entertainment industry consists of film, print, radio, and television. These segments include movies, TV shows, radio shows, news, music, newspapers, magazines, and books. The top 10 media and entertainment companies are The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Direct Group Holdings (DIRECTV), Time Warner Inc., NBC Universal, National Amusements Inc., CBS Corporation, Viacom Inc., News Corporation, and TEGNA Inc. The U.S. media and entertainment industry contributes more than $632 billion to the economy and represents a third of the global industry.

The radio and television broadcasting industry is composed of two different types of companies. There are public service broadcasters, where the funding is through public money, and commercial broadcasters, which are funded through advertisement spots. Radio and television broadcasters create and/or acquire content for broadcasting, such as entertainment, news, talk, and other programs. Many television broadcasters use digital broadcasting to transmit pictures that have higher resolution, known as high-definition television (HDTV). They can transmit a single HDTV broadcast or transmit several conventional broadcasts. This “multicasting” means they can transmit a music concert, for example, from several different camera angles on the same channel. Viewers then select the view they’d like to see on their television set. Other types of broadcasters include cable and subscription or fee-based programs that have a more narrow focus, such as sports, education, and youth-oriented programming.

The print industry consists of publishing companies that produce newspapers, magazines, books, journals, and periodicals, their online versions, and directories, mailing lists, software publishing, and video games. As the North American Industry Classification Systems described it, “Publishers may publish works originally created by others for which they have obtained the rights and/or works that they have created in-house.” Published works can be in one or more formats, such as traditional print, eBooks, CD-ROM, or proprietary electronic networks. The world’s five largest publishers, known as the “Big Five,” are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

The film industry is mainly composed of large, multinational corporations, major studios, and independent studios. Many of the top-name film companies are part of larger media conglomerates that also include television, cable, newspaper, and magazine organizations. Within the film industry are subsectors: film production, film exhibition, and film post-production. The top movie companies include 21st Century Fox, Comcast Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and Viacom Inc.

In general, media and entertainment jobs include reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts; writers and authors; editors; photographers; graphic designers; translators; film and video editors and camera operators; broadcast and sound engineering technicians; announcers; producers and directors; and performers—from actors to musicians and composers. The workers who are behind the scenes and focused on the business side are public relations people, talent agents and representatives, marketing managers, entertainment lawyers, and distribution workers, among others.

We can still access our media and entertainment the old fashioned way, if we choose, by reading publications on paper and watching TV shows on our televisions. But thanks to the Internet and growth of digital content, media and entertainment is now available to us 24/7 through computers, smartphones, tablets, and eBook readers. Wherever we are—whether in an airport, restaurant, at a concert, or doctor’s waiting room—we can go online nearly any time to watch TV shows and movies, listen to radio shows, read books and newspaper articles, and more. Di