Symbolic Synergy

In the article “The New Media Giants: Changing Industry and Structure”, authors Croteau and Hoynes discuss the growing assortment of companies that merge, and the politics behind it all. One focus of the article is synergy which “refers to the dynamic where components of a company work together to produce benefits that would be impossible for a single, separately owned and operated unit of the company” (23). The article also states that synergy in the media world is when a whole chain of events happen to produce various types of media all connected to one single concept. For example, Spider Man who was first featured in several comic books, then the character starred in his own comic “The Amazing Spider Man”, and eventually became a T.V. show, and then a series of hit blockbuster movies – all of which provided the market for the assortment of toys and posters created with a Spider Man theme. Media is not the only place where synergy exists. The image to the right is an example of human synergy. Both people are too short to reach the apple, so they combine their heights (by sitting on one’s shoulders) to be able to reach the apple – the apple being the product of their synergy. Without one another neither person would be able to reach the apple themselves.