The New Global Media: It's a Small World of Big Conglomerates
Robert W. McChesney

Political Economy of Global Media
A global commercial-media market has emerged

• oligopoly – the market situation in which a few producers control the demand from many buyers
• highly concentrated
• horizontally and vertically integrated
• able to exploit "synergy"

Developed as a result of

• deregulation of media ownership
• privatization of television in Europe and Asia
• new communications technologies

Dominated by the TNCs that rule US media:

General Electric, AT&T/Liberty Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom, and Seagram

Bertelsmann is also dominant

Note: some of the companies may have changed since 1999, e.g., Vivendi acquired Seagram in 2000, but structurally the situation is much the same

Second tier firms

• four or five dozen
• national or regional powerhouses, or
• control niche markets
• from N. America, W. Europe and Japan
• each is a giant in its own right
• continually seeking to reach beyond national borders

Second-tier media firms are not "oppositional" to the global system

• tend to have distinctly pro-business political agendas  
• support expansion of the global media market
• this puts them at odds with large segments of their home population

Among 1^st and 2^nd tier firms - a competitive struggle for domination
However, fundamentally noncompetitive in any meaningful economic sense of the term

• some of the same major shareholders
• own pieces of one another
• interlocking boards of directors
• equity joint ventures

In some respects closely resembles a cartel

Impacts on Media Content

Strong traditions of protection for domestic media and cultural industries persist
The "Hollywood juggernaut" and the specter of US cultural imperialism remains a central concern
However, the notion that corporate media firms are merely purveyors of US culture becomes less plausible

Global media system advances corporate and commercial interests and values

• no discernible difference in content based on location
• respects no tradition or custom if contrary to profits
• politically conservative
• consumerism, class inequality and individualism taken as natural
• political activity, civic values and anti-market activities are marginalized
• light escapist entertainment

If audiences demand local products, the global media corporations will globalize their production

Conclusion
Where this heads depends on the politics and economics of the situation

• intricately intertwined with that of global capitalism
• tied with either political support or opposition