Transnational Media Corporations

Transnational media corporations (TNMCs) play a central role in shaping media systems around the world. While TNMCs are distinguished from other transnational corporations (TNCs) by their involvement in the production and distribution of media and cultural commodities central to the networked media economy, they are often conglomerates with corporate linkages and operations in the surrounding fields of telecommunications, information and communications technology, and online services. In fact, the names of large transnational firms that rose to prominence in the 1980s and the 1990s (Disney, Time Warner, News Corporation, Viacom-CBS, Bertelsmann, Sony) are now being joined by more recent transnational media players, the so-called tech companies, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

Despite the changes in the corporate entities and structures of contemporary TNMCs, their operations continue ...