Corporate Media Consolidation

Media inform, educate, persuade, and entertain audiences in every society. As commercial media corporations seek greater reach and profits, they consolidate with other media firms within and across each medium, within and across nations. This consolidation gathers disparate media operations, small and large, into fewer media operations, as the most profitable firms expand, partner, merge, and acquire other media firms. This consolidation within and across nations also centralizes the production and distribution of communication, giving significant power of communication in global society to the more dominant media firms that control the production and distribution of news, narratives, and social norms.

Consolidation furthers the political–economic interests of the largest media firms, which, by owning both media production and distribution, also increase their control and influence over public ...