Media ownership and concentration

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Media ownership and concentration refers to the control and dominance of a few corporations or individuals over a large portion of the media industry, and its impact on the diversity and quality of media content.

Media Ownership: Understanding the various forms of media ownership whether it's individually owned, privately held, publicly traded or government-owned.
Media concentration: Understanding how media concentration works when one company or a few companies hold a significant amount of market share in a given media sector.
Media Plurality: Understanding of media plurality in ensuring diversity in the media landscape by avoiding excessive concentration of media ownership as it can lead to bias, restricted competition and editorial independence.
Media Funding Models: Understanding the various media funding models such as subscriptions, advertisements and government grants, and how they influence media ownership and concentration.
Vertical Integration: Understanding the practice of media companies owning or controlling multiple aspects of media production and distribution (e.g. production studios, cable channels, publishing companies) to consolidate their power in the industry.
Horizontal Integration: Understanding the practice of media companies acquiring or merging with other media companies of similar type to expand their market share and media concentration.
Market Share Analysis: Analyzing the market share of media companies in a given industry and understanding how it impacts media concentration.
Regulatory Framework: An understanding of the various regulatory frameworks that govern media ownership and concentration, including the FCC rules in the US, Ofcom in the UK, and the CRTC in Canada.
Media Bias: Understanding the potential impact of media ownership and concentration on media bias and how it can affect reporting.
Media Monopoly: Understanding the potential problems that might arise from media monopoly, including threats to democracy, accountability, free press and pluralism.
Alternative Media: Understanding the impact of alternative media sources, including community-based media, social media, and crowd-funded media on media ownership and concentration.
Global Media Ownership: An understanding of global media ownership trends and how they impact the media landscape in different regions of the world.
Monopoly: In a monopoly, a single company controls all or most of the market, leaving little or no room for competition. This could lead to the dominance of a particular perspective or viewpoint.
Oligopoly: An oligopoly is a market structure in which a small number of large companies control the majority of the market, often through strategic mergers and acquisitions.
Conglomerate: A conglomerate is a company that has multiple unrelated businesses under one umbrella, often through acquiring other companies. This type of ownership allows a company to diversify its holdings and spread out the risk.
Vertical Integration: This refers to the ownership of multiple stages in the production and distribution of a single product or service. In media, this can mean owning the production company, the distribution network, and the platform where the content is consumed.
Horizontal Integration: This type of ownership involves the acquisition of companies that operate in the same industry or market. In media, this can mean owning multiple news outlets or television stations in the same region.
Cross-media Ownership: Cross-media ownership refers to the ownership of multiple media outlets across multiple platforms. This can mean owning both print and digital news outlets, as well as movie studios and television networks.
Foreign ownership: Foreign ownership refers to the ownership of media outlets by companies based outside the country in which they operate. This can raise concerns about the influence of foreign entities on the media and the free flow of information.
State ownership: State ownership refers to the ownership of media outlets by the government. This can lead to government control over the flow of information and potential censorship.
Community ownership: Community ownership refers to media that is owned and operated by local communities, often as non-profit organizations. This type of ownership prioritizes the needs and perspectives of the community.
Non-profit ownership: Non-profit ownership refers to media outlets that operate without the goal of making a profit, often with a focus on public service journalism and education. This type of ownership often relies on donations and grants to sustain itself.
"Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media."
"Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms."
"Globally, large media conglomerates include Bertelsmann, National Amusements (Paramount Global), Sony Group Corporation, News Corp, Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corporation, Hearst Communications, Amazon (MGM Holdings Inc.), Grupo Globo (South America), and Lagardère Group."
"As of 2022, the largest media conglomerates in terms of revenue are Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Global."