This volume, arising from the Time and Media Markets conference, offers perspectives on time and its relationship to and impact upon media industries. For libraries, scholars, comm. research centers, and grad-level seminars in media mgmt. & economics.

Government interventions in media markets are often criticized for preventing audiences from getting the media products they want. A free press is often asserted to be essential for democracy. The first point is incorrect and the second is inadequate as a policy guide. Part I of this book shows that unique aspects of media products prevent markets from providing for audience desires. Part II shows that four prominent, but different, theories of democracy lead to different conceptions of good journalistic practice, media policy, and proper constitutional principles. Part II makes clear that the choice among democratic theories is crucial for understanding what should be meant by free press. Part III explores international free trade in media products. Contrary to the dominant American position, it shows that Parts I and II's economic and democratic theory justify deviations from free trade in media products.

Describes in detail the most recent rapid growth and cross border activities and linkages of an industry of large global media conglomerates.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The global media industry has been subject to radical changes in its structure in recent years. International media companies have reached a dominant position in the global media markets through an enormous wave of mergers. Since the year 2000 the three biggest ever media mergers have taken place. AOL merged with Time Warner, Vivendi agreed on a merger with the Seagram Company and Canal+ and Viacom acquired the CBS Corporation. In 2001 the six biggest media conglomerates - AOL Time Warner, Walt Disney, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, Bertelsmann and News Corporation - alone generated revenues of $160 billion in comparison to aggregate revenues of $415 billion obtained by the Top 50 media companies. This development was triggered by radical changes in the US - Federal Communications Commission s (FCC) regulation policy. Though it is the change in the FCC s deregulation policy which made the wave of mergers possible to start off with, the reasons why companies actually merged were more complex. The headwords dominating most corporate growth strategies at that time were convergence , synergy and need for large scale . Looking at the assessments of media mergers and corporate strategies published by the press and investment analysts one notices that they underlie a certain tendency towards unanimous and trend affected formation of opinion. While in 1999 the idea of convergence was embraced and denominated as one of the biggest opportunities for media companies ever, in 2002 the ratings and assessments of companies which tried to obtain first mover advantage in the newly emerging converged market were principally critical. At large, these judgments correlated to a very high degree with the rise and downturn of the new economy. Accordingly, some of the executives, who pressed ahead with the idea of convergence and spurred on mergers in order to achieve synergies, like Mr. Middelhoff (former CEO of Bertelsmann), Mr. Messier (former CEO of Vivendi Universal) and recently Mr. Case (former chairman of AOL Time Warner) had to vacate their positions. Yet some business leaders are beginning to break up the fully integrated media groups that emanated from these mergers. This change in corporate strategies and in the assessment of media mergers brings up the following question: Is it that a fundamental change in the business environment has occurred? And did this change make the economic motives which not long ago underlay the wave of [...]

National broadcasting and press regulation is undergoing a process of convergence in Europe. This book, newly available in paperback, explains how this process has been shaped by the actions of the European Union (EU) institutions.Alison Harcourt observes that whilst communications is one of the EU's most successful policy areas, European decision-making is eroding the national capacity to regulate for the public interest. European-level efforts to protect public interest goals have been constrained by the European Treaties. The author argues that increased European coordination in public interest regulation could be more conducive to growth and competitiveness than the dismantling of existing national laws. This, however, would require changes to the political composition of the European Union.This book assesses the potential EU media regulation provides for market growth and the protection of media pluralism, the citizen and ultimately democracy itself. These opportunities are presented in the coming decade with the developing European Constitution, EU enlargement, and the implementation and revision of European regulation.

Media, Market, and Democracy in China is an astonishingly close look at the intertwining nature of the Communist Party and the news media in China, how they affect each other, and what the future might hold for each. How do market forces influence the media in China? How does the Party both introduce and try to contain the market's influence? How do commercial imperatives both accommodate and challenge Party control? To answer these and other questions, Yuezhi Zhao interviewed a wide range of scholars, media administrators, and media professionals. During five months in China in 1994 and 1995, she monitored media content, carried out extensive documentary research in Beijing, and held off-the-record meetings with Chinese media insiders. The first study of its kind to trace the Chinese print and broadcast media from the 1920s to 1996, this work will be must reading for students of journalism, mass communications, political science, and China studies, as well as for media and business professionals and policy makers who need to understand what's happening to China and its mass media.