ABSTRACT
Just as in theoil and automotive industries earlier this century, themedia industry has gone through a profound transformation, progressing from a primarily national to a global commercial-media market, and in the process created a group of media conglomerates with worldwide reach (McChesney, 1999). The move toward an international business of media products corresponds to the shift away from nationalistic economic policies toward the internationally free-market economy of post-World War II facilitated by the establishment of international agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (Gershon, 1997). Some have asserted that the internationalization of media is intractable and irreversible as managers increasingly view the expansion of media in a global context and not necessarily with an aim to fulfill the cultural needs of specific audiences (Smith, 1991). In fact, the trend toward media conglomeration has generated heated debates among communication scholars, policymakers, and industry practitioners (Croteau & Hoynes, 2001; C. Davis & Craft, 2000; S. Davis, 1999; Demers, 1999; Teinowitz, 2001). Drawing from a social/public-sphere theory, opponents have called such an acceleration of consolidation the homogenization of media and a threat to democracy (Parker, 2000; Smith, 1991; Wellstone, 2000). Proponents of the development, coming mostly from an economic/market perspective, have argued that the advent of technologies and proliferation of media outlets would minimize the threat of monopoly power and that economies of scale/scope are necessary when a firm competes in a global marketplace (Mandel-Campbell, 1998; Shearer, 2000).
