ABSTRACT
The ownership of the mass media in the United States is of vital interest. These vast institutions influence what we know, the images of ourselves and the bulk of the way we amuse and entertain. The production and distribution of newspapers, books, magazines, television, radio, music, movies, and increasingly the Internet (i.e., the mass media) require great expense and frequently generate enormous profits. No research in mass communication can ignore questions of mass media ownership and the economic implications of that control. Mass media businesses routinely take in and spend vast sums of money. The mass media in the United States, and elsewhere in the world, seek to maximize profits, and thus can safely be studied as economic institutions. Whereas owners and managers go about maximizing profits, this key assumption still functions best as a starting point. Then the question becomes: What is the best way to go about trying to make sense of the ownership and operation of mass media industries?
