ABSTRACT
Scholarly works addressing media management and economics (including many of the preceding chapters of this volume) acknowledge the profound trends that have affected the media (or more broadly, “communications”) over the past two decades. Technological, political, and economic forces have reshaped the media and communications industries of the world with significant consequences including the emergence of distinctly global communication enterprises. The desire to claim a share of the post-Cold War global economy led to significant policy shifts geared toward encouraging massive private sector investment in new communications infrastructure. National policies have typically shifted from tight government control toward the privatization andderegulation of the telecommunications and electronicmedia industries in order to foster competition, innovation, and investment in advanced digital technologies and to wring opportunity out of the apparent convergence of the formerly distinct and separate communications technologies.
