ABSTRACT
Six related trends describe the mass media world at the beginning of the twentyfirst century:
Mass media executives see media fragmentation and audience segmentation as special challenges that force media producers to move materials across media outlets in search of profits. And they see digital convergence, conglomeration and globalization as potential solutions to the difficulties of cross-media distribution while also adding to their ways of maximizing profit. Media critics worry that these activities pose serious dangers to a democratic society. They are especially concerned about ill effects of globalization and conglomeration. To understand why, we must first understand what’s going on in all these activities. Let’s start with media fragmentation.
