Who Owns the Media?: Competition and Concentration in the Mass Media by Benjamin M. Compaine, Douglas Gomery, Douglas Gomery

Who Owns the Media?: Competition and Concentration in the Mass Mediaby Anonymous

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July 22, 2000: Who owns the media? This thorough update of my 1979 benchmarkand 1982 revisit of media ownership again tackles this question, providing a detailed examination of the current state of the media industry. Retaining the wealth of data of the earlier volumes, co-author Douglas Gomery and I chronicle the myriad changes in the media industry and the factors contributing to these changes. We also examine how the media industry is being reshaped by technological forces in all segments as well as by social and cultural reactions to these forces. One of many conclusions is that the media, by some measures, is more diverse and less concentrated than 20 years ago. This third edition of WOTM has been reorganized and expanded, reflecting the evolution of the media industry structure. Broadcast television, cable, and satellite are now addressed in a single chapter, the video cassette industry is given consideration as part of the film business, and music publishing has been added to radio. The Internet is discussed in a new chapter. The text is supplemented by numerous tables and graphs, offering clear overviews of historical developments and current status. Looking beyond conventional wisdom and expectations, we examine the characteristics of competition in the media marketplace, present alternative positions on the meanings of concentration, and ultimately urge readers to draw their own conclusions on an issue that is neither black nor white. As an author of the book, clearly this is not so much a review as a description of the book. I gave it 5 stars because the BN.Com submission form required a rating of some sort; you'd expect me to give it fewer stars?