:: minding media ::

WHO OWNS THE MEDIA?

As we have stated, media is a way to communicate or relay information. All information must have a source, an origin, or a beginning place in order to be communicated from one person to the next. Another way to think about the creation of media or information is to look at who is PRODUCING the media. Asking the question, "Who owns the media?" can provide us with a lot of complicated answers. We might find that a big business or company, also known as a corporation, owns our "local" newspaper, which is really just one of many newspapers across the country owned by that single big business. A question that might follow from finding out this information would be: Is our news report really local if it is not being produced locally?

There are many "media watch groups" who provide facts about the ways in which information is produced and distributed to an audience. The process of producing and distributing information to an audience is also known as media ownership. Below, you will find links to the few businesses who own the majority of places that media comes from. Have you ever heard of any of these companies before??? What about any of the smaller companies that they own???

SONY (Revenues: $53.8 billion) owns Columbia Pictures & Sony Pictures Classics movie studios; Columbia, American, Epic & Sony music labels; PlayStation; Game Show Network...

AT&T CORPORATION(Revenues: $66 billion) owns WB, HBO, Cinemax, Comedy Central, Court TV, E!; Warner Bros., New Line & Fine Line Features movie studios; 43 radio stations in Canada...

WALT DISNEY COMPANY (Revenues: $25.4 billion) owns US Weekly, Discover, ESPN, Family Fun & Talk magazines; ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, A & E, History & Biography channels, Lifetime & Lifetime Movie Network, Fox Family Channel; Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, ESPN Zone; Hyperion publishing; the Mighty Ducks & Anaheim Angels sports teams; Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Film Corp., Buena Vista International; 50 Radio stations; ABC News Productions; Celebration, Florida -- a 4,900 acre town...

GENERAL ELECTRIC (Revenues: $129.9 billion) owns the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty, New England Seawolves, Hartford Wolfpack, Madison Sqaure Garden, Radio City Music Hall, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment; NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, A & E, History & Biography channels, AMC, Bravo, WE & Independent Film Channel; Aircraft engines, appliances, light bulbs, 14 communication satellites, cars, computers, ammonia plants & nuclear reactors, X-ray and ultrasound machines, insurance companies, investment and retirement plans...

AOL/TIME WARNER (Revenues: $36.2 billion) owns more than 64 magazines, including TIME, LIFE, and People; DC Comics; Warner Bros., New Line & Fine Line Features, Warner Home Video; more than 40 music labels including Warner Bros., Atlantic, Electra, London-Sire & Rhino Records, Columbia House; Warner Books, Time-Life Books, Book-of-the-month Club; WB, HBO, Cinemax, Comedy Central, Court TV, E!, Style, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN, Headline News, CNN/Sports Illustrated; America Online, Compuserve, Netscape, AOL Instant Messenger, Hanna-Barbera characters; Castle Rock production; 6,500 movies, 32,000 TV shows & 13,500 cartoons; Warner Bros. Movie World Theme Park & hotel in Australia; the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, Goodwill Games, Phillips Arena...

VIACOM, INC. (Revenues: $20 billion) owns Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films, Blockbuster; about 1,800 screens in theaters in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia & South America; Simon & Schuster publishing, The Free Press, Scriber; 184 Infinity radio stations, CBS Radio Network; CBS, UPN, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Comedy Central, TNN, CMT, The Movie Channel, Sundance Channel, FLIX, BET; TiVO; BET Weekend magazine; Paramount theme parks in the US & Canadal Star Trek; House of Blues Entertainment; exclusive advertising rights on buses, subways, trains, kiosks, billboards & other venues in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta & 82 other US cities, and in cities in Mexico, Canada, Britain, Ireland & throughout Europe; licenses VIACOM-owned properties & third-party clients including the US Postal Service, Jeep & red Dog Beer, famous Music holds copyrights to more than 100,000 musical works...

NEWS CORPORATION(Revenues: $11.6 billion) owns FOX, FX, FMX, Fox News Channel, Fox international sports channels, Golf Channel, Health Network, TV Guide Channel, STAR TV; sells satellite TV to individuals, hotels & apartment complexes; Twentieth Century fox, Main Event Television, TiVO, HarperCollins books, Zondervan (largest commercial Bible imprint), NY Post, in Britain the Sun, the Times, News of the World; Fox Searchlight, Fox Animation Studios, Fox Home Entertainment; TV Guide; licenses Simpsons & X-Files; the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty, New England Seawolves, Hartford Wolfpack, Madison Square Garden, management of Hartford Civic Center, New York Liberty, Los Angeles Dodgers & Staples Center, Dodger Stadium & Dodgertown...

LIBERTY MEDIA CORPORATION(Assets valued at $42 billions) owns 101 magazines including Modern Bride and Seventeen; USA Films, Gramercy Pictures, Interscope Communications; Ticketmaster; the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, Pepsi Center in Denver; stakes in 21 radio stations in US & 49 stations in Canada; Sprint, Motorola, calling cards, long distance, phone service via cable, Avis rent-a-car, Coldwell Banker & Century 21, Discovery Channel Stores, Cox Communications, art gallery in New York, Starz Encore Media Group, QVC; Discovery & The Learning Channel, Animal Planet, Sci-Fi Channel, USA Network, Hallmark Entertainment Network; pay-per-view and Internet access to Days Inn & Ramada; TiVO...

VIVENDI UNIVERSAL (Revenues: $37.2 billion) owns Universal Studios Hollywood, Citywalk retail/entertainment complex, and 25% in nearby hotels & water parks ; Universal Studios in Orlando, FL, Universal Studios Japan, Universal Studios Port Aventura & nearby hotels in Spain, SEGA GameWorks; USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, HSN, Sundance Channel; Studio Canal, PolyGram Films, Gramercy Pictures; 27% of US music sales including Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Island, Def Jam, MCA, Mercury, Motown, Universal and Pressplay labels; leading publisher in France of literature, Houghton Mifflin publishers; 15.3 million subscribers in 11 countries; 151 recycling facilities, 119 landfill sites and 83 incineration plants worldwide; 2220 advertising agencies in 65 countries...

BERTELSMANN(Revenues: $16.5 billion) owns Random House, Vintage, Knopf, Bantam Doubleday, Dell publishing; Europe's biggest broadcaster with stakes of 35-100% in 22 TV channels in Europe; Lycos and Fireball search engines; Napster; barnesandnoble.com; The Travel Channel; 20% of US music sales with over 200 labels in 54 countries including Arista, BMG Classics, RCA and Windham Hill Group; 11 daily newspapers in Germany & Eastern Europe; publisher of 80 magazines worldwide; 18 radio stations in Europe; graphic design, greeting cards, and trading cards...

*the statistics listed above were taken from http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html and were current as of December 20th, 2001.*

VISIT THESE SITES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP:

Who Owns the Media by Free Press

A detailed fact sheet on the "Big 10" media companies by The Nation magazine.

A media ownership chart by MediaChannel.org

A breakdown of 5 Global Media Giants' ownership by MediaChannel.org

Who Owns What an online guide to what major media companies own by Columbia Journalism Review

A piechart depicting cable and satellite TV control by The Center for Public Integrity

A list of the top 10 television and radio broadcast companies by The Center for Public Integrity