Global Media Organizations

Abstract

Global media organizations are not only extremely broad but also continuously changing. Global media organizations refer to various agencies that conduct diverse activities, from content production to regulation. Some media organizations such as mega media corporations play a key role in globalization and transnationalization as they produce and disseminate cultural products around the globe, while other media organizations, including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), develop global media governance structures. In other words, several forms of global media organizations, from global media industries, such as Disney, Sony, and 21st Century Fox, to international agencies including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), shape and reshape the global media systems that greatly influence people’s lives in many parts of the world. To explore these global media organizations, experts must have at least some knowledge of international communication, globalization theory, media regulation, and media policy. To understand global media organizations, experts also need the same wide-ranging knowledge for several countries, regions, and comparative national priorities in the realm of media and communication. Tackling this broad topic requires choices on what to include and what to exclude. Most of the citations annotated in this article come from diverse perspectives, with a strong historical, theoretical, policy, and governance flavor as we want to include as many relevant academic materials as possible. These books and articles focus on global media agencies, organizations, networks, and infrastructure that tie together plus their consequences, regulation, and governance. Also included are issue-based sections, each of which contains six to ten important items that introduce readers to key issues. These are Theories and Concepts; Business: Sites of Investment and Source of Employment; Digital Convergence; Ownership, Structures, and Power Dynamics; News Organizations; Transnational Corporations; Media Management; and Media Work and Labor. Academic journals that deal with important aspects of global media organizations are also noted. This article does not attempt to cover everything in relation to global media organizations, and simple national and comparative perspectives are not included here, with rare exceptions.