Monopolization and commercialization as the characteristic features of the modern media system in the Russian Federation and the United States

Abstract

In the conditions of market economy, special role is played by mass media, since they represent not only a platform for promoting any category of goods and services (permitted by the country’s legislation), but also are the key channel for advertising consumer goods manufactured in any other economic sector. The current state of affairs led to the dominance of the segment of commercially oriented mass media in the modern media environment, which usually are part of the media holding and aim to benefit by any possible means, most of the time through publication of advertising materials. The subject of this article is the processes of commercialization and monopolization as the crucial factors that entailed the transformation processes in media environment, first in the United States, and later in the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty of this research consists in detailed description of the consequences of these processes, determination of the degree of influence of the global media market upon mass media of both countries, and outlining further trends in the development of journalism under such conditions. The conclusion is drawn that the lofty aims of serving public interests, creating objective and independent content, and providing adequate coverage of the events fully depend on the media owners. Therefore, open competition, wide range of offers on the market, and variety of media choices in essence are the nonexistent phenomena, namely die to commercialization and monopolization processes that characterize modern Russian and US mass media.