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ers to Matsushita (Japan), who sold to Seagram’s content and distribution, but on a global scale it is
(Canada), who sold to Vivendi (France). Vivendi still a minor presence—that is, minor as a percent-
By Benjamin Compaine has already announced that it will divest some major age of global media revenue, global audience, and
media assets, including textbook publisher in the number of markets it covers.
Houghton-Mifflin. Bertelsmann also has had diffi- Media companies have indeed grown over the
24 Foreign Policy
[ Think Again ]
who directly seek news sites and those who chance
upon news links serendipitously. The Pew Internet
ly find news while they are doing other things
online. This picture is not consistent with the New, Relevant,
and American Life Project reports that 42 per- notion that Web audiences routinely tune out
BROOKINGS
Essential
cent of those who read news on the Web typical- information with which they disagree.
I N S T I T U T I O N P R E S S
26 Foreign Policy w w w . b r o o k i n g s . e d u
[ Think Again ]
tiser to withdraw sponsorship and in another, seeking kept tv networks from owning their programming.
the withdrawal of a broadcasting license. The first change allowed News Corp. to assemble a
Paradoxically, relaxing broadcast regulation may core of stations in larger markets that gave it a viable
expand competition. When News Corp. put togeth- base audience, and the second sanctioned News
er a fourth network in the United States in 1986, the Corp.’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, with its tele-
timing was not random. It followed two regulatory vision production studio. Fox was thus able to launch
decisions: the Federal Communications Commission the first successful alternative to the Big Three in 30
raised the limit on local licenses that a single firm could years. Its success also paved the way for three other
own from seven to twelve and waived a rule that large media players to initiate networks.
Channels of information on the relationship between media and society are abundant. In Virtuous Cir-
cle: Political Communications in Post-Industrial Societies (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000), Pippa Norris contradicts the notion that media reduce civic activism, diminish trust in government,
and retard knowledge of public affairs. Norris also coedits, with Marvin Kalb, the Harvard International
Journal of Press and Politics, an analytical journal on the press-policymaking nexus. Ten country case stud-
ies on the media’s role in promoting democracy may be found in Democracy and the Media: A Comparative
Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), edited by Richard Gunther and Anthony
Mughan. In “Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Mili-
tary Intervention” (Cambridge: Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, 1997),
Steven Livingston explores the limits of media’s role in setting public policy agendas.
Today we’re the source of many energies. In
Shanthi Kalathil’s “Chinese Media and the Information Revolution” (Washington: Carnegie Endow- the U.S., we’re one of the largest producers of
ment for International Peace, 2002) explains why the Internet is not a force for press freedom in China. solar panels and the largest producer of natural
Other fascinating country-specific glimpses are Laurie Anne Freeman’s Closing the Shop: Information gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel. And we’re
Cartels and Japan’s Mass Media (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000) and Anil Dharker’s look investing in the new energy sources of the
© 2002 BP p.l.c.
at the Star Network’s Indian debut in his review of Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney’s future—hydrogen and wind.
The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism (London: Cassell, 1997) in the Sum-
mer 1998 issue of FOREIGN POLICY. It’s a start.
On the OpenDemocracy Web site, see the spirited debate between Compaine and McChesney on
the impact of corporate media ownership on democracy. The site also includes several articles on media
in such places as Italy, Latin America, and Japan.
»Foreign
For links to relevant Web sites, access to the FP Archive, and a comprehensive index of related
Policy articles, go to www.foreignpolicy.com.
beyond petroleum™
28 Foreign Policy bp.com