Global media: the new missionaries of corporate capitalism

The Global Media describes in detail the recent rapid growth and crossborder activities and linkages of an industry largely composed of international conglomerates. It assesses the significance of the ongoing deregulation and convergence of global media and telecommunications systems and the rise of the internet. The authors argue that the most important features of this globalization process are the implantation, consolidation and concentration of advertisement-based commercial media and the parallel weakening of the ‘public sphere’. It is contended that the United States provides the evolutionary model toward which the global media system is moving, and the history and characteristics of the U.S. System are described, along with developments in seven other countries around the world. Finally, the authors evaluate the defenses of the ongoing globalization process and discuss the forms of local, national and global resistance that have emerged.