Media Moguls

The emergence of a few powerful individuals in control of large sections of mass-communicationsidustries has coincided with world-wide media de-regulation. But what characterizes the media mogul'? And in what political and economic conditions do they flourish? In a series of case studies, the book considers west European television and the transatlantic trade of Hollywood programming: the data market and the global hegemony of international news agencies; and the industrial lobbying of EC media policy-makers. Jeremy Tunstall and Michael Palmer examine the media moguls personal eccentricities, personal partizanship and industrial alliances to ask how they have shaped national and global communications. As the moguls' influence spread, the book asks how societies and cultures are changed, and whether local representations will continue to be produced in the face of the commercial dominance of the mogul's media product? The authors' accounts of the struggle for control of the mass communications, where international technology confronts national politics, should prove essential reading for scholars and practitioners alike.