The Business of Media - Corporate Media and Public Interest
David Croteau/William Hoynes
Pine Forge Press
302 pages
There is little doubt that the role of the mass media in contemporary democratic societies has become a major area of research, not just in academia but also in journalism. The Business of Media covers what has by now become familiar territory.
It addresses pressing and topical questions of profitability-versus-public interest in media ownership and production. The authors base their analysis on the market model and juxtapose this against the public sphere model in analysing the contemporary media landscape.
Yet the book tries to be more than just another addition to this growing body of work in that it does not merely take the media as the object of enquiry, but considers it a valid source of information towards understanding what societal institutions can do to raise public awareness.
Part I contextualises the study in its historical and theoretical contexts; Part II tracks the major transformations in the media industries over the 1990s and therefore relies on the market model in order to explain the rise of media conglomerates and their corporate strategies.
Part III uses the public sphere model in exploring how policy and citizen activism can help produce media that is more socially aware and responsible. Overall however, the market model tends to find greater emphasis than the public sphere model.
Part I deals far better with tracking a historical context than a theoretical one. They have looked at the growth of the media industry
