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Institutional Forms of Media Ownership and their Modes of Power

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... Operationalizing ownership form requires more nuance than this, however. Benson (2016) distinguishes ownership forms based on their institutional logics and modes of power, separating between commercial and public or nonprofit forms of ownership. Benson et al. (2018) divide these logics more specifically into stock market, privately held, civil society and public ownerships and their link to the ability of various ownership powers to perform public service. ...
... To enable an analysis of political viewpoint diversity of newspapers in the Swedish context, we conceptualize ownership form based on modes of power akin to Benson (2016) and Benson et al. (2018), but tied more specifically to the different operational and allocative powers (McManus 1994) that various ownership forms allow. Allocative power includes control over a company's finances and resource; policy and strategy formation; merger and acquisition control; and cutbacks and profit control. ...
... Depending on the organization of the company and the relationship between ownership and management, the number and diversity of owners or shareholders, and their aims and interests (Dunaway 2008), private ownership forms can influence profit expectations as well as ideological goals. Family-owned companies are thought to withstand market pressures because they enjoy long-term ownership commitment (Benson 2016). They are also thought to have strong operational control over the company (Bammens et al. 2011) as they have more power in setting editorial strategies, and in hiring managers and editors. ...
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The assumption that ownership has an effect on the diversity of news is based on the forms of control that ownership allows and the market conditions in which ownership is exercised. In this study, we perform a large-scale analysis of the Swedish newspaper market, surveying 130 newspapers and parliamentary speeches over a period of six years (2014–2019), to substantiate to what extent market and for-profit ownership forms impact political viewpoint diversity. Our analysis shows that newspapers with market leadership and chain ownership offer more political viewpoint diversity than number two and single-owned papers. In contrast, the ownership forms surveyed here (private, foundation, and publicly traded ownerships) display little effect on newspapers’ internal diversity. We also find that a greater number of papers in a local market does not imply more external diversity in that market. The analysis thus offers some nuance to the notion that ownership form and market pluralism are prerequisites for viewpoint diversity, highlighting instead the importance of scale effects for pluralistic media systems.
... Das bislang differenzierteste Konzept über die Auswirkungen des Medieneigentums auf den Journalismus stammt von Rodney Benson (2016;. Er hat (vor allem mit Blick auf die USA) aus Sekundärliteratur, Verleger-Memoiren und -Biografien sowie eigens geführten Interviews (Benson 2019, 393) Daneben unterscheidet Benson (2016, 34-38) Die Interviews wurden vom 7. Juli bis 6. Dezember 2021 geführt und dauerten zwischen 36 und 82 Minuten. ...
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Große Medienhäuser haben Eigentümer*innen und Manager*innen – doch wie groß ist der Einfluss, den diese auf das journalistische Handeln in den jeweiligen Redaktionen ausüben? Fundiert durch das Konzept der Four Modes of Ownership Power von Benson wurden Leitfadeninterviews mit zwölf erfahrenen deutschen Medienjournalist*innen geführt. Diese ergaben, dass 1) politische Instrumentalisierung von Redaktionen am ehesten im Axel-Springer-Verlag und in inhaber*innengeführten Regionalzeitungsverlagen stattfindet; 2) wirtschaftliche Instrumentalisierung vor allem bei medienpolitischen Themen, welche die Verleger*innen betreffen, sowie auf lokaler Ebene in der Rücksichtnahme auf Werbekund*innen vorkommt; 3) eine Zielgruppen-Anpassung in der Regel nicht mehr auf Vorgaben der obersten Hausspitze basiert, sondern auch auf unteren Hierarchieebenen gemacht wird; und dass 4) die Public-Service-Orientierung der deutschen Medien trotz Spardrucks im Großen und Ganzen zufriedenstellend ist.
... Typically, media ownership is highly concentrated with a handful of corporations or wealthy families controlling large parts of the (national) media markets (Pickard, 2016;Benson, 2019;Ferschli et al., 2019). This leads to the disciplining power of wealthy owners on the journalism conducted in their respective media houses either explicitly (e.g. based on editorial policies) or implicitly (e.g. based on hiring practices, in which training, qualification and/or socialcultural backgrounds of the journalists play an important role; see Benson, 2016 andMosco, 2009). A prime example in this regard is the selection of personnel for the editors-in-chief (Herman and Chomsky 1988: Ch xi, pp. ...
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This study focuses on the Austrian media coverage of wealth taxes by conducting a content analysis of all commentary pieces published in 2005–2020 by five Austrian daily newspapers. We find (i) that the majority of commentaries take a negative position towards wealth taxation, (ii) that journalists write more negative comments than guest authors do and (iii) 50 argumentative patterns in five main categories. In light of these findings, we discuss several potential drivers of the predominantly negative wealth taxation coverage: the high degree of ownership concentration by wealthy families and institutions in the Austrian newspaper market, the importance of advertising to fund newspapers and the influence of elite institutions as providers of information. Finally, we embed our findings in recent literature and illustrate similarities and differences of the German and Austrian media coverage of wealth taxation.
... A lors qu'elle est au centre du débat sur l'indépendance des médias, la question des relations entre l'actionnariat et les politiques éditoriales est longtemps restée une boîte noire dans la sociologie française : « La relation entre les journalistes et les propriétaires n'est ni la mieux identifiée ni la plus connue, en dépit des nombreux articles qui accompagnent notamment les rachats des groupes de presse » (Sonnac, Gabszewicz 2010, p. 74). A contrario, aux États-Unis, plusieurs chercheurs ont tenté d'étudier empiriquement ces relations (Bogart, 1955, Chomsky, 1985, Benson, 2016. Éric Phélippeau et Philippe Ragouet ont remarqué le même décalage concernant le financement des activités politiques entre l'abondante littérature scientifique outre-Atlantique et l'absence de travaux dans l'Hexagone. ...
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Alors qu’elle est au centre du débat sur l’indépendance des médias, la question des relations entre l’actionnariat et les politiques éditoriales est longtemps restée une boîte noire en sociologie. Cet article propose des pistes pour analyser ces relations. Après avoir présenté les obstacles méthodologiques et épistémologiques rencontrés par le chercheur, l’article propose d’examiner le lien statistique entre des types de régimes de propriétés et des profils de dirigeants (en termes de métier d’origine, de formation notamment). Il étudie ensuite, à travers une analyse des correspondances multiples, l’impact des différents régimes de propriété sur la structuration du groupe des dirigeants. Soulignant le poids de la modalité « Sociétés civile » (médias détenus par des journalistes, des organisations religieuses, militantes, associatives, syndicales) dans la construction de l’ACM, il s’efforce de décrire les profils de ces dirigeants par rapport à ceux d’autres médias. L’article conclut sur l’existence d’une certaine inertie des structures.
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Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel journalistischer Medien in Deutschland, wie Technologiekonzerne alle Ebenen der journalistischen Informationsproduktion und -distribution beeinflussen. Dazu wird der Begriff des media capture zum Konzept des media environment capture erweitert, welches den zunehmenden direkten und indirekten Einfluss von Technologiekonzernen auf journalistische Medienunternehmen erfasst und systematisiert. Gezeigt werden kann, wie vielfältig Konzernentscheidungen auf Medientechnologie, -innovation, -politik und -recht einwirken, medienrelevante Wissenschaft, Forschung und Förderung beeinflussen und auch weit in das Innere der ökonomischen Organisation des Journalismus hineinreichen. Längst sind nicht nur einzelne Orte, Prozesse und Akteure in der Öffentlichkeit privaten Interessen unterworfen, vielmehr wird zusätzlich der Kommunikationsraum zwischen allen an der öffentlichen Debatte partizipierenden Akteur:innen und um sie herum kommerzialisiert.
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