On 'Answers.com', the word 'hegemony' is defined as, “The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.” When we talk about media hegemonies we are referring to just that. The media owners that have predominant influence over the now and future of the media.
Today we see large corporations that own most of the media here in North America as well as the rest of the world. Some of the largest and most recognizable of these include, News Corporation, AT&T/Liberty Media, General Electric, Disney, Sony, Viacom, Time Warner and Seagram, plus Bertelsmann, the Germany-based conglomerate.
Each of these media rulers owns a number of well known media firms, companies and organizations and have done many things to change the media for eternity. For example, lets look at Time Warner, the largest of all.
When Time Warner described as 'old' media, banned together with 'new' media, AOL, in 2000, this changed the media drastically because it made all other 'old' media corporations feel as though if they didn't sign with Internet companies their methods would, in the future, become obsolete. Three years later Time Warner dropped AOL, but it still stands as a huge checkpoint in media history.
Some of the various companies that Time Warner owns are, CNN, Warner Brother's Studio, AOL Instant Messaging and Sport's Illustrated so, one way or another, we have all come in contact with them.
Not only do companies like Time Warner run almost all of the media in North America, but they also own little portions of each other's companies. This is called “cross media ownership”.
Cross media ownership is a unique strategy that is used within large corporations to ensure success and profitability by preventing competition between corporations.
At this rate the corporations will only become stronger and stronger owning more and more of the media. Maybe they'll even come together to form one all powerful corporation and then “take over the world” as The Brain would say. Wait a second... wasn't he a character from Warner Brother's “Animaniacs”?
Works Cited
"Hegemony". Answers.com. Available: http://www.answers.com/topic/hegemony
McChesney, Robert W. "The New Global Media". The Nation. November 11th, 1999. Available: http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991129/mcchesney/3
"Who Owns What? Part Two". Youtube. November 5th, 2008. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLoraYMYQNw
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