Announcement for the American Edition of Global Media Journal
Special Spring 2012 Issue
The State of Media Conglomeration: Synergy, Power, Resistance
Extended Deadline for Submissions: December 1st, 2011
The focus of this special issue of the Global Media Journal: Is “Big Media” dead and buried, or alive and prospering—or both?
In May 2009, Newsweek magazine eulogized “Big Media” in the aftermath of Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes’ announcement that the corporation would spin off AOL, noting that “the long-suffering Vertically Integrated Media Conglomerate (1989-2009) passed away” and suggesting that synergy was an “overhyped” business model.
Yet in early 2011, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice approved Comcast’s 51% stake in General Electric’s NBC Universal, creating what the New York Times called, “a media powerhouse.” Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States, longed to own a major media company before its purchase of NBC Universal, as evidenced by several failed attempts to purchase Disney in recent years. Furthermore, in 2011, AT&T announced the purchase of T-Mobile for $39 billion, which, if approved by governmental regulatory agencies, will create the largest mobile phone company and again consolidate the industry into two main players. On the other hand, Google’s attempted purchase of social shopping site Groupon for a price of $6 billion was rejected, largely acknowledged as due to fears by Groupon that the acquisition would invoke anti-trust action toward Google. Elsewhere, though, the largest media conglomerates, including Disney, Viacom, News Corporation, and Time Warner, appeared to becontinuing their quest to purchase digital and traditional media outlets.
In light of these paradoxes, articles for this special issue may address (but are not limited to) matters such as: The use of new synergistic strategies to create barriers to entry, corporate power and media, the use of social media technologies as resistance to dominant corporate practices and content, consolidation in the telecommunications industries, the viability of transnational and transindustrial media corporations, and alternative democratic communication systems.
Graduate Student Research: In keeping with the mission of the journal to provide opportunities for graduate student publication, this special issue of Global Media Journal will have a graduate research section. For submission guidelines, please visit http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/gmj_submission_guidelines.htm
All papers must be submitted via electronic attachment.
Please direct all inquiries and submissions to Dr. Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University,
Graduate student submissions and queries should be directed to Dr. Doug Tewksbury, Niagara University,