Who Owns the Media?

Bibliographic Data

ID23555043
AuthorsSimeon Djankov (0000-0002-0822-6456), Caralee McLeish, Tatiana Nenova, Andrei Shleifer
Year2001
Publication date2001-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
PublisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1596/1813-9450-2620
OpenAlexW3122302744
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited2

The authors examine patterns of media \n ownership in 97 countries around the world. They find that \n almost universally the largest media firms are controlled by \n the government or by private families. Government ownership \n is more pervasive in broadcasting than in the printed media. \n Government ownership is generally associated with less press \n freedom, fewer political and economic rights, inferior \n governance, and, most conspicuously, inferior social \n outcomes in education and health. The adverse effects of \n government ownership on political and economic freedom are \n stronger for newspapers than for television. The adverse \n effects of government ownership of the media do not appear \n to be restricted solely to instances of government monopoly. \n The authors present a range of evidence on the adverse \n consequences of state ownership of the media. State \n ownership of the media is often argued to be justified on \n behalf of the social needs of the disadvantaged. But if \n their findings are correct, increasing private ownership of \n the media--through privatization or by encouraging the entry \n of privately owned media--can advance a variety of political \n and economic goals, especially those of meeting the social \n needs of the poor.

Advertising · Business · Common ownership · Corporate governance · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Emerging markets · Freedom of the press · Government (linguistics) · Market economy · Monopoly · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Social media · State (computer science) · State ownership · Corruption and Economic Development · Economic Growth and Development · Finance · Law · Media Influence and Politics

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