ABSTRACT

In late 2017 the potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner was blocked while two other comparable media deals were not penalized. Drawing on a critical political economy of communications framework, this article investigates CNN online news’ portrayal of media-ownership concentration in the US. We subjected the news coverage (n = 43) of CNN (a subsidiary of Time Warner) to a thematic analysis along the lines that Braun and Clarke suggest. The results show that CNN’s coverage of media ownership concentration developments can be described as self-centered, self-promoting, and self-legitimizing. While the main focus is on news coverage the article offers an account of the different handling of the three mergers by the Trump administration, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. The mergers show high levels of politicized intervention. We seek to contextualize and partly explain these findings with contradictions in the present conjuncture.

摘要

2017 年底，AT&T 和时代华纳之间的潜在合并被阻止，而另外两项类似的媒体交易没有受到处罚。本文利用传播框架的批判政治经济学，调查了 CNN 在线新闻对美国媒体所有权集中度的描述。我们按照布劳恩和克拉克的建议，对 CNN（时代华纳的子公司）的新闻报道（n = 43）进行了专题分析。结果表明，CNN 对媒体所有权集中发展的报道可以被描述为以自我为中心、自我宣传和自我合法化。虽然主要关注新闻报道，但文章介绍了特朗普政府、司法部和联邦通信委员会对三项合并的不同处理方式。合并显示出高度的政治化干预。我们试图将这些发现与当前形势的矛盾联系起来并部分解释。