Media proprietor

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A media proprietor, also called a media executive, media mogul or media tycoon, is an entrepreneur who controls any means of public or commercial mass media, through the personal ownership or holding of a dominant position within a media conglomerate or enterprise. Those with significant control of a large media-based forum may also be called a business magnate. Since the advent of social media, influencers and entertainers who have garnered large followings on platforms have also been considered media proprietors.

Contents

History

In the United States, newspaper proprietors first became prominent in the 19th century with the development of mass circulation newspapers. In the 20th century, proprietorship expanded to include ownership of radio and television networks, as well as film studios, publishing houses, online platforms, and other forms of multimedia companies. Reflecting this, the term "press baron" was replaced by "media baron" and the term "media mogul" (or "Hollywood mogul" when applied to people specifically working in the American film industry) was popularized in colloquial English. Media proprietors are likely to claim that their publications are editorially independent and unbiased, but this is often questioned. [1] Social networking services such as Facebook are sometimes considered media companies due to their widespread influence. [2]

Notable media proprietors

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A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the creation or ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed. Such individuals have been known by different terms throughout history, such as robber barons, captains of industry, moguls, oligarchs, plutocrats, or tai-pans.

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Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere, known as Vere Harmsworth until 1978, was a British newspaper magnate. He controlled large media interests in the United Kingdom and United States.

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Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere was a British Conservative politician and press magnate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere</span> British newspaper proprietor (1868–1940)

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, was a leading British newspaper proprietor who owned Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is best known, like his brother Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcliffe, for the development of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Rothermere was a pioneer of popular tabloid journalism, and an enthusiastic proponent of closer links between the UK and Nazi Germany of which he was a prominent British admirer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth</span> British politician

Cecil Bisshopp Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth LLD, was a British businessman and Liberal politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1915 and as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1919 and 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Harmsworth King</span> British publisher

Cecil Harmsworth King was Chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers, Sunday Pictorial Newspapers, and the International Publishing Corporation (1963–1968), and a director at the Bank of England (1965–1968).

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The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–1940) in memory of his son Harold Vyvyan Alfred St George, who was killed in the First World War, and whose favourite subject was history. Lord Rothermere also established a Harmsworth Professorship in imperial and naval history at Cambridge University in honour of his son Vere, who was killed in the same war. The King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University was endowed by Sir Harold Harmsworth in memory of King Edward VII, who died in 1910.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildebrand Harmsworth</span>

Sir Hildebrand Aubrey Harmsworth, 1st Baronet was a British newspaper proprietor, twice unsuccessful parliamentary candidate, and member of the Harmsworth publishing family.

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Sir Lucas White King was an Anglo-Irish colonial administrator and academic, Professor of Oriental Languages at Trinity College, Dublin from 1905 to 1922.

References

  1. Hanretty, Chris (27 March 2014). "Media outlets and their moguls: Why concentrated individual or family ownership is bad for editorial independence". European Journal of Communication. 29 (3): 335–350. doi:10.1177/0267323114523150. ISSN   0267-3231. S2CID   53710900 . Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  2. "Mark Zuckerberg appears to finally admit Facebook is a media company". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2018.