Article
North America: Multiplying Media in a Dynamic Landscape
First Monday
(2005)
Abstract
Perhaps no region on earth has been as affected by the dramatic pace and extent of media development since 1990 as North America, where most have ready access to new media, such as the Internet and the latest telecommunications devices, as well as the traditional newspapers, radio and television. Even traditional media have undergone profound change as convergence and cross–ownership brought them together in vast media conglomerates dominated by a handful of global corporations. Digitization has taken hold in the United States and Canada, increasing commodification and cross–ownership of all forms of communication, from movies and music to the written word, and bringing together once separate domains of print, broadcasting, telecommunications and computer technology. Yet all is not monolithic on the North American scene. This increasing concentration of ownership has evolved at the same time as increasing fragmentation of media markets and outlets. Explosive growth in cable and satellite television channels, musical variety and the Internet, have given citizens many more choices and in some cases easier access to outlets for their own creative and political expression. Throughout North America, increasing cultural diversity has also led to products and policies serving multicultural needs in an information society. As a less powerful, less populous neighbor with close economic and cultural ties to the United States, Canada’s history has been one of resisting cultural and economic domination.
This theme continues in the current era, in the face of evolving trade agreements attempting to drop restrictions and barriers.
Keywords
- mass media,
- new media
Disciplines
Publication Date
2005
DOI
10.5210/fm.v10i11.1290
Citation Information
Available at https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1290
Creative Commons license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.