Media mogul
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
A media mogul is someone, usually wealthy, who controls a large part of the mass media. The term mogul originally referred to a Mongolian, particularly to a member of the ruling dynasty of the Mughal empire. By extension, it came to mean any ruler or powerful person (compare Nabob). Today, it mainly refers to powerful business people, also known as tycoons.
In Western democracies, the media are supposed to inform the constituents about politics (see Fourth Estate). Thus, the media mogul becomes a somewhat dubious figure able to exert undue influence on the voters.
It can be argued that, by definition, they move the Western democracies somewhat in the direction of plutocracy because of their influence. This is particularly true when the media mogul is also a politician, like Silvio Berlusconi, or have overt political agendas (e.g. Rupert Murdoch).
List of media moguls
- Bill Bresnan
- Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest, Mediaset
- Serge Dassault, Dassault Group
- Barry Diller, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO
- Michael Eisner, Walt Disney Company Chairman
- William Randolph Hearst, newspaperman
- Robert Hersant, newspaperman
- Samir Jain & Vineet Jain of The Times Group
- Leo Kirch, of KirchMedia
- Jean-Luc and his son Arnaud Lagardère, Lagardère Group
- John Malone of Liberty Media
- Jean-Marie Messier, former head of Vivendi Universal
- Robert Maxwell, politician and newspaperman
- Thomas Middelhoff of Bertelsmann AG
- Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation
- Kerry Packer of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL)
- Sumner Redstone, Viacom Chief
- Axel Springer, of Axel-Springer-Verlag
- Ted Turner, former AOL Time Warner Vice President
