Network Analysis for Media Ownership: A Methodological Proposal

Abstract

Far from being a concern of the past, media ownership concentration is a feature of hybrid media systems. This raises the issue of how to measure the concentration and allow for informed decisions to be made, especially for policymaking. Some of the most popular metrics are the concentration ratio (CRn) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). However, the new hybrid context increasingly renders the usual economic concentration metrics obsolete to understand the power of communication players. This article provides a theoretical overview and methodological considerations on ways to interrogate ownership relations, advancing network analysis and visualization as useful tools to better grasp power relations alongside traditional economic metrics. We illustrate our proposal with an analysis of media ownership data from Denmark and Greece, as provided by the Euromedia Ownership Monitor in 2022. Our article goes beyond the approach of the monitor, as we incorporate additional components, such as the power of beneficial owners over the audience. This approach provides a broader analysis of media ownership concentration and can inspire scholarly work to explore more aspects of this topic.