Media Hegemonies

For this project, my group and I planned to map out a celebrity and determine what they own and their net worth. We decided to map out the Olson twins net worth because they are the richest teenagers in the world.
The twins are co-presidents of their own company and their merchandise includes:
Dolls, books, school supplies, videos (both straight to video and feature presentation, make up, hair accessories, CD players, music CD's, games, electronics, bedding, clothes, etc.

*40 million dollars worth of copies from direct-a-video-titles

*1400 sq. feet in every Wal-Mart is dedicated space to their products

*Co-presidents of Dual Star Entertainment Group (their own company)

*They will begin to branch overseas to Britain, Mexico, France, Germany and Japan to sell products there as well.

We realized after getting as much information as we could, that there just wasn't enough. So even though we were trying so hard to be creative, we decided that we might as well map out Time Warner as well.
We were astonished to learn of all the companies that Time Warner owns. Some of their companies include:

Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, 82.4% of CNN, live from the situation room, Larry King live, Anderson Cooper, TBS, TNT, The Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, Court TV, animation 25% of A&E, licensing for Loonie Toons, digital boxes owned by, local news channels, new line cinema corp. time, Turner Home Entertainment, Braves Clubhouse, People, sports illustrated, essence, southern living, cooking Light, parenting magazine, mad magazine, popular science, AOL, alliance with Google, Movie phone, Map Quest. NASCAR, PGA, 50% of DC comics, 50% of America’s Talking, Oxmoor House publishing, Sunset Books, Little, Brown and Company, Time-Life Books, Warner Books, 50% of Central Comedy, Warner Brothers Television, Asia Week, The Warner Brothers Stores, 50% of Bravo, Baby talk Magazine, Warner Brothers motion pictures and the Six Flags Amusement parks.

- In 2000 Time Warner receives 40% of revenues from outside the U.S

- It has the second largest book publishing business in the world

- One of the largest music businesses, with nearly 60% of revenues from outside the U.S.

- A library of over 6000 films and 25 000 television programs, books music, and thousands of cartoons.

It was really fascinating, and kinda scary, to see how many businesses one corporation could own. It proves how easily our news and information can be distorted, especially if one company owns hundreds of different mediums and news companies.

Hazen, Dan, and Julie Winokur. We the Media. New York: The New York Press, 1997.

Life Decisions International- Press Room. Life Decisions International. Retrieved October 19, 2007. http://fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=press&action=display&ID=129