Samsung, Media Empire and Family : A power web

This book studies media conglomerates owning multiple media holdings under centralized ownership within and across media markets, arguing that Asian capitalists utilize both a market-oriented ideology and family connections to build their media empires with multiple media holdings, thereby creating cultural conglomerates that exercise corporate censorship over media markets. The author focuses his analysis on the international business giant, Samsung, and its relative media companies in the Republic of Korea. He examines how media owners use family connections within their media corporate structures and who the major beneficiaries of the changes to the media market structures are.

This book analyses media conglomerates owning multiple media holdings under centralized ownership within and across media markets. It argues that Asian capitalists utilize both a market-oriented ideology and family connections to build their media empires, thereby creating cultural conglomerates that exercise corporate censorship over media markets. It focuses on family-controlled media conglomerates in Korea, specifically the international business giant, Samsung, and its related media companies, Cheil Jedang and JoongAng Ilbo, all of which are controlled by the single Lee family. Utilizing the theoretical approach of political economy of communication, the book examines how and why the Lee family exercise corporate censorship over Korean society.

Offering an essential take on Asia’s political economy of communication in order to understand the workings of Asian media empires, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Korean Studies, Korean Business and Mass Communications.