Warner has many brothers

Warner Brother’s describes themselves as “a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company – is a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of creative content and their related businesses.” Warner Brother’s studios owns hundreds of other companies that all have to do with the entertainment industry, some include: Warner Brother’s pictures, The CW television network, DC Entertainment Inc, and any well known movie or television program you watch today. Not only that, but they have a chain of movie theatres across the globe. There are so many owners, and companies that it is hard to keep up with the ongoing development of the Warner Brother’s studios. They are a prime example of hardcore cross media ownership.

Media Hegemonies can take on an entirely new meaning when it refers to a major media company. Hegemony refers to the power of a single group that essentially leads and dictates the other groups of the same society, in other words; cross media ownership, and yes there are some benefits and “pros” to cross media ownership. But few include media growth. Let me explain. In the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, he discusses the implications of piracy, but he also represents the insight into owning more than we can handle. “I have become increasingly amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property, and more importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and citizens” (Lessig 12). When cross media ownership becomes a large part of a company, they become bias in all of their decision making, whether it is to cancel a show, or produce more of a certain product. Like Lessig once said “There has never been a time in our history when more of our “culture” was as “owned” as it is now” (Lessig 18). When it comes to crossing the media, why do we cross their ownership? We don’t, because most of us are unaware that when you deal with Warner’s, you’re dealing with all entertainment.

Works Cited

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture The Nature and Future of Creativity. New York: Penguin (Non-Classics), 2005. Print.

Warnerbros.com | The Official Site For Warner Bros. Web. 18 Nov. 2009. .