The economic world gets a little smaller...

The New York Stock Exchange Euronext and Germany's Deutsche Borse reach a deal to merge this month creating "the world's largest market for stocks, equities and derivatives."





This consolidation has staggering implications if it actually happens. The NYSE is an American institution and if this merger went through that would literally change overnight. "Deutsche Borse is larger than the NYSE so its shareholders would have 60 percent of the new company," the article said. That might not seem like such a bad thing, but this move would almost surely mean thousands of jobs would be on the chopping block; that, as history has shown, is almost a  guarantee with mergers. 


A merger of stock exchanges has happened before. The London Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange merged. It is unknown to me how the move affected the local areas but Proponents of such mergers say this will improve relations between the two countries and open up more relationships between Germany and the U.S.  

Conglomeration and Germany

"I contend that if a single conglomerate controls a substantial portion of the media market, it carries huge control over people's perception and values as a whole." 



As media ownership becomes more and more consolidated, it is important to realize the changes taking place. In many civilized countries including the U.S. and Germany, merging conglomerates are  inhibiting competition,  sharing ideas among each other and are decreasing the scope of creativity within a given media. As time goes by, more and more companies are swallowed up by larger companies and consumers are ultimately harmed by a product of diminished quality. Such can be seen when companies exercise synergy -- or two entities cooperating to achieve something that they would not have been able to achieve separately. Synergy between conglomerates promotes multiple uses of the same information, slightly altered to appeal to as many people as possible. In addition to being cost effective, conglomerates also offer less and less points of view to their consumers.

For example, Bertelsmann, the only German conglomerate in the "big six", has its roots in publishing. Opening its doors in 1835,  Bertelsmann published christian songs as well as novels. In the 1940s, they published nazi propaganda. Now, by purchasing hundreds of publishing houses such as Random House and record giants such as BMG, Bertelsmann has become the world's biggest publisher. Bertelsmann has undergone joint ventures with Time Warner and helped create Sony BMG; which combined many competing American record labels. This move saved both the companies $350 million annually by cutting jobs within the business.

Corporate influence in America is arguably apparent. With power consolidated into the hands of a few companies and with those companies working together effectively narrowing the scope of media even further it's easy to see the potential for a negative impact. In Germany however I don't think it's that cut and dry. As a son of a Polish mother, I have many family members and friends living in Europe many of which have emigrated to Germany. In about a week or two I will interview a friend of mine in Germany and post a Q and A section with him. But until then, he has told me, Germany's media comes off as very transparent and independent. He said that it was because they had a strong political culture. It was interesting for him to see teenagers get involved politically.

The 61st Berlin film festival celebrates movie medium

One of the biggest movie festivals in the world is under way...



This years Festival accepts English, American, Iranian, Hungarian, French and obviously German pieces all of which are vying for the coveted Golden Bear presented to this years' winner.

Of the the American movies that have impacted the Germans as well as the entire world is the Coen Brothers' True Grit featuring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. Also on the bill, is Margin Call by J.C Chandor. The piece stars Demi Moore and Kevin Spacey and is based on the 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown.

The rest of the movies are relatively unknown to Americans. These movies however, are seen as the frontrunners: "The Turin Horse" by Bulgarian master movie maker Bella Tarr, features a story about the early life of Friedrich Nietzsche; "Coriolanus" by Fiennes, an English actor turned directors with his own  take of a classic Shakespeare play; "Yelling to the Sky" by American director Victoria Mahoney, featuring Lenny Kravtiz' daughter Zoe as a 17-year-old girl living a rough yet exciting life in New York; and Iranian born director Asghar Farhadi's "Nader and Simin, A Separation" a tale about a serendipitous couple.

America's biggest contribution to the film festival however, can be seen in one of Germany's first forays into special moviemaking called "Pina". Directed by Wim Wenders, it  features a new medium of film that has swept Germany as of late; 3D films.

3D capabilities wont be revolutionizing the way Germans look and use media anytime soon. But the way that this innovation has trickled from the top-down, represents a kind of free flow of ideas from developed countries to less developed countries. This is also an example, on a micro scale, of the neocolonial hegemony that exists between the U.S and the rest of the world.

Here is the trailer to one of germany's first 3D endeavors:

Einleitung (Introduction)

The "Heart of Europe" as some may say, is located West of Poland and East of Belgium and the Netherlands. The German speaking nation, as far as media goes, extends beyond the borders of Germany into Austria and parts of Switzerland connecting approximately 100 million people to the largest space within the European Union.

The Nation of Germany has a long, long history of political and socioeconomic dominance that has immensely affected the culture and ownership of the media. Nearly 400 years ago Germany saw the beginnings of the printing press era and in the '40s, saw the evils of media as it became a tool of Third Reich. As the German people came out of that period, they did so head strongly as they revamped their entire system of communications completely and literally anew drafting a new constitution in 1949 that was firmly rooted in the principles of freedom of the press. As time marched on however, Germany became a system divided. After the the end of the German Democratic Republic and into the '90s, the country's system of media remained a dichotomy of old and new in that old ideas still dominated some sectors of German media.

Before I get more into detail about German media, I want to offer a few quick insightful miscellaneous facts about the country with the fifth largest economy:

• Germany is one of the few countries of the world where Holocaust Denial has been declared a crime.
• After the Irish, Germans are the largest consumers of beer.
• Germany boasts among its greatest imports (In no particular order), Einstein, Kant, Heisenberg, iron, coal, cement, the motorcycle, the clarinet and the pocket watch.

OK, now back to business:

• In Germany, there are approximately 82 million people with approximately 32 million of them      possessing at least one TV.
• In May 1945, after being devastated by WWII, Germany began anew economically and militarily. This era defined by its re-education and denazification plans, Germans became democratically primed in what history calls "hour zero".
• German media is heavily influenced by Western society. Many newspapers are even controlled by Western companies.

Newspapers, although on the decline, make up the most popular form of media next to television and  Internet. There are over 1,500 newspapers in Germany; 95% of which report local news. There are only a hand full of national papers: Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Welt, Frankfurter Rundschau, Tageszeitung and BILD. BILD Zeitung, with a circulation of over 3.3 million, is the top selling tabloid in Germany as well as as in Europe.

Also extremely popular in Deutschland are magazines. Currently, there are over 900 general magazines on the market. Der Spiegel, is an investigative reporting style of magazine modeled after the America's Time Magazine and is the most popular and influential publication in Germany.

Print media, much like in America, is dominated more or less by a dominant few. Together they own 45 percent of the marketplace, they are as follows:

• the Axel Springer Group owns 22.1 percent of the market including BILD.
• Verlagsgruppe Stuttfarter Zeitung owns 8.5 percent.
• the WAZ Group owns 6 percent.
• DuMont Schauberg owns 4.2 percent; and
• Ippen Gruppe owns 4 percent.

Magazine ownership also is in the hands of a chosen few. With around 60 percent market majority they are:

• Bauer
• Springer
• Burda; and
• Bertelsmann

Next week I'll go into TV, news agencies, digital media, etc. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some cool links including a great profile page of Germany done by BBC news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1047864.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany