Communication and invisible power structure: Investment funds among the share-holders of media companies

Abstract

Of all the companies which have managed to thrive within the tumultuous economic dynamics of the 21st century, those called GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) are the most valuable group (as per market capitaliza-tion). GAFAM is intricately linked to various media outlets as these corporations no longer are platforms for digital journalism (and culture) only: they have evolved into content media producers in their own right. The research presented herein seeks to identify and compare the shareholders of these five companies and demonstrate the repeated presence of the same few investment funds via the execution of the “change-everything-so-that-everything-remains-unchanged” strategy (e.g., ‘Lampedusian maneuver’ in The Leopard). To know the shareholder composition, while it is not a “secret”, requires an exercise of complex research as it is dificult to uncover the invisible power structure shadowing GAFAM.