Time Warner is one of the world’s largest multi-media, multi-national, conglomerates and was formed when Time Inc and Warner Bros merged. Formerly AOL Time Warner before AOL was made a separate independent company by the government in December 2009. Some of its subsidiaries include: New Line Cinema, Time Inc, HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and many more. 
Jeffrey L. Bewkes is the chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc. There are also six senior vice presidents with functional titles: Paul T. Cappucio, General Counsel, Patricia Fili-Krushel, Administration, Gary L. Ginsberg, Corporate Marketing and Communications, John K. Martin, Chief Financial Officer, Carol A. Melton, Global Public Policy and Olaf Olafsson. Senior executives among their subsidiaries include: Bill Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, Ann S. Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc, John Huey, Editor-In-Chief of Time Inc, Philip I. Kent, Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Alan F. Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Time Warner is a public company so it offers its stocks/shares etc for sale to the general public. The advantages of Time Warner being a public company include: being able to raise funds and capital goods through selling its securities. Disadvantages include having to submit an annual Form 10-K giving information about the company’s performance; privately owned company’s do not have to do this and do not feel under as much pressure as public companies may feel.
In the year 2000, Time Warner was purchased by AOL for 164 billion US dollars and the two merged to become AOL Time Warner, due to market capitalization of AOL, they owned 55% of the new company (AOL Time Warner) whereas Time Warner’s shareholders owned only 45%. Before AOL merged with Time Warner, Time Warner could acquire internet-based subsidiaries on top of the TV and cinema-based subsidiaries they already had, the government didn’t think it was fair for Time Warner to be internet-based as well and forced AOL and Time Warner to split. Time Warner split from AOL on December 9, 2009.
Time Warner is a multi-media company because they have assets in TV, film, video games, online, radio and print as opposed to specialising in just one section of the media. The advantages of this is that they can appeal to different kinds of people and a larger audience, some people may not have the TV packages with Time Warner’s channels but may enjoy reading magazines and using the internet so they can still purchase Time Warner products and see what they have to offer. Time Warner are also a multi-national media company and delivers content such as their programmes, their magazines and their films to countries all over the world rather than just the one country of which they were founded. The advantages are similar to the advantages of being a multi-media company, delivering their content to lots of different countries will help them reach out to a wider, larger audience and in some countries, there may not be much entertainment on TV so it could persuade them to pay for TV channels owned by Time Warner because it’s the best entertainment the country can get, this would massively increase business for Time Warner.
Time Warner is among the 4 largest media conglomerates in the world and as a result has massive power and influence in the media. For example, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is another of the world’s largest media companies and they own America’s Fox channels including Fox news which is one of the most popular news broadcasting channels in the US. It has been said that News Corporation give Fox news presenters a specific way in which to present the news and tell them what to say to voice the biased opinions of News Corporation and anyone who presents the news differently would most likely be fired. Videos to back up media bias on Fox news have been released but it has been denied. News Corporation is such a powerful company that they can influence the public believe what they want them to believe. Time Warner are the owners of CNN channels in the US including CNN news which is another massive news broadcasting channel in America and though it hasn’t been proven that CNN news is a biased news channel, there have been many accusations of media bias surrounding CNN. One example of this is when CNN were accused of “casting a negative light” on Republican candidates, four in ten stories (41%) were clearly negative, just 14% were positive and 46% were neutral. Although these allegations haven’t been proven, it shows you that because Time Warner are such a huge company, that they can tell CNN news reporters what to say to make the audience believe what Time Warner want them to believe. Also because they own some massive companies like HBO, New Line Cinema and Cartoon Network, people are more likely to believe what Time Warner want them to believe. It’s not been proven that this is the case with Time Warner, but it’s difficult to know what to believe when the news can be influenced by these successful media companies, news companies should not be allowed to be biased and influence the millions of people who watch these news channels. Also Time Warner own a large amount of children’s channels including Boomerang, Cartoon Network and Pogo, once again it hasn’t been proven but they could use this to influence the children who watch these channels to believing what they want them to believe.
Overall I think that large media conglomerates like Time Warner do have a huge influence on the public because they own so many assets that are recognized worldwide and I think Time Warner’s CNN News probably does have media bias to influence the public to believing what they want them to believe. I think it’s not very fair that these companies have so much power because they buy so many assets and it doesn’t give other media companies a chance to become successful.
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