Making News Media Ownership Chains Transparent by Relational Databases

Marko Junkkari; Marko Ala-Fossi; Mikko Grönlund

doi:10.17231/comsoc.46(2024).5684

Authors

Marko Junkkari Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8741-3863
Marko Ala-Fossi Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5343-1320
Mikko Grönlund Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7148-2340

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.46(2024).5684

Keywords:

shareholders, transparency, indirect ownership, relational database, news media

Abstract

The multi-tiered shareholder identification and registration systems are dominant within the European Union member States, but in the Nordic countries, the holding structure is based on a direct holding model. Share registers of all listed companies are public, so basically, anyone may have a full outlook on the corporate ownership structure whenever they want.
However, even the Nordic corporate governance model allows you to hide your ownership from public scrutiny by using other companies, most preferably unlisted ones, as intermediaries. The more complicated the chain of intermediaries, the more difficult it is to understand the ownership pattern and level of ownership concentration, which is especially important when evaluating the diversity and functioning of the news media markets.
This is why maximum transparency requires not only public share registers but also a structural database, which has also been designed to show the full chain of direct and indirect ownership of each legal owner. This article analyses the relational database model developed for studying and presenting multilevel direct and indirect ownership structures of European news media in the first phase of the Euromedia Ownership Monitor project funded by the European Union.

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Author Biographies

Marko Junkkari, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Marko Junkkari, PhD, is a senior research fellow and adjunct professor in Computing Sciences at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University, Tampere, Finland. Databases, query languages, conceptual modelling and XML information retrieval are his main research interests.

Marko Ala-Fossi, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Marko Ala-Fossi, doctor of Social Science, is a university lecturer and adjunct professor in Journalism at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University, Tampere, Finland. His research interests include media policy, political economy and social shaping of new media delivery technologies, as well as the future of public service broadcasting.

Mikko Grönlund, Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Mikko Grönlund works as a research manager at the Finland Futures Research Centre within the Turku School of Economics, University of Turku. His research spans multiple facets of media, delving into business models, financial performance, market concentration, ownership dynamics, and the impact of digitalisation on diverse media sectors.

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