Bonniers och AB Mariebergs ställning på mediemarknaden en analys av tre skilda debatter åren 1995-1998
International media groups and the freedom of speech are two issues that have been questioned during the last years when large media groups control a large amount of public-oriented information. The masters thesis at hand considers three debates that illuminate Bonniers and AB Mariebergs hereinafter referred to as the Bonnier Media Group positions on the media market. The objective of such a study is to establish in the face of the theory on hegemonia, for example from which factors the media actors deduce their argumentation when discussing the above-mentioned topic and the meaning of such a discussion in our time. The thesis also discusses whether freedom of speech and free opinion are affected by the increasing power of the Bonnier Media Group and if they, as a result, have diminished their own cultural and liberal assets, features that are firmly associated with the company. I conclude that various features have come to change the media market during the last years. The widened variety of various kinds of media and new forms of communication has introduced new conditions to the media market. As a consequence of this development and the resulting uncertainty, the Bonnier Media Group is expanding thoroughly, thereby increasing its dominance. However, looking upon the debates and discussions from a hegemonian perspective, there are indications confirming that media in general and the Bonnier Media Group in particular have undertaken a position subordinated to the companies funding commercials. Thus, economic power has superseded political, ideological and cultural power putting the freedom of speech and the free opinion at risk. Accordingly, the Bonnier Media Group is less harmful to these two expressions of freedom than the powerlessness and the dependency arisen through sponsoring enterprises in other trades of business.