Pluralism and ownership concentration in digital newspaper and online news

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to measure the concentration in the Portuguese online news segment, and to evaluate the extension to which this situation may be compromising fundamental social values: diversity of voices, freedom of speech and right of access to information. The author will resort to market indicators, namely unique users, number of pages visited, time spent and advertising revenues. Additionally, we will measure the level of concentration in online newspapers and compare it with the correspondent offline newspaper version. We will try to demonstrate that it is important to have a holistic perspective of the media market, considering the country context, to understand some local characteristics and the market structure, as well as the political, economic, social and technological dynamics.