Politico-media complex

The politico-media complex (PMC, also referred to as the political-media complex) is a name that has been given to the close, systematized, symbiotic-like network of relationships between a state's political and ruling classes, its media industry, and any interactions with or dependencies upon interest groups with other domains and agencies, such as law (and its enforcement through the police), corporations and the multinationals. The term PMC is often used to name, derogatively, the collusion between governments or individual politicians and the media industry in an attempt to manipulate rather than inform the people.

There is recent evidence to suggest that newer media portals (as opposed to those outlets of "traditional" mainstream media [MSM]) are turning, more readily, to using the PMC framework in critical analysis and interpretation of media behavior. One notable example of this is with regards to the Leveson Inquiry.

Before Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in 1450, most information was delivered by town criers, ministers from the pulpit, or bartenders. Town criers spread information and news including royal edicts, police regulations, important community events and war news. These early methods of communication were often delivered by messengers on foot, and could be easily controlled by the ruling class. With the invention of the printing press news began to be spread in writing. Corantos, which were semi-regular pamphlets that reported news, are an example of the early politico-media complex. Popular in England, corantos reported mostly foreign news, as the royal government attempted to control what domestic news reached the masses. Corantos eventually would become regular periodicals that were subject to less political control, and mark one of the earlier forms of industrialized media.

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