Assignment 3 Submission - Part 1 - Mashup of Three News Articles

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the concept of Power as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events. The in-text examples predominantly pertain to political or military strength. This ignores the growing might of corporations, the wealth and reach of which now extend well past those of conventional governments.

This is necessarily a bad thing. Like governments, these corporations are devot[ing] resources to cultivating a corporate image focused on global social responsibility. This leads to mass humanitarian aid efforts which are widely publicised in an attempt to garner market interest and sales.

In this manner, corporations work to increase their global influence wherever they can. If a company can be seen as a powerful platform… for targeting consumers it is more likely to attract investment and through that investment further grow its product and consumer base.

Vastness for the sake of vastness also has its attractions for executives: size is [becoming] increasingly important [in an industry where] scale helps firms spread costs and risk. With greater size comes greater economic might and thus greater industrial power, and firms are merging and splitting just as the political units of Europe did in the days of the industrial revolution.

In a world where multinational corporations have the economic might to generate the political clout which in the past cold only be afforded to economic powers (in the national sense), the balance of power shifts to the individual – without whom corporations cannot exist.

Coca Cola related information from The Economist, Cola Wars, continued, March 17th 2012, print edition.
Full text here. 

Facebook related information from The Economist, Valuing Facebook:Zuckerberg's Rocket, Ready foor Liftoff, May 12th 2012, Print edition.
Full text here. 

Take Two Interactive related information from The Economist, Video Games: Attempted Carjack, February 28th 2008, print edition. 
Full text here.  

I used The Economist as the source of all of my articles as it is the only source of valuable information with regard to corporations and their exploits. Not to mention the escapades of anyone with any variety of societal power.