A NETWORK APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-MEDIA COMPLEX IN BULGARIA

Both the media and arms manufacturers play a key role in shaping public opinion on the conflict in Ukraine. Thus, it is necessary to question the extent to which the latter influences or even colludes with the former. In this context, the term media-military-industrial complex gives theoretical backing to the hypothesis that the media has a vested interest in promoting (not-so-)banal militarism for the benefit of the military-industrial complex. Favourable coverage of military operations and firms would likely be highly correlated to cross-sector corporate ties and/or sheer thirst for advertising revenues. Combining a network approach to the analysis of data on corporate structures with theoretically and empirically grounded arguments, this paper sketches a picture of the extent to which a military-industrial-media complex exists in Bulgaria and its reach.