NBC isn't really NBC, see?

After reading through Ch. 8-9 of Picard (and putting together my, ehm, investment portfolio) I started to consider what Picard suggests. In order for large media companies, corporations, etc. to exist, they must often have large contingents backing them. So, then, who owns who?

I really wanted to incorporate Wired into my portfolio, so I dug around and found out the publication was under the Conde Nast umbrella. No problem, right? Wrong. Conde Nast is privately owned. No room for outsiders there.

Okay, okay. MSNBC recently snagged a ton of Webbys. It's also been noted as one of the few network-originated platforms to have branched out with successful rapidity. An easy choice for the portfolio, right? Wrong again. General Electric has held as much as 80 percent of the company since 1986.

So who really owns who? Where does the capital come from? Where does it go? And where do we, as individual investors, get to jump in? As Picard writes, we take a major back seat in the investment pool.

While we're back here, check out this mapping of the media industry. It's like TLC, minus the 'sexy.'