What do AOL Time Warner, the New York Times Company, Village Voice Media Inc., and New Times Inc. have in common? They are all huge media companies, and they are merging and consolidating faster than you can say, "Truth, please."

Those well versed in Ben Bagdikian’s The Media Monopoly won’t be surprised by this piece of news. But the generally inquisitive, the increasingly disturbed, and the politically inclined may want to head over to MIT on Thursday evening, where three experts will shed light on how media monopolies affect the pursuit of truth, cultural hybridity, and independent thought. John Hartley, author of Communication, Media and Cultural Studies: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2002); Danny Schechter, the executive editor of MediaChannel.org and author of The More You Watch, The Less You Know (Seven Stories Press, 1997); and Ingrid Volkmer, a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, will participate on the panel.

The discussion of media conglomeration will be just one of many events scheduled for a weekend-long conference on globalization and convergence, being held at MIT.

The MIT Communications Forum will take place Thursday, May 9, from 5 to 7 p.m., in Building e51, the Tang Center, at 2 Amherst Street. No admission charge. Call (617) 253-3521. Visit http://media-in-transition.mit.edu/conferences/ for information about the rest of the conference.