Mass Media Consolidation: Good for Business, Bad for Content.

Among colleagues, we always discuss why is it that newspapers are losing the battle to blogs and why main stream media's ratings continue to slide. Although the democratization of information, -aka independent content production- increases by the minute and more and more people look to the internet to get their news and information as an alternative to the corporate owned media, it is not exactly this new medium -the internet- which is hurting newspaper, magazine and book circulation. The decision of media moguls to acquire more and more local and regional newspapers, radio and T.V stations with the complacency of the FCC has not only worsen the content you and I receive, but also concentrated the media's attention towards national and international news which are cheaply produced. The modus-operandi is to buy small media to merge their operations with the parent companies in order to cut costs, so they not only have control of what is produced, but also whether or not they want to put it out there. Newsrooms are closed, journalists and editors fired and the human material is brought to a minimum. As a consequence so does content quality.

The latest news came from Microsoft and NewsCorp. The former showing interest in making an offer for Yahoo! and the latter to purchase the Dow Jones. This behavior shows a reckless disregard for content quality and the respect media should have towards the readers and viewers. The lack of local news, for example, turns the public eyes to producers like you and me, who focus their attention to the issues that the corporate media ignores due to their agenda or to the lack of time and resources destined to cover local news. Not only do media want to deny you local coverage, but they make you work for them. An example of that is the I-Report feature CNN brags about, where they ask the viewer to send photos or video which they will selectively air.

Studies hidden by the FCC show that locally owned television stations, show five and a half minutes more of local news than those owned by Turner or NewsCorp, for example. On the side of Radio, the story is the same. Viacom owns more than 1200 radio stations. In the last 30 years two thirds of newspaper owners and one third of television station owners have been forced to shut down their businesses. An article by Mother Jones Magazine, cites that from the 1500 national newspapers, less than 300 are independently owned and the number of employees has dropped by 20 percent since 1990. What media conglomerates do is similar to what state governments do with their assets. In absence of money, they privatize infrastructure to pay the existent debt. Mass Media purchase local media to turn a quick profit as well, because they cannot fill their pockets fast enough. The trend seems to be coming from investors and shareholders who pressure the corporations to turn a higher profit faster every period, and the only way they've found to do so is reducing the amount of information and increasing the amount of advertising.

Let's talk about the Tribune Co. After buying the Los Angeles Times, it merged its news production at the Times with the WB (KTLA) and its online news office. The Times went from a Pulitzer price winner, to a down-sized news outlet which reduced its domestic and international coverage by decreasing it s bureaus in a state where the constant convergence of locals and immigrants makes it even more important to have more local coverage. According to Mother Jones, by 2006, Tribune had eliminated the editorial staff and diminished the news section. As a consequence the paper lost 335 000 readers. The interesting fact is that although media remains concerned about turning a profit, the truth is that most of them make more money than several Fortune 500 companies.
The problem of lack of coverage and content quality is what the FCC tried to address with its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban of 1975, however, the power of money and politics became unbearable for those in charge of maintaining a balance in media ownership and coverage. Let's remember who was the last FCC boss: Michael Powell. Powell was put as head of the FCC when the Bush administration and the republican party took over Washington. Powell sought to continue the former chairman's policy to do away with FCC regulations regarding media ownership. Either loudly or quietly, the heads of the Federal Communication Commission has emphatically fought against regulations that restrict the purchase of newspapers and television stations in the three largest markets: New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the long arm of media conglomerates is not limited to traditional media. Main Stream Media also wants to land their dirty hands on the internet. There is not only a push to acquire internet giants like Yahoo or Google, but also to exterminate smaller content providers with lawsuits and new laws created to limit the production of news and information. New laws are created daily to censor articles that discuss Real News, like the state of the economy, the influences behind armed conflicts and the development of nuclear weapons. While CNN concentrates on Ana Nicole Smith, websites like wearechange.org maintain the questions about 9/11 alive. While MSNBC kisses up to Giuliani and McCain in the Republican "debate", independent producers like Aaron Russo explain why events like the hoax "war on terror" occur. While Ali Velshi on CNN tells us the Dow Jones is booming, websites like freethinking.blog.hr/ show us who are the puppet masters, those who control the money, who print it and devalue it. While FOX tells us they are Fair and Balanced, we learn that the US government is a corporation, not a government. This is what it is all about. Media consolidation brings about poor content, lies and disinformation while surging news sources provide us with real information not paid by the government; sorry by US Corp. to be put on the air and the newspapers.
What is in danger with media consolidation is not only the death of a few newspapers or local owned media, but our future as a democratic society, which would be left without the independent reporting local media provide. It is Journalism, it is content what matters, not the medium necessarily.

Additional Sources:

Brock University. Department of English. "Who Controls the Media and their Meanings?" http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/control.html

Research Staff of National Vanguard Magazine. "Who Rules America." http://www.stormfront.org/jewish/whorules.html

www.textfiles.com. "Who Controls the Media?" http://www.textfiles.com/survival/media.txt