The Dangers of Mass Media Consolidation

In many of our lifetimes the number of companies that provide us with information has continually dwindled to dangers levels. 50 years ago hundreds of independent companies provided people all sorts of information. Individual companies sent information to the people over the airwaves, through magazines, through newspapers, and eventually through the television. In this day and age, there are only 5 major players in this field.

The stock market refers to this trend as "M&A", or mergers and acquisition. When a company merges or acquires another company a great deal of wealth is normally accumulated. This wealth is created when the stock price surges, in essence, creating money out of thin air. This trend has spurred thousands of mergers between similar companies over the years.

Over time, this trend of wealth creation has become increasingly dangerous as our society becomes more dependent on the media for information. If this trend continues our society could eventually get all of their information from one company (or even one individual to be more specific). This would allocate a tremendous amount of power to this one entity.

This power could then be used to control the people's ideas by controlling the information that they receive. Media companies traditionally operate on some sort of bias, and this factor has led many political candidates to avoid specific companies that would present them with a bias.

In post communist Russia the media is also starting to be controlled, but by the government instead of the economy. The government has decreed that 50% of the news most be happy, and has repeatedly forbid journalist's from meeting with the leaders of certain political groups that are frowned upon. The government censorship is summarized by Gary Kasparov (the former world chess champion)'s struggle for a progressive government.

The bid for Dow Jones by Rupert Murdoch has sent shivers down the necks of many American's and journalists. This path could eventually lead to economic censorship as opposed to the government censorship that other countries use. However, if someone is controlling the information that people get, does it really matter if it is coming from a local businessman or a local congressman?

The may not even be a difference because the media has a tendency to portray things in different light. Our government is elected by the people, and if the people are educated by the media, then the government that they choose is drastically influence by what they know about the available choices...