Conglomeration and Media
Conglomerates and the Media
A Term Paper Submitted for CMNS-110 D111
TA: Anis Rahman
Brendan Ken Seppala
301204842
Word count: 2176
Date Submitted: 05/04/13
Many jokingly refer to news and informational media as “the fourth estate”. This is referring to the idea that media is a central part of democracy, along with the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Thomas Jefferson once said, “If I had to choose between a free government and a free press I would choose the later” (Freidheim, 2005). From this it becomes very clear that news media has a tremendous responsibility in delivering un-biased information in order to inform the public of important issues and events. In today’s age we have a vast array of news sources available to us, such as television, internet, newspaper, and social media. One would think that with so many resources there would be much competition and fact checking between various sources in order to ensure unbiased information. However this idea of choice and unbiased information is an illusion, most news media is divided into large conglomerates that have tremendous power and control over vast media empires, these conglomerates often use their power for their own purposes and frequently deliver biased information to the general public. Examples of these conglomerates include, Disney, News Corp, Viacom, and NBC Universal. This leads us to three questions, how much power do conglomerates have? How do they use their power? And how do we as consumers sort out useable information? As mentioned above, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is a titan in the financial world, pulling in revenues of 30 billion dollars annually (Aaron, 2009). While Murdoch may be the most well-known example of a conglomerate, he is not the only one. Bain Capital has revenues exceeding 6.2 billion dollars annually and owns the Premiere Radio Network which attracts 213 million listeners weekly, along with some 886 other radio stations across the country (Aaron,
A Term Paper Submitted for CMNS-110 D111
TA: Anis Rahman
Brendan Ken Seppala
301204842
Word count: 2176
Date Submitted: 05/04/13
Many jokingly refer to news and informational media as “the fourth estate”. This is referring to the idea that media is a central part of democracy, along with the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Thomas Jefferson once said, “If I had to choose between a free government and a free press I would choose the later” (Freidheim, 2005). From this it becomes very clear that news media has a tremendous responsibility in delivering un-biased information in order to inform the public of important issues and events. In today’s age we have a vast array of news sources available to us, such as television, internet, newspaper, and social media. One would think that with so many resources there would be much competition and fact checking between various sources in order to ensure unbiased information. However this idea of choice and unbiased information is an illusion, most news media is divided into large conglomerates that have tremendous power and control over vast media empires, these conglomerates often use their power for their own purposes and frequently deliver biased information to the general public. Examples of these conglomerates include, Disney, News Corp, Viacom, and NBC Universal. This leads us to three questions, how much power do conglomerates have? How do they use their power? And how do we as consumers sort out useable information? As mentioned above, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is a titan in the financial world, pulling in revenues of 30 billion dollars annually (Aaron, 2009). While Murdoch may be the most well-known example of a conglomerate, he is not the only one. Bain Capital has revenues exceeding 6.2 billion dollars annually and owns the Premiere Radio Network which attracts 213 million listeners weekly, along with some 886 other radio stations across the country (Aaron,