McChesney describes each of the three tiers of the media
industry. The first tier are the huge
giants, like Viacom, Time Warner, Disney, News Corp, Sony, and Vivendi. The second tier is one notch down, and
consists of companies like Comcast or GE, and major newspaper giants like the
NYT. The third and final tier consists
of hundreds of thousands of very small companies that fill some local need that
the top tiers don't find profitable. The distinction is that the few media companies
on the top tiers dominate the entire system, as a result of few remaining media
regulations to stop these companies from merging to form these giant companies.
Consolidation of companies spans across different media, and eliminate smaller
firms.
McChesney claims that the “logic of corporate enterprise
flows from the top” and that this shapes what ends up getting produced, how it
gets produced, and what doesn't get produced.
“Media conglomeration” or “synergy” is a highly profitable tactic being
used by these mega corporations. They
span across all different types of media forms and make for sensible business
moves for these big businesses. One
reason they do this is for cross-promotion. A major company produces a movie in
their film studio, and then they can use the cable channels, newspapers, and
magazines they own to promote their product.
They also benefit from cross-production, which can be seen with
commercial media content, that might start off as just a motion picture, but is
then made into a TV show, and then a book, and then a soundtrack, and so on.
They also are able to drive out smaller companies by offering major advertisers
billion dollar deals for their advertisements to appear on all the different
media that company owns. The larger
corporations drive out smaller, independent studios and dominate the industry
entirely, dictating which movies will be talked about and promoted, which
advertisements will be aired, and which will not be acknowledged at all. The
selection of this material is contingent on profits and motives.
McChesney states that in this age of media consolidation,
conflicts between commercial interests and the public interest arise. In a
democracy, citizens are supposed to be well-informed and provided with unbiased
information, so that they can effectively exercise their rights and duties as
citizens. Media conglomerates are concerned with their private, profit-driven
interests, and regulations that would be in the best interest of preserving the
interests of democracy have been lifted. This can be seen in any news sources
today. All news sources are somewhat biased, and they report selectively on
issues that best serve the company as a whole. News networks like FoxNews are
almost deliberately promoting a particular agenda, and thus defeating the real
purpose behind journalism in the first place. Citizens are not being given
objective news stories and then independently forming their own opinion on it;
we are instead being told from a particular point of view that will inevitably frame
news stories in ways that will sway opinion. Also, networks like FoxNews and
MSNBC are not encouraging citizens to challenge and evaluate their
beliefs. Most of these viewers subscribe
to a news outlet depending on what they already believe, and consumption of
that news outlet reinforces those beliefs, instead of getting another
perspective to make the most informed, well-rounded decisions.
It makes perfect sense to McChesney that our major media
sources of journalism would dedicate more coverage to sensationalistic stories
than to stories that should most affect people’s lives because those media
outlets will report on the stories that will draw the most attention and
generate the most profits. Professional journalism doesn’t make sense in a
commercial sense because its not always the most profitable route. Journalism
is increasingly less investigative and less controversial, because those
stories don’t fit this mold that corporations want to follow to keep their
ratings up, while using fewer resources and cutting costs at the same
time. They report more “puff” pieces,
more trivia, entertainment, and celebrity coverage. Journalism is much weaker
as a result, with reporters claiming “fair and balanced” political reporting,
that does not seek to figure out whose telling the truth or if the claims made
are true, it simply reports them as fact. Viewers are becoming more passive
citizens, consuming news that gives them a ready-made opinion, and teaches them
not to challenge things like the War on Terrorism. McChesney notes that
journalism in other countries covers a much wider range of issues, because they
don't have the stipulations from corporate bosses to report in a particular
way. Their papers say things that would get a media outlet here in trouble with
our government, and so news outlets in other countries tend to give more
objective points of view, uninfluenced by big business or the government. Their
journalists stay true to the real purpose of investigative journalism, that
being that they should give people the facts that challenge every side of an
issue.
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