Media Monopoly Essay Research Paper IIntroductionIn this

Media Monopoly Essay, Research Paper

I.Introduction

In this book report, the book that I read was The Media Monopoly, the Fifth Edition. This book was written by Ben H. Bagdikian, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Bagdikian originally published this book in 1983.

Author Bagdikian explores the way in which the media fuctions. His particular area of interest is the way in which the media is controlled. His exploration details various forms of information dissemination, including television, radio, and print; both newspapers and magazines. His goal is to explore the significance of the meida to us, the consumers, and to look at how the media outlets themselves function.

I read this book because it was one of the requirements I had to fulfill for my Mass Communications 101 class while I was a freshman at Purdue University 2 years ago. Another reason I chose this book to review was because I found myself both enlightened and frightened by this book as Bagdikian takes his readers on a historical journey which illustrates the problems caused by the vast changes that have occurred in media ownership.

II. Summary

Bagdikian begins with the complex question of who owns any given media outlet. At the time of his research, all major US media sources were owned by 50 companies. Ironically, Bagdikian predicted that if media mergers were to continue at the then current rate, the 50 company figure would drastically drop. His prophecy was correct, and today only six companies control most of the media outlets. The companies that control the media therefore have a vested interest in two things: ensuring that the parent company is never negatively reported on, and finding ways to plant positive news items about the parent company. Bagdikian details several examples in which journalists were fired and stories held simply because the subject was in some way injurious or partially injurious to the parent company. And, says Bagdikian, some of these companies are so huge that in they control a large number of assets and a large number of other, smaller companies. The little corner bank whose management is embezzling funds could easily be owned by one of these large companies; the story will never be reported on. Bagdikian gives the example of Gulf Western, a company so huge that in addition to the media outlets it controls, it manufactures enormous numbers of household goods bought by the average consumer. Therefore, negative stories regarding Gulf Western are not published, while positive stories are.

Bagdikian basically tries to give out the message that Americans receive extremely biased news and information from today’s mass media. Often, the public does not receive information at all about key events which are definitely news. Because of the few corporations that control America’s newspapers, books, magazines, movies, television and radio, the public is only exposed to the viewpoints and opinions of those corporations.

For instance, Times-Mirror newspapers did not report critical events surrounding a controversial project in the Los Angeles area. The Times-Mirror Company owns newspapers, cable systems, book publishers, agricultural and urban real estate, commercial printing plants, and other ventures. Due to their land interests, the company had regularly advocated for subsidies for agricultural water. This particular project called for a $2 billion, tax-paid canal system to be installed which would directly benefit one of the Times-Mirror subsidiaries. This was definitely a news item of interest to tax payers, yet the Times-Mirror newspapers did not report on it because they claimed it was not newsworthy.

In fact, a survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors “found that 33 percent of all editors working for newspaper chains said they would not feel free to run a news story that was damaging to their parent firm”. With that much news being withheld from the public, it is overwhelming to consider the vast quantity of news of which we are not aware.

Bagdikian moves on to explore the demise of the city newspaper. At the turn of the 20th century, there were several daily newspapers in every major American city. Competition for the reader had the pleasant by-product of keeping the news coverage accurate and quick. But the 70’s and 80’s saw the demise of the independent paper as huge conglomerates such as a company named Gannet gobbled them up. When one company owns most of the daily newspapers in the country, the news will certainly be biased toward them. The lack of competition will remove any incentive for excellent coverage as well; the paper will sink toward mediocrity.

The next issue Bagdikian discusses, progressing naturally from newspapers, is the issue of advertising. The cost of a magazine or newspaper subscription does not cover the cost of manufacturing the publication. We are not charged any fee for network television. Yet all of these endeavors are highly lucrative because of the dollars that advertisers pay for the opportunity to publicize their products. This is a problematic situation.

One major problem relates to advertiser happiness: because the media is so dependent on the advertisers for their livelihood, this creates yet another layer of companies they feel forced to