Quiz 1

Media ownership and regulations

Activity •Think about this questions:

• Would you say your media diet is diverse? • What’s your definition of media diet”diversity”? • How many different media owners do you consume media content from (in your opinion)?

Increase in CHOICE? ◦ Number of media outlets available to thegeneral public has increased

dramatically ◦ Do we have a greater degree of choice? ◦ It depends on how you define choice

3 Networks era: 1948- early 1980s

Emergence of cable TV

Streaming and digital era

Concentration of ownership In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media inthe USA, In 1992, 22 companies owned 90 percent of the media

In 2018, 10 companies owned 90 percent of the media

If the USA media were owned by separate individuals there would be 25000 owners

Big 5 Tech Giants

Who owns what?

Direct Public control over media in the U.S.

•Broadcast to U.S. military posts • US Armed Forces Radio • TV Service department of defense

•Foreign media sources that spread values abroad • Voice of America: audience of 141 million with 1200stations

Semipublic system •Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

• CPB (Corporation for public broadcasting) • Administrative side, should be separate from programming

•NPR: radio programming with 1,065 affiliates •PBS: television programs •Small, nice audiences (2% of TV viewers)

Funding of the semi-publicsystem •Hybrid system

• Federal and Local government funding • Private foundations and big business (25%) • Donations (31%) • Some degree of advertising and commercial programming (from the 1980s)

•Pressure towards cutting funds and limiting federal funding

Problems with Public ownership of mass media •Censorship •Control over content •Political influence •Limited viewpoints

Positive aspects of public media ownership

• Focus on public service •Less ”entertaining” content •Space for programming targeted towards minority groups •Space for views that are out of the mainstream

Concentration of US private media ownership

4 distinct features: ◦ Horizontal integration ◦ Vertical integration ◦ Diversification ◦ Global media conglomerates

Horizontal Integration (cross media ownership)

•Big corporations own a variety of media companies NewsCorp ◦ Newspapers ◦ Fox News ◦ Century Fox, ◦ Star TV

Vertical Integration •Some media companies are increasingly trying to control all aspects of their industry in order to maximise their profits.

•E.g. Time Warner makes its own films and distributes them to its own cinema complexes

Diversification •Companies diversify into new business areas (outside of media) to spread risks.

•Losses into one area may be compensated by profits in another (Virgin Media)

(Global) Conglomerations •Media companies have taken advantage of the erosion of traditional boundariessurrounding media markets.

•Example: NewsCorp – owns newspaperws in australia, the UK and the USA.

But… •Some independent owners still survive

• NYT-Ochs-Sulzberger family • (Washington Post, Bezos)

•Regional media chains • Gannett company: 109 media companies including USToday

Costs and benefits of big business control

?

Benefits of big businesscontrol •Big scale companies can absorb losses and crises •Taking more risks

•More focus on talent and creative enterprise

•Competition could increase quality

•(Theoretically) different viewpoints could be presented

Costs of big business control •Focus on content that sells • Infotainment is privileged over ”Hard” news

•Alternative viewpoints tend to be disregarded (focused on mainstream positions)

•Problems of editorial interference

Has the emergence of new media changed this phenomenon?

•Costs to start a media company are lower than in the past

•Opportunities for small media outlets to flourish

•Viewpoints outside of the mainstream

Are new media companies breaking the monopolies? Or are part of theproblem?

Is mass media diverse in the US?

• Go back to your original question: • Do you think that mass media is diverse in the US? • What do we mean with the word diverse?