Ben Bagdikian, a leading scholar on the topic, has been studying corporate news ownership for decades. In his 1982 book, The Media Monopoly, he reported that 50 corporations owned half or more of the media business. By the early 1990s, that number was trimmed to 20, and is now well under 10. With such ownership comes bias, and news content now reflects a narrow "range of politics and social values from center to far right," Bagdikian writes, leaving the American audience with a press that covers "a narrowing range of ideas."
Independent Media Centers revolutionize the online alternative press
by Gene Hyde
Media consolidation has become the dominant trend in mainstream media for the past half century. This quote illuminates one of the key disadvantages this poses for a democracy. Conglomeration means the political discourse is in the hands of the few. The mainstream media has become increasingly the bulletin board for a "narrowing range of ideas."
I write because this is not the case for the entirety of America's media. In fact, independent media has done nothing if not diversify over the same time period. If a range of ideas, diversity, dialogue, and honest/unabridged debate are what one is looking for – the place to go is the internet. The FCC does not regulate the internet like the radio waves. The web isn't as heavily regulated as CNN, MSNBC, or FOX.
The question is or how much longer. Of course, there are those fighting for net neutrality, internet freedom, and media diversity, but will they succeed? It is difficult to say given such starkly different trends. On the one hand, independent media is growing stronger. On the other, media consolidation is becoming ever more apparent and overwhelming.
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