Prior to my last EOTO project on SoundCloud, I had recently been teamed up to do research on policy issues as a follow up project. For this scenario, I decided to do my research specifically under media consolidation which happened to fall under the same category. To quickly summarize what media consolidation is based on further analysis, it is a deep dive on who controls all of the media the majority of people consume on a daily basis. In other words, if someone ever wanted to know who owns the news networks they watch on television, media consolidation is what helps to answer that question. As of today, AT&T, CBS, Comcast, Disney, News Corp, and Viacom are the all of the companies that own almost all of the media we have.
To provide an extended background on media consolidation, it first started to become an issue in the public eye after the 1970s. In addition, the U.S. government found that it was too dangerous for companies to have too much of a voice over the people. Therefore, regulations were set on corporations to ensure that they did not have an overwhelming number of newspapers or TV stations that would allow them to reach 'too large' of an audience. Little did the government know, at the time, that it would continue to be an issue in the next century. Of course, there are some advantages to media consolidation. One of the most important being that the people get to choose what they watch based on what the media provides. However, there are just as many disadvantages.
One of the first issues that revolve around media consolidation is that there is a lack in alternate viewpoints. In addition, it is a common fear that large media houses will silence those who do not agree them. This, as a result, can be damaging to diversity of thought. Which sounds dangerous considering the fact that the media is where the majority of people get their information from. This can also be applied to biases in political views. One of the biggest examples of this has been the huge amounts of censorship from big tech companies on conservative voices. As well as the fact that the majority of the media outlets are more left leaning; especially corporations like CNN which is owned by AT&T. On a final note, another well known issue with media consolidation is that money is more favored rather than public interest. In other words, because a large global audience is pretty much guaranteed for media houses, the top priority is now earning more money. With that being said, this only makes consumers have to pay extra, and who wants that?
If you had to ask me, I would personally say that the cons outweigh the pros. Which is not something I normally say. However, after researching media consolidation, it leaves me with no doubt that it is a policy issue. It even worries me that it will only get worse before it gets better. At the end of the day, we can only hope for the best.
Companies that own all the media:
https://techstartups.com/2020/09/18/6-corporations-control-90-media-america-illusion-choice-objectivity-2020/#:~:text=As%20of%20September%202020%2C%20the,Fox%20News)%2C%20and%20Viacom.
Pros and cons of media consolidion:
https://opinionfront.com/pros-cons-of-media-consolidation
How it became an issue:
https://billmoyers.com/story/media-consolidation-should-anyone-care/
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