mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2024-10-01 01:15:38 -04:00
85 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
85 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>infmnply</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../CSSstyle.css"/>
|
|
<!--Fill in your link line for CSS and JS in the XSLT here! -->
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1 id="title-index">Politics-Conspiracies-Project</h1>
|
|
<nav id="menu">
|
|
<a href="../index.html">
|
|
<div class="button">Home</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../fulltext2.html">
|
|
<div class="button">Fulltext</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../analysis.html">
|
|
<div class="button">Analysis</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../gallery.html">
|
|
<div class="button">Gallery</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../methods.html">
|
|
<div class="button">Methods</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../about.html">
|
|
<div class="button">About</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a href="../GitHub.html">
|
|
<div class="button">GitHub <img alt="github icon"
|
|
src="https://logos-download.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GitHub_logo.png"
|
|
width="15"/>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</a>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
<h2>infmnply</h2>
|
|
<p>THE INFORMATION MONOPOLY</p>
|
|
<p> The rapidly increasing concentration of media ownership in
|
|
the U.S. raises critical questions about whether the public has
|
|
access to diverse opinion. And not surprisingly, the impact of
|
|
this information monopoly continues to be ignored by the mass
|
|
media.
|
|
In 1982, when media expert Ben Bagdikian completed research
|
|
for his book THE MEDIA MONOPOLY, he found that 50 corporations
|
|
controlled half or more of the media business. By December 1986,
|
|
when he finished a revision for a second edition, that figure had
|
|
shrunk to 29 corporations. Six months later, when he wrote an
|
|
article for the media publication EXTRA, the number was down to
|
|
26. Some Wall Street media analysts predict that by the 1990s six
|
|
giant firms will control most of our media.
|
|
Bagdikian notes that of the 1700 daily papers, 98 percent
|
|
are local monopolies and few than 15 corporations control most of
|
|
the country's circulation. A handful of firms control most of the
|
|
magazine business, with Time, Inc. alone accounting for about 40
|
|
percent of that industry's revenues. The three broadcasting
|
|
networks -- Capital Cities/<span class="ORG">ABC</span>, <span class="ORG">CBS</span>, and NBC -- still have
|
|
majority access to the television audience, and most of the book
|
|
business is controlled by fewer than a dozen companies, with major
|
|
categories like paperback and trade books dominated by still fewer
|
|
firms.
|
|
The situation is exacerbated by the conflict of interest
|
|
caused by interlocking boards of directors. An earlier study, by
|
|
Peter Dreier and Steven Weinberg, found this phenomenon in major
|
|
newspaper chains like Gannett, which shared directors with Merrill
|
|
Lynch, Standard Oil of Ohio, 20th Century Fox, Kerr-McGee,
|
|
McDonnell Douglas, McGraw-Hill, Eastern Airlines, Phillips
|
|
Petroleum, Kellogg Company, and New York Telephone.
|
|
The most influential newspaper in America, THE NEW YORK
|
|
TIMES, shared directors with Merck, Morgan Guaranty Trust,
|
|
Bristol-Myers, Charter Oil, Johns-Manville, American Express,
|
|
Bethlehem Steel, IBM, Scott Paper, <span class="LOC">Sun</span> Oil, and First Boston
|
|
Corporation.
|
|
Bagdikian's warning is ominous: "A shrinking number of large
|
|
media corporations now regard monopoly and historic levels of
|
|
profit as not only normal, but as their earned right. In the
|
|
process, the usual democratic expectations for the media --
|
|
diversity of ownership and ideas -- have disappeared."</p>
|
|
<p>Sources: EXTRA!, June 1987, "The 26 corporations that own our
|
|
media," and MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, September 1987, "The Media
|
|
Brokers," both by Ben Bagdikian; UTNE READER, Jan./Feb. 1988,
|
|
"Censorship in publishing," by Lynette Lamb.</p>
|
|
<p>From: UTNE READER, September/October 1988, pp. 84-85.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|