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50 lines
2.7 KiB
XML
<xml><p>THE INFORMATION MONOPOLY</p>
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<p> The rapidly increasing concentration of media ownership in
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the U.S. raises critical questions about whether the public has
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access to diverse opinion. And not surprisingly, the impact of
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this information monopoly continues to be ignored by the mass
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media.
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In 1982, when media expert Ben Bagdikian completed research
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for his book THE MEDIA MONOPOLY, he found that 50 corporations
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controlled half or more of the media business. By December 1986,
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when he finished a revision for a second edition, that figure had
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shrunk to 29 corporations. Six months later, when he wrote an
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article for the media publication EXTRA, the number was down to
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26. Some Wall Street media analysts predict that by the 1990s six
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giant firms will control most of our media.
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Bagdikian notes that of the 1,700 daily papers, 98 percent
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are local monopolies and few than 15 corporations control most of
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the country's circulation. A handful of firms control most of the
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magazine business, with Time, Inc. alone accounting for about 40
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percent of that industry's revenues. The three broadcasting
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networks -- Capital Cities/ABC, CBS, and NBC -- still have
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majority access to the television audience, and most of the book
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business is controlled by fewer than a dozen companies, with major
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categories like paperback and trade books dominated by still fewer
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firms.
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The situation is exacerbated by the conflict of interest
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caused by interlocking boards of directors. An earlier study, by
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Peter Dreier and Steven Weinberg, found this phenomenon in major
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newspaper chains like Gannett, which shared directors with Merrill
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Lynch, Standard Oil of Ohio, 20th Century Fox, Kerr-McGee,
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McDonnell Douglas, McGraw-Hill, Eastern Airlines, Phillips
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Petroleum, Kellogg Company, and New York Telephone.
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The most influential newspaper in America, THE NEW YORK
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TIMES, shared directors with Merck, Morgan Guaranty Trust,
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Bristol-Myers, Charter Oil, Johns-Manville, American Express,
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Bethlehem Steel, IBM, Scott Paper, Sun Oil, and First Boston
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Corporation.
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Bagdikian's warning is ominous: "A shrinking number of large
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media corporations now regard monopoly and historic levels of
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profit as not only normal, but as their earned right. In the
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process, the usual democratic expectations for the media --
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diversity of ownership and ideas -- have disappeared."</p>
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<p>Sources: EXTRA!, June 1987, "The 26 corporations that own our
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media," and MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, September 1987, "The Media
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Brokers," both by Ben Bagdikian; UTNE READER, Jan./Feb. 1988,
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"Censorship in publishing," by Lynette Lamb.</p>
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<p>From: UTNE READER, September/October 1988, pp. 84-85.
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</p></xml> |