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Racnad · 09-06-2007, 12:59 PM

From time to time, I've heard people cite Rupert Murdoch's growing media empire and claim that due to mergers of media companies, more and more media is in the ownership of fewer hands, and that the number of diverse voices that shape public opinion is shrinking.

My reaction is: What planet are they living on?

Let's take a look at the sources that American get their national & international news from in decades past:

ABC
NBC
CBS
MBS (Mutual Broadcast Service - a radio network than never got into TV)
AP
UPI
Time Magazine
Newsweek Magazine

And that was pretty much it.
While TV and radio stations were owned by a large number of comapies (the FCC used to limited ownship of broadcast stations to 3 TV and 3 radio stations per company), most stations did no indepentent national coverage - they just ran coverage from one of the networks above.

Let's look at the sources of such information today:

ABC
NBC/MSNBC
CBS
FOX
CNN
PBS
NPR
AP
Rueters
Time Magazine
Newsweek Magazine
Thousands of web sites

The Internet has made any monopoly of information impossible. With thousands of blogs and message boards, all possible points of view are represented and easily accessable by anyone.

Thoughts?

09-06-2007, 12:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
Racnad Crazy Location: Washington State	Concentration of Media Ownership? From time to time, I've heard people cite Rupert Murdoch's growing media empire and claim that due to mergers of media companies, more and more media is in the ownership of fewer hands, and that the number of diverse voices that shape public opinion is shrinking. My reaction is: What planet are they living on? Let's take a look at the sources that American get their national & international news from in decades past: ABC NBC CBS MBS (Mutual Broadcast Service - a radio network than never got into TV) AP UPI Time Magazine Newsweek Magazine And that was pretty much it. While TV and radio stations were owned by a large number of comapies (the FCC used to limited ownship of broadcast stations to 3 TV and 3 radio stations per company), most stations did no indepentent national coverage - they just ran coverage from one of the networks above. Let's look at the sources of such information today: ABC NBC/MSNBC CBS FOX CNN PBS NPR AP Rueters Time Magazine Newsweek Magazine Thousands of web sites The Internet has made any monopoly of information impossible. With thousands of blogs and message boards, all possible points of view are represented and easily accessable by anyone. Thoughts?