Media concentration Is it harming democracy? Or are worries overblown?

Media concentration

Is it harming democracy?Or are worries overblown?

Under the Big Apple

• Boston Globe (1993)• Worcester Telegram & Gazette (1999)• Boston.com• New England Sports Network (14 percent)• Boston Red Sox (17 percent)• Boston Metro (49 percent)

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Red Sox– Game coverage

Possible conflicts of interest

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel– NASCAR

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel– NASCAR– Unflattering feature stories

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette–Media coverage

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette–Media coverage–Media scandal

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette–Media coverage–Media scandal– A two-way street

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette

• New England Sports Network–What’s a TV critic to do?

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette

• New England Sports Network

• Boston Metro– Boston Herald’s antitrust case

Possible conflicts of interest

• Red Sox

• Worcester Telegram & Gazette

• New England Sports Network

• Boston Metro– Boston Herald’s antitrust case– Putting the Herald out of business

Elsewhere in Boston

• Boston Herald is largest independent daily in New England

• GateHouse Media of Fairport, N.Y., owns 100+ papers in Eastern Mass.

• Nearly all TV and radio stations owned by out-of-state corporations

A.J. Liebling

• Legendarymedia critic forthe New Yorker

• 50 years ago, warned of “one-ownership towns”

• A publisher’s paradise — “Good, better, bestest”

Death of commercial radio

• Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed most ownership restrictions

• Clear Channel (Minot, N.D.) and Cumulus (Dixie Chicks) become symbols

• Why is broadcast different from print?

Danny Schechter

• “The News Dissector”

• Warns against the “mediaocracy” — “a political system tethered to amedia system”

• Example: Run-up to war in Iraq

Setback for monopolists

• Michael Powell’s FCC proposes more deregulatory goodies inJune 2003

• A left-right coalitionfights back

• Congress, courts put FCC planon hold

Back to Liebling

• Liebling’s concern was the one-city monopoly

• Fewer dailies today than 50 years ago

• What has changed?

Back to Liebling

• Liebling’s concern was the one-city monopoly

• Fewer dailies today than 50 years ago

• What has changed?• More concentration,

yet more diversity

Time Warner

CNN, AOL, HBO, and magazines such as Time, People, and Sports Illustrated

Viacom/CBS

CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, plus numerous broadcast stations

Walt Disney Company

ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, movie studios, and radio stations

News Corporation

FNC, Fox network, worldwide satellite TV, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and HarperCollins

Bertelsmann

Major American book publishers such as Knopf, Doubleday, and Random House

Reinhard Mohn

General Electric

NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, television stations, Telemundo and cable channels such as Bravo

Tracking media monopolies

• Columbia Journalism Review has an online tool at www.cjr.org/resources