I just want to relay something fascinating, and slightly terrifying, from the reading from Chapter 8 of The Press by Overholster and Jamieson. It mentions Ben H. Bagdikian, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkley. In the preface of the fifth edition of his study The Media it states, “With each passing year… the number of controlling firms on all these media [newspapers magazines, radio, television, books, and movies] has shrunk: from fifty corporations in 1984to twenty-six in 1987, followed by twenty-three in 1990, and then, as the borders between the different media began to blur, to less than twenty in 1993. In 1996 the number of media corporations with dominant power in society is closer to ten.”
His sixth edition published in 2000 brought the number down to six. Two of which are foreign.
The people that own news corporations will be biased. They are human beings with differing experiences, perspectives, and beliefs. Even if they claimed complete objectivity, something must appear on the front page, a sentence has to be worded somehow, and they are forced to choose. For the majority though, this choosing isn’t forced. Media corporations do shape the news in a specific light.
The most we can do now read as many as possible in hopes of getting several angles in order to come to our own conclusion. This is why this statistic is so terrifying. How can we hope to create our own objective view of what is going on in America, if we are limited by six opinions? Six may seem a lot, but if the pattern continues, the future looks grim.
That is terrifying. I read Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media for the paper and it discusses huge media conglomerates and what they are doing is unreal. They buy out these radio/TV stations and newspapers and print the same articles or run the same stories in every place, sometimes with a "personalized" twist. How are people going to know what's actually going on in their own towns?
ReplyDeleteThe future indeed looks grim as far as these statistics are concerned. It's obvious though, that no matter how many different views are expressed on any particular issue, each contains its own perspective, so whether there are 6 or 26 different firms controlling the media, you'll never find that objective source you so desperately need. Therefore, the correct approach is like you say, to read anything and everything you can get your hands on. But the challenge is to sift through the opinions, and instead find the facts. In general, reporters are, as their title indicates, reporters. They are not necessarily experts in the fields they cover. They may have experience with certain regions or issues, but they are by no means thinkers and analysts on these issues. Therefore, you are challenged to find the facts from their pieces and come up with your own opinion on any given topic. Only from your gathered knowledge as well as a well constructed argument can you be a well informed individual.
ReplyDelete