MEDIA OWNERS CONTROL THE MESSAGE
Who are the major media owners in the U.S.?
CBS Corporation | General Electric Corporation | News Corporation |
Time Warner Corporation | Viacom Corporation | Walt Disney CompanyColombia Journalism Review provides a clickable list of the major media companies and their holdings. This web guide demonstrates the exceedingly far reach of these companies. Use the pull-down menu at http://www.cjr.org/owners/ to find out what the major corporations own.
A graph of media ownership shows the number of corporations in control of US media plunging from 50 in 1983 to only six now. It is followed by a really useful list of links, which includes the major media reform advocacy groups. http://www.corporations.org/media/
As FAIR explains, "Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are owned by for-profit corporations--institutions that by law are obligated to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations. The goal of maximizing profits is often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism." This brief introduction to corporate ownership of the media is followed by a number of links to resources on the topic, including Norman Solomon's columns.
http://www.fair.org/media-woes/corporate.htmlProject for Excellence in Journalism's Annual Report on the State of the American News Media in 2007. See the Project for Excellence in Journalism, part of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Hear Bill Moyers on "Big Media" (NOW production of PBS), with Related Sources page on media consolidation, the Fairness Doctrine, etc. Check the program's Media Regulation Timeline. See also the Free Expression Policy Project, of the Brannan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. For a strongly conservative view (which maintains that the media have a liberal bias), see Media Research Center, praised by Rush Limbaugh, Robert Novak, Brit Hume, and other conservative media personalities. (The bias in the media is conservative, in the sense of preserving corporate structures and values, despite the myth of the liberal press.) Other related sites of interest include the following: Center for Digital Democracy | Common Cause site on media consolidation. See also its Citizens Speak: The Real World Impacts of Media Consolidation | Media Access Project - on media ownership | Stop Big Media
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created by the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate the media, in large part to preserve public ownership and control of public channels of communication, like the airwaves. Most of the activity in the last generation has been de-regulation.
Interviewing Walter Cronkite and others, the Global Policy Forum analyzes Media Consolidation and Corporate Power (June 2003).
Find out who owns the media in your zip code by going to the Center for Public Integrity Connected site. For example at 92056, the zip for MiraCosta College in Oceanside, CA, there are 20 licensed television stations, 38 licensed radio stations, 2 matching cable communities, 15 reported broadband providers, and 22 newspapers within 100 miles. The top broadcast owners are Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (11), CBS Corporation (5), Midwest Television, Inc. (3), Univision Communications, Inc. (3), and Lincoln National Corporation (3).
Other media outlets to watch (in progress). Clear Channel: http://www.clearchannel.com/: "Clear Channel Worldwide (Clear Channel Communications, Inc., NYSE: CCU).
Older sites of interest - archival: Mediachannel.org has created a comprehensive chart of exactly who owns what.
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml (current to 2000). THE BIG TEN: This is a clickable chart of the ten largest media companies in the world, current as of Dec. 20, 2001 (it is important to note that media concentration is not only an American problem). It includes US companies such as the Walt Disney Company and AOL Time Warner, as well as international giants Bertelsmann and Vivendi Universal. http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html
Created 14 February 2003. Revised 08 February 2008
Gloria Floren, Letters Department, MiraCosta College, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, California 92056.
Contents Copyright 2003-2008 Gloria L. Floren. All rights reserved. U.S.A. e-mail film101@miracosta.edu
| MiraCosta College | CyberCosta Contact Page | Floren Home | Online Film Webhome | Comments & Questions |