concentration of power into fewer and fewer hands
Thursday, 26 May 2005 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_e(Yet more from Michael Hart)
The media continue to be gobbled up by "Merger Mania."
Ever wonder why so much of North American media content looks as if it were all written by clones?
There are ~1,800 newspapers, ~11,000 magazines, ~11,000 radio stations, ~2,000 TV stations and ~3,000+ book publishers in the United States:
Companies owning a controlling interest in the major players:
50 in 1984
26 in 1987
10 in 1996
6 in 2002
Today about 90% of the media voices have been silenced by takeovers, just compared to the number we had 20 years ago. . . .
Source: NOW with Bill Moyers. Politics & Economy. Massive Media | PBS
The media continue to be gobbled up by "Merger Mania."
Ever wonder why so much of North American media content looks as if it were all written by clones?
There are ~1,800 newspapers, ~11,000 magazines, ~11,000 radio stations, ~2,000 TV stations and ~3,000+ book publishers in the United States:
Companies owning a controlling interest in the major players:
50 in 1984
26 in 1987
10 in 1996
6 in 2002
Today about 90% of the media voices have been silenced by takeovers, just compared to the number we had 20 years ago. . . .
Source: NOW with Bill Moyers. Politics & Economy. Massive Media | PBS
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It's worse than that
Date: 2005-05-26 01:27 am (UTC)One saving grace: nobody believes them any more. You want to find out what's going on, you read blogs.
The world George W. Bush and his adoring corporate media ass kissers inhabit becomes less real with each passing day. Blogs matter. The net matters. The work of our hands matters. And friends matter most of all.
Don't get stuck in that phony world of BushCo. There's nothing in that stupid place for us.
Re: It's worse than that
Date: 2005-05-26 02:23 am (UTC)You are completely correct of course. Newspapers are losing readership and are worried about it. Commercial TV is losing audience numbers, particularly the news programs. Commercial radio is losing audience and advertiser support and are shaking in their boots -- they had a conference on the problem recently on the Gold Coast here in Queensland.
Many people are still sucked in by all that phony crap, but the media moguls are poisoning their own wells.