Blog Post 8 The Main Stream Media Sucks

 

Today the mainstream media gets a lot of backlash for being biased and being good at core journalism principles. That is largely due to the fact that the majority of the channels you watch are owned by the same companies and if they aren't, they are owned only by about five other companies. In the 1980s around ninety percent of the media was owned by about fifty different companies. In the 1990s that number had shrunk down to about twenty. Today that number is between five to seven depending on how you view things. The largest of these companies is Comcast, they made about sixty nine billion dollars last year and are the largest cable provider in America as well as covering nearly half of everyones internet service. Walt Disney, the second biggest company, made around forty eight billion dollars last year from their wide assortment of theme parks, film studios such as Pixar and Marvel, and television networks like ABC and ESPN. 21st Century Fox, the third largest company, made about thirty two billion dollars last year from film and television with their most popular show being Fox News. The next companies are where the number starts to get slightly more confusing. Time Warner and Time Warner Cable each made about twenty seven billion dollars last year. They were originally one company but had to split after a failed merger with AOL which left them with relatively nothing. These companies both have large percentages of their stock owned by the same people making them governed by the same people in a way. The last companies on this list are CBS and Viacom who each made about fifteen billion dollars last year. They were originally owned by the same company but when that company died they were forced to flesh themselves out more and become more of themselves. Just like Time Warner and Time Warner Cable these companies are owned mostly by the same people which is why some people still consider them to be one company in a way. This is why I said earlier that the mainstream media as we know it today is owned by five to seven companies depending on who you ask.

Why is it so bad that the mainstream media is owned by this small number of companies? For one it decreases representation for certain demographics mainly people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community and many more. Along with under-representation of those demographics, when they are represented they are misrepresented. For instance it is common amongst all media sources whether that's movies, television shows or even the news to paint certain demographics with stereotypes and more often than not these stereotypes are negative and harmful. Another problem besides representation is the fact that all these stations are owned by billionaires and billionaires will never understand what it's like to be one of the common working class people so how can they correctly make content for us especially when it comes to the news when they don't actually know what we are going through in our everyday lives. The rich have too much power to control what we see and hear everytime we turn on our favorite television channel or go to our favorite website. We must hold them accountable to make sure everyone is equally represented and that these media sources have the people's best interests at heart.

Sources

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRRPPE3V5Q