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News media is a form of mass media which targets the general public by supplying vital news by either print based, broadcast or online text. This essay will focus on news media ownership and coverage, and how that affects society as a whole.
Diversity of media ownership ensures that a variety of opinions are fulfilled and that the news media caters for every audience. Rupert Murdoch is the owner of many media companies including The Sun, The Times and 21st Century Fox (Cassidy, 2006). Today, Murdoch’s NewsCorp Company stretches across five continents, covering 75% of the world’s population. (Arsenault, A. and Castells, M. 2008). Therefore, Murdoch has control over many different platforms …show more content…
Former chairman of the FFC, Reed Hundt stated ‘You know, and he knows, that, if he [Murdoch] likes you, you are going to get both news and editorial coverage that is different than if he doesn’t like you.’ (quoted in Cassidy, 2006: 7) This proves that in this global network society, business man Murdoch holds power in connecting business with media and politics. Also, this suggests that Murdoch has the authority to change a mass audience view on a particular individual as he has the ability to report negatively against particular people or groups in the news media. This is another reason as to why who owns the news media is important as business men like Murdoch have the control to divert newspapers from their traditional political backgrounds to favour another one, depending on what he deems as politically correct at the …show more content…
Some believe that it matters who owns the news media as it is easily accessible to children, who tend to be more vulnerable as they are exploited to what is shown within the news media, especially on television and more recently, the internet. An example of this is the James Bulger case (1993) where violence was exploited to children through media at a young age which resulted in illegal and abnormal behaviour. This violent and aggressive nature is shown to be likely if children, especially boys, are exposed to the violent visual images shown in the media, according to many studies. (Christakis & Zimmerman, 2007; Funk, Baldacci, Pasold, & Baumgardner, 2004; Ybarra et al., 2008). Researchers have also found that there is a link between being exploited to violence in the media and the brain structures needed to regulate aggressive behaviour being less able. (Carnagey, Anderson, & Bartholow, 2007; Guo et al., 2013). This is a faultless example as to why it matters who owns the news media as unsuitable and antagonistic content can affect a mass audience especially children, which can lead to inhuman