Big Media
By Johan Lavoo
In 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of American media. Currently 6 major corporations have monopolized the international media market and these 6 conglomerates include Time Warner, CBS, Viacom, Disney, GE, and last but not least, NewsCorp. From these 6 companies, 232 media executives have power over the information diet of 277 million Americans and in 2010, had a combined revenue in excess of $275.9 billion . It seems that big media, is big business. In today’s world, it is hard to ignore that our political economy almost exclusively serves a small population of the world. How does the ownership structure of media perpetuate a system catering for the top one percent? Is it the capitalist model or the institution of government who are to blame? Are people’s democratic rights in danger if the media narrative is biased? Malcolm X said “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” In this paper we will examine cases pertaining to Malcolm X’s comment and using ideas developed by …show more content…
Hernan and Noam Chomsky developed the propaganda model in 1988. The model seeks to explain the behavior of mass media by examining the institutional pressures that constrain and influence news content within the profit-driven system, which we are currently enrolled in. Moreover, they argue that mass media will only produce content which serves in favor of the established power. Chomsky and Hernan split the concept into 5 main points; Concentrated ownership – where a significant portion of the economy is controlled by a small minority, Advertising as a need for income, the publics reliance on official sources, flak – providing ‘experts’ to confirm the official slant on the news, and the external enemy – aka ‘anti-communism’. 12 years on from the release of the paper, the situation only seems to be getting
By Johan Lavoo
In 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of American media. Currently 6 major corporations have monopolized the international media market and these 6 conglomerates include Time Warner, CBS, Viacom, Disney, GE, and last but not least, NewsCorp. From these 6 companies, 232 media executives have power over the information diet of 277 million Americans and in 2010, had a combined revenue in excess of $275.9 billion . It seems that big media, is big business. In today’s world, it is hard to ignore that our political economy almost exclusively serves a small population of the world. How does the ownership structure of media perpetuate a system catering for the top one percent? Is it the capitalist model or the institution of government who are to blame? Are people’s democratic rights in danger if the media narrative is biased? Malcolm X said “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” In this paper we will examine cases pertaining to Malcolm X’s comment and using ideas developed by …show more content…
Hernan and Noam Chomsky developed the propaganda model in 1988. The model seeks to explain the behavior of mass media by examining the institutional pressures that constrain and influence news content within the profit-driven system, which we are currently enrolled in. Moreover, they argue that mass media will only produce content which serves in favor of the established power. Chomsky and Hernan split the concept into 5 main points; Concentrated ownership – where a significant portion of the economy is controlled by a small minority, Advertising as a need for income, the publics reliance on official sources, flak – providing ‘experts’ to confirm the official slant on the news, and the external enemy – aka ‘anti-communism’. 12 years on from the release of the paper, the situation only seems to be getting