Concentration in the Media

Upon occasion I have referred to the "Elitist Media" in posts. There is an article concerning the concentration of media ownership that might be of interest to some readers. It is linked below.

Anup Shah, Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, April 29, 2007

When we talk about "Freedom of the Press" we have in mind the idea that government should not control the news. What about control in other hands? Is the media truly free when a handful of large corporations control the bulk of the content -- either through "friendliness" toward advertising revenue or through their own corporate and institutional biases?

The Internet has changed the shape of media in regard to news stories, however, one must consider where most content is generated. Often, bloggers merely take stories generated by existing main line media sources and present commentary. Investigations by bloggers are often primarily Internet searches. Often, information, or worse, misinformation, is promulgated throughout the "blogosphere" by individuals with agendas. Where is the public to find unbiased information?

I would never advocate government control of the media, however, it may be time to examine who does control news content and consider breaking the monopolization of the news. Better yet, new entries into the media business that do not carry the existing biases that appear to be inherent in current media sources would potentially return some balance.

In the early days of our country, every small town had a newspaper and most larger ones had multiple newspapers. Often, those newspapers were aligned with political factions within a community. Over the years, media companies have consolidated until, as the article examines, only a few companies control the bulk of news sources. Perhaps the question is, "How can new venues, such as the Internet, be shaped in such a way as to prevent the consolidation of news sources and thus insure balance?"

How Can Bloggers Create and Utilize Political Capital?

When we think about the development, accumulation and use of political capital by bloggers we have a lengthy list of examples. One that might be relevant is Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was astute at bringing the power of the press to weigh-in on the political issues of his day. He often wrote anonymously (or under a fictitious name such as many bloggers use). He sometimes supported and sometimes lambasted political initiatives on both the local and "inter-colonial" fronts and ultimately internationally. His style was usually witty, often mocking, occasionally erudite, but almost always gentlemanly. Sometimes he aimed at individuals but almost always he included reason and logic as well as alternative answers to the question of the day. In so doing, Franklin built a tremendous amount of influence within a short span of years among the powers of his day -- both domestically and in England. He often found himself defending his reputation from detractors (he certainly made enemies) but he did so in a forthright manner.

As I peruse various politically and issue-oriented blogs, I find that most use sarcastic and derogatory comments and rarely offer reasoned solutions based in the reality of the situation. We each have our vision of the "ideal" but must realize that we live in a far-from-ideal world. We must adapt our approach to meet the needs of the constituencies that we wish to influence because ultimately, it is influence that we seek. We desire to re-mold the world in the image of our making -- not what we see.

To gain influence, we must bring value. Ours can't be a continual message of negativism. We must seek to praise where praise is due. Support where we can. And offer alternatives when we speak against those things that we believe to be in error. Too much of what I see is merely rhetoric and venting. It is purely destructive. We need constructive. We saw the beginnings of this with various blogrolls supporting Presidential candidates. There are also some specific issue blogrolls. Most of them are anti-whatever though.

Our current leaders have very little cumulative capital with the American public. That is why Congress and the President have such low public opinion ratings. Many of the mighty have fallen and many more will fall. Who will step into the vaccuum?

Is that an area that we can influence?