The media industry is made up of multiple conglomerates, and very little independently owned outlets. With iHeartMedia, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Comcast, Viacom, News Corp, and CBS coming controlling the film and television industry. Although this has not been a continuous problem, it has become one in recent years. Media companies began buying one another out and consolidating into larger and larger corporations. Free Press reports the major companies who hold the most ownership in each category of the media.
Why is this an issue? Well, to begin, it alters the opinions and facts presented to us, the consumer. Fox News, for example, is known to hold a very conservative point of view, CNN is thought to be the most neutral and MSNBC has a reputation of presenting stories in a liberal way.
Having media outlets report information based on their opinions creates bias, and some may leave out the other side of the information. Are we being told what they want us to hear, or are we being told what we want to hear?
Another issue that comes with the media industry being owned by primarily 10 companies, is that small, local companies struggle to survive in the competitive market. Local newspapers fight to operate and stay open in a market controlled by conglomerates such as Gannett. Daily Source found that four out of five US newspapers were independently owned in 1945.
Today that number is at less than 20 percent. The conglomerates can afford to lose money that the smaller companies cannot.
Finally, media conglomerates often to not cover local issues. National or international are their main focus. This leaves smaller communities and areas left without information of what is going on in their town or city. If a local media outlet exists in their area, they often cover the local news and sports. But if one does not exist, that area is left without coverage of events and occurrences going on in their city. This leaves town members in the dark about potentially serious issues going on.
Media conglomerates are a serious issue. Diversity, and acceptance of diverse views, failing small businesses, and lack of localization is something that all participants in the media should be concerned about if they are not already.
