Arguably the worst FCC chairman in history, Powell led with singular zeal the effort to auction off the public airwaves to the highest corporate bidder. In so doing, he did us all a favor: For a brief moment, he pulled back the covers on the incestuous world of media ownership to expose the corruption and rot for all to see. Leading conservative and right-wing religious groups have been quietly lobbying the White House for Martin to chair the FCC.
Martin voted with Powell on key regulations favoring media consolidation, and in addition has been a self-appointed indecency czar. This is the true indecency afflicting media today. The major media conglomerates are among the most powerful on the planet. The onrush of digital convergence and broadband access in the workplaces and homes of America will radically change the way we work, play and communicate.
Fiber-to-the-premise FTTP from the regional Bells, Voice over IP VoIP telephony, bundled services from cable companies, and increased capacity in satellite and wireless technologies will transform the platforms on which we communicate.
Who owns these platforms, what is delivered over them and, fundamentally, in whose interest they work are critical issues before us now. Given the wealth of the media companies and their shrewd donations into our political process, the advocates for the public interest are in far too short a supply. A blow against media ownership consolidation — now or in the future — will have far-reaching implications, as critical information gains exposure to a caring, active public.
Instead of fake reality TV, maybe the media will start to cover the reality of people struggling to get by and of the victories that happen every day in our communities, and in strife-torn regions around the globe.
When people get information, they are empowered. We have to ensure that the airwaves are open for more of that. We call ourselves the exception to the rulers. We believe all media should be. Still, our traditional media are in relatively few hands. Is that bad news? Pre-merger Postmedia was a fragment of Winnipeg-based Canwest, which also owned many of the papers Postmedia has acquired from Sun, as well as Global Television.
Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton no longer have two subscription-based newspapers under separate ownership—though do have Torstar-owned Metro title in each. This acquisition vaults Postmedia past Torstar to number one in newspaper market share, but the four largest companies do have slightly less of the newspaper market than in , said Dwayne Winseck, a Carleton University journalism professor and founder of the Canadian Media Concentration Research Project.
Ownership can affect coverage. By the nightly newscast the CTV news team gathered their courage and showed Blais anyway. The Globe and Mail of which Bell Media owns 15 per cent reported the incident.
Crull apologized , then stepped down two weeks later. More recently, Global Television commissioned veteran investigative journalist Bruce Livesey to prepare a documentary on the Koch brothers , American industrialists who support right-wing advocacy groups.
When that synopsis disappeared, a reader alerted Jesse Brown, editor of Canadian media news site Canadaland. It also heightens competition between journalists and causes downsizing of newsrooms. Absent alternative funding for the Canadian newspaper industry leads to concentration of ownership and influences news coverage to lack diversity.
The lack of funding for newspaper companies causes concentrated ownership and leads to biased news coverage. Tanner Roark Prof. Newspapers have traditionally been an important part of civil society, providing information to citizens, convening groups around events and issues, and serving as a watchdog against abuses by those in power.
Going back to the Revolutionary War, newspapers have served to connect their community and relay information to those unconnected otherwise. Through the atrocities of the Vietnam War, surprise and. There are many different media outlets, and alternatives available to individuals in today's society to receive information other than what is available in mass media.
One alternative media is PBS. PBS is unlike many programming stations around the nation. Their idea is to treat people like citizens and not as consumers. On the Public Broadcasting Service website, it describes how their take on the news is quite different from other stations. They believe that they are "America's largest classroom. It is an important principle of all great newspapers, but it is a principle that will almost certainly be snuffed out this week. Gina Rinehart is expected to take control of the paper almost immediately.
A spokesman for her has already said that the board should establish an appropriate direction for editorial policy. What can we expect? Opposition to the Emissions Trading Scheme, which is already law.
Opposition to the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, which is already law. Policies that will support unbridled profits of great mining enterprises, perhaps polices not far short of those supported by the Tea Party and the Republican right in the United States.
If this comes to pass, Australia will be effectively without independent print media. Governments could not have stopped the failure of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald in their old form, because management has made serious mistakes.
Instead of running the enterprises as one, they thought they could establish separate enterprises, one for the print media and one for the internet, or new media. This led to lack of strength on both counts and loss of advertisers, loss of support. These mistakes are directly attributable to incompetent board management. Does it matter who owns our newspapers? Does it matter who controls the media?
In far off days, which I am old enough to remember, Prime Minister Bob Menzies went into the federal parliament to prevent a British company buying four radio stations.
0コメント