Why Media Reform?

In 1983, when Ben Bagdikian published his conclusions about the American mass media entitled, The Media Monopoly, he was condemned and vilified as a crazy alarmist. In Bagdikian’s original work, he points out the fact that only about 50 different corporations own virtually all sources of information and opinion (radio stations, newspapers, television news outlets) in the U.S.

Since then, Bagdikian has revised his findings in response to changing circumstances, namely, that the number of corporate hands who own the media has dwindled down to just 5.

Just as a strong tyrannical government with a state-run media system will not allow for views critical of the state to be expressed, a strong corporate system with a monopoly on information will not allow for views critical of corporate power and practices to be expressed.

And it just so happens that the corporate sector is the constituency to which our government leaders are most receptive. The war in Iraq, and the last 8 years in general, have been difficult for the majority of our society, save for the corporate sector, whose profits have continued to go up while real wages have, for the last 30 years in fact, remained stagnant.

Corporate media is profit driven. The majority of the profits come from advertising revenue. TV channels, including and of particular concern news channels, sell audiences to advertisers (other corporations). This creates an incentive in keeping the news simple and sensational, lacking in substance and rich in nonsense. The very structure of this system undermines the democratic process in ways that are immeasurable.