We Want Media

For a very long time, media companies have been fighting against ownership restrictions. And for the most part, they have been successful. But now, the FCC is trying to lift the ban on ownership of newspapers and broadcasting by one company in the same city. This time it’s not the newspaper publishers who are asking for it; it’s on the initiative of the FCC itself.

Will lifting the ban lead to more competition and diversity in content? Ted Turner doesn’t think so, and neither do I. The media industry is already highly concentrated in the hands of a few giant companies. Some argue that new technology, such as cable, has led to more outlets and thus more diversity. Yet, the reality doesn’t show that happening.

As Turner points out, just having so many channels doesn’t mean anything if they are all controlled by the same company and sending the same messages. All of the extra channels that the cable service provides then only amplify the voices of the few. We see this both in the news and in entertainment, in which everything seems the same from one channel to another. And with such a concentrated ownership, the independent voices often don’t have the financial capacity to break in.

It’s clear that the big companies have already got what they wanted, although they will never stop asking for more. The FCC should stop favoring the conglomerates and start paying attention to the public, giving it the true diversity that it deserves.