5. Media is controlled by an elite few

Almost every movie we watched this semester addressed the issue of media regulation and ownership and I hate to admit it but I was generally unaware of the limited ownership of the media networks. I think that it is one of the most important things that I’ve learned this semester; you need to know where you are getting your news from before you can take it for its value. Everyone has an angle they are trying to play, including those who are controlling the media that is being broadcast in your home. The few who control the media can dictate and change our culture without anyone keeping their actions in check.
Media and Society addresses this issue in their Political Influence on Media chapter and in Concentration of Ownership section. While media moguls and mavens preach that media regulation is needed to protect “public interest” it is becoming clearer that regulation can be directly linked to shrinking content options as well as an even more narrow point of view when it comes to the news (Pg 85). I can already notice how radio stations now owned by clear channel have changed their content. As local and independent radio stations are being bought out by large conglomerates the station content is rapidly declining.
This feeling is echoed in Censored 2009 when authors Janine Jackson and Peter Hunt contend that US journalist are now not only having to check their content with their bosses, and the advertising people, but journalists must now consider how their reports will affect the companies bottom line (255). With newspapers loosing readers by the day it is crucial to please the advertisers with the content so they will continue their ad accounts with the paper.
The pressure to keep readership up and to please advertisers small independent news paper, radio, and television stations are being bought out by larger corporations. Corporate ownership means corporate sponsors. These sponsors who have specific expectations for content have a lot of pull when it comes to content. The loss of independent media outlets is dangerous and spreading. The end of independent media means the end of true journalism and in-depth reporting.

Peter Hart, a media analyst with FAIR, does a great job of summing up how the mainstream media has come to be owned by an elite few without much outcry from the American public.