Corporate Media

Corporate media (television, newspapers, magazines, radio, movies) is largely controlled by a short list of giants like (approximate holdings in 2002):

a) General Electric (NBC Network, Paxson Communications, Telemundo, 13 TV stations, CNBC, Bravo, NSNBC, ten other GE businesses, major weapons manufacturer)

b) AOL Time Warner (Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, Hanna-Barbera, Castle Rock, #2 cable TV system, CNN, HBO, TBS, TNT, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Little Brown and Warner Books Publishing, 5 record companies, World Championship Wrestling)

c) Disney (ABC, ten TV stations, 30 radio stations, ESPN, the Disney Channel, A&E, E!, Lifetime, Miramax, Touchstone, Hyperion books, ESPN magazine, and amusement parks)

d) Viacom (CBS, UPN, Nickelodeon, MTV, Paramount Studio, Spelling studios, Showtime, 34 TV stations, 163 Infinity Radio stations, 15 cable channels, Blockbuster Video)

e) Rupert Murdock’s News Corp (Fox network and 30 TV stations, 20^th Century Fox, Searchlight, The New York Post, 100s of newspapers worldwide, Weekly Standard, HarperCollins, two sports teams).

What is happening in the media world is that each of the media giants is trying to gain more market share, in order to have more power/influence, in order to put more pressure on the other. Each of the media giants will pay large sums to buy out smaller companies. In order to earn enough to make these new purchases profitable, changes have to be made. The typical changes are:

1. Find out which workers will tow the corporate line. Cut the real investigative journalism staff or any troublemakers (ethical journalists). Hire likable reporters to replace them.

2. Increase viewers by showing what gets their attention (murders, arrests, disasters, killings, riots, fires, explosions, accidents, sex controversies, car chases) but be careful not to show too much violence, blood, or dead bodies (real reality may lose viewers). Keep each event fresh, actual footage is the best, but get to the scene within 30 minutes with a live report.

3. Keep the costs low, and keep the viewer’s attention high. Create excitement where there isn’t any.

4. Put in more ads, at a higher cost, to increase revenue.

5. Don’t run any stories that anger our advertisers or a political leader, unless we can make more money doing it. 

6. You know who is running the media company, so don’t do anything that they wouldn’t like (self-censor your stories, or you know where the door is).

This has resulted in corporate newspapers, radio, and television that supply a disproportionate amount of time or space to these attention-grabbing topics, and essentially censor any significant stories. In the quest for more dollars, real news is dying and is being replaced by sensational news (see Greed). Objective reporting is gone, because all reports must be in line with the corporate viewpoint (see Propaganda). Any story that is critical of any corporation must get the assent from the editors, so as not to discourage any advertising revenue (see Capitalism, Neo-cons). Very few stories about corporate crime will get approval; so don’t waste your time, if you like working.

Sensational media, which mainly appeals to a human’s primitive brain, gets viewers attention. In the quest for higher profits, you can expect each of the corporate media giants to keep fighting for viewers, by offering more cheaply produced, reality based, excitement/anxiety creating TV, newspapers, and radio programs. To pay for these mindless diversionary programs, you will watch about 20,000 TV commercials per year. By not having to think, the corporate media is turning the public into sheep who are good for shearing and are only capable of following.