Local content[edit]
A 2008 study found that news stations operated by a small media company produced more local news and more locally produced video than large chain-based broadcasting groups.[12][44] It was then argued that the FCC claimed, in 2003, that larger media groups produced better quality local content. Research by Philip Napoli and Michael Yan showed that larger media groups actually produced less local content.[12][45] In a different study, they also showed that "ownership by one of the big four broadcast networks has been linked to a considerable decrease in the amount of televised local public affairs programming"[12]
The major reasoning the FCC made for deregulation was that with more capital, broadcasting organizations could produce more and better local content. However, the research studies by Napoli and Yan showed that once teamed-up, they produced less content. Cross ownership between broadcasting and newspapers is a complicated issue. The FCC believes that more deregulation is necessary. However, with research studies showing that they produced less local content - less voices being heard that are from within the communities. While less local voices are heard, more national-based voices do appear. Chain-based companies are using convergence, the same content being produced across multiple mediums, to produce this mass-produced content. It is cheaper and more efficient than having to run different local and national news. However, with convergence and chain-based ownership you can choose which stories to run and how the stories are heard - being able to be played in local communities and national stage.
Media consolidation debate[edit]
Robert W. McChesney[edit]
Robert McChesney is an advocate for media reform, and the co-founder of Free Press, which was established in 2003.[46] His work is based on theoretical, normative, and empirical evidence suggesting that media regulation efforts should be more strongly oriented towards maintaining a healthy balance of diverse viewpoints in the media environment. However, his viewpoints on current regulation are; "there is every bit as much regulation by government as before, only now it is more explicitly directed to serve large corporate interests."[47]
McChesney believes that the Free Press' objective is a more diverse and competitive commercial system with a significant nonprofit and noncommercial sector. It would be a system built for the citizens, but most importantly - it would be accessible to anyone who wants to broadcast. Not only specifically the big corporations that can afford to broadcast nationally, but more importantly locally. McChesney suggests that to better our current system we need to "establish a bona fide noncommercial public radio and television system, with local and national stations and networks. The expense should come out of the general budget"[48]
Benjamin Compaine[edit]
Benjamin Compaine believes that the current media system is "one of the most competitive major industries in U.S. commerce."[49] He believes that much of the media in the United States is operating in the same market. He also believes that all the content is being interchanged between different media.[50]
Compaine believes that due to convergence, two or more things coming together, the media has been saved. Because of the ease of access to send the same message across multiple and different mediums, the message is more likely to be heard. He also believes that due to the higher amount of capital and funding, the media outlets are able to stay competitive because they are trying to reach more listeners or readers by using newer media.[51]
Benjamin Compaine's main argument is that the consolidation of media outlets, across multiple ownerships, has allowed for a better quality of content. He also stated that the news is interchangeable, and as such, making the media market less concentrated than previously thought, the idea being that since the same story is being pushed across multiple different platforms, then it can only be counted as one news story from multiple sources. Compaine also believed the news is more readily available, making it far easier for individuals to access than traditional methods.[52]
American public distrust in the media[edit]
A 2012 Gallup poll found that Americans' distrust in the mass media had hit a new high, with 60% saying they had little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust had increased since the previous few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in the years before 2004.[53]
Music industry[edit]
Critics of media consolidation in broadcast radio say it has made the music played more homogeneous, and makes it more difficult for acts to gain local popularity.[54] They also believe it has reduced the demographic diversity of popular music, pointing to a study which found representation of women in country music charts at 11.3% from 2000 to 2018.[54]
Critics cite centralized control as having increased artist self-censorship, and several incidents of artists being banned from a large number of broadcast stations all at once. After the controversy caused by criticism of President George W. Bush and the Iraq War by a member of the Dixie Chicks, the band was banned by Cumulus Media and Clear Channel Communications, which also organized pro-war demonstrations.[55] After the Super Bowl XXXVIII wardrobe malfunction, CBS CEO Les Moonves reportedly banned Janet Jackson from all CBS and Viacom properties, including MTV, VH1, the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, and Infinity Broadcasting Corporation radio stations, impacting sales of her album Damita Jo.[56]
News[edit]
Critics point out that media consolidation has allowed Sinclair Broadcast Group to require hundreds of local stations to run editorials by Boris Epshteyn (an advisor to Donald Trump), terrorism alerts, and anti-John Kerry documentary Stolen Honor, and even to force local news anchors to read an editorial mirroring Trump's denunciation of the news media for bias and fake news.[57]