As the title states, big media equals big problems. According to the Business Insider, six corporations now control ninety percent of all media in the United States. To put that into perspective just thirty years ago the media was controlled by over fifty corporations. Is it really a good idea to have so few in control of something that is so vital to a democracy? Can we trust that they have our best interests at hand? For me the answer is simple, for me the answer is no.
There are those, like Graber, who will argue that big business can take on the rigors and the costs of research, investigation, and production much more easily than a smaller media outlet can (38). While that is true, at the end of they are still a business and profits dictate their agenda. Just because they are able to do it, does not guarantee that they will do it. Large media outlets are not going hemorrhage money unless they feel like they will be able to get a return on their investment. So will they invest in a news agenda that is is diverse in content or, like Bennett suggests, will they instead use innovative marketing to disguise the lack thereof (240)?
The last thing that I want to touch on is the illusion of choice in deciding which media outlets that we follow. It wasn't until I began studying Political Science that I found out just how consolidated the media had become. I always felt like I had a wide variety of news to follow and while that may seem like the case today, it is a mere illusion. Because a handful of corporations control the media, we may feel like we are getting a diverse range of perspectives, but in reality they represent the same entity. They represent a corporate image of uniformity with a single objective. I used to think that news was meant to inform us, now I can't help but feel as though its sole purpose is to entertain us.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
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