PowerPoint Presentation Lecture

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media concentration fdm 20c introduction to
digital media lecture 20.05.2003
warren sack / film digital media department /
university of california, santa cruz
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last time

• computers as theater
• types of theater
• Aristotles Poetics
• Boals Poetics of the Oppressed
• actors, characters, and actants
• role-playing, imitation and identity tourism

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outline

• who owns the media today?
• ownership structures of local newspapers
• media map of u.s. media
• media map of international media
• types of connection between media companies
• mutual investment
• interlocking directorates
• news flows
• implications
• censorship
• focus
• fccs current review of ownership laws

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media concentration bagdikians chronology

• 1983 50 corporations dominated most every mass
  medium in the United States
• 1987 23 corporations dominated
• 1987-1996 the number decreased to 14
  corporations
• 1997 10 corporations dominated the media
• 2000 6 firms now dominate all U.S. mass media
• 2003 FCC to decide whether to retain existing
  media ownership laws

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local newspaper ownership

• Alarm! out of business
• Aptos Times owned by The Times Publishing Group
• Capitola Times owned by The Times Publishing
  Group
• Scotts Valley Times owned by The Times Publishing
  Group
• City on a Hill owned by UCSC
• Connection Magazine locally owned?
• Goodtimes locally owned?
• Metro Santa Cruz owned by Metro Newspapers
• Mid-County Post locally owned
• Register / Pajaronian owned by News Media
  Corporation
• Valley Press/Scotts Valley Banner owned by
  Johnson Newspaper Corporation
• Santa Cruz Sentinel owned by Ottaway Newspapers,
  Inc. which is owned by Dow Jones and Co., Inc.
• San Jose Mercury News owned by Knight-Ridder

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resources for uncovering ownership ties

• websites of the publication or station
• websites of the owning corporation
• Hoovers (www.hoovers.com)
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  (www.sec.gov)
• Columbia Journalism Review (http//www.cjr.org/own
  ers/)

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u.s. media

• The Big Ten (http//www.thenation.com/special/bigt
  en.html)
• note ownership of internet resources

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ownership and the internet

• According to Jupiter Media Metrix, a company that
  tracks internet and technology analysis and
  measurement, the "total number of companies
  that control 60 percent of all minutes spent
  online in the US dwindled 87 percent, from 110 in
  March 1999 to 14 in March 2001. They further
  point out that within the 14 companies, it is
  heavily skewed towards the top four.
• (http//www.mediachannel.org/ownership/)

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radio ownership

• In 1996 and 1997, 4,407 of the nations 11,000
  commercial radio stations changed hands.
  (http//www.cjr.org/year/03/2/hickeymore.asp)

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the case of clear channel

• Two companies, Clear Channel Communications,
  Inc. and Viacom, now attract 42 percent of radio
  listeners and industry revenue. L. Lowry Mays,
  the San Antonio-based billionaire founder of
  Clear Channel, owned thirty-six stations before
  deregulation and now has 1,225 in fifty states.
  In a decade, the companys revenue has gone from
  74 million to about 8 billion. ibid, Columbia
  Journalism Review
• Clear Channel programming reaches more than 110
  million listeners every week Clear Channel
  Radio, which daily reaches 54 of all people ages
  18-49 in the U.S. (www.clearchannel.com)

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local stations owned by clearview

• KDON (102.5)
• KSJO (92.7)
• KOCN (105.1)
• KTOM (100.7)

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how does ownership influence programming? the
clear channel case

• censorship
• after 9/11 clear channel recommended that its
  stations not play a list of 200 songs including
  everything by rage against the machine and cat
  stevens peace train (City on a Hill Press, May
  15, 2003)
• focus
• Clear Channel has perfected whats called voice
  tracking, a deceptive technique in which
  centrally produced programming containing local
  allusions is beamed to the companys stations,
  letting listeners believe that the content is all
  locally originated. (Columbia Journalism Review)

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international media ownership

• the global ownership chart
• http//www.mediachannel.org/ownership/

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what is the FCC?

• Federal Communications Commission
• http//www.fcc.gov/
• what does it do?
• listen to the interview by Robert McChesney with
  Commissioner Michael Copps
• http//www.will.uiuc.edu/am/mediamatters/default.h
  tm

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FCC rules currently under review

• Broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule This
  policy has prohibited the two most important
  sources of information in a community-the daily
  newspaper and a broadcast TV station-from being
  owned by the same company.
• Local TV multiple ownership rule and the radio/TV
  cross-ownership rule These rules limit somewhat
  the number of stations that any one entity can
  own in a single community.
• National TV ownership rule This policy limits
  the number of TV stations a single company can
  own. The current limit prohibits a company from
  controlling stations that collectively reach 35
  percent of all TV households
• Dual Network Rule This policy prevents one of
  the four major networks-ABC, CBS, NBC, and
  Fox-from buying another network.
• http//www.democraticmedia.org/issues/mediaownersh
  ip/index.html

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what do large corporations want?
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next time

• surveillance and capture