Analyse the Political Implications of Concentrated Media Ownership and Control Essay

The media is primarily expenditured to disseminate tuition. It is a platform for colloquy between the people and those who hold authority. In straight offs world the media has an immense role in the functioning of club and has the superpower to reach a potentiometer audience through technologies much(prenominal) as print, Internet, television, film and radio. in that respect has been increasing concern over the ontogeny concentration of media ownership as well as how this increased media authorization influences and shapes democracy.Concentrated media ownership refers to the number of individuals or corporations who control an increasing dowery in the mass media market, which at present is very few. For representative, eleven place of twelve major Australian Newspapers ar owned by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation or trick Fairfax Holdings (Independent Australia, 2011). Society has seen media moguls, much(prenominal) as Rupert Murdoch, dominate cross-media ownership with companies in print, television, film etc.The media and politics be closely intertwined and with an increase in concentrated media ownership and control, issues such(prenominal) as semipolitical bias the trivialisation and lividness of political issues in the hunting of pay and the decreasing amout of column diversity and expression, gift endure issues of concern for the consumers of this mass media. Street describes bias as the idea that the practices of journalists and editors result in articles and programmes that opt iodin view of the world over another, providing sustenance for mavin lop of interests while undermining an alternative (Street, 2011).Bias is a large issue at bottom all media, and authorities enforce a myriad of regulations and restrictions on media corporations to hand over and eliminate it. With an increase in media concentration, and the personnel that the media yields, eliminating political bias at heart the media has become an important i ssue. Since most of the media institutions argon owned by corporations, such as Rupert Murdochs News Corporation, the most common assumption is that the media as a whole may be influenced by its owners.For instance, there be times when the owners decision may affect the kind of reading that media would publish to the public. Wagner makes the point that the intelligence activity media distribute much of the information we receive just rough the world close to us. Thousands of politicians, policy researchers and sound judgment makers wish to transmit information to the public at large. The stark nakeds media serve as intermediaries in this information market, selecting to transmit a fraction of the millions of potential messages to an audience (Wagner, 1997).For example, Rupert Murdochs have News channel was been criticised for its right-tilted news coverage. Murdoch has al focuss been seen to favour the conservative human face of politics and the torment News channel has been seen to try out preference toward the republican Government in America. fob Founder and president Rodger Ailes was a republican political operative in Washington. He helped with The Nixon and Reagan campaigns as well as the elder Bushs media strategy for his presidentiary campaign in 1988 (Ackerman, 2001).David Asman, The make News Channels daytime anchor was known for his stand with the right- travel Wall Street Journal. Another anchor for Fox News, Tony Snow, was a conservative columnist and also the chief speechwriter for the first bush judicatory (Ackerman, 2001). The Fox News Channel also hosted employees and presenters such as Eric Breindel, John Moody and Bill OReilly, all of whom were known for their conservative, right wing views (Ackerman, 2001). Rupert Murdock stated, I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel. (Ackerman, 2001)However, looking at the individuals that were in charge of disseminating the news at Fox, it is hard to beli eve that none of the political stories covered by Fox did not favour the more conservative side of American politics. Media conglomerates, such as News Corporation, have the ability to sway public opinion and with the increasing control they have access to, it is naive to think that they would not use this power to influence and sway public opinion to pop off with their own agendas and ideologies.The size of the enormous media firms of today exceeds the size of the largest firms fifteen historic period ago by a factor of ten. (McChesney, 1999). With this increase in the size of the major media corporations also comes the increased pursuit of take ins by these firms. Sometimes, this pursuit of profit can be to the detriment of information and in dig democracy. Corporations look for stories that will attract and entertain readers and viewers, sometimes neglecting stories that hold luxuriously information content and reflect political policies and agendas.McChesney refers to this need to aximise profits when he states With the tremendous pressure to attract audiences but to keep costs tidy sum and not take chances, the standard route of the media giant stars is to turn to the tried and rightful(a) formulas of sex and violence, always attention getters (McChesney, 1999, p34). With the increased emphasis on profit maximisation and the commercialisation of news media, there is a risk that consumers of news media will cease to have access to information regarding smaller issues in society such as local political policy/s and other more localised issues.Because these issues are small and arent seen as revenue earners, or important issues, they may be sacrificed to make way for big stories and scandals. In other words, profit and revenue may become more important, in the eyes of media conglomerates, than information. The pure size of the media and its influence over information has huge impacts on democracy and politics. Meier (2011) sites Giddens in his work . Giddens talks about the trivializing of political issues and personas and states The media have a double relation to democracy. On the one hand the emergence of a global information society is a powerful democratising force.Yet, television, and the other media, tend to destroy the very public pose of dialogue they open up, through relentless trivializing, and personalizing of political issues. Moreover, the growth of giant multinational media corporations means that unelected business tycoons can hold enormous power (p 298). In essence, Giddens is stating that while news media and media corporations may broadcast political issues and policies, these views are somewhat destroyed with the constant emphasis on the politicians themselves. Because of this a neat deal of emphasis is taken away from the real political issues.An example of this is the constant criticism of Julia Gillard and her lifestyle. For example, she is an unmarried woman her partner is a hairdresser. There is al so constant evaluation of her hairstyle, wardrobe, her figure and her voice. Gillard is constantly known for cutting Kevin Rudd in the back. She has also been portrayed as untrustworthy as well as a liar. Instead of the media evaluating and critiquing her policies and looking critically at her as a leader, we see the media sensationalising the above trivial issues instead of concentrating on what she is doing for the country politically.As Media concentration and control increases, diversity of expression decreases. In all healthy democracies, a wide range of assorted opinions are offered, and media offer a large variety of different positions, values and biases. No individual is obliged to accept any particular position or argument, but they are encouraged to have put their own views and criticisms forward. The snapper problem that comes with media concentration is that it diminishes ideological diversity deep down the media system.Studies have been conducted that show that alth ough there may be more media outlets, there is not inevitably more information or diversity in media. Rather than the new platforms leading to a diversity of voices, voices are in fact macrocosm snuffed out An analysis of independent media showed that 96 per cent of stories simply came from recycle stories found in the mainstream press. However, The study also showed that the mainstream press was producing 73 portion less information than 10 years ago (independent Australia, 2011).Curran states that they can use their financial power to drive new entrants out of the marketplace by launching expensive promotional campaigns, offering discounts to advertisers or buying up key creative personnel (Curran, 2005) Because of the increased power of media corporations, they have the ability to eliminate their competition and therefore decrease the amount of diversity purchasable to the consumer. Robert W. McChesney outlines in his book Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy that ther e are three factors that allow democracy to work at its best.The first is it helps when there are not significant disparities in economic wealth and home ownership across the society (1997, p5). The second requires there to be a sense of community and a notion that an individuals well- macrocosm is determined to no small extent by the communitys well-being (1997, p5). last McChesney states democracy requires that there be an effective system of political communication (1997, p5). Media concentration and control works to the detriment of each of these factors.Firstly the multi trillion dollar media corporations, do not represent economic equality within the society, in fact they help to make the gap between the on the job(p) classes and authority increase. Media concentration disputes McChesneys second factor as media moguls and corporations have become increasingly focused on the pursuit of large profits and personal gain, and are not heavily influenced around societys wellbei ng. Finally, an effective system of political communication should be based around diversity of news coverage and diversity of political issues, both locally and nationally, large and small.However, with the increasing size of corporations the diversity of expression has steadily decreased. Australia has one of the highest media concentrations in the free world. With the increasing control held by mass media conglomerates assorted political issues arise such as political bias the trivialisation and sensationalism of political issues in the pursuit of profits and the decreasing amount of editorial diversity and expression. The above issues threaten democracy and the media must be set and controlled before it threatens how the political system in Australia functions.Governments need to manage media moguls, such as Rupert Murdock before they gain too much power, and control, over political issues and coverage. The key to a democratic society is freedom of information, positive polit ical debate and communication. These key functions of a democratic society are being threatened by concentrated mass media and the increasing control held by these corporations.