{"id":265,"date":"2006-10-24T13:25:48","date_gmt":"2006-10-24T20:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=265"},"modified":"2007-05-11T11:40:42","modified_gmt":"2007-05-11T18:40:42","slug":"bigger-media-is-not-better-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Bigger Media Is Not Better Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>DUH!<\/strong> And now we have (more) proof. I&#8217;ll let the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssrc.org\/programs\/media\/ownership\/\" target=\"_blank\">press release<\/a> speak for itself:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">Today, the <a href=\"http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Benton Foundation<\/a> and the Social Science Research Council released <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssrc.org\/programs\/media\/publications\/MediaOwnershipReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">four independent academic studies<\/a> (PDF) on the impact of media consolidation in the United States. The new research focuses on how the concentration of media ownership affects media content, from local news reporting to radio music programming, and how minority groups have fared &#8211; as both media outlet owners and as historically undeserved audiences &#8212; in an increasingly deregulated media environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">These studies make clear that media consolidation does not create better, more local or more diverse media content. To the contrary, they strongly suggest that media ownership rules should be tightened not relaxed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Each study addresses an important relationship that the media has with culture and community. The individual titles reveal the scope of their coverage:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Media Ownership Matters.<\/li>\n<li>Questioning Media Access.<\/li>\n<li>Do Radio Companies Offer More Variety When They Exceed The Local Ownership Cap?<\/li>\n<li>Newspaper\/Television Cross-Ownership Local News And Public Affairs Programming On Television Stations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The study concludes what to many was already obvious:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;&#8230;cross-ownership is not associated with any meaningful improvement (in terms of program quantity) in station performance, relative to comparable stations, in the local news and public affairs arenas.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is a conclusion that directly contradicts a controversial report released by the FCC in 2003, under the chairmanship of Michael Powell. But it concurs with a report that was buried, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?p=231\" target=\"_blank\">ordered destroyed<\/a>, by the very same Chairman Powell who needs to learn that, indeed, facts are stubborn things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DUH! And now we have (more) proof. I&#8217;ll let the press release speak for itself: Today, the Benton Foundation and the Social Science Research Council released four independent academic studies (PDF) on the impact of media consolidation in the United States. The new research focuses on how the concentration of media ownership affects media content, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-4h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=231","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":0},"title":"FCC Censors Itself On Local Ownership","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/15\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A report written in 2004 by researchers at the Federal Communications Commission found that local ownership of broadcasters enhanced coverage of community issues. That conclusion directly contradicts prior arguments made by the Commission that claimed consolidation aided localism. The research analyzed over 4,000 hours of news programming and was conducted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Media&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":410,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=410","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":1},"title":"Daily Show\/Colbert Viewers Most Informed &#8211; Fox, Not So Much","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/16\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has published a new study that measures the public's knowledge of national and international news. The results are not likely to surprise anyone but Fox viewers, who come in at the bottom of the list (they probably don't know that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=918","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":2},"title":"Barack Obama Is Serious About Anti-Trust","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a statement Sunday at a campaign stop, Barack Obama made it clear that he does not want to continue the Bush policy of ignoring, or advancing, corporate collusion, consolidation, and other anti-competitive activity. Obama: \"We're going to have an antitrust division in the Justice Department that actually believes in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Media&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":233,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=233","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":3},"title":"Deep In The Heart Of Dixie Chicks","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/19\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Toronto International Film Festival recently screened the documentary, Shut Up and Sing, chronicling the travails of the Dixie Chicks after their righteous slap at Crawford's Lost Idiot. In remarks at a post-screening news conference, the Chicks demonstrate their grasp of the hazards of institutional media: ...the Chicks say they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art\/Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":547,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=547","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":4},"title":"Bill Clinton&#8217;s Take On Murdoch&#8217;s Wall Street Journal","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/6\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Blake Fleetwood has a curious article at the Huffington Post that quotes Bill Clinton saying that... \"...the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News.\" That's the not the curious part. The article continues with Clinton\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Media&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":5},"title":"Radio Free Ohio: Clear Channel Attacks Themselves","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/30\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of a promotion for a new progressive talk station in Akron, Ohio, Clear Channel has embarked on an unconventional advertising campaign to woo the wild liberals from their sanctuary. At the Web site for Radio Free Ohio (since replaced by just a logo), they posted a manifesto that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}