Ownership and Control of the Media

The Chomsky View:



Terms (Graber 32-35)

• Independents
• Chains
• Cross-Media 
• Conglomerates

Wire services:

• Associated Press
• City News Service

IMPORTANT:  WHEN YOU ANALYZE A NEWS STORY, YOU MUST DETERMINE WHETHER IT ORIGINATED WITH A WIRE SERVICE.

TV and Radio

• Networks and stations
• Affiliates and "owned and operated" stations

Cable

• Cable networks v. cable carriers

The Big Board





Ownership Data (see Graber 36-37):

• Columbia Journalism Review guide to media ownership
• Public Broadcasting
• African American and Hispanic Media
• The case of Sinclair

Duopolies or "twinsticks"

The FCC:

• Licensing and FCC Ownership Rules  
• Equal Time
• Fairness Doctrine (defunct)

Antitrust law and political intervention

Talk Radio (from an Annenberg Public Policy Center report):

• In 1980s, satellite dishes enabled high-quality instant distribution
• 1-800 number that made the interactive national program possible. 
• "The end of the fairness doctrine paved the way for talk radio as we know it today. Neither hosts nor stations currently have an obligation to provide balance or voice to competing views."

Freedom of Speech

• The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
• Opinion on government control
• The Doctrine of Prior Restraint and gag orders
• Copyright
• Defamation
• Who really uses FOIA?  (Hint:  it ain't Woodward and Bernstein).   
• The United States is unusual in its protection of free speech.
• Comparative analysis of press freedom