It seems like in today’s world there are fewer and fewer people making choices for the greater good. What I mean to say is that everything in our world seems to be able to be consolidated. The media of course is no exception to this trend with only 6 major companies dictating about 90% of the media we have access to. In less than 30 years the number of companies providing us with our media has dropped from 50 to just 6. The six companies consisting of GE, New-corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. If your wondering who owns the major networks its CBS of course, GE owns NBC, News-corp owns fox, and Disney owns ABC.
A reason for concern is the gross misrepresentation have so few companies controlling so much causes. According to today’s infogaphic Media Consolidaiton: The Illusion of Choice there is one media executive to every 850,000 subscribers. It’s kind of like representative government except you don’t get to choose who represents you and there is no better option.
If the free market had truly decided who was the winner and loser I would have no problem with there just being six companies running our media. However the path to success for these companies was not so honorable. Some of these companies even though they’re some of the most profitable in the world don’t even end up paying taxes. Crazy how the average citizen who probably only makes enough to get by has to pay more proportionately than one of these powerhouses.
If you think information control by mainstream media is just another crazy conspiracy theory propagated by paranoid masses, you simply haven’t considered the facts. Did you know that 90% of all information from media, whether you’re watching TV, reading a newspaper or listening to radio, actually comes from the same six sources? It’s packaged in different brands of course, but the fact is 6 corporations (listed below) control 90% of all media in America.
In a perfect world, this would hardly be of any consequence. But in our world of corrupt politicians, greedy bankers, and power hungry elitists, this is a perfect propaganda machine, too tempting not to abuse. If controllers of media conglomerates want to help their buddies push a certain agenda or slant people’s opinions on any given matter, they certainly have the mechanism to accomplish just that. Freedom of press is meaningless and irrelevant when reports, editorials and opinions are handed down from the top.
A less sinister example of the “illusion of choice” principle
You may look at the grocery store shelves and think they’ve got a multitude of options, but the truth is, the same huge corporations own all of the brand names, use the same toxic ingredients in the products and care not the slightest about your nutrition or health. This same principle goes for media… but worst of all it applies to politics as well.