Media and the New Corporate Culture

Mark Crispin Miller's view of the changes coming over the media because of the new corporate culture is that the media will be held hostage to corporate interests to a greater degree than ever before. This is because ownership of the media is being more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and because those hands have other interests as well that they want to protect. Thus, the news media will be hampered in covering critical stories when those stories challenge some other company owned by the same media giant as the news division decides what to air and what to avoid, or when the newspaper makes the same decision about a story, or when the radio station is similarly situated. Critics such as Miller have ample evidence that this sort of suppression of the news has already taken place and so have determined that such suppression will become more common in the near future. Miller is very likely right, and we have seen several instances of this in recent months.

Miller cites a number of ways in which the new media culture would be manifested. He refers to the fact that ABC, now owned by Disney, had apologized to Philip Morris for running a critical story about the tobacco company. It was not that the tobacco company was also owned by Disney but rather that the corporate culture was too timid to challenge another large company out of a fear of litigation. He also notes how CBS had held back on a tobacco story for a similar reason when threatened with a lawsuit

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ce had been otherwise. When we achieve the 500-channel universe that has been promised, such choices may not have to be made. In the meantime, there are limitations on the number of channels a system can carry. This means that the people of New York will simply not see one of the news stations. This points to the real problem with the changes that Miller foresees. A close observation of the three television networks shows that the viewer will not yet see very much evidence of corporate interference or a reduction in news-gathering because of these mergers. As with the people of New York City, the real problem is that the viewer will not see much change and will not know what he or she is not seeing. If a news organization decides not to cover a story, the viewer is usually none the wiser. The decision by CBS not to run the original Brown & Williamson story was leaked to other news media and so became an issue, but if that leak had not occurred, the viewer would not know he or she was being deprived. The story would just not be told, and an important issue would thus not be aired. At any given time, there are thousands of important stories to be covered, and choices are made every day. When we watch news broadcasts, we

Category: Business - M