This document discusses the history and effects of media consolidation in the United States. It notes that in the 1980s, 50 corporations controlled most news media, and by the 1990s this had fallen to fewer than two dozen companies controlling 90% of mass media. By the 2000s, ownership had further consolidated to just 6 huge corporations. The document also examines how media consolidation has negatively impacted diversity of ownership and local journalism.

1. Media Consolidation
Christopher E. Renner, Chair
KONZ - Flint Hills Community Radio Project

2. History of Consolidation
In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of
all news media in the U.S.
Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this
out in his book, The Media Monopoly.
In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the
U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary
creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" --
controlling almost all of America's newspapers,
magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records,
movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies.

3. Source: Media Reform Information Center
• Bagdikian predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a
dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time.
• When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number
had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has
expanded to include new media like the Internet market.

4. Who Owns the Media?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfRXaORNSK8
The job of media’s new corporate bosses is to
maximize profit for shareholders, not to provide greater
choice and diversity for consumers.
http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main
http://dialogic.blogspot.com/2009/01/rich-media-poor-
democracy-researching.html
Congress overturned the FCC’s 2007 media
consolidation ruling.

5. Source: Mother Jones, 2007
In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows
that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation,
Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the
media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.

6. F.A.I.R - Media Consolidation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFqKCRl0Un0
Taken from: Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on
Journalism. Media analyst for FAIR Peter Hart
discusses the effect of media consolidation on
journalism. http://www.outfoxed.org/
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting www.fair.org
Publishes Extra - magazine
Produces CounterSpin (30-minute weekly podcast)

7. Who is Out of the Picture?
The state of female and minority ownership in the
broadcast sector is even more shocking compared to
other industries. While female and minority ownership
has advanced in other sectors since the late 1990s, it
has gotten worse in the broadcast industry.
• Women owned 28 percent of all non-farm
businesses in 2002, but currently own less than 6
percent of commercial broadcast television stations.
• Minorities owned 18 percent of all non-farm
businesses in 2002, but currently own
approximately 3 percent of commercial broadcast
television stations.
Source: Out of the Picture 2007: Minority & Female TV Station Ownership in the United States

8. Who Is Left Out of the Picture?
There has been no improvement in the level of
minority broadcast television ownership since 1998,
even as the total universe of stations has increased
by approximately 13 percent.
• At the same time, there has been a marked decrease
in the total number of black or African-American
owned stations — dropping nearly 70 percent since
1998. In numbers, in 2007 only 14 of the 45 African-
American owned stations in 1998 remained.
Source: Out of the Picture 2007: Minority & Female TV Station Ownership in the United States

9. 1998 FCC Cross-ownership
Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC
was heard and adjudicated by the U.S. Third Circuit
Court of Appeals in 2003 and 2004.
The majority ruled 2-1 to throw out the FCC's
attempt to raise the limits of cross-ownership of
media.
The court ruled that a "diversity index" used by the
FCC to weigh cross-ownership (of radio, television
and newspapers) employed several "irrational
assumptions and inconsistencies."

10. TV - Newspaper Cross-ownership
Mark Cooper (2007) in reference toPrometheus Radio
Project, et al. v. FCC, (3rd Cir. 2004) concludes:
• Television and newspapers are the two most
important sources of local news and information by
far.
• The ban on such mergers was the longest standing
of the rules that the FCC is considering.
Source: The Case Against Media Consolidation: Evidence on concentration, localism and diversity. Mark Cooper,
Ed. (2007). Donald McGannon Center for Communicaiton Research, Fordham University.

11. TV - Newspaper Cross-ownership
• The FCC proposed the most radical change in this
rule – allowing newspaper-TV combinations in
virtually every city in America.
• In rejecting the FCC’s cross-media limits, the Court
devoted a great deal of attention to the FCC’s faulty
reasoning and flawed analysis of media markets.
• Cooper shows that mergers between newspapers
and TV stations in the same market pose a grave
threat to democratic discourse.

12. TV - Newspaper Cross-ownership
• In antitrust terms, these mergers result in increases in
market concentration that raise significant
competitive concerns and are likely to create or
enhance market power.
• In terms of the Communications Act and First
Amendment jurisprudence, the newspaper-TV
combinations that result dominate the local market
raising concerns about undue economic
concentration and inordinate influence over public
opinion.