The Media Monopoly 6th Edition

With the Universal-Polygram, Viacom-CBS and AOL-Time Warner merger/acquisitions in progress, one read of Ben Bagdikian's "The Media Monopoly" and the author's stunning vision of the world's media conglomerates dwindling in size and scope of unbiased content, becomes a grim reality. Without any legal or regulatory intervention, this merging of Old and New Media companies can only hurt free enterprise and ultimately the consumers. With the recent news, Bagdikian's logic remains to be true. "The Media Monopoly" is a masterpiece as Bagdikian explicitly details what drives the modern mass media machine: capitalism via advertising as opposed to content.

In his book, The Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian writes about the increasing centralization of the media by a small number of private organizations. He explains the concept, causes and consequences of the monopoly in the mass media. To begin with, the author points out that only twenty-three corporations own the eighty percent of American media (p. 21). They invest millions in different types of media for primarily two reasons: "money and influence" (p. 5). The power of these conglomerations is such that they can strongly influence the political and social views of the people, mainly through corruption and subtle persuasion techniques. Monopoly is defined as the exclusive ownership of a service or a commodity. Ben Bagdikian applies the concept of monopoly to the media industry. Giant companies own almost every mass medium: "newspapers, magazines, books, radios, broadcast television, cable systems and programming, movies, recordings [and] video cassettes" (p. xiii). Examples of this phenomenon are Capital Cities/ABC, Gannett and Time Warner corporations, among others (p. 21,22). By buying every different medium, these powerful giants communicate messages based on the owner's interest; thus, narrowing down the available sources of information. For instance, ABC, CBS and NBC networks control the majority of the national television. In addition, another consequence of the media monopoly is that as a result of private ownership, media turned into a business. As Bagidikian says, "now magazines aren't started with the desire of someone to express what he believes; [instead], they become bland to avoid controversy" (p. 112, 85). For example, "newspapers get seventy five percent of their revenues from ads, general circulation magazines fifty percent, and broadcasting almost a hundred percent" (p.115)The author states that one of the causes of the media monopoly is that publishers and broadcast producers never talk of the present condition of the media ownership. Gannett's editors would state slogans such as "ten choices for the reader" or "Gannett: a world of different ideas where freedom speaks", when actually, the opposite is happening (p. 75). Since 1970, Gannett has been buying local newspapers from many different regions. The strategy is simple: before buying a locally owned newspaper they promise to continue with its local news and values. They also assure that they will make it better. However, after buying it, they reduce its staff and local news, and tell the current publisher "how much he/she must produce in profits"; thus, they turn the community newspaper into one more link of their big chain where money is what counts (p. 78).However, the media monopoly not only affects people's social views. When talking about politics, as the United States lacks of a national daily press, Bagdikian implies that "no national news medium can, by itself, serve the American voter" (p. 17). Consequently, private media guide e

This book completely cured me of activism. It explains all of societies problems so clearly that you will be dumbfounded as to the amazing simplicity of the solutions. With far less sophisticated and pervasive technology, Hitler was able to convince the so called aryans that Jews were infact rodents. How could this be? Media Molopoly explains it all very simply. People form opinions based on the information that they receive. Edward Bernays figured that out in the 20's and coined the term "Public Relations". Hitlers propaganda minister had all of Bernays books on his book shelf. The process is simple and effective. Our system of gov't is based on the transmission of misinformation. This book reveals things like that, and quite frankly, the book is just about as valuable as a 4 year college degree. It's the most important book i've ever read.

When Bagdikian wrote his first edition of "The Media Monopoly" in 1983, noting that just 50 corporations controlled over half of the media outlets in the United States, many called him an alarmist. Now in its fifth edition, Bagdikian is able to give (uhappily, I'm sure) his critics a resounding "I told you so" by noting that the number of media-monsters dominating over half of America's media landscape has shrunk from 50 to ten. The situation that Bagdikian describes is so dire that it makes one wistful for the good old days of those orginal 50 corporations in 1983. Bagdikian makes a clear and effective case demonstrating how this media concentration subverts democracy. "The Media Monopoly" is an important book that deserves to be read by anyone who thinks that our 500-channel cable universe and the Internet mean that we are living in a fully-informed, democratic society. I look forward to any potential sixth edition of "The Media Monopoly" with dread. Review by Richard Huffman