The Death of Journalistic Integrity

Continuing in the theme of many of my recent mid-term related posts, this is a very slimmed down version of my paper for Mass Communications. After doing the research for this paper, it was quite easy to see why journalistic integrity is all but non existent. 

In the same way that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened up the ability for cross ownership, it also opened up the ability for vertical integration. Vertical integration is the way a single owner owns several companies in an attempt to streamline the costs. Just as Andrew Carnegie used monopolies and vertical integration to dominate the steel industry, the broadcasting industry is being streamlined today with the use of vertical integration.

Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a company was not allowed to own more than one “full-power broadcast station that serviced the same community.” After this act was instated, many small television, radio and newspaper station were bought out. This has resulted in the consolidation of numerous networks and channels to be consolidated into the “Big Six,” NBCUniversal/Comcast/GE, the Walt Disney Company, News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom and the CBS Corporation. These six companies  own many of the most popular television station and news outlets. NBC owns the rights to stations such as Universal Pictures, MSNBC, the Weather Channel and Syfy. The Walt Disney Company owns networks such as the ABC Television Network, Pixar Animation Studios and ESPN. News Corporation owns networks like Fox Broadcasting Company, the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.com.  Time Warner is possibly the largest of the Big Six own CNN, Warner Brothers and Time. Viacom owns Comedy Central, Global Broadcasting News and Paramount Home Entertainment. CBS owns stations such as CBS Television Network, Showtime and Simon & Schuster.

Vertical integration has caused a decrease in the unbiased nature of the news industry and a lower quality of journalism and television shows. When a person hears the name “GE” the immediate thought is of electronics and home appliances, like the new GE washer and dryer. One does not generally think of the television stations, radio stations, cable and telecommunications systems that are also under the GE umbrella of ownership. If a company can convince the general public that they are solely a magazine publication or a single television station, it is easy for the public to never notice that they also have several news organizations and several newspapers that are all under the same company. When the Walt Disney Company owns not only ABC Television, Walt Disney Pictures and various book publishing companies, the types of stories pushed through each of these ventures, while they may vary greatly, they will have the same company pushing the same message.What does this mean for the general populace? Most of the news and information that a person will come across in any given day will most likely come from one of these six corporations. The merging of these companies has caused a high concentration of ownership and an increased political and economic influence. With so few players in this media game, there is less diversity and competition, which can lead to a lesser quality of journalism. Just as monopolies were a disservice in the in the steel era with Andrew Carnegie, monopolies are a disservice to the American people today. 

 While companies may be making insane profits from these multiple ventures, it is the American people that are the ones to suffer. Gone are the days of unbiased news organizations because every news company on television in the United States reports to the owners of one of the big six companies. The general public can no longer rely on the television and newspapers to bring them reliable, quality journalism,  so they are beginning to head to the online sphere to find quality readings.