Is “real news,” REAL news?
When only a handful of corporations own majority of the media, is what we see the truth or what they want us to see?
From the beginning, the main reason for media, especially news sources, was to inform the public about current events that were happening and the way that made sure these corporations were reporting the truth, was the plethora of news outlets that would report on the same events. If one news outlet reported something that was different from all the others, their audience would know that they were incapable of reporting accurate information and would less likely read and trust that news source in the future. However, as more and more big corporations buy out smaller news outlets, and create a monopoly in the industry, our sources of news will be limited and we may not be getting all of the information we need.
When big corporations begin to monopolize majority of the news industry, the audience only learns about what they want the world to know. The reason for this is because they are a corporation looking to make a profit and by doing so, they only release information that will be beneficial for them. According to Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, they believe that the big corporations that have a monopoly in the industry, have a bigger picture in mind and they call it the propaganda model. They state, “A propaganda model focuses on this inequality of wealth and power and its multilevel effects on mass-media interests and choices. It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public.” It is important to note the most important things here, that the propaganda model focuses mainly on those who have the money to influence what is put out into the news. The wealthy are able to decide what is released in the media and in doing so, they have the ability to influence how the public thinks about current events. Generally, when the wealthy and the elite choose the information released to the public, it is for personal gain and not in the general public’s interest.
It is very important to note that there are six corporations that own almost all of American media. These six companies are Comcast, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. These major corporations are able to buy out smaller corporations and companies because they have the capital that the smaller companies do not, which again shows how wealth and money dominates the media. Because these six companies own 90% of all media in the United States, they will only release information and ideas that are similar to theirs and that they agree with. When this happens, the information that ends up being released will all tell a story from the same perspective. The news will only contain information that the companies want you to know about and not the information that really matters.
A perfect example of how money controls the media is Kendall Jenner. Recently, Jenner was involved in a Pepsi Co. advertisement which received a lot of criticism and backlash. There were lots of articles written about the commercial and how inconsiderate Jenner and Pepsi Co. were. Due to all the bad publicity, Pepsi Co. has taken the advertisement down but that does not take down all of the articles written about Jenner. However, when you Google search Jenner, the criticism she received from the commercial is nowhere to be found, even under the news tab. After digging further, the first article to pop up about the Pepsi Co. controversy, The Mercury News’s article about how Jenner refused to talk about the commercial at Coachella. The article explains how Jenner was hosting an event at Coachella where she was supposed to answer questions. However, these questions were pre-submitted and looked over by her management team. Those asking questions were told “’no direct or indirect mention of her failed Pepsi ad’” and if they did, they would be taken out of the interview right away and the company/corporation would forever be blacklisted. This is a perfect example of how much influence money has on media. The Kardashian Jenner family is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Jenner has the wealth to control how the media perceives her.
So in the end, how do we know what we are reading is accurate information? I always thought that as long as I was reading from a reliable source, such as The Huffington Post, The Economist, etc., and they had facts to back up what they were saying, the information would be factual. But unfortunately, when six big corporations (who are only looking out for themselves) own almost all of the media we consume, there is no guarantee that the information is not biased or has not been manipulated. From the article by Ashley Lutz, these six corporations were able to take control of so much media because of deregulations by the Federal Communications Commission. Why has the FCC allowed for this to happen? As stated on their website, one of their six goals is to promote competition. How can they promote competition if they allow for six major corporations to control so much of the media we consume?
