Media giants or conglomerates have been dwindling. There are now only seven major media giants: The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, New Corporation, Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, Sony, and AOL Time Warner. These companies own the vast majority of the media around the world. With so few media outlets competing, there is less pressure to provide the public with all of the information.
These companies are able to continuously provide only the information that they want to provide because there is no threat of them being passed up by another media source. These seven companies are what local media are constantly competing with. The local news is an important source of many communities around the world but with media giants airing national news at the same times as local news, there is a fear that local news will be faded out.
However, there is one part of the world that has fought back against these media giants: China. China has slowly let these media giants into their country through certain mediums and airwaves. However, the difference between China and many other countries is that they make sure to maintain control of their airwaves. In some form or another, China is a media giant in itself because of the information flow it controls.
In the article posted below they mention “the major theme is, the government is focused on promoting its local media to a scale and profitability that it can withstand competition.” Although, some of these media giants appear in the China media circuit, they aren’t the big names in town. The article specifically mentions News Corp, who is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and the fact that out of the $30 billion in company revenues in 2009, China made up for less than 1% of that total. One of the television channels they own, Xing Kong, is a top ten channel but still only has a 3-4% share of viewership.
China has made sure that media giants haven’t come to own their airwaves and done an excellent job at that. They do control what their citizens can look at in all forms of media, but they recognize the importance of local news and make sure these outlets have enough power.
Many media giants and other large companies, such as Google and eBay, have failed to gain any power or revenue in China due to the Chinese-based companies that sell the same thing. Some corporations have found success by selling programs to China’s top broadcasting companies. Disney has had success in China as well in the merchandising and theme park industry, building Disneyland in Hong Kong, with plans to build one in Shanghai.
Do you think other countries should take a lesson from China and start putting more regulations on the media giants and pushing toward more local media?
Link: Global media titans hit China wall, take local route
I could connect to your blog when you said that there is a fear that local media will be faded out. I witnessed this first hand while interning at a news station in Omaha this summer. Halfway through the summer, we learned that another station in town had been bought over by a regional newscast, and many people lost their jobs. They only kept a few people, and their jobs were to cover the main things that happen, and that is all that would be covered. Instead of having a local newscast, the station decided to do a regional broadcast, where you would get the major stories from each city. I think that this could cause major problems in journalism, and just further goes to prove that we are losing more and more control of what is covered in the news. I think that it would be great if the US could adapt a system like China has in place, but I think that realistically, we are way too far past that point. I think that at this time, there is no way to break these media giants down, because they have the power to just find ways around the rules. I think that instead of getting better, I think it will get worse first, with more and more consolidation.
ReplyDeleteI am really excited to see your blog about China. Actually, when people mention mass media or jounalism in China, democracy is always the topic. People feel there is too much control from the government in order to shape citizens' ideology. Personally, I feel it is not totally fair. Every government take measures to stabilize the society. PR perhaps is a more concealing way. Too much control may barricade the free flow of information,but apropos control can at least keep the order of the industry. Now, everything is just too commercial. Whatever the measures are, the government should do something to maintain the order.
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