The Decline of Modern Media
The Problem-
Corporate Ownership
An idea that began with the First Amendment to the Costitution has now been perverted by big business.
Almost all of the media that reaches the American public are owned by corporations that are required to do everything in their power to maximize stockholders' profits.
The goal of profit maximization is often in direct conflict with the critical journalism necessary for a healthy democracy.
Furthermore, there are fewer of these companies as they buckle to competition in corporate take-overs.
What's left is even bigger companies with bigger, louder voices in a media market with an ever-dwindling diversity of voices.
This problem has been growing for years and requires swift anti-trust action by our federal government.
Sadly, the politicians we need to take on these corporate thugs are the same politicians who are already too busy taking campaign contributions from said thugs.
Seperation of Media and State
The American Media has greatly failed to be critical of the American government since the turn of the 21st century. To be more specific, the Bush Administration has been given a free pass on questionable legislation and waging war since the Terrorist Attacks of September 11th.
In this time when power so desperately needs to be kept in check through transparency by a free media, we find media outlets touting official administration policies and explainations with little or no scrutiny.
This happens for a number of reasons:
Reporters are dependant on official sources they are afraid of alienating.
Corporate media outlets fear criticizing federal buracracies that not only regulate them, but whose politician spend hundreds of millions of dollars on political advertisements. (who, in turn, recieve millions in campaign contributions).
The owners of most corporate media outlets share similar backgrounds, income brackets and political views as the government officials they cover.
The corporate media outlets and reporters are afriad of being labeled "unpatriotic" in this politicaly-driven, perpetual state of war.
Streamlining
Corporate streamlining of news personnel has lead to over-worked, under-paid reporters who compete to produce the most stories rather than the most critical reporting. This causes more reliance on official statements and press releases from the ever-increasing PR industry. Hence, corporate and government officials are often given a free pass to write their own stories.
Advertisers
Advertisers have a disproportionate influence in media content, as corporate media outlets make most of their revenues from advertising and not the audience itself.
This is not only a conflict of interest, but also creates a betrayal between media and audience.
Television viewers, for example, are duped into believing that they are the consumers, and thus, that they dictate their own content as any consumer expects in a free market (just as citizens would expect in a democracy). They don't.Sensationalism
Corporate news outlets are adding an ever-increasing amounts of sensationalism to their content. From the emotionally-charged stories they push to the flashy graphics and sound effects they use, news content is becoming a sensationalized tabloid, paticularly the cable news networks who are desperate to compete and fill air time.Censorship
Censorship is a constant threat to free speech. Since we live in a fascist state -that is, a society largely run by corporations- suppression of information often comes in the form of "self-censorship" by corporate masters rather than from the government. Unpopular stories can be killed by parallel business interests, advertiser spending, fear of pricey litigation or government pressure.
