Politicians and critics have long lamented that the rise of huge media conglomerates means the death of diversity in newspapers and on the airwaves. But research suggests that media conglomeration, however distasteful, does not necessarily reduce diversity.
References
1.
BagdikianBen H.The Media Monopoly (6th ed.). Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. In this new edition of a now classic book, Bagdikian presents an impassioned argument against media concentration.
2.
BakerEdwinC.. Media, Markets, and Democracy.Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Baker demonstrates that media products are not like other commodities, and he argues that market competition alone fails to give media audiences what they want.
3.
Columbia Journalism Review. “Who Owns What?” Online. http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners. This informative website lists the holdings of approximately 50 major media companies.
4.
CroteauDavidHoynesWilliam. The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest.Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001. This book contrasts two different views of media conglomeration: the market model, which regards people as consumers, and the public-interest model, which regards people as citizens.
5.
CompaineBenjamin M.GomeryDouglas. Who Owns the Media? Competition and Concentration in the Mass Media Industry.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. This book provides a detailed look at the current media industry and challenges common assumptions about the dangers of ownership concentration.
6.
EntmanRobert M.“Newspaper Competition and First Amendment Ideals: Does Monopoly Matter?”Journal of Communication35, 2 (1985): 147–65. This study of newspapers in competitive and non-competitive markets concludes that market competition does not guarantee content diversity.
7.
HorwitzRobert. “On Media Concentration and the Diversity Question,”Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego, 2003. Online. http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/ConcentrationpaperICA.htm. This is a careful discussion of the media ownership debate, empirical research and the virtues of a “mixed media system.”.
8.
NapoliPhilip M.“Deconstructing the Diversity Principle.”Journal of Communication49, 4 (1999): 7–34. Napoli argues that the FCC policies on media ownership have long been based on unproven assumptions about the relationship between ownership diversity and content diversity.
