Pat Brown Institute Public Policy Lecture Series (2004, No. 3)
May 5, 2004
Media Mergers and the Free Marketplace of IdeasDr. Scott R. Bowman
Political Science
California State University, Los Angeles
On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission significantly revised rules that regulate mergers of media companies to allow for a higher percentage of market concentration within these industries and to permit broadcast and print media to be owned by the same corporation. Unless Congress passes legislation to restrict the FCC's rule-making authority, media mergers in the near future are likely to further concentrate ownership of television, radio, and print media companies within a relative handful of giant corporations. This prospect has produced widespread public debate about the implications of media concentration for democratic values and practice.
A similar type of deregulation in the radio industry occurred in 1996, with the passage of the Telecommunications Act. In only six years, radio giant Clear Channel expanded its ownership of the airwaves from 40 stations to 1,225. This consolidation has led to a marked decrease in local news and music diversity on the radio, fewer jobs for local DJs, and journalists, and greater control by Clear Channel executives over the news, opinions, and music that reach much of the American public. Critics of the FCC ruling around the country site Clear Channel as the example of what will happen if further deregulation occurs in the media industry. However, market concentration is not the only issue. All of the major entertainment-media conglomerates own television stations, music companies, and print media, and most own theme parks, professional sports teams, motion picture studios, and radio stations. These companies (e.g., Disney, AOL-Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp.) can employ numerous forums to promote their varied business interests, which increasingly involves a blurring, if not obliteration, of meaningful distinctions between news and entertainment. In short, the primary business of these conglomerates is entertainment. It has become, unfortunately, a truism that news stories are often selected and promoted for their entertainment value as opposed to their newsworthiness.
Will mergers between giant entertainment-media corporations undermine the so-called "free marketplace of ideas" by reducing the diversity of viewpoints and sources of information or will such combinations have a negligible effect on the public's access to information? Should corporations that own the major broadcast media companies be held to a higher standard of public accountability than exists under current federal laws? Does the public still "own" the airwaves or has it effectively ceded that ownership to private entities? Are FCC license renewals an effective means of ensuring public accountability? In attempting to answer these questions, I will critically assess the pros and cons of media consolidation, which will include an analysis of the relevant federal laws, FCC rulings, and Supreme Court decisions affecting media regulation. My paper will also raise the issue of why large corporations generally have become so much larger in recent decades. I shall make the case that the subject of corporate concentration must be understood within the context of the global merger movement that has transformed economic, social, and political realities. To that end, I will provide an historical analysis of law and public policy that explains the significance of merger movements for the past one-hundred years.
In the early twenty-first century, sprawling entertainment-media conglomerates typify a new era of corporate consolidation that has stimulated a global wave of populist opposition to corporate power. Mega-mergers have produced greater market concentration and have accomplished a restructuring of control within global markets giving rise to an "oligarchy of oligopolists." Increasingly, as consumers and citizens, we find ourselves at odds with consolidated corporate power. The enlightenment construct of a "free marketplace of ideas" must be reassessed within the modern context of corporate capitalism. Is it an empty metaphor or is it still an ideal to embrace? This is an issue that goes to the heart of our democratic ethos.
Location: CSLA, Alhambra Rooms A&B (Student Union)
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.