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6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

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Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#11

Post by bobabooey02 »

mrkrab wrote: post #9
bobabooey02 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. However, online media is becoming more and more concentrated(and manipulated) as well. Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, Google, and 4chan all make up a large chunk of our online media, and it should be apparent to most people at this point that each of those sites are either controlled by a company, country, or PR team. It wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing a decline in trust of online media in the future…

In Europe, generally, 1) webmasters are usually responsible of the comments left in their webpages by their users, and 2) webmasters have to make clear what their names and addresses are. Myself, sometimes I've thought of creating a forum or a community, only to be turned away when I think of that. Do you think 4chan would have ever existed if moot had had to put his real name and address there, and if he was legally…

I don't believe the issue is US-vs-nonUS. I believe​the issue is internet "capital" concentration, which will emerge regardless of national origin. There is a networking effect that makes it difficult to start a successful platform, and those in power will eventually​ work to maintain or strengthen their power.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#14

Post by alexandercrohde »

_red wrote: post #7

I know hardly anyone likes the MSM (myself included), however is this stat so bad? Is it anything unusual for any other industry? Mature industries consolidate - its just a fundamental nature of the growth process. How many corporations control packaged chicken? cell phones? cement? No doubt the voices behind such "X mega-corps control Y" are in fact just advocating for legislation changes to mandate that they get a…

Yes it's bad.

It doesn't really matter if it's "usual" or not, that's a different question.

Most industries consolidate into large behemoths that are incredibly inefficient and only stay in business due to patents and buying up all the resources (e.g. cell-phone companies, comcast, certain chip-makers). Innovation dies.

And you're right, it's happening right now with youtube defeating the these corporations, and that's good. But if one of these companies somehow bought youtube from google, that'd be bad, because consolidation (especially around distribution of information) is typically bad.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#17

Post by kartan »

_red wrote: post #7

I know hardly anyone likes the MSM (myself included), however is this stat so bad? Is it anything unusual for any other industry? Mature industries consolidate - its just a fundamental nature of the growth process. How many corporations control packaged chicken? cell phones? cement? No doubt the voices behind such "X mega-corps control Y" are in fact just advocating for legislation changes to mandate that they get a…

> Is it anything unusual for any other industry?

Isn't that a big problem? Monopolies and oligopolies are crippling capitalism. The "too big to fail" conglomerates become just a part of the political system instead of the economic one.

With the media industry, it gets worse, as it has an important role in keeping the democratic and economic powers in check.

> No doubt the voices behind such "X mega-corps control Y" are in fact just advocating for legislation changes to mandate that they get a seat at the table.

Is not that fair? Shouldn't all parts of society be represented in the industry that consolidates the cultural values of a nation? Why should only economic power have representation in the media? It is one person one vote, not one dollar one vote.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#19

Post by CamelCaseName »

grenoire wrote: post #15
polskibus wrote: post #8

Isn't facebook already bigger than some of the firms mentioned in the articles? Or is it not counted as media?

Facebook creates no content whatsoever on its own. Its a crowd-funded link aggregator that earns revenue by ads.

Although you are correct, it is not a stretch to say that Facebook "controls" the media in deciding what to show, and how it is shown.

In this way, you could say that "Facebook Controls [a significant portion] of the Media in America"

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#20

Post by unclebucknasty »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #19
grenoire wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook creates no content whatsoever on its own. Its a crowd-funded link aggregator that earns revenue by ads.

Although you are correct, it is not a stretch to say that Facebook "controls" the media in deciding what to show, and how it is shown. In this way, you could say that "Facebook Controls [a significant portion] of the Media in America"

"Media Filter"?
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