Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Six corporations control 90% of America media

techstartups.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 183 posts

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#91

Post by jefftk »

irjustin wrote: post #55
prostoalex wrote: post #9

Skeptical about the 90% claim. Is time spent on YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, The New York Times and Spotify (with Joe Rogan specifically) so insignificant as to be relegated to the "miscellaneous" 10%?

Joe Rogan is now Netflix. YouTube is not an owner so you have to attribute specific videos to owners/sources (and potentially reference their sources). 90% is good to be skeptical about, but is it so unrealistic? I'd love to see which company is the most shared ones. Fringe ideas always seem the loudest/most shared, so that to me, would be a better measure of 'marketshare of reach'. At which point NYTimes likely fall…

> Joe Rogan is now Netflix

Okay, but as you say, Netflix isn't in their six either

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#92

Post by bilbo0s »

forcry wrote: post #87
rubyist5eva wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History is written by the winners. The right side is the one they write for themselves. So just always be on the side that is in the majority and has all of the power. Ezpz

>So just always be on the side that is in the majority and has all of the power Until you find yourselves on the other side, by definition..

Horrible as this sounds, I think you really want to be on the side that has all the power. Which in many modern democracies, doesn't even require you to be a part of the majority.

It hasn't been a good long-term strategy historically speaking. But you can definitely get your way for quite a while.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#93

Post by mynameishere »

easterncalculus wrote: post #64
motohagiography wrote: post #27

Should we be concerned about them using their media properties to push narratives designed to consolidate their influence, or ask whether some of the things we believe might be artifacts of that influence, or maybe what the sources and motives of those narratives might be? Kidding. This isn't the 90's. The only people who worry about an axis of collaboration between corporations and government to create a surveillanc…

> The only people who worry about an axis of collaboration between corporations and government to create a surveillance distopia are conspiracy theorists pushing misinformation now. The president of the United States proudly admitted to alerting Facebook to "problematic" accounts just last week. Maybe that's justified, or isn't in service of a "surveillance dystopia", but the best light is "collaboration" between the…

I like the image of Biden being given a "super downvote" button on reddit, that like...counts as ten normal downvotes.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#94

Post by throwaway277 »

Long time employee of one of those companies, here.

To believe that there is some dictate about how a story is covered or why that comes from the top is to believe that we are way more organized than reality. Yes, some corporate-synergy exists to cross-promote, especially on morning shows, but when it comes to news, we are usually pushing so close to deadline there's no way to even allow for corporate control.

That said, there is a need to meet an ever decreasing budget. That's the parent co's real bias; to be cheap.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#95

Post by slumdev »

wombatmobile wrote: post #46
doctor_eval wrote: post #11

I didn’t understand this at first as Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” discussed media consolidation many years ago. But of course the problem is that we’ve gone from a small number of companies controlling _the news_ to a small number of companies controlling _all media_. It’s less Chomsky and more Orwell.

> It’s less Chomsky and more Orwell. As Neil Postman pointed out, it's less Orwell and more Huxley. “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egois…

It's a bit of both.

Jay Leno spent years showing us clueless Californians who couldn't tell us why the 4th of July is a holiday. These types would seem to confirm Huxley's suspicions, but they don't make up the entire country.

For people who aren't controlled by their base desires, where soma and orgy porgy failed, today, deplatforming and "fact checkers" are stepping in to finish the job.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#96

Post by forcry »

waynesonfire wrote: post #34

Is hackernews owned by any one these?

It does not have to be. If the mainstream media set consensus, everything will have to fall in line.

So in HN, the readers will do the job of censoring info if they are very out of line with the mainstream narrative.

Look at this submission of mine.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27941820

It was flagged promptly and removed from view in a little while..

Although, I ll have to admit that this site holds up better than most similar places, and that is probably because it is not very well known...

But on the otherside, you can buy a high karma HN account on some sites, so everything is in place to poison this site as well. I think it's just a matter of getting upto some threshold of popularity..

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#97

Post by jwond »

amyjess wrote: post #73

Honestly the first two paragraphs of this article alone indicate that this article is a polemic intended to stir up a pogrom against so-called elites. This isn't intellectually gratifying: it's an angry political screed. Furthermore, as a Jewish person myself something else jumped out at me: there is a long, long, long history of the word "elites" being associated with control over the media as an antisemitic dogwhis…

I’m getting really fed up with people lobbing accusations of bigotry to try and dismiss others’ concerns and criticisms without actually providing any substantial counter-argument.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#98

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

motohagiography wrote: post #27

Should we be concerned about them using their media properties to push narratives designed to consolidate their influence, or ask whether some of the things we believe might be artifacts of that influence, or maybe what the sources and motives of those narratives might be? Kidding. This isn't the 90's. The only people who worry about an axis of collaboration between corporations and government to create a surveillanc…

>working on the right side of history

I'm certain China thinks suppressing the Uyghurs is the right side of history too.

Your comment is literally the most dangerous thing you can ever say. Literally that someone else is a better arbiter of truth than yourself.

Re: Six corporations control 90% of America media

#99

Post by longtimegoogler »

The article doesn't really show how this situation has evolved over time. Before cable didn't we essentially only have CBS, NBC, and ABC?

When I see other sources like OANN, or the disinformation being peddled from some corners, I am not sure what is a better alternative.

These media companies also employ a large number of people with diverse opinions. To suggest that a small group of elites are controlling the output of these companies is far fetched.

For some reason, a certain segment of Americans, have lost trust in these institutions that have been there all along. I fear the alternative.

Post reply on HN