Operating in the Public Interest or in Pursuit of Private Profits? News in the Age of Media Consolidation

Abstract

The created by means of major media mergers in United States over past decade-the combination of massive libraries of content with multiple distribution channels-have been heralded as important benefits for consumers. The mainstream argument is that these mergers over past decade have greatly increased volume of available information and greatly decreased cost of delivering news to average citizen. Consumers now can surf twenty-four-hour news channels and ubiquitous Internet sites, or opt instead for personalized news, delivered to them daily via email. Have these synergies really brought about an improvement of consumer welfare? The media are charged with providing an important service to their citizen-consumers-thorough and unbiased information that will aid them in making conscious and conscientious decisions in voting booth and in other aspects of their consumer and citizen lives. But in age of media consolidation and cartelization, quality and even quantity of news has deteriorated. News divisions have become just another profit center for their conglomerate parents that must yield same rates of profit as more lucrative entertainment divisions of these media empires. Whereas broadcast stations still are licensed to operate in the public interest, news in age of media empires has become reduced to info-tainment. This paper will examine current state of news in our media conglomerate age and consider, from an institutionalist