Delaporte 1 Brian Delaporte 10/12/11 WRTC 211 Mark Thomas The Rise of Corporate Ownership and the Fall

of Journalistic Values Its Tuesday morning. You are an informed American citizen, aware of the daily and culminating issues relevant to society. Each day during the week, you start your morning by reading a few local newspapers in your area, and then browsing the web for other popular internet sites on your mobile device for the latest headlines. This Tuesday morning you stumble upon an interesting article from CNNs website entitled Special forces rescue ship from pirates, Italy says (CNN Wire Staff). You read the article at length, take in what you have just learned, and move on to the next prominent issue of the day, without thinking twice. Is there any reason to perhaps doubt the validity of the story CNN has run in this instance? Could a dominate information source like CNN lie about stories such as these, and if so would they? Could other information sources be doing the same thing? These questions all raise red flags pertaining to the ways we as informed Americans receive our news. The cultural phenomenon of new wave media has propelled us into a never before seen realm of information. Mediums such as television, the internet, and smartphones, allow citizens worldwide to obtain the most up to date news stories at home and on the go. The result of this type of speed and mobility pertaining to news information is an increasingly informed audience, able to form their own opinions of the information being written in the papers, aired on television, or posted on the internet. Yet is the audience being given the truth regarding the information they have read, or are they just being fed a planned information agenda? Although new media has achieved so much in terms of speed and breadth, media outlets both big and small are mostly owned by a few conglomerate corporations, whose

Delaporte 2 allegiances are more often than not to their own vertically integrated strategies, rather than to the average information seeking American citizen. Unfortunately, just because speed and information output have reached new heights in the world today does not mean that this information is accurate, objective, or even necessarily factual. There are two main forces that control the amount of resources and decisions within media organizations. The first is the intense profit-driven orientation within corporate news divisions (Woodward 25). Big media conglomerates such as News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, and Viacom (the second largest media conglomeration) typically try to push a news agenda that flows through each label and station owned by the conglomeration itself. This means everything from advertisements on television stations, in newspapers and magazines, and even advertisements over the internet are all strategically placed to ensure that the corporation is reaching the audience they intend to target. The second force that tends to control the amount of resources and decisions within media organizations is called the story structure imperative. The story structure imperative alludes to the idea that news is no longer a loss leader for networks (Woodward 26). In other words, news used to be a service the network offered to its viewers and supported out of its entertainment revenues. Due largely in part to the prominent ownership of so many networks under one corporate media organization, conglomerations now handle all revenue aspects of the networks they own. This in turn gives these corporate owners the ability to run the stories they prefer, and bury the ones that could potentially come back to haunt them later in the future. In addition, corporations tend to run stories that are less expensive and more aesthetically appealing to an audience. These stories tend to be fluffed up and filled with sensationalism and rhetoric, rather than investigative journalism and facts. In turn, information seeking audiences tend to get

Delaporte 3 shafted out of meaningful topics in newspaper columns, online articles, and primetime television news coverage, and are more often than not force fed news that shows rather than informs. We as informed citizens and Americans are unfortunately not the only ones who suffer from the extent to which media conglomeration has grown. A number of key journalistic principles are at risk when news is forced to compete as a means of profit rather than as an informational tool (Woodward 29). One of these principles that have seemingly been stomped all over by corporate owners is the recognition of news as being a civic duty or responsibility, rather than a profitable function. Corporations have without question strayed away from their responsibilities to provide citizens with well written in depth analysis of topics. Since the more beefy and wholesome journalistic topics cost more money to run, conglomerates are reluctant to put out the cash for what it takes to dig into a story and pull out a worthwhile message or meaning. Instead, these corporate owners are more likely to spend less money investigating a story, and run something that is less informative, engaging, and intellectual. For example, as of today October 11, 2011, one of the leading headlines on Yahoo!s website was LeBron James tweet asking about free agency in the National Football League (Chase). James is a star player in the National Basketball Association, and would never jeopardize his NBA career by trying out for an NFL team. Regardless, this lead on Yahoo!s homepage is more or less gossip rather than informative, fulfilling news. This James article just goes to show how corporations are more inclined to run a story covering sensationalism as opposed to facts of hard, investigative reporting. Another journalist principle that is at severe risk when news is forced to compete as a means for profit is the recognition that journalistic values are not the same as entertainment values (Woodward 29). This is to say that journalism is not meant to be entertaining. It certainly

Delaporte 4 can be, but the goal of journalism is to leave the reader with a new found understanding or point of view of a topic they may have never even heard of before. There is only one goal for that of the entertainment business, and that is to make money. Journalistic values and attributes are increasingly being thrown out the window for things such as cartoons, sitcoms, and reality television. This trend is again, due to set corporate agendas to spend less money and make more. Media conglomerations go about doing this through the entertainment industry, since it is the most surefire way to increase sales without losing much else. As a result, both journalism and its core values to the informed citizen here in America, are thrown by the wayside. Granted that corporate ownership and vertical integration have inhibited some of the liberties journalism holds dear, there is one shining light that stands alone in opposition to the problems journalism continues to face. This media outlet serves not only Americans, but information seekers across the globe day in and day out as an idealistic form of objectivity, autonomy, and journalistic values. Known as the gold standard in journalism, the New York Times is unmatched in its depth of overall news coverage. The Times is neither the largest paper in our nation, nor is it owned by one of the largest corporations here in America. This in and of it itself gives credibility to the paper and its roots. Although the Times is ideologically liberal in its nature, the paper has always attempted to be unbiased in its research, rhetoric, and tone (Woodward 32). In this context, journalists who write for the Times are expected to uphold to the fundamental principles of journalism, and well as the values journalism itself holds for the audience. Overall, the New York Times has fought through media conglomeration, and has been able to establish itself as one of if not the most influential newspapers in the world today. There is no arguing that our culture has seen a dramatic increase in the ownership and regulation of multiple networks and companies under a few giant conglomerate corporations. As

Delaporte 5 a result of this type of vertical integration, these corporations such as News Corp and Viacom have taken it upon themselves to set agendas for each and every company, network, and station that falls under their ownership, making each company message synonymous with the conglomeration itself. To our demise, this corporate ownership has weakened the practice of journalism in ways that may never again be the same. Papers such as the New York Times are reflections of how journalism more or less used to be: Unbiased, investigative, factual, and objective in nature. As American information seeking citizens, we ourselves are oftentimes unable to read a source on its face and accept what is written to be truth. The speed of which information can be gathered has changed, and in more ways than one, that is for the betterment of our society. The breadth of information available to us has also changed, and in more ways than one, that too is for the betterment of our society. Finally, the substance and value of information produced has also changed, but this certainly is not in the best interest of our society. In more ways than one, speed and breadth will never be able to compensate for what we as a culture have lost in terms of the substance and value of information.

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Works Cited Chase, Chris. "LeBron Causes Stir on Twitter after Asking about NFL Free Agency - Shutdown Corner - NFL Blog - Yahoo! Sports." Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and More. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/LeBroncauses-stir-on-Twitter-after-asking-about?urn=nfl-wp9321>. "Special Forces Rescue Ship from Pirates, Italy Says - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/world/europe/italy-pirates/index.html?hpt=wo_c2>. Woodward, Gary C. Center Stage: Media and the Performance of American Politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.