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COM SCI - ch 10 (The Politics of Global Communication (THE BEGINNINGS -…
COM SCI - ch 10
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The domain of Mass Media
Main issue = Concentration of ownership in media products.
Mega-media mergers of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The essential guideline for policy makers seems to be the deregulation of the marketplace.
Common argument in favour of an unregulated marketplace:
It guarantees creative & competitive forums that offer a diversity of contents.
Evidence suggests that concentration in the mass media promotes market control by a few companies that tend to produce a limited package of commercially viable contents only.
- The WTO Basic Telecommunications Agreement of 1997 governs market access but has little to say about the conduct of parties on the market.
- It does not guarantee effective, open competition between commercial actors
- The lack of a serious competition policy supports unhindered market concentration & reinforces foreign ownership of essential market domains, particularly in developing countries.
Should public intervention for cultural products be different from that for food products?
- The European Commission does indeed prohibit industrial mergers but in a limited and modest way.
- The commission may propose demands that make companies decide not to merge: But out of several thousands of mergers only 10 were really prohibited.
Mergers are considered serious problems only when consolidated companies may control more than 40% of a market.
- European regulation can prohibit abuse of monopoly positions but not the development of market monopolies.
- In the US regulation a merger is considered a threat to competition only if the 2 companies after their merger control more than 60% of a market.
More important to question whether consolidation of media ownership guarantees sufficient independent locations for media workers, enough channels for audience receptions and/or access, adequate protection against price controls on oligopolistic markets, and opportunities for newcomers in media markets.
- Even if the oligopolist could demonstrate quality, fairness, diversity, critical debate, objectivity, investigative reporting and resistance to external pressures in offerings to the marketplace, there would still be reason to provide regulatory correction because the marketplace would effectively be closed for newcomers.
Freedom of the press is undermined because the media have become so oligopolistic that censorship powers lie in private handsLinked into other circuits of power, such as financial institutions, military establishments & the political elite.
Threat that olipolisation erodes the diversity of informational & cultural productionIn cases where consolidation occurs as vertical integration the real danger exists.E.g newspaper that as part of a conglomerate, places mainly reviews of its own books. Emphasis on the profitability of the commodity, rather than on its sociocultural quality.
- Illustrative is the tendency among film production companies and recorded music producers to concentrate on blockbusters.
- Rambo and Madonna tendency reinforces a homogenization of markets, as the less profitable products are avoided, so niche products will die.
- Concentration can also diminish the number of channels that citizens can use to express or receive opinions
- Controlling interests may more easily refuse to distribute certain opinions.
Global communication politics today:
8 Essential issues that will largely shape the future of global communication
Governance of these issues is complicated because of the political agendas in the world community are strongly divided and conflicting.
Conflict: Neoliberalism vs Humanitarianism
NEOLIBERALISM
ACCESS: Perceives people primarily as consumers. Provide them with access to communication infrastructure.
KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is a commodity that can be processed and owned by private parties. Property rights strictly reinforced.
GLOBAL ADVERTISING: Strong interest in the expansion of global advertising. More commercial space in the media, new target groups, more sponsorships & more places to advertise.
PRIVACY: Strong interests in data mining. Systematic collection, storage, and processing of data about individuals to create client profiles.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: Strict enforcement of a trade-based system for the protection of intellectual property rights. Expanding the period of protection as well.
TRADE IN CULTURE: Application of the rules of international trade law to the export and impact products.
CONCENTRATION: Creating business links with partners in order to consolidate controlling positions on the world market. Sufficiently large regulatory vacuum in which to act freely.
THE COMMONS: Private exploitation of such commons as the airwaves and promotes the auctioning of these resources to private parties.
HUMANISM
ACCESS: People primarily as citizens and wants them to be sufficiently literate. Promote democratic participation.
KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is a public good
GLOBAL ADVERTISING: Concerned about the ecological implication of the worldwide promotion of a consumer society and the growing gap. Strong interest in defending public spaces against their commercial exploitation.
PRIVACY: Protection of people's privacy. Creation of critical attitudes among consumers.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: Concerned that the present system sanctions the grand-scale resource plunder of genetic info from poor countries & serves the interests of corporate owners better than the interests of local communities or individual artistic creators.
TRADE IN CULTURE: Exempt culture from trade provisions and in allowing national measures for the protection of cultural autonomy and local public space.
CONCENTRATION: Global merger activities have negative consequences for both consumers and professionals in terms of diminishing diversity & creating the loss of professional autonomy.
THE COMMONS: Retain the public property of the human common heritage so that the public accountability & community requirements remain secure.
Oligopolists always have tendency to use their market power to price gouge consumers. Access to info and culture become dependent upon the level of disposable income
Key arguments against attempts to regulate media concentration are the following:
- Strong consolidation companies can offer much more diversity and mobilise more independence in their dealings with governments than smaller companies can
- Strong media can rescue loss-making media that would disappear, and thus their contribution to diversity is retained.
- More competition does not guarantee more diversity, because competitors may all try to reach the largest share of the market with a similar product
- Even if regulatory measures, against industrial consolidation were successful in stimulating more competition, an increase in product diversity is not guaranteed.
- Markets tend inevitably toward identical, though marginally distinct, products because, of necessity, they address the largest possible number of buyers