Who really defines what is important? Humans have a distinct ability to identify matters based on a level of significance. But, humans are also easily influenced through numerous different ways. Peer pressure is typically the most common, however that is direct influence. News media uses an indirect approach to influence viewers. This is done imperceptibly, and is often not even recognized by the consumers. In the premature age of media, this wasn’t as ubiquitous of an issue, because it was considerably harder to influence people using one newspaper a day. However, twenty-first century news media has countless mediums to broadcast stories to consumers. Not only are there a seemingly endless amount of news sources, but almost all of them are operated underjust six different companies. This makes it incredibly easy to set the agenda of today’s society. Agenda setting is the result of an under-regulated media industry.
Where the kings of media control all aspects of media production and distribution. This is done through numerous ways; mergers and buyouts, integration, globalization, and concentration of ownership. All of this brings us to our current place in twenty-first century media. However, this isn’t all bad, this and the internet, has made news media very accessible to the world. it has also made news media significantly cheaper, as most articles are available for free online. Although, media conglomeration results in much cheaper news services, news media should have less power to influence the general public’s perception of what is important because agenda setting has the ability to drastically change public opinion.
This is possible because only six companies control over ninety-percent of mass media. Headlines, articles, and stories are written to achieve the most viewers and is often not based on what is important. All the issues that we hear about every day on the news are designed by journalists to get the most attention. The question is not what is important, the question is how many people will talk about it. [Body Paragraph] First, news media should be regulated more because agenda setting is a very powerful technique that has the power to drastically change public opinion. In a study done by Dr. Maxwell McCombs during the 1968 Presidential Campaigns in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. McCombs found direct correlation between the top-five issues deemed important by the public, and the top»five topics covered by news media the twenty five days prior.
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What this means, is that if news media wasn’t telling the public that global warming for example was happening, the public would not consider it a prevalent issue. This raises concern because if an issue arises that is a threat to the media kings, they have the power to make it an irrelevant issue in the eyes of the public, simply by not talking about it. Now of course there are news mediums out there that are not run by the six media kings, but they account for less than ten-percent of media. This means that a very finite amount of people would even see that story. Society today has become so dependent on news media as its source for all information, that basically news media tells society what is important. While it may not be as cut and dry as that, it is not difficult to convince the general public what is important. The primary way this is done is through repetition.
By repeatedly discussing a news topic, the topic is made into something important, because this gets consumers talking about said topic. As time goes on, the issues that news media focuses on becomes the issues society focuses on. Thus, the agenda of news media becomes to a degree, the agenda of the general public. All the issues that we hear about every day on the news are designed by journalists to get the most attention. This is because news media is dominated by greed, and each issue that arises in society is not rated by importance, but by how many viewers/readers a story will get. Which in turn means how much money they will make off that story. Global warming, is an incredibly dry topic, and Al Gore tried his very best to get global warming in the heads of society. But, it simply doesn’t capture the attention of the general public like a controversial story about a rising terrorism threat. This, meaning that news media isn’t going to run a story that the majority of people might skim over as much as one that will surely capture the attention of the masses.
It could be said that there was once a day that the goal of newspapers wasn’t to just sell the most papers, but to inform the public on pressing issues that is important to the people. However, over time it became priority to sell the most papers and get the most readers. compared to writing about what is truly important. This could be blamed on the more recent monopolization of media. Society has gone from having a seemingly endless amount of different media producers, to having just six major ones, making up over ninety-percent of all media. How media got to this point is easily explained by four different strategies, which create one simple objective, to become the largest media organization in the world. The first step is growth, as new mediums entered the market, companies needed more employees, more space, and most importantly, more money.
To do that, companies started ”merging” with competition. This gave companies the staff, space, and capital to expand into the newly introduced mediums, like radio, television, and internet. It also eliminated competition from the market, making it even easier to become a dominant media producer. Following this step is integration. These new mediums created a demand for producers, and distributors. While a company could distribute the most media, they still would need the help of a company that produces media. To eliminate the middle-man, companies started to produce as well as distribute media, which is an example of vertical integration. From there, companies looked to reach other aspects of media, by moving into other forms of media, they were able to produce and distribute all sides of media, such as; radio, publishing, film, etc.
This is an example of horizontal integration. After integrating into other media markets, the ever growing media companies look to the third step which is globalization. By expanding their operations to other parts of the world, they were able to reach new audiences all over the world. Thus, achieving even more consumers, resulting in more money, and becoming global entities. This is one reason why the media kings of today have so much influence in society. The final step media companies took to get where mass media is today is concentration of ownership. To eliminate even more competition, major media players went out to acquire more media holdings. Thus, resulting in the concentrated state media is in today. This is ultimately the reason why news media has so much influence on society. By having ownership in all aspects of media, the six major media organizations can easily and cost-effectively convey news stories how they want.
So to put all of these steps into a clear picture, let’s say Company X has completed all these steps. Company X now has the ability to produce: newspapers, publishing, radio broadcasts, television news coverage, cable and satellite programming, as well as numerous websites, all of which can and will discuss the same topics that they feel will gain the most consumers. Company X also uses in-house distribution strategies, eliminating any say in what is distributed. It also has outlets in not just the US. but also; Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Thus resulting in widespread coverage across the world, all with the same message, subtly telling the world what is important and what isn’t.
While media monopolization has created an incredibly concentrated mainstream media, it has all been done ”legally.” To the defense of the media kings like, General-Electric, News—Corp, and Disney, what they have done is created a time where it has never been easier to access all sides of media. By consolidating all aspects of media production and distribution, these companies can provide news coverage to almost everyone for minimal cost, often even free of charge, as most articles are available online for free. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and this holds true in the media game. While the article is free online, the company that published that article most likely has ties to the internet service provider that is supplying you with access for that high monthly fee. So is the article really free?
The invention of the internet changed media forever because it opened up a seemingly infinite amount of avenues for media consumption. However, it also made it even easier for news media to influence society. News media gained the ability to upload articles and videos at all hours of the day, with virtually no cost at all. Then, social media came into the picture, and changed the internet forever. Social media gave the people of the first-world a voice on the internet. However, even that voice is influenced. News media channels like CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC use social media more than anyone, even more than teenage girls. These media channels use social media to distribute news coverage in the easiest way possible, directly to millions of user’s feeds on social media.
They use this process to influence society by posting many news articles and videos on their page throughout the day, in an effort to get people to discuss said topics, through once again, repetition. Take the Ferguson Riots for example; throughout all the chaos that was news coverage for almost a month, it could be said that the riots were popularized by those same media channels. They blew the story up, and encouraged people to share how they felt on social media, which started the hashtag “BlackLivesMatter.” That hashtag helped organize protests, which soon turned into rallies, which then soon turned into riots. While this isn’t about whether or not what happened in Ferguson is important or not, this is showing that the relentless media coverage of the story increased viewed importance of the story. Which, in turn, incited more riots and protests, which gave all the major news media channels endless coverage that was captivating the world, giving them more viewers and even more money.
While the media giants have great control over what is believed to be “important,” they do not have control over free speech. Thankfully, there are many people who believe agenda setting to be an illicit process, and finding sources to prove this wasn’t overly difficult. However, it was difficult to determine the credibility of these sources. Since this isn’t exactly a topic that is favorable by the major media providers, sources were limited to primarily the lower ten-percent of media providers. Thankfully, there were several sources that were older but still held true to current times. Academic journals seemed to be the most reliable of sources as they were often close to unbiased.
Newspapers have three to four different versions printed each day. Cable news channels broadcast twenty-four hours a day. News media also has the ability to push topics to social media avenues, making it easier than ever to reach the masses. Maxwell McCombs cites Walter Lippmann’s Public Opinion by stating, ”His thesis [Lippmann’s] is that the news media, our windows to the vast world beyond direct experience, determine our cognitive maps of that world.” The first strategy being growth. Newspapers originally were the only source for news, but the invention of the radio created an entirely new market. Society no longer was limited to just one medium, and this sparked growth for the companies that took advantage of radio news. Following radio, came television, which opened yet another market for media companies to expand upon. Media companies that broadcasted radio shows started airing television news programs, which in turn sparked even more growth.
Then the invention of cable television, eventually led to cable news networks, which could broadcast at all hours of the day. Thus began, the start of the mass media. From there, the invention of the internet added the largest medium for news to date. The internet made it easier than ever for media companies to reach a large number of people. All of this is related to growth, because as time went on, media companies needed more and more employees, to operate along all the different mediums. But to do that, required copious amounts of money, and the only way to supply the money for these new, large media operations, was to merge with a competing company, or a company that focused on another side of media. Instead of using resources to compete with another company, the two could combine, resulting in more available capital to fund more expensive media projects, as well as eliminating a competitor. Thus, creating the desire to become as large of company as possible.
