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Same deal as advertising, really. Must be heavily regulated. This should not be confused with the regulation of free speech; on the contrary, unbridled media ownership is, de facto, restriction of free speech.

  • Disbar any company bigger than (threshold) from owning a newspaper / TV channel / content provider
  • Disbar any company from owning more than (1/2/?) media outlets
  • Disbar from media ownership, any company which derives a significant part of its earnings from non-media activities

The second one covers the UK situation (Multimerdochmedia). The third one covers the French situation (capture of the press by arms manufacturing, capture of TV by construction industry)

Both the French and UK situations demonstrate how vulnerable political processes are to capture by powerful media interest.


It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Mon Feb 13th, 2012 at 06:08:20 AM EST
As far as media ownership goes, that seems pretty reasonable to me.
by Zwackus on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 05:13:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The media don't report stories with a bias, but they also define values. And this happens in the journalism, not just on the ad pages.

In the UK you can't buy a Sunday paper without it being full of special features about glossy stuff you really want to buy, and stories about people who are famous and rich.

Occasionally there may be some cutesy throw-away feature about people with different values, or other people with unfamiliar lifestyles (not always through choice.)

But the main emphasis on 'lifestyle' is constant and reliable.

Changing media ownership rules might not modify that.

It's certainly true that the Murdochs of the world shouldn't be allowed to have the power they have now. But as long as you have centralised media there will be pressure towards on-message conformity.

The best you can expect is a reliable diversity of messages in the mainstream, instead of a monoculture.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 07:41:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
ThatBritGuy:
Changing media ownership rules might not modify that.

Taking the advertising out of the media might.

You need a new economic model for your media in that case. But we knew that.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 09:35:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The best you can expect is a reliable diversity of messages in the mainstream, instead of a monoculture.

That sounds good to me.

by Zwackus on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 07:41:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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