The issue of media ownership is a complex one and therefore, I look to answer this question in exploring the importance of media ownership in society and the significance of such an issue. I shall do this by exploring the different major concerns

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Why does ownership of the media matter?

The issue of media ownership is a complex one and therefore, I look to answer this question in exploring the importance of media ownership in society and the significance of such an issue.  I shall do this by exploring the different major concerns posed to the public by concentrated ownership of the media, including the threats to pluralism and the consequences had on the economy (focusing on the idea of competition and efficiency).  It’s an issue of complete conflict and often contradiction in that there are many counter-arguments available and thus it is difficult to conclude as to whether concentrated ownership is good or bad, however, in either situation ownership of the media remains something that matters.

   

The first and foremost concern of media policies is the “potential socio-political and cultural implications of media empire-building” (Gillian Doyle, 2002).  This is the concern for the threat that concentrated media may pose to ‘pluralism’, being the diversity obtained within the media (embracing both diversity of ownership and diversity of content).  It is essential to have present, a number of different ‘voices’ to promote both ‘political’ and ‘cultural’ pluralism, requiring the need for a range of different political views and opinions, and the need for a range of cultures to be represented in the media.

Media concentration is commonly perceived to decrease the number of independent suppliers and, with regards to this, affects the range of output.  It is something then, which is believed to have negative influences on both diversity of ownership and diversity of content.  In addition to this, the high market domination found within high concentrations of media, means reducing competition, which is in effect reducing the all-important pluralism.  However, it can be argued that larger organisations are in a better position to bring improvements to their produce and a greater range of output due to the fact that they are in a superior financial position than smaller ones.  Thus, it would seem that they are also able to bring benefits towards diversity through a greater range of content.

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This leads to the argument that pluralism “depends not only on a diversity of ownership but on a range of other interrelated variables” (Gilliam Doyle, 2002).  The main and most influential within media are the diversity of suppliers and the diversity of output.  Nonetheless, other factors like the size and wealth of a given market and the tendency to consolidate resources can impact the pluralism in a given society.

In studying the diversity of suppliers and its affects on society, we can see that media ownership is of great significance with the continuous debate of when such ownership ...

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