Analysis of "Persuasion in the Media Age" (part 9)

Radio

Next to television, radio is the second most popular media source today. Ninety-nine percent of all households have a radio. There are thousands of AM and FM stations in the united States. Approximately 85 percent of all Americans listen to the radio and we spend an average of approximately three hours a day listening to it. Teenagers in particular tune into the radio. 95 percent of the nation's youth listen to the radio for an average of 10 hours a week. Radio offers teens music and they listen to the radio wherever they are: at home, in the car, at school or at work. For advertisers, radio is an effective marketing tool because teens are loyal to their radio stations and radio stations usually segment their audiences neatly for advertisers.

Today in this blog, I will address three types of radio: talk radio, Internet radio and satellite radio.

l also go into source consolidation. Talk radio is the most popular radio format in the United States. Prior to 1987, a federal law called the Fairness Doctrine restricted blatantly ideological radio programming. However with its repeal the airwaves opened  to talk radio and to hosts, like Rush Limbaugh, who makes his political leanings no secret. More than half of talk radio today is devoted to politics.

Reasearchers have identifi3d several reasons fortalk radio's prominence. Some contend that talk radio fosters a sense of community for its listeners and provides audience members with the opportunity to say what is on their minds. Talk radio has been described as an antiestablishment medium. It allows callers to voice their displeasure with the nature of current events. Conservative talk show hosts and their callers dominate talk radio. Talk radio has a profound influence on American political and social life.

Second, technology has altered the radio industry and changed radio's role in the persuasion process. Computer and satellite technology allows local stations to give the illusion that they are being responsive to local demands for programming and news. However, in reality, with relatively new Internet and satellite technology, a technician at a small station can literally cut and paste bits of local news, weather and chatter into piped-in programming with a click of a mouse.

With Internet access, people can receive radio broadcasts from around the world over the Internet. Satellite radio allows users to receive radio broadcasts beamed from a satellite. Although satellite radio is available in the home and in the workplace, the most significant application is in cars. You can drive from California to Maine and listen to the same radio station the entire way. Direct-to-consumer satellite broadcast presents new challenges for local radio stations while allowing consumers to receive entertainment options specifically suited to their tastes. Advertisers will have to adapt to boh Internet and satellite radio as they attempt to reach consumers.

Finally

Consolidation

Concentration of Media Ownership

Consolidation
consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.

Globally, large media conglomerates include Viacom,CBS Corporation, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and News Corp (the former News Corporation, split in 2013), Bertelsmann, Sony, Comcast, Vivendi, Televisa, The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Corporation,Organizações Globo and Lagardère Group.

As of 2015, Comcast Corporation is the largest media conglomerate in the US, with The Walt Disney Company, Twenty-First Century Fox and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively.

In nations described as authoritarian by most international think-tanks and NGOs, media ownership is generally something very close to the complete state control over information in direct or indirect ways.

Mergers

Media mergers are a result of one media related company buying another company for control of their resources in order to increase revenues and viewership. As information and entertainment become a major part of our culture, media companies have been creating ways to become more efficient in reaching viewers and turning a profit. Successful media companies usually buy out other companies to make them more powerful, profitable, and able to reach a larger viewing audience. Media mergers have become more prevalent in recent years, which has people wondering about the negative effects that could be caused by media ownership becoming more concentrated. Such negative effects that could come into play are lack of competition and diversity as well as biased political views.

Media Oligopoly

An oligopoly is when a few firms dominate a market. When the larger scale media companies buy out the more smaller-scaled or local companies they become more powerful within the market. As they continue to eliminate their business competition through buyouts or forcing them out, the companies left dominate the media industry and create a media oligopoly.

Risks for Media Integrity

Media integrity is at risk when small number of companies and individuals control the media market. Media integrity refers to the ability of a media outlet to serve the public interest and democratic process, making it resilient to institutional corruption within the media system, economy of influence, conflicting dependence and political clientelism. Media integrity is especially endangered in the case when there are clientelist relations between the owners of the media and political centers of power. Such a situation enables excessive instrumentalization of the media for particular political interests, which is subverting the democratic role of the media.

Elimination of Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is also at stake when media mergers occur. Net neutrality involves a lack of restrictions on content on the internet, however, with big businesses supporting campaigns financially they tend to have influence over political issues, which can translate into their mediums. These big businesses that also have control over internet usage or the airwaves could possibly make the content available biased from their political stand point or they could restrict usage for conflicting political views, therefore eliminating Net Neutrality.

Debates and Issues

Concentration of media ownership is very frequently seen as a problem of contemporary media and society. When media ownership is concentrated in one or more of the ways mentioned above, a number of undesirable consequences follow, including the following:

• Commercially driven, ultra-powerful mass market media is primarily loyal to sponsors, i.e. advertisers and government rather than to the public interest.
• Only a few companies representing the interests of a minority elite control the public airwaves.
• Healthy, market-based competition is absent, leading to slower innovation and increased prices.

Diversity of Viewpoints

It is important to elaborate upon the issue of media consolidation and its effect upon the diversity of information reaching a particular market. Critics of consolidation raise the issue of whether monopolistic or oligopolistic control of a local media market can be fully accountable and dependable in serving the public interest.

Freedom of the Press and Editorial Independence

On the local end, reporters have often seen their stories refused or edited beyond recognition. An example would be the repeated refusal of networks to air "ads" from anti-war advocates to liberal groups like MoveOn.org, or religious groups like the United Church of Christ, regardless of factual basis. Journalists and their reports may be directly sponsored by parties who are the subject of their journalism leading to reports which actually favor the sponsor, have that appearance, or are simply a repetition of the sponsors opinion.

Consequently, if the companies dominating a media market choose to suppress stories that do not serve their interests, the public suffers, since they are not adequately informed of some crucial issues that may affect them.

End

consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.