Professional Documents
Culture Documents
society. Apparently, it is more than that to some people. Besides satisfying people’s needs, the
media also supports businesses to promote brands that attract consumers to know and use their
products and services. Communication is an effective tool for leaders to leverage for their
business growth while contributing to the development of the national economy. In this case, the
businesses are media megacorporations. With the progressive media practices in less than a
hundred years, the growth of those corporations has spurred significantly more than ever even
The media industry is not an exception to the reformation and the laissez-faire
abandonment in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was promulgated.
Although it did not specifically target the media industry, the signs of monopoly and vertical
integration were condemned, and unethical practices were suspected by the government. For
instance, the five vertically integrated major film studios were obliged to divest their theater
chains by the Supreme Court after the court case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.,
leading to Paramount Decrees which collectively forced movie studios to dismantle the
policies and reformulated the view of Americanism in his radio talks with a simple and common
language to explain complicated issues and programs. Besides, he also convinced the Americans
to give up isolationism and enter WWII by explaining reasons for Americans to involve and
assist Great Britain. As President Roosevelt introduced the utility of the media as a tool for
marketing corporate and state institution interests; consequently, media and communication did
not merely serve the public’s interests anymore. Correspondingly, the media fervently
manipulated people into frameworks of war, political parties, and consumer capitalism in the
1940s.
Subsequently, the regulatory environment of the 1940s had moderately survived to the
1970s and 1980s, and established a precedent for the federal government's significant role in the
media industry. Passed in 1980, Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed interlocking conglomerates that
form a monopoly by colluding with one another and imposing pricing in a particular market.
Nevertheless, deregulatory policies became more widespread and dominated the interest of the
industry.
Earlier in the century, muckrakers represented the public's interests, not the interests of
corrupt corporations and political officials of the era. Today's media is drastically different from
that of the muckrakers' age. Modern news organizations have the potential and capability to
reach a wider community via more mediums than they ever have before. However, the has failed
to serve the public good with the advantages of innovative technology. The collapse of antitrusts
and regulatory policies was followed by the rapid rise of deregulation. Most of the national news
agendas were saturated with slogans and debates, calling for a shrinking government and the role
returned to the media industry on a larger scale after being exiled by the government for forty
years. The integrations did not solely institute within a particular industry but across industries
such as film, cable, and broadcast stations, shifting the industry from heterogeneity to synergistic
vertical integration paved the way for convergence of media industries in the 1980s, leading to
NBC-Universal. As many commissions and departments (such as FTC, FCC, and DOJ)
facilitated the deregulation and consolidation, the Big Five have become main influencers in
altering the country’s politics; correspondingly, one of their substantial accomplishments is the
on media consolidation of media outlets. The law caused less competition and authorization of
companies such as Comcast and AOL to purchase multiple related businesses in local markets.
Regarding MGM, Amazon's acquisition was fueled by the same purpose of the Big Five's
consolidation which is possessing all kinds of media outlets for mutual promotion. With the
escalated mergers, parent companies become more influential and competent in acquiring small
businesses that stand in their way. In addition, those megacorporations promote their interrelated
book publishers, cable networks, celebrities, radio, and television talk shows with their vast
resources. With such cartel-like processes, therefore, creative talent and new voices can never
replicate those conglomerates' success, or even stand on their own without being merged.
Moreover, the concurrence of concentrated media power in news and commentary and corporate
political reinforcement has restricted the impact of voters over which issues and candidates will
be presented on Election Day. Reasons for political officials to contribute to those conglomerates
are because they are parts of the backbone of the economy, and political issues/campaigns, not to
mention lobbying. As mentioned in the article, “The Apprentice” has both aired shows and
unaired footage, which some have claimed contains unflattering footage of Mr. Trump. The
future of democratic societies seems to be obscured since the media outlets can be biased and
manipulate the public based on which political party they ally with.