Media Coalition reform- “who owns the media?”:
The Media Reform Coalition was set up in September 2011 to manage the
contribution by political society groups, academics and media campaigners to
debates over media regulation, ownership and democracy in the response to the
phone hacking scandal that occurred in relation to the News of The World
newspaper. The Media Reform represents an independent alliance of individuals
committed to maximising the public interest in media communications. It works
with partner groups and supporting individuals to produce research and to
organise campaigning activities aimed at creating a media system that operates
in the public interest.
On November 12th, 2015, the Media Reform
Coalition released a 20-page report titled ‘Who
owns the UK media?’. This report supports the Curran and Seaton theory
called ‘Power and Media Industries’.
The Curran and Seaton theory gives a political and economic approach to the
media. It purely argues that there the patterns of ownership control are the most
significant factors in how the media operates. Media industries follow the
normal capitalist pattern of increasing concentration of ownership in fewer and
fewer hands. This leads to a narrowing of the range of opinions represented and
a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity. The media and
coalition report also relates to the Marxism
theory, another political and economic based theory developed by Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels. This theory presents the idea that capitalists (those
with monopolies or duopolies) that own large media companies, have the ability
to influence or determine the political life of the public.
These theories are represented through the statistics stated within the ‘Who owns the UK media?’ report. For example, just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation.
These theories are represented through the statistics stated within the ‘Who owns the UK media?’ report. For example, just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation.
With online and
mobile readers included, the data does not alter much, with a small total of five
major companies accounting for 80% of all audience consumption, online and
offline. Only 3 big companies control 71% of the national newspaper market; The
Sun and Times owner called News UK, Daily
Mail Publisher called DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) and
Daily Mirror’s owner Trinity Mirror. Despite being smaller
businesses, the capitalist theme is even continued over major regional
newspapers groups, 6 main companies are responsible for 81% of them and 56
publishers accounting for the remaining 19%. Even the biggest
telecommunications company- Sky is controlled by News UK owner, Rupert Murdoch,
so these monopolies consist of more than one form of media.
The biggest broadcaster in terms
of revenue, by some distance, is Sky. The BBC is the largest of the public service
broadcasters with £5.1bn, of which around £3.7bn is provided by the licence
fee. While the majority of these broadcasters are owned either by UK-based companies
or are publicly owned in the case of the BBC and Channel Four, there is growing
infringement of large US-based corporations into UK Television ownership.
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (2014 revenue: $31.8bn) owns 39.1% of Sky plc
(previously BskyB), and, having previously wanted to buy the remaining share,
is reported to be preparing a second bid for full ownership. Virgin Media has
been purchased by Liberty Global (2014 revenue: $18.2bn), while Channel 5 is now
owned by Viacom International, a subsidiary of Viacom (2013 revenue: $13.8bn).
There are multiple issues with
the concentration of ownership being in fewer and fewer hands, the first point
being a rise in generic political opinions. The fact that the newspapers are owned by a minority of people, means
there will be commonality of similar argument and political beliefs and the
readers won’t challenge these opinions, because in reality they cant. If the
audience decides it wants to read another newspaper to get a different view,
chances are it will be owned by the same capitalist company. This is similar to
the cultivation theory, the way we vote in elections/referendums will be
massively dependant on the newspapers we are exposed to, and if the majority
have the same opinion this will somewhat challenge the way our society
thinks, because the majority of people's ideas and beliefs will be the same. Another
similar situation to this, is that an individual may decide to go to Thorpe park,
because “it is better than Alton Towers”, but in reality they are both owned by
Merlin Entertainments (along with 30 other major attractions across the UK), so
no matter which theme park they decide to go to, the business benefits.
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