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Essay: Potential Effects of Corporate Ownership on News Production in the US and UK

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  • Published: 1 April 2019*
  • Last Modified: 23 July 2024
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  • Words: 1,620 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 7 (approx)

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Page 7 of 11

independent ownership of newspapers in the US has been quite inconclusive (Demers 1996) so we do

not clearly know, as of yet, if chain ownership does have an effect – negative, positive or none – on

news production in american newspapers but in regards to that, british news companies, it’s quite a

different story.

Some scholars write as if corporate ownership and commercial organizations necessarily compromise

the democratic promise of public communication (McChesney 1997), but in Latin America “strong

control, censorship, and manipulation of the mass media during authoritarian and democratic regimes

have openly ignored statist models” (Waisbord 1995, p. 219).

In all cases, self-censorship rather than heavy-handed party control is the operating system

(Polumbaum 1997).

Mainstream media keep inforcing political understandings which in turn inforce the collective views

of leading political actors. In regards to news production about the 2016 presidential election

campaign, it is very timely and relevant. Although presidential hopeful Donald Trump says a lot of

controversial things, he is very much covered by different channels to up their ratings, which in turn

help him up his own ratings in the popularity poll, making more and more popular day after day.

What really matters is how unified the views of these political insiders actually are, (Hallin 1986) if

we were to observe the big media tv channels and newspapers.

holds that the media “serve to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate the state and the

private activity” Herman & Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent (1988, p. xi)

corporations in the early 1970s were so incensed by the coverage by the american media of politics,

the environment, and business (Dreier 1982).

Even during the Vietnam War, the press seems largely to have gone about its normal business of

citing official lem mkaders—but at a time when officials were not in good terms with one another

(Hallin 1986).

ggtJohn Simpson: British Media Is 'Grotesquely Selective' In Reporting Terror Attacks Posted:

20/11/2015 11:59 GMT Updated: 22/11/2015 22:59 GMT

foreign correspondents number has been drastically declining in recent years.

When it comes to covering foreign affairs, ======== newspaper ========= now just rewrite

stories from other people because nowadays, the mainstream media is too selective on its foreign

affairs reporting.

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Although there maybe great things happening around the world, whether the incident will be covered

or not in news is decided by the number of people dying then.

Last year, —- people were killed in Syria — but none of the incidents were reported. When ===

people died in Paris during the terror attacks, the incident was instantly picked up most of the

mainstram media globally. The effect was as strong as the time when it had allowed the american

flafg in the profile picture’s foreground, facebook let its users do the same but with a french flag to

show solidarity.

So although it may seem like technology has changed news production for better when we look at it in

the surface level, deep inside, it has probably changed for worse. British media was recently criticised

for not reporting on recent incidents in Beirut, even when several outlets had already drawn attention

to the events.

Even to this date, there is almost no news organisation which has branches in Middle Eastern cities

like Iraq’s capital Baghdad. Not because, it is manually impossible set up a centre there or it is too

unsafe but surprisingly, because the western public is simple uniterested about those kind of important

matters. Why else do you think Kim Kardashain was the most searched person online last year?

The new media landscape is 'extremely herat-rending’.

.Newsnigh? how has it changed?

As for journalists trying to identify the "real" pressing issues of today, "it's a question of

differentiating between what is important and what is not important ( which does not necessarily mean

useless)

Why I have resigned from the Telegraph

Peter Oborne 17 February 2015

Simply relying on online poularity can has very negative effects on media companies!

Open for business?

The gradual plummetting of journalism standards has brought about a rather unfortunate change. It

has long been self-evident in quality British journalism that two departments: advertising and editorial

should be kept strictly apart. There is a great deal of evidence that, at the Telegraph, this distinction

has collapsed.

It generated five paragraphs in total on page 5 of the business section.

Cunard advertiser in the Telegraph aggressively contributing a lot of revenue to the paper.

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The newpaper’s story on last year’s protests in Hong Kong seemed a bit odd.

When advertisers are allowed to affect the editorial, not only the quality of the newspiece but of the

entire paper is frowned upon by its dear readers, who help the newspaper running.

If advertising priorities are allowed to determine editorial judgments, what kind of effect can it have

on the faithful readers’ trust on the paper? TIt has been clearly gicing more importance to what it

perceives to be the interests of a huge international bank much more than its obligation to bring the

news to Telegraph readers.

In a democratic soceity, free press plays a vital role, especdially in proving that that democracy still

exists. Newspapers or tv channels or any media company, they have an obligation to inform the truth,

the fact to the public, not just educate them about the migration crisis or entertain them with the

Kardashians. In the eyes of the public, lies, fabrication, altercation, misrepressentation and the hiding

of the truth cannot be condoned.

In the last few years, new bosses have been determining what gets the chop or the green light in the

mainstream media. We are all familiar with how low News International newspapers went with the

phone hacking ultimately forcing them to liquidation. Even the rich and powerful Rupert murdoch had

to make a public apology.

NUJ code of conduct

A journalist:10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any

commercial service or product save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which

she/he is employed.

the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been

fundamental to our business.

Online

6.4.21

NUJ code of conduct

A journalist:

1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of

expression and the right of the public to be informed.

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THE PUBLIC INTEREST

There may be exceptions to the clauses marked * where they can be demonstrated to be in the public

interest.

1. The public interest includes, but is not confined to:Detecting or exposing crime or serious

impropriety, Protecting public health and safety, Preventing the public from being misled by an action

or statement of an individual or organisation. BBC itself is misleading the public by giving itslef the

authority to create websites which are not connected to BBC, making us believe that they are

independent websites, when in fact, they’re created by the BBC, so they will either support or ignore

any issue related to BBC, but will never present news which conflict with BBC’s news or present any

news which will harm BBC in any way.

2. There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.

3. Whenever the public interest is invoked, the PCC will be asking editors to demonstrate fully that

they reasonably believed that publication or any journalistic activity undertaken with a view to

publication, would be in the public interest and how, and with whom, that was established at the time.

Conclusion: Newsrooms in an Age of Digital Production:

Network television news programs, only gave 13.5 percent of their time to international news in 1995

compared to 45 percent in the 1970s (Hickey 1998). Since technology and travel is making the world

smaller, even if we may not know who our neighbours are, we now know what’s happening in a

different continent in a click of a button. And this shift has greatly influenced the interests of

corporate managers and advertisers who in turn influence the form and content of news to a great

level (Squires 1993; Downie and Kaiser 2001).

Some of the most notable examples of advertisers playing a part in editorial decision making include

the rise of service-oriented "news you can use," entertainment, human interest, health, reporting and

of news beats such as "malls," "shopping," and "car culture" (Underwood 1993). But when advertisers

have a strong dominance over the paper, then news production becomes one big mess, so much so that

few notable employees have quit in the past, creating big public furore and concern. For instance,

*********************** example of the man who quit times, article by catherine.

As a matter of fact, when huge companies took over news organizations and entered the journalistic

field, they developed new strategies to increase the profitability, productivity and efficiency of news

businesses (Squires 1993; Underwood 1993; Dugger 2000; Downie and Kaiser 2001). As a result,

media executives and managerial-minded editors not only downsized their journalistic staffs, what

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they ended up doing was inventing new regimes of production of convergence to expand their

offerings across media (Auletta 1998). But this could likely mean the extinctuion of print media

eventually as everything moves online. Is it so?

The digital age will not herald the end of print. Far from it. The managerial skills needed to run a top

newspaper company – strong editorial skills, the ability to build brands, read the market and the

creation of compelling and original content, – will be equally relevant in the 21st century just as it is

today. (Murdoch 1997)

Technological developments are still in its preliminary phase in majority of the news companies. It is,

henceforth, difficult to predict their future. However, politics, legislation and the culture governing the

news industry will play vital roles in figuring out how the ever-advancing technologies redefine news

production, as they did before massive technological advancements.

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