Journalism 101

Donica Mensing

 

Recent trends in media economics

1. Demassification

Many media outlets target niche audiences rather than mass audiences

 

Radio, then magazines, and now television is demassifying

 

We now have many, many choices, sprinkled with mega-events

 

The Internet and digital technologies will accelerate the trend to personal media

 

Advertisers are finding audiences independently of mass media, which means we may need to find new models for supporting media

2. Concentration

Concentration is when fewer and fewer companies dominate an industry. in 1992 Ben Bagdikian wrote that only 20 national and international companies dominated the mass communication industry: That number is much fewer today. In 1992:

• Fewer than 11 companies controlled more than 50% of all newspapers in the U.S.
• Two companies controlled more than 50% of the magazine sector.
• Three companies dominated television.
• Five companies dominated books.
• Four companies dominated movies.

  Examples:

  Gannett newspapers

  Knight Ridder newspapers

  Time Warner is the largest media company in the world, with revenues in 1995 of over $17 billion.

  Disney is also huge; revenues in 1998 were $7.1 billion

3. Conglomeration

Media companies have becoming part of much larger corporations, many of which own a collection of highly diverse businesses. For example:

NBC is owned by General Electric

Viacom owns a variety of movie, music and other media companies

 

4. Increasing Competition

Fewer companies but more products.

Increasing competition for consumer attention.

Increasing fragmentation and specialization.

 

 

What are possible consequences of these trends?

• Increasing cross-promotion and emphasis on marketing.
• Greater pressure on bottom line profits.
• Greater potential to wield more political influence.
• Greater potential to exclude certain ideas from mainstream media.
• More homogenization and less controversy.
• Greater difficulty for alternative voices to emerge.
• Greater financial stability for some media organizations

Conclusion:

Media companies are very responsive to ratings and circulation figures

Media consumers vote for the media they want with dollars and eyeballs

Be aware of the domination of mass media by a handful of companies

Actively seek out alternative sources of news and entertainment

Return to Journalism 101 homepage

Additional Information

Communications research shows:

No consistent relationship between newspaper competition and news diversity.

 

Little evidence that competition leads to higher-quality or more diverse news.

 

Popular music still showing diversity, despite the fact that four firms produced more than 82 percent of the top 100 albums in 1990.

(Major record companies control large-scale manufacturing, distribution, and publicity, but use semiautonomous independent producers to maintain the vitality of the popular music market.)

A focus on profits can lead to cut backs in less profitable sectors such as news, a decrease in the number of journalists, fewer expensive investigative stories, greater use of wire services and public relations videos.

 

Some of these trends however, have led to a boom in alternative newspapers, niche cable channels, independent film producers and an wild array of voices on the Internet.

Additional resources:

Is chasing circulation and ratings incompatible with good journalism?