When it comes to large media mergers in the United States, the impact of media consolidations stretches beyond audience perceptions and directly into the corporate lake of the survival of the fittest. As media conglomerates such as FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, and an extremely small handful of others essentially buy out smaller companies, the arena for “open” competition shrinks because the larger companies obtain more power. Generally speaking, this is where the government steps in with the sole intent to preserve competition through regulation in the open marketplace.
To start, with the technology of media today it is important to note that, the human brain from the perspective of mass media companies is viewed as upon as a sponge that absorbs information. Proof of this exists within the business of advertising via the web, and how consumers are targeted with carefully selected tidbits of information. “Advertising appears in public schools and educational materials in ways that would not have been permitted even 20 years ago”(Straubaar, Larose and Davenport 313). The world-wide-web is an intangible force of information that functions without any physical barriers except through the certain devices which connects us all to a set of complied raw data on web pages. Whether this information is true or false remains purely subjective through an objective presentation which can now be passed on with ease through the grape vine of the information superhighway. It is for this reason, (the openness of competition) that government intervention is justifiable when large companies are attempting to merge with one another because diversity of perspectives and information is important.
Ultimately, allowing one dimensionality to dominate any sector of the business world allows for an acceptance of quality that could fade away due to the lack of competition. It would be unacceptable for example, if all of the media outlets decided to merge together forming one single outlet of news reporting for the entire world because unique perspectives would be overlooked, and propaganda would be the dominant social norm within the industry. We saw the United States government in the 1990’s step in, and investigate Microsoft under Antitrust laws for the purpose of spreading competition in the computing market. “The company barely escaped being split up after it was ruled an unlawful monopolist in 2000 for using its stranglehold on the PC market with its Windows operating system to cripple competitors, such as Netscape’s Navigator Web browser”(Chan). Although, this case was settled out of court, the diversity of browsers today which are in use, are likely due to the investigation by the government which slowed down the growth of Microsoft tremendously. It is incumbent upon us to support proper intervention via the government in order for competition to remain intact.
Works Cited
Chan, Sharon Pian. Seattle Times Long antitrust saga ends for Microsoft . 11 05 2011. 18 October 2018. <https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/long-antitrust-saga-ends-for-microsoft/.>
Straubaar, Joseph, obert Larose and Lucinda Davenport. Media Now, Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology. Boston,MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012.
