Monday, October 14, 2013

What's Missing in Media Ownership?


We study the media all the time, observing diversity in media outlets such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers and many more. However, taking a closer look at all these media sources makes me wonder who is behind it all running the show. A recent survey released by the FCC in November of 2012 reveals that whites, and white males in particular, take up the majority of media owners in the nation. As of 2011, 69.4% of the nation's commercial broadcast stations are white males, which is greater than the 63.4% from 2009. Meanwhile, some minority ownership decreased including Black ownership going from 1% to .7% and Asian ownership falling from .8% to .5%. On the bright side, Women and Latino ownership did rise although not by more than 1%. Same is with radio ownership, where 80% of AM and FM radio owners are white, and 70% of them are white men. With the reveal of these uneven numbers in media ownership, I can't help but think, how does this effect what we hear and see in our modern media? Maybe the reason we lack diversity in our media correlates with the fact that we lack diversity in the CEO's  and heads of these media companies. 

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