American Media

Major characteristics of American media Concentration of ownership 6 largest media conglomerates own approx. 90% of media outlets Comcast Disney 21 Century Fox Time Warner CBS Viacom In comparison: in 1983 90% of the media outles were owned by approx. 50 different companies Convergence and cross ownership Deregulation (recent mergers, history of FCC regulation) USA continues to drop in the Press Freedom Index (currently around 41st – 48th place out of 180 ranked countries) (btw Poland – 48th in 2016, 18th in 2015)

Media Bias vs. Culture Wars All sides of the political spectrum report media bias favoring the opposite sides Race Welfare reform Environmental protection Gun control Liberal bias 44% of Americans see the media as ’too liberal’ accordig to recent polls Which outlets? Conservative bias Which outlets War on christmas

Press The numer of daily newspapers declines steadily The traditional model: ’two newspaper towns. Now most weaker newspapers have folded Largest titles by circulation: USA Today (’McPaper’) The Wall Street Journal The New York Times Los Angeles Times Reasons for the decline (slower than the media themselves often report) Circulation declines as readers choose other media. With circulation falling the advertisment content rises and quality lowers. Staff cuts – hence quality changes, particularly if staff moves to other media as well - (think Huffington Post - in 2012, HP became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize.) Investigative journalism and muckraking that sold a lot of newspapers moved to other media – not only the Internet, but also TV. Newspapers organizations now often edit separate

TV The Big Three The fourth network PBS Delivery National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) The fourth network Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) PBS Delivery National over-the-air networks / Affiliates Free-to-air satellite television Direct-broadcast satellite television Cable Premium Cable Pressure from VOD and IPTV Netflix Amazon Video Hulu (a joint venture VOD service) Time shifting Bias accusations

’Alternative media’ The medium of choice: online blogging, Youtube, but also radio Yet – ’alternative media’ logic has a lot of screen time in conservative and liberal media alike Participatory journalism Controversies The subaltern – true and false Think what labelling as alternative does Democracy Now! And Infowars.com both classified as alternative media?

Radio National Public Radio Conservative talk radio Broadcast by commercial radio, often nationally syndicated A national phenomenon. Conservative talk radio do extremely well in the national listeners rankings. Rush Limbaud Sean Hannity Glenn Beck Alex Jones Michael Savage Mark Levin Progressive talk radio Reaction to conservative talk radio