Keith LeBlanc kl953314 JOUR1050 – Assignment #1

A review of media accessed during a 24-hour period will vary significantly depending on activities. Attendance in a classroom setting will reduce time available for usage of media, as will required presence in a work environment. This paper is based upon a 24-hour period of “freedom” – that is, the period was not cut into multiple pieces by required duties or location. Media access was more diverse, frequent and of longer duration. The results of monitoring this period indicate personal media usage in some fashion as follows:

Print newspapers – 3 Owner & Type Cleveland Plain Dealer Advance/Newhouse – large media corporation Cuyahoga County News Herald Digital Media – medium multi-outlet corporation Parma Observer Small local business/publisher

Digital newspapers – 4 New York Times NYT Corporation – large diversified Washington Post Bezos/Amazon – diversified large corporation SF Gate Small regional formerly large corporation Washington Times Small regional corporation

Internet News/Opinion – 6-10 CNN News Turner Corp – large media corporation Fox News 20th Century Fox/NewsCorp – large international group Drudge Report Matt Drudge – small news aggregator Politico Capitol News – small regional DC focus Real Clear Politics RCP/CrestMedia – small Chicago news aggregator Wall Street Journal NewsCorp – large international group

Print Magazines – 2 The New Yorker Advance/Newhouse – large media corporation Motor Trend Source/Interlink – medium media group

Internet Entertainment YouTube (various) Google Corporation – very large media/internet group ITunes (various) Apple Corporation – very large media/internet group

Radio/TV NPR NPR – national publicly owned radio programming National Network Cable TV Various – all large multimedia corporations Local Radio and TV News, weather, entertainment, most national groups Keith LeBlanc KL953314 – JOUR1050 – Assignment #1

My personal use of the information obtained ranges from attempts to “keep up” with daily events and to use readily accessible and inexpensive outlets for personal entertainment. I do not have a firm schedule or a rigid approach to my use of these sources of information or entertainment.

Like many people, I have significantly moved away from print materials and to digital materials due to convenience, timely availability of information, and availability at the push of a button.

Having grown up in a family where getting and using information was a very important part of daily life, I have some habits reaching back to adolescence, even childhood. “Good programs for children” was a rule in the house when TV was first available.

As far as the ownership (which is often complicated and dynamic) of these various media outlets, I really do not affect my use of them. News management and editorial approach is more critical and does not always reflect owner pressure. The way information is presented and the actual coverage of events and issues is more important to me. However If a source (an internet cable program for instance) consistently either ignores important events, or reports on these and related issues with obvious slanted presentations, I will predictably not access that source barring emergencies.

Should large organizations control the majority of media? It seems to me that there are known pros and cons. On the positive side, and given trends in the public’s preferences for media types, larger organizations have the management and financial strength to restructure their offerings to meet changing demand for products. NewsCorp and other similar groups obviously have the resources to buy, sell, break up and reposition all categories of public media. Relatively smaller Individual outlets

(especially but not only, print based) are increasingly in trouble and are prone to disappear except where acquisition or merger has them absorbed by the power players – which in many cases ultimately also means disappearance.

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The negative side of concentration of media control with large profit-motive organizations is a tendency to draw and retain viewers/readers and advertisers with whatever “messages” seems to work best. The question of journalism ethics is often raised but under examination often found wanting. The move away from “objective news” coverage at major networks has been ongoing for some time. Concentration of the industry also limits the number of career “slots” for newscasters, announcers, advertising specialists, producers and programming and production talent. It is far easier for large organizations to in fact pick over the talent pool and make certain those chosen are prepared to follow the “company line”, if they desire full employment.

Print-based journalism (all newspapers and magazines) is clearly under siege from digital producers moving to the internet and the outlook is darker than it was not long ago. The combining of print and digital “editions” and the use of “custom” print editions linked to digital content is being tried

(perhaps the last stand) by many print publishers and owners.

Does this writer feel “manipulated” by the growing control of media by very large organizations? Yes and No. Consolidation seems to have grouped media into two opposing groups, driven by owner and advertiser politics. This is limiting the ability of “independent” media outlets to gain market support. It is also limiting the presentation of “balanced” messages within a media structure, and setting the stage for eventual “manipulation” of the consumers of media, when objectivity should rule.

The role of persuasion is especially important in a democratic society, in which public policy bubbles up from the citizenry over time. 1

1 Vivian, John, Media of Mass Communication (11th Edition), (Pearson, 2013) :16.

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But I think that for the average user to navigate this minefield requires the ability to see the differences between the presentations of news and issues – and slanted “opinions”. I believe that once this knowledge is gained, it permits one to avoid being pushed around by any one media content and presentation alone.

However, the obvious “slant” or bias in a great deal of media output made available today to the consumer will continue. For those people who are not aware of the availability of alternative views, or how to find these, or who really cannot be bothered, manipulation is possible, even probable.

In markets where a lack of competition is limiting profitable market entry, alternatives made available to the public may be limited as well. Who is providing the filters of what the general public sees and hears?

Gatekeepers are media people who make judgments on what most merits inclusion in what is sent to networks, stations and web site operators. Gatekeeping is an unavoidable function in mass communication because there is neither time nor space for all the messages that might be passed through the process. Gatekeepers are editors who decide what makes it through their gates and in what form. 2

When the “gatekeepers” are providing only their versions of “news” by editing coverage into opinions, we are in danger of more manipulation as time passes.

2 Vivian, John, Media of Mass Communication (11th Edition), (Pearson, 2013) :48.

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