Media Consolidation: Skip the “Spring Cleaning”
Media Consolidation: Skip the “Spring Cleaning”
Spring has sprung here at High Point University and I for one need to partake in some serious spring cleaning. Sure, my room is a mess, but I also have tried to clean up my online presence. I’ve unfollowed people and businesses on Instagram that I don’t resonate with anymore, deleted old apps that I haven’t touched since high school, and gotten rid of all the screenshots of old homework assignments that have since come and gone.
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We’re going to switch gears here and turn to a concept that doesn't need ANY spring cleaning: media consolidation. According to Moyers on Democracy, “media consolidation is the concentration of ownership of our news sources into the hands of fewer and fewer corporations” (How Media Consolidation Threatens Democracy: 857 Channels (and Nothing On)). Currently, our news outlets are controlled by “The Big Six”: Comcast, Disney, CBS, Viacom, News Corporation, and AT&T. Isn’t that weird? Only six companies control virtually everything we see on television (and streaming services)! Any more consolidation creeps closer to creating a monopoly. Thus, spring cleaning isn’t necessary.
When learning more about the concept of media consolidation, I immediately thought about an incident that occurred on Walt Disney World property in 2016. 2-year-old Lane Graves and his family were staying at the Grand Floridian Resort at the Orlando, Florida park. On June 14th, 2016, Graves was playing near the Seven Seas Lagoon on the property when he was pulled in by an alligator. He was unfortunately found dead in the lagoon the next day.
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Immediately after this incident, many were curious to see how ABC would cover the incident, as Disney owns ABC. Some were curious if ABC would not show the horrific incident or if they would not give all of the facts pertaining to it. Brian Stelter from CNN reported that “when asked about the coverage of the boy's death in Orlando, an ABC News spokeswoman said, ‘The mandate was clear -- cover this story like we would any other: straight down the middle’” (How ABC covered the awful news involving its parent Disney).
Robin Roberts, one of ABC’s most prominent anchors on Good Morning America, was in Shanghai, China the day of the incident. The brand new Shanghai Disneyland park was set to open on June 16th, just two days after Graves’ death. ABC decided to scrap Robert’s spots and air them at a later time. I’m glad that they decided to do this (for obvious reasons). It would have been incredibly inappropriate and insensitive on ABC’s part.
Of course, where there is news, there will be critics. Lester Holt reported on NBC Nightly News after the incident that “serious questions are being raised about whether Disney has done enough to keep its guests safe” (How ABC covered the awful news involving its parent Disney). Gabe Gutierrez from NBC News also asked “‘why no mention of alligators on the signs to keep people out of the water? Other hotels in the area do mention alligators. A Disney spokesperson tells NBC News, alligators in Florida are a fact of life, and they're in their habitat’” (How ABC covered the awful news involving its parent Disney).
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This video coming from NBC (Comcast) goes into reports about the issues surrounding the lack of signage near the Seven Seas Lagoon warning guests about alligators. It is definitely more critical. However, NBC feels that they have the ability to do this because Comcast does not own ABC and its counterparts. I also found other videos that featured reporters reporting from across the Disney gates-while ABC reporters seemed to have reported while on Disney property.
This video coming from ABC (owned by Disney) reports about the barriers that were installed after the incident to protect guests in the future. While ABC did report about the incident, they did not talk poorly about Disney World’s decisions regarding the protection of their guests. That would be incredibly dangerous for them. Contracts, reputations, and money are all on the line-no one wants to step on the bosses’ toes.
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So how does media consolidation affect us? Well, it affects us every single day. Turn on the television. It looks like there are a lot of channels, right? Wrong. Those individual channels are likely owned by one of “The Big Six”. What we watch is being controlled by six MASSIVE corporations. While it’s incredibly unrealistic to believe that we can “overthrow” these corporations, we need to hold these companies accountable for what they report on and how they cover it. Bias needs to be eliminated in coverage, no matter who you work for. We, as United States citizens, deserve to hear what is true, accurate, and fair. That will help us become more educated and more aware of what is going on in our ever-changing world.
Sources
https://billmoyers.com/story/media-consolidation-should-anyone-care/
https://money.cnn.com/2016/06/15/media/abc-news-disney-orlando-coverage/index.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km0CSzeui0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ItDiHOA30s
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