Companie’s Opposing Stance on Global Media

Lauren Charley

MIT 2371

Jennifer Martin

Wednesday March 9th 2011

Companie’s Opposing Stance on Global Media

“Big media barons are routinely accused of dominating markets, dumbing down the news to plump up the bottom line, and forcing U.S content on world audiences. But these companies are not as big, bad, dominant, or American as critics claim,” (Companie 97). In his article entitled Global Media, Benjamin Companie takes an opposing standpoint to what is generally taught in media courses regarding the concentration of the world’s media by a small number of large firms. I enjoyed, but do not agree entirely with Companie’s claims, however, he offers reasonable arguments in his article which in turn builds a strong ethos for himself as an author.
Contrary to what Robert W. McChesney argues in his article, The New Global Media, Companie stresses that foreign broadcasters choose to broadcast American media content and that “ in most of the world, decisions of what programming to buy traditionally lay in the hands of managers who worked for government-owned or government-controlled broadcasters,” (Companie 98). McChesney makes it seem like some foreign markets try to fight away American conglomeration by “keeping their small, domestic film production industries alive with government subsides,” (McChesney 93). Companie however claims that “data suggests there is little foreign direct investment in the media sectors of most countries,” (Companie 98).
It is interesting to see how these two articles contradict one another, but I believe
Charley 2
Companie’s article to be much more convincing. This is due to the fact that he highlights several strong arguments in an organized fashion, versus McChesney’s expansion on a smaller few arguments in an less organized way. For example, Companie’s article is easier to follow with the bold-face headings and sub sections, where as McChesney’s seemed to blur arguments from one idea to the next. I only know the authenticity of McChesney’s claims from previously studying about the political economy of media.
Contrasting these two articles was similar to our class lab entitled Political Economy and Power, where we researched convergence, media biases, variety and diversity, and how to seek alternative sources on the internet. This lab demonstrated the clear effect of media consolidation in the case of the proposal for usage-based billage on the internet. Because CTV, a new source, is owned in part by Bell Canada, a sevice provider, the stories given by CTV on the topic of usage-based billing were written in a non-negative way towards anything that may harm Bell’s reputation with its customers. However, when the same topic was searched on the CBC website, Canada’s only national public service broadcaster, stories seemed to be far more judgmental towards Bell’s position in its stance on usage-based billing. This lab clearly demonstrated the power of consolidation when joining a television network like CTV in partner with an internet service provider like Bell, and how they have control over which news stories to display and how to portray their message.
The lab would ultimately go against Companie’s arguments, but what is ironic, is when we searched for alternative sources for articles regarding the given topic, there were few to be found beyond CTV and CBC articles. This is similar to how Companie’s
Charley 3
opinion that media giants are not as bad or dominant as they seem, is often an opposing view not highly studied, especially by students of media with regards to political economy and power. Therefore, this proves against Companie’s point about consolidation and media biases that “with so many media outlets today, readers and viewers can get more and better news from more diverse perspectives,” (Companie 99). This is due to the fact that when we try to find opinions similar to Companie‘s, it is much harder to find articles which don’t express the damaging impact of media consolidation, much similar to the one written my McChesney.

Companie, Benjamin. Living in the Information Age - A New Media Reader. 2nd ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2005. 97-101. Print.

McChesney, Robert W. Living in the Information Age - A New Media Reader. 2nd ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2005. 92-96. Print.