HY 357 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Fairness Doctrine, Communications Act Of 1934, Supreme Court Review
6 Jun 2018
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The Structure of the Mass Media and Government
Regulation
For the most part, the mass media in the United States are privately owned. Public radio and
public television, which receive part of their revenues from the federal government through the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), represent a comparatively small share of the market.
Private ownership ensures considerable, but not absolute, freedom from government oversight. It
does raise questions, however, about how the mass media operate.
Concentration in the mass media
As a result of competition, increasing costs, and mergers, the number of newspapers in
the United States has dropped sharply. Many major cities are served by only one daily
paper. In addition, the number of independent newspapers has declined as chains such
as Gannett purchase additional properties. At issue is whether concentration
discourages diversity of opinion and ultimately leads to the management of the news by
media corporations. The three major TV networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) do not own
their own affiliate stations, and they face real competition from new networks, such as
Fox, as well as from a growing number of all-news and entertainment cable stations.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to promote competition in the
broadcast media. It eased the restrictions on the number of television stations a single
company could own and lifted all limits on radio station ownership except to prevent
control of a market or geographic area. The legislation led to more concentration in the
industry.
Hard news versus entertainment
Television is audience driven. The larger the audience, the higher the rates charged for
commercial time and the greater the profits. Critics have charged that this situation
reduces hard news coverage and requires flashier packaging of the news. For example,
local TV stations give considerably less airtime to political news than to the weather
report, sport scores, and human interest stories. Indeed, the line between news and
entertainment programming is becoming increasingly blurred. Growing numbers of
young viewers say they receive their political information from comedy programming
like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.
Newspapers and magazines are largely protected from government interference by the
First Amendment. In 1971, the Nixon administration attempted to prevent The New York
Times and The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, classified
documents on American policy in Vietnam. The Supreme Court refused to block their
publication, noting that prior restraint was a violation of freedom of the press. The
press cannot print stories that are known to be false or are intentionally damaging to a
person's reputation, however. Content is also controlled by obscenity statutes.
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Document Summary
The structure of the mass media and government. For the most part, the mass media in the united states are privately owned. Public radio and public television, which receive part of their revenues from the federal government through the. Corporation for public broadcasting (cpb), represent a comparatively small share of the market. Private ownership ensures considerable, but not absolute, freedom from government oversight. It does raise questions, however, about how the mass media operate. As a result of competition, increasing costs, and mergers, the number of newspapers in the united states has dropped sharply. Many major cities are served by only one daily paper. In addition, the number of independent newspapers has declined as chains such as gannett purchase additional properties. At issue is whether concentration discourages diversity of opinion and ultimately leads to the management of the news by media corporations.
