Hello Everybody!!
The subject of media conglomeration seemed a little tough to fully grasp at first but after doing some research it doesn't seem too confusing. To me, the idea of media conglomeration is the total control of the media in a particular area and forcing the viewers of that media to believe what you believe. It's the influence of a greater corporation(s) extending its beliefs to the auidence. A great example would be one news agency as octopus extending its tentacles into every aspect of society...doesn't matter if it's the economy, politics, social media, and even into the way we think and act everyday. It is also the bigger guy pushing around the little guy and if that little guy decides to give up, the big guy takes over what the little guy had. The impact it has on society is very substantial.
If you only have two main companies distributing and providing information, you have no choice but to believe one or the other. This creates a very narrow and limited point of view where the information comes from. Then the amount of information comes into play because depending on the number of news agencies, the information can be very limited or can be too broad; its one extreme or the other. If there is only a limited amount of information you don't get the full picture of what is going on. If the imformation is in abundance you don't know what to believe (Internet) because the validity can be very hard to determine. Not all of the impacts that media conglomeration creates aren't necessarily bad.
Media conglomeration can create positive things. Companies owning many other media agencies opens up the market to the whole world. It brings media to places in the world that maybe 20 to 30 years ago didn't have anything but their local channels. An example of this would be the broadcast of public Portuguese TV in the little city of Artesia. Certain cable companies provide RTP from Portugal to the United States and even broadcasts online. This allows someone in Brazil to watch Portuguese TV via the television or Internet. The conglomerate of media in the world can bring the world more together by knowing and understanding what is going on half way across the world. Currently, the uprising in Egypt has been seen by other countries and has inspired those countries to do the same. It gives the world a diversity in news content and media as well. When considering conglomerates, you do loose mid-level media companies but at the same time you are gaining diversity in content and the spreading of that content is a lot greater.But if you ask me, the big media corporations are like a puppeteer, pulling the strings on what THEY want us to watch and what to believe. Its hard to find a balanced program out there but it's possible. As the late George Carlin would put it:
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