The Right to Diverse Media?

Recently in class, we had a discussion concerning the growing consolidation of radio stations and record companies.  The Clear Channels, the Viacoms, the Wall Street Journals, the Walmarts.  When these companies are mentioned, a negative light is automatically cast upon those who defend them.   Reasons against media conglomerates included a potential for lack of diverse products and more competition for smaller media outlets.

The feeling around the room was leaning towards we need more regulations to prevent these firms from getting bigger.  But last time I checked the United States is the country that prides itself in profits, getting ahead, and staying there.  I heard a quote that everyone loves a rags to riches story as long as the person doesn't make too much money.  That's so true when it comes to media markets and corporations.  This isn't Communist Russia or Obama's Socialist Paradise.  There seems to be a consensus that these large firms should be disbanded or penalized.  

Then, the argument saying a lack of diverse product might occur.  But who's job is it to guarantee that the public has the right to have a wide diverse range of media outlets.  Should the government intervene if Clear Channel won't play some local punk's band on it's Top 40 Stations nationwide?  Should Congress be charged with telling Viacom that it should put more music videos that don't feature thugs with baggy pants and guns?  What role should the government play in the media?  I take a classically liberal view of the government.  The government should only extend itself so far as to provide for the safety of its citizens and to guarantee their basic civil liberties.  

The last time I checked, it's not my inalienable right to make sure that my favorite station plays a wide variety of music.  It's MY job to find a station, channel, or website that meets MY needs.  If there is none, either I'm out of luck or I let a media firms I am interested in a certain genre.  The power of the public can carry weight if all of a sudden a firm loses large sections of its paying customers.  

Just a thought...

Political Fundraising

Hello All,

Much of the talk about political campaigns revolves around money.  "Show me the money."  "Money Talks." "Cha Ching."  Politicians, especially those running for the highest position in the country - the presidency.  Over the last 8 years or so, one form of media has played an unprecedented role in this fundraising - the internet.  It's no surprise that candidates have their own blogs, e-newsletters, and even YouTube accounts.  With much of the X, Y, or whatever you want to call my generation (I'm 19 years old) wired and on the internet, politicians have successfully found a way to use the web to meet some of their fundraising needs.  When going to any of the three presidential candidates' pages, a welcome screen will greet you with a sign asking if you'd like to donate to his or her campaign.  They make it oh so easy.

With the prevalence of teens with credit cards or paypal accounts, money can be wired directly to the candidate's war chest in just a few short clicks.  Unless one is donating large amounts of money (over $2000), all that is needed to donate is a name, address, employer, and of course a credit card!  With this easy means of fundraising, candidates are able to pull in huge amounts of money and quickly in order to run the extremely large campaigns 

Feminism and Suicidegirls.com

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My Post on the Blogosphere

Scholarly Article Critique

1)  Research topic and researchers:  Mapping the Blogosphere: Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena, by Stephen Reese, Lou Rutigliano, Kideuk Hyun, and, Jaekwan Jeong, in Journalism 8 (3)(2007) pp. 235-261.  Retrieved from EBSCO: Communication and Mass Media, Article Link, on February 20, 2007.

2)  Rationale of the study: The researchers were highlighting the shift in the mainstream media to include a new wave of news outlets called blogs.  The increased amount of news and accessibility to the current events combined with the low cost of creating new blogs has produced a boom in the use of blogs.  Increased globalization has broken down geographic boundaries and now lines are formed along news stories, especially on user-created blogs. 

3)  Literature Review:  Reese and others cited other research that discussed the forms of new media have taken in the past few years.  Deuze (2003) offers that when the mainstream media goes online, it takes an all-new form that allows for the reader to become more engaged.   Blogs provide an attractive means of obtaining news as opposed to the professional media because of the ease of use, low barriers, and easy interactivity among people all over the world (Reese et al., 239).  The researchers also noted that political boundaries are far more apparent in online forms of news, blogs in particular.  Blogs are created to enforce a certain political viewpoint while at the same time linking to other like-minded blogs.   This creates a sort of link in-breeding among various political viewpoints (240).  Because the Internet crosses almost all geographic boundaries, cross national connections would be formed along political lines. 

            Research Questions:

1)  To what extent do blogs link to the professional news media, and how are those references characterized?
2)  How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to professional news media?
3)  How is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices.
4)  How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors?

4)  Research Method:  The researchers used content-analysis to look at six blogs they reasoned to be very stable and reputable among the blogging community. 

 

 

5)  Subject of the study:  Six blogs were chosen for the study.  They noted the political ideology of the blogs, the type of user interactivity was available, as well as what sites were linked to on the blog itself.   The research took place over a full week, February 6-13 of 2005. The number of posts on each blog per story was noted as well as what feedback was posted in response to the blog’s author’s posts. 

6)  Research Findings:  The researchers confirmed one research question as to how the blogs garner news stories and then post online about the story.  The most common form of  post was offering commentary on news stories that the mainstream “professional media” had offered.  Over 60% of the blog posts offered analysis of the news stories. 

They found that both liberal blogs linked more to government websites, citizen public interest sites, as well as mainstream news media sites.  Conservative blogs linked to other blogs more often.

Not surprisingly, the links to other sites on each blog generally followed the same political ideological stance as its linker.  However, over half of the links on both liberal and conservative blogs linked to non-partisan sites such as mainstream news outlets like the Wall Street Journal’s Opinionjournal.com. 

7)  My opinion on the scholarly article:  Overall, I found the article to be a very concrete example showing the make up of popular political blogs.  For the most part, I was unaware of the linking that occurs on most blogs.  I wish the authors would have explained this as well as the linking units that were measured.  The data tables were clearly labeled which allowed for a greater understanding to the researcher’s writing.  A wide variety of data was studied which made the article worthwhile.  By only studying one aspect of blogs, for example, other factors are left out that might have influenced the data that was collected. 

      After reading this article, I am more aware of what I put on my blog as well as who or what I am linking to.  

Here Goes Nothin'.....

Well, after a lengthy sign up process that rattled my brain, I finally set up my blog. For the three, maybe four people that will read this, I hope you enjoy my thought provocking, riviting, yet entertaining posts.

Enjoy the day!