Research Paper on:
Media Monopoly and Ben Bagdikian's Views on Reform

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
enough to challenge them, they are reduced to yesterdays news, if there is any mention at all. Who is it? The American Media. It goes without saying that most  Americans feel that the Media is out of control in this country. When one stops to consider who is pulling the strings for most of the industries in the nation,  then it reduced to a pitiful handful who are calling the shots and in essence determining social policies, and indirectly (and sometimes directly) federal policies. Ben Bagdkian speaks of  a media monopoly in this country. He states that "Aided by the digital revolution and the acquisition of subsidiaries that operate at every step in the mass communications process, from  the creation of content to its delivery into the home, the communications cartel has exercised stunning influence over national legislation and government agencies, an influence whose scope and power would  have been considered scandalous or illegal twenty years ago"(Bagdikian, 2000). What is this influence he refers to? Simple, follow the trail. Check out any major news service in the  country. Who are they owned by? Large industries who have nothing in common with the news or entertainment industry. So why own a newspaper company, radio station or television station  (and most of them own all three types)? Control of the types of perspectives that are allowed into the cultures mainstream. They manipulate this so that their products are positioned  in such a way as to make the public believe that they need these products, or to drive demand for a certain segment of the population. Never before since Rockefellers  day has there been such a monopoly existed. Rockefeller drew crititcism for doing it and eventually his monopoly caused policies in Washington to shift so as to allow for free