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THE CHALLENGE
source: Andrew Bibby, “Global Concentration in the Media”, Union Network International (UNI), Ref. No. UNI/MEI/10-2003//0004 – EN
[ www.union-network.org/unimei.nsf]
catoinstitute.com/testimony/
ct-at092804.html
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The challenge is to turn what could just be a negative, and probably ineffectual, attack to our cultural and democratic life into something more positive…- there are those who argue that the way forward for the world at the start of the 21st century is to give full rein to ‘free market’ forces, to cut government ‘interference’ in business and diminish the role of regulation as a restraining factor on corporate activity;
- a McKinsey & Company analyst, for example, recently noted that "There are more than 100 media companies worldwide... and entertainment and media are still fragmented compared with other industries such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace.” (1)
- perhaps because these are often the opinions held by those in positions of power within media corporates, these views frequently crop up in the media and – more subtly, perhaps – in other areas of the entertainment industry;
- a large share of the world economy is now in the hands of very powerful transnational corporations, with – as has many times been pointed out – more financial clout than many sovereign nations. Of course, this does not mean that all company takeovers and mergers are invariably ‘bad’, and that largeness is in some obscure metaphysical sense less satisfactory than smallness;
- media expert Eli Noam of Columbia University has nicely summarized why we must understand that ‘bigness’ is a relative term in media: "While the fish in the pond have grown in size, the pond did grow too, and there have been new fish and new ponds." (2)
- Adam Thierer, Director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute points out that “In any event, competition and concentration are not mutually exclusive” …
- However, in the media and entertainment sectors, even more so than in other industries, the implications of concentration of ownership demand close forensic examination, simply because of the intimate relationship between the media and the societies in which we live, our cultural and democratic life;
- the challenge is to turn what could just be a negative, and probably ineffectual, attack into something more positive: a call which reaches out to as broad a cross-section of the world community as possible for real media plurality – for creativity, diversity, cultural renaissance, democratic strengthening and linguistic renaissance. It is a task, which those who work in the creative industries should not be afraid to lead.
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