Mainstream media#Big Six
{{Short description|Mass news media that influence many people}}
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In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, "What makes mainstream media mainstream", October 1997, Z Magazine, [http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm] The term is used to contrast with alternative media.
The term is often used for large news conglomerates, including newspapers and broadcast media, that underwent successive mergers in many countries. The concentration of media ownership has raised concerns of a homogenization of viewpoints presented to news consumers. Consequently, the term mainstream media has been used in conversation and the blogosphere, sometimes in oppositional, pejorative or dismissive senses, in discussion of the mass media and media bias.
United States
{{main|Media cross-ownership in the United States}}
In the United States, movie production is known to have been dominated by major studios since the early 20th century; before that, there was a period in time which Edison's Trust monopolized the industry.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} In the early 21st century, the music and television industries was subject to media consolidation, with Sony Music Entertainment's parent company merging their music division with Bertelsmann AG's BMG to form Sony BMG, and Warner Bros. Entertainment's The WB and CBS Corp.'s UPN merging to form The CW. In the case of Sony BMG there existed a "Big Five", later "Big Four", of major record companies, while The CW's creation was an attempt to consolidate ratings and stand up to the "Big Four" of American network (terrestrial) television (although the CW was actually partially owned by one of the Big Four in CBS). In television, the vast majority of broadcast and basic cable networks, over a hundred in all, are controlled by eight corporations: Fox Corporation, The Walt Disney Company (which includes the ABC, ESPN, FX and Disney brands), National Amusements (which owns Paramount Global), Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal), Warner Bros. Discovery, E. W. Scripps Company, Altice USA, or some combination thereof.{{cite web|last=Steiner|first=Tobias|title=Under the Macroscope: Convergence in the US Television Market between 2000 and 2014|url=https://www.academia.edu/2017902|publisher=academia.edu|access-date=4 Aug 2015}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
= Media mergers and concentration in the United States =
Over time the rate of media mergers has increased, while the number of media outlets has also increased. This has resulted in a higher concentration of media ownership, with fewer companies owning more media outlets.[http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6?IR=T Entertainment More: Infographic Media Corporation Mergers And Acquisitions These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America], Business Insider (June 14, 2012).
Some critics, such as Ben Bagdikian, assailed concentration of ownership, arguing that large media acquisitions limit the information accessible to the public.{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/08/the-media-monotony.html|title=The media monotony.|last=Shafer|first=Jack|date=2004-08-04|website=Slate Magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-04-08}} Other commentators, such as Ben Compaine and Jack Shafer, find Bagdikian's critique overblown. Shafer noted that U.S. media consumers have a wide variety of news sources, including independent national and local sources. Compaine argues that, based on economic metrics such as the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, the media industry is not very highly concentrated and did not become more concentrated during the 1990s and 2000s. Compaine also points out that most media mergers are not purely acquisitions, but also include divestitures.
One of the biggest mergers/acquisitions in the mainstream media world was Disney Acquiring 21st Century Fox and all of their assets. One of the main things that was accomplished with this merger was completing the rights to the rest of the Marvel movie franchise. Previously Disney did not have the rights to franchises such as X-Men and certain Spider-Man movie rights. With the acquisition they now do. 21st Century Fox was purchased for 71.3 billion dollars in March 2019.
= The "Big five" =
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=American public distrust in the media=
Trust in the media declined in the 1970s, and then again in the 2000s. Since the 2000s, distrust in the media has been polarized, as Republicans have grown substantially more distrustful of the media than Democrats.{{Cite web|last1=Ladd|first1=Jonathan M.|last2=Podkul|first2=Alexander R.|editor1-first=Elizabeth|editor1-last=Suhay|editor2-first=Bernard|editor2-last=Grofman|editor3-first=Alexander H|editor3-last=Trechsel|date=2020-06-04|title=Sowing Distrust of the News Media as an Electoral Strategy|url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190860806.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190860806-e-17|access-date=2021-04-05|website=The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Persuasion|pages=426–454|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190860806.013.17|isbn=978-0-19-086080-6}}
As of 2022, only a reported 56% of 18-27 year olds report that they trust information from US-based mainstream media.Nayeri, F. (2024, September 29). As mainstream media faces unprecedented challenges, can it save itself?. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/world/democracy-media-challenges.html
Growing distrust of the media is linked to a host of different indicators, with those who subscribe to more radical ideologies or populist followings more likely to harbor a distrust of the media.Fawzi, N., Steindl, N., Obermaier, M., Prochazka, F., Arlt, D., Blöbaum, B., Dohle, M., Engelke, K. M., Hanitzsch, T., Jackob, N., Jakobs, I., Klawier, T., Post, S., Reinemann, C., Schweiger, W., & Ziegele, M. (2021). Concepts, causes and consequences of trust in news media – A literature review and framework. Annals of the International Communication Association, 45(2), 154–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2021.1960181 Other identifying information such as age, race, and gender have been found to produce different levels of trust in the media regarding specific issues as well.
United Kingdom
In the UK, during 1922, after the closure of many radio stations, the British Broadcasting Corporation started its first daily radio transmission and started to grow an audience.{{cite web |title=History of the BBC-1920s |url=https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zxqc4wx |website=BBC.com |access-date=18 November 2018 |archive-date=9 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409151727/https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zxqc4wx |url-status=dead }} Later that year John Reith, a Scottish engineer, would be appointed the first General Manager for the BBC. Later on January 1, 1927, the BBC was fully established by Royal Charter and renamed the British Broadcasting Corporation with Reith as the first Director-General. During November 1936 the BBC began to expand into television broadcasting and was the first broadcaster to start the trend of a regularly scheduled TV service.{{cite web |title=History of the BBC-1930s |url=https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zqbfyrd |website=BBC.com |access-date=18 November 2018 |archive-date=9 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409151740/https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zqbfyrd |url-status=dead }}
Today the BBC is one of two chartered public broadcasting companies in the United Kingdom. The second is ITV, Independent Television, which was established in 1955 as the first public commercial television company after the Television act of 1954 in an effort to break up the monopoly the BBC had on television broadcasting, gaining fifteen regional broadcasting licenses in less than twenty years.{{cite web |title=About ITV/History |url=https://www.itvplc.com/about/history/2017 |website=Itvplc.com |access-date=19 November 2018}}{{cite web |title=Television Act of 1954 |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/radio-television-bbc.htm |website=The National Archives |access-date=19 November 2018}} Today the BBC and ITV are the two free to air digital services offered to everyone in the United Kingdom and each other's biggest competitors. The BBC has nine national television channels, BBC three, the first channel to switch from television to online, an interactive channel, ten national and forty local radio stations, BBC Online, and BBC Worldwide.{{cite web |title=BBC at a glance |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/ataglance |website=BBC.com |access-date=18 November 2018}} ITV currently holds thirteen of the fifteen regional broadcasting licenses in the United Kingdom that carries their multiple channels including ITV, ITVhub, ITV2, ITVBe, ITV 3, ITV4, CITV, ITV Encore,
Britbox, a video-on-demand service in collaboration with the BBC to bring British television content to the United States and Canada, and Cirkus, their own video-on-demand service.{{cite web |title=About ITV/ What we do |url=https://www.itvplc.com/about/what-we-do |website=itvplc.com |access-date=19 November 2018}}
Shifting media platform popularity
{{main|Social media as a news source}}
News consumption has shifted with age demographics along the rise of digital platforms such as social media. Traditional outlets like television and newspapers commonly associated with "mainstream media" face declining audiences as younger users increasingly turn to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for news. According to Pew Research Center, these platforms are a primary source of information for Millennials and Gen Z, a change that moves away from traditional media towards more online-focused platforms.
| class="wikitable"
|+Preferred Platform Use by % of U.S. Adults Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. News Platform Fact Sheet, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/ |
| scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Television ! scope="col" | Radio ! scope="col" | Print publications ! scope="col" | Digital Devices |
|---|
| scope="row" | Ages 18–29
| 8% | 2% | 3% | 36% |
| scope="row" | Ages 30–49
| 18% | 6% | 3% | 72% |
| scope="row" | Ages 50–64
| 42% | 8% | 3% | 46% |
| scope="row" | 65+
| 86% | 72% | 46% | 27% |
This shift in consumer platform taste has led to a crisis in the smaller local news scene, with an estimated average of 2 newspapers going out of business per week.Penelope Muse Abernathy (2023, November 16). The state of local news. Local News Initiative. https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/
Larger mainstream media companies with greater budgets will also be forced to navigate the technological shift, with large news companies such as The New York Times and Fox News having dedicated teams work on high quality online websites.
See also
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- Agenda-setting theory
- Alternative media
- Big Three television networks
- Concentration of media ownership
- Deregulation
- Fake news
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of the press
- Hyperreality
- Influence of mass media
- Lists of corporate assets
- Local News Service
- Manufacturing Consent
- Media bias
- Media conglomerate
- Media cross-ownership in the United States
- Media culture
- Media democracy
- Media imperialism
- Media manipulation
- Media proprietor
- Media transparency
- Monopolies of knowledge
- Network neutrality
- New media
- Old media
- Partido da Imprensa Golpista
- Politico-media complex
- Prometheus Radio Project
- Propaganda model
- Sensationalism
- Social impact theory
- Social influence
- Social media
- State controlled media
- Telecommunications Act of 1996
- Viral phenomenon
- Western media
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