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Media Ownership in the Age of Convergence
A first report from the CPBF project by Granville Williams
DATELINE: 9/7/08
The CPBF launched its media ownership project to research the changing patterns of ownership in our rapidly converging media, and to develop new policy initiatives, in January 2007. In 2007-2008 we were successful in raising funds from UNISON's General Political Fund (£26,500) and the Open Society Institute (£20,000) for the project. We have also launched a general appeal to our members and supporters for £10,000.
Long-standing concerns about the power and influence of media moguls in traditional media (film, television, radio, newspapers, books and magazines) remain central to our work on media ownership. The distorting impact of excessive media power on politics is vividly exemplified by Silvio Berlusconi's election victory in Italy and his subsequent actions, or by the global role Rupert Murdoch plays. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out when it was still owned by the Bancroft family, Murdoch 'has blurred a line that exists at many other US media companies…a line intended to keep the business and political interest of owners from influencing the presentation of news'.
But we need to develop our analysis to take in the big policy implications of converged media and the transition to multi-media and multi-platform (PC, mobile, interactive TV) systems and the Internet. Whereas 'old media' still has some regulatory scaffolding governing programming obligations, new media programme providers and businesses are keen to limit traditional regulation. Intellect, which represents the information technology, telecommunications and electronics industries in the UK, in its first submission to the CTT seminars, stated 'Policies and regulation are still seen by many players to either inhibit investment or impose unnecessary costs on business' and warned against the 'potential for regulation to creep into previously unregulated platforms, which would stifle investment in an already uncertain market'. This is a position which Ofcom is very receptive to, and indeed it was part of the UK coalition, with Intellect, which sought to limit the scope of the European Television Without Frontiers directive when it was revised into the Audiovisual Media Services directive.
It is a good time to undertake this project, coinciding with two UK initiatives, one concluded and the other ongoing. The House of Lords Select Committee on Communications report, The Ownership of News, to which the CPBF gave both oral and written evidence, was published in June, and the joint DCMS/BERR Convergence Think Tank seminars are discussing policy issues posed by convergence and again the CPBF has had a presence at them and submitted a document. We have drawn attention (Free Press 164) to the speech by the Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, to the CTT seminar on 11 June which represented a very sharp change of policy emphasis to the previous two Culture Secretaries, Shaun Woodward and James Purnell. Certainly Burnham's emphasis on standards - impartiality and accuracy in TV and radio news, the integrity of programme making (including his opposition to product placement), public trust (he referred to the damage done by the phone-in scandals) for example - was not warmly received by the industry.
From a global perspective a policy intervention which attempts to raise alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal orthodoxy of the past twenty tears, with its emphasis on deregulation, liberalisation and market imperatives, is also timely. In their important book Who Controls the Internet? Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu challenge those writers who view the internet as the catalyst of contemporary globalisation, making governments irrelevant, and eliminating geography, distance and language. They argue, 'There is something critical missing from this story, which depicts countries and regions as essentially powerless in the face of globalization and the Internet. What's missing is the power of place - nations and regions - to protect the way they are, or want to be… As the Internet becomes more and more bordered, as it twists and bends to meet local demands, the effects of these efforts cannot be ignored'.
Also we have the hard evidence that internet news consumers are offered the illusion of information diversity and an endless range of perspectives, when the reality is concentration, not diversity. As Chris Paterson points out, the internet news aggregation industry disguises 'reliance on a surprisingly limited set of news organisations'. For example, the '4,500 news sources updated continuously' from around the world, which one search engine claimed it used, turned out to rely on just four: three news agencies - Agence France-Press, Associated Press and Reuters - and the BBC.
Consolidation is also occurring at an alarming rate, with $30 billion spent in 2007 in mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft, Time Warner (AOL), Yahoo! and WPP on interactive advertising companies. And the stalled $44.6 billion bid by Microsoft for Yahoo! in February highlighted the continuing battle for dominance of the online advertising market. Growing consolidation will also undermine diversity of both content and ownership, and the transformation of the internet from an open, global means of communications into one designed primarily to serve the interests of corporate brands and commercialism.
Privacy also will be eroded as massive databases of information on internet users become more intrusive. For example, the recent Google/DoubleClick merger formed an information colossus that combines information about consumers that Google collects through its search engine with the tracking data that DoubleClick collects about users as they surf the net. Also new ad-targeting systems are being developed which determine users' interests by monitoring the websites they visit.
The outcomes of the Media Ownership project will be to:
- chart the patterns of ownership which span converged communications media
- produce a clear set of relevant policies on media ownership for the UK and Europe
- identify the kind of regulation which is required to protect public service content (news, children's programmes, documentaries, etc) in the digital age
- produce a chart, popular campaigning pamphlet and book with the facts, arguments and analysis on media ownership
- hold a major conference to launch our polices in autumn 2009
- ensure that in the run-up to the next election our policy proposals are at the centre of political debate.So far in two seminars (21 January and 28 May) we have identified a number of policy issues, which have given is a valuable foundation on which to build, and after further discussion at the AGM we will put forward specific policies on media ownership and regulation and move towards a more active public policy debate around them.
Last modified: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Previous media ownership stories
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Murdoch's Journal deal - another blow for journalism
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Stopping Murdoch Now 5
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Media Ownership
Lords take stand against media barons
BBC Trust concludes its review of bbc.co.uk
Murdoch company tried on sabotage allegations
Sky and Virgin go to law
Lords Probe Media Ownership and News - Part 2
BSkyB and ITV
BSkyB and ITV
Campaign welcomes government ruling on ITV shares
Murdoch: Sky News should be like Fox
Murdoch and ITV
BSkyB 'should sell shares in ITV'
Internet Television
Murdoch must sell his stake in ITV
New inquiries into ownership
Murdoch Junior takes the money
Murdoch's Journal deal - another blow for journalism
MediaChannel faces closure for lack of funds
Murdoch faces probe
Lords Probe Media Ownership and News
A Waiting Game
Review: Labour's missed opportunities
Stopping Murdoch Now 5
Rivals clarify complaints over Sky dominance
Stopping Murdoch Now (2)
Stopping Murdoch now!
Stopping Murdoch Now!
Early Day Motion 309: Attempted takeover of ITV by Sky
Stopping Murdoch now
Turmoil at the Telegraph
Independent news network expands
