The Risks Associated With Media Hegemonies

If there is anything that I have learned throughout the years is that you must know where your information is coming from. In today’s society, the media is being overwhelmed by special interests of companies. Media hegemonies existing in Canada and the US are taking over Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by cross media ownership. I will be analyzing just how much the controversially republican company News Corporation owns. According to www.thenation.com, News Corporation is the owner of Fox, Twentieth Century Fox, Sky Italia and 67 percent of the National Geographic channel. This results in viewers being bombarded by this company and their interests on television and film. There have been many accounts that link fox to manipulating the news and the fact that they control so many news channels does not help. Furthermore, I found even more news companies that News Corporation owns such as The New York Post, The Sun, The Times and The Daily Telegraph in Australia. It is easy to notice the international news coverage that News Corporation possesses. Their ownership does not end there; they also master the publishing company HarperCollins Publishers and Reagan Books. An interesting fact is that this massive corporation also owns the blogging website MySpace. This company owns media companies that are situated all over the world. The problem associated with cross media ownership is that personal interests of CEOs are included in the majority of news stories. One compelling story demonstrating how Fox manipulated news coverage was regarding the case of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson who were silenced for a story written about the giant company Monsanto. The major company threatened Fox about the story, leading to Fox trying to suppress the reporters. This eventually led to the firing of these reporters and a lawsuit against Fox. In other words, this is an implication of cross media ownership since the CEOs rely on other large businesses for funding in advertisement which can lead to immense pressure on controversial stories. This of course makes us victims of cross media ownership.