US programming choices
p2pnet.net News:- If you`re one of those jaundiced cynics who thinks US media ownership is, over concentrated and that programming choices available to Americans, are shrinking or somehow have been impaired, then you`re wrong.
At least, that`s what the New Millennium Research Council says in a report.
Fears about media control and program choices aren’t based on fact and, rather than becoming increasingly stinted, choices are legion, says Benjamin M. Compaine who authored it.
Once again, Ben Compaine has shown that the media sky has never been brighter, says Adam T. Thierer, senior fellow and director of the PFF Center for Digital Media Freedom.
Coincidentally, the Peefefseedeeemef will soon release Media Myths: Making Sense of the Debate over Media Ownership which will, debunk the many myths surrounding the debate over media ownership liberalization and document the stunning media diversity we have at our disposal today and argue that, to the extent there has ever been a `Golden Age` of media, we are living in it today.
An opponent of the open source concept, pft includes among its admirers Disney, Microsoft, News Corp, Sony Entertainment and Time Warner.
‘Chain-owned newspapers have greater latitude’
In the meanwhikle, how far off base are concerns about TV, radio and newspaper ownership? Way off, says the NMRC, going on:
“The three traditional broadcast networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – have seen their prime time ratings slide by about two thirds from the 1970s to date. In the largest U.S. markets, there typically are 15 or more separate owners of radio stations – and most of even the smallest markets in the U.S. have more radio competition than local TV and newspapers combined. A review of 17 studies finds that chain-owned newspapers have greater latitude in determining editorial policy than do editors at family-controlled newspapers. Current measures for media ownership do not take into account the massive shift over the last 10 years in which two-thirds of Americans use the Internet for information gathering purposes, including viewing television and reading newspaper content.”
What of the NMRC?
Not a lot, except to say it`s an Issue Dynamics, Inc (IDI) offshoot.
IDI, in turn, “provides a complete suite of campaign management services that help our clients win their legislative and regulatory campaigns using grassroots, grasstops, third-party stakeholder support and integrated online campaigns.”
The phone companies, “don’t want municipalities to roll out competitive broadband services, even when they, themselves, never fullfilled their obligation to deploy fiber-based services,” states Skunk Works 101.
“So, the best way to attempt to block this activitiy is to hire New Millenium Research to do a biased-study.”
Or, put another way, says Skunk Works, “Need research and experts to back a particular proposal? The Bells call Issue Dynamics, who created and runs the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC).”
IDI says among other activities, it’s able to, “Establish and manage consumer advisory boards and design consumer education programs.”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
among its admirers – Part theory, part vaporware, p2pnet, January 27, 2004
Skunk Works 101 – Steve Jobs, Let my Music Go, May 9, 2005
IDI – Issue Dynamics Inc
May 10th, 2005 at 6:18 am
Anyone in the Northwes Florida area who wants to try to link into a FreeWan?
May 10th, 2005 at 11:11 am
Sure. There are lots of choices now.
Take a very small portion of new and innovative stuff, add a helping of reruns, a pound of feature movies, a tablespoon of BBC programming, and more commercials than you can choke down in one setting, and you have media in the USA.
Too bad it tastes like crap.
May 10th, 2005 at 11:33 am
more choice? MORE CHOICE? WHAT CHOICE?
i don’t even live in the usa anymore and all i see are less and less choices, as far as tv programming in the states.
unless you want to include all these scripted, faked and fixed “reality” shows which aren’t even close to reality – there are cameras there. that’s not reality. and i don’t include them or so-called “millionaire” game shows.
people want to be entertained – not shown how to scheme, manipulate, and backstab their way to fame and fortune.
more and more, the networks are throwing ridiculous reality tv in our faces because it costs less to produce than a good sitcom or drama, and cancel quality programs which people desire in order to make room for this crap. and as they spend billions on hype and promotion to teens and other persons of probable lower intelligence – those in the midwest, the “heartland” they call it – they contribute directly to the dumbing-down of the country.
and not just the usa. these programs spawn foreign-language versions around the world – so they’re dumbing-down the global population in pursuit of the lowest common denominater – money.
NMRC and IDI sound like cells created by the NWO (New World Order) in order to do this task. and they probably are. i wouldn’t expect less from them.
when the “choices” they give are 2-3 full evenings per week of reality backstabbing, that’s no choice at all and it’s no wonder their ratings are failing in major markets. real choice comes only when all possibilities for entertainment are given to the viewer. when given the choice between competing “nanny” shows, competing “talent” shows, or competing mindless quiz shows, there is no choice.
May 10th, 2005 at 11:59 am
…and don’t forget the constantly regurgitated CSI and Law and Order “franchises” and hospital dramas.
yeah ok, we get it. cops, criminals murders, forensics, courtroom dramas.
just because the originals were good does not mean that’s all we want.
May 10th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
Sophistry.
Propaganda.
Public Relations Campaign?
Call this stinking pile of BS whatever you want, but it’s still just a stinking pile…
NMRC = Professional con artists.
May 10th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
You know the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t stop airing it twice weekly on three different channels”. (Or words to that effect).
I’m not an American but I do have cable TV here in the UK, which tries so very hard to be as ‘yank’ as possible.
IMHO Michael Moore summed it up best in ‘Orwell Rolls In His Grave’, his documentary about this very subject. He showed that the major broadcasting companies in the ‘States are owned by large consortium’s and umbrella companies. These same consortium’s also own companies in many of the largest retail and export fields of business. Like oil and tobacco companies, car manufacturers, electricity and gas suppliers, etc. He also showed that the managing directors of these various companies hold various positions within or links to different areas of the whole consortium, ie. The newspaper editor’s brother has a position on the board of directors at a large oil refinery, or the daughter of an ex-president is given a scolarship to a prestigious school and fast-tracked into a job with General Motors, etc. While there is no direct association that can be drawn between these various occurences (for legal reasons) it’s amazing how often the big, nasty, pollution causing consortiums have connections to the various research groups who get comissioned to research the damage caused by their trade.
I’m waffling here but I heartily recommend this documentary if this subject interests / troubles you… Which it should, if you have an ounce of sense left in your body after years of dumbing down and living in a state of fear and loathing caused by the scare tactics of our modern governments and media tag-team.