Friday, September 30, 2011

Profit Driven Media "It's all about the Benjamin's"


Profit Driven Media

For my topic proposal I want to explore media corporations and their desire to turn a profit rather than serving the public interest. The marketing/profits mentality is evident everywhere in the media and news industries today. The old professional values that urge media to dig investigate and bring to the light of day the relevant facts and issues, while the market/profit mentality, asks “is it worth it? Do enough people care?’ Media corporations are becoming more and more like monopolies today. Most corporations own multiple newspapers, various cable channels, and even rights to movies. In the capitalistic society that we live in today, profit is everything for these huge corporations. Minorities and ethnic groups are being left behind in the news today. Because of this profit driven society, news only focuses on the numbers. Media corporations chase the numbers; whatever gets the most viewers is what wins today. In the media world we live in today, ratings rule the airways.

Are the modern ‘news’ shows sacrificing objectivity--in an effort to boost their ratings and maximize profits--by appealing to the lowest common denominator? The high percentage of viewers that only watch one or the other of the popular, one-dimensional news ‘networks’ would seem to answer this question in the affirmative. It is an unfortunate fact that, in these days of declining newspaper readership, most Americans tend to get their news from TV.

Media is driven by money; whatever creates the biggest profit will be on the news and on the Internet. What will happen in ten, twenty years from now? Will monopolies be created? Will one corporation own all the rights to news and television? Will they present a diverse, and wide ranging opinions serving all the public? These are questions that I want to explore.

Main Point

1. Media is profit driven

3 comments:

  1. this topic sounds really interesting. i think it's really important to follow how the media industries are run and what their priorities are. I would just wonder if you might want to narrow down a field within the media industry. maybe you want to focus on how media industries exclude minority groups, or focus on the monopolies that are being created. cool idea, lots to work with

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  2. I believe all industries are powered by the elusive dollar and the media industries are no different. This greatly affects the way media is produced and thus our culture in general. It would be interesting to compare and contrast big media firms who are obviously working for a profit and some smaller independent media outlets who might be more interested in the artistic expression or their individual ideals.

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