Coexistence—Odds Appear to be Slim

Media consolidation has its ups and downs; big businesses purchase and sell small companies easily, so economically it allows for savings, which benefits the consumer and investor in us all. Nonetheless, media consolidation in television limit’s the diversity of programs, so what we consume through television channels (broadcast and cable) are controlled and selected by fewer and fewer people, which we know fewer and fewer about. Apparently, then we are in the midst of losing localism thus losing the promotion of diversity to the masses, at large.

Moreover, according to an article titled “Consolidation, Budget Cuts Mean Party Must Learn How to Play by New Rules” by Flavia Colgan, a MSNBC-TV Contributor, published November 18, 2005, “Investigative reporting is expensive, but talk is cheap. Very little investigative journalism is done by television news anymore. When is the last time you heard of Fox News Channel breaking a story, for example?” Colgan added, this problem is not isolated to television news; “competition [overall] in the news business has increased dramatically and this has led to a decrease in the ability of news organizations to take risks.” This competition is fueled by appearing the most appealing.

Ted Turner, CNN founder and Turner Enterprises chairman, stated in article, “My Beef with Big Media,” that “the media giants now own not only broadcast networks and local stations; they also own the cable companies that pipe in the signals of their competitors and the studios that produce most of the programming.” Turner shows how consolidated the television industry has become throughout the past fifteen years by mentioning, “In 1990, the major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox—fully or partially owned just 12.5 percent of the new series they aired. By 2000, it was 56.3 percent. Just two years later, it had surged to 77.5 percent.”

So one can grasp consolidating the television industry, the most consumed media in the United States, is restricting the variety of programs. A poll conducted by Project for Excellence in Journalism found through surveying journalists, editors, and news executives that editors say their staff size has declined over the last three years by forty-three percent. Of national journalists forty-four percent write or produce four stories a week, if not more; only thirty-five percent say they compose three or less. Colgan also states, “When asked if the ‘bottom line’ was hurting news coverage or just changing the way organizations do things, 74 percent of journalists said it was hurting coverage, as did 69 percent of editors.”

Furthermore, in an interview with Newspaper & Technology in June of 2001, Joseph Basara, chief executive officer of WRH (Walter Reist Holding) marketing, discussed the company’s U.S. plans for Ferag. Basara replied to the question about the effects of newspaper consolidation on the manner he carries out business by saying, “Yes, there is some consolidation and fewer individual ownership entities that are in the market.… What we also need to acknowledge is that while newspaper consolidation has occurred in terms of ownership, this has not necessarily translated to operations. While it has some national components to it, the newspaper is still a local product.”

Andrew Carnegie, 19th Century steel industrial giant, believed the reason for a single company to own the whole production process of a particular commodity or product was to protect the customer--from start to finish the sole company has control over the item in return regulating the quality of the product firsthand. So, with Carnegie’s concept of consolidation, it is a good idea, yet we, as consumers, cannot rely fully on a single enterprise to care about our billfolds more than their bottom-line, e.g Enron. However, media consolidation has its ups and downs; nevertheless, I full hearty support diversity (the ability to have a variety of minds and beliefs represented and distributed to the masses) in a single market.

Concluding, consolidation is good, when it does not interfere with the quality and diversity of a particular media outlet, yet the odds appear to be slim that both can successfully coexist.


Media consolidation raises the fear of the Orwell's 1984 Big Brother society, which could be across the horizon--if we, as members of a free society, unlearn the precious able to question, even our authorities. That is, we leave ourselves open for a Jerry Cantrell-like "Degradation Trip."

Balancing the Public Airways

Why allow the public airways to promote filthy, immoral, and perverted versions of the one person’s warped, twisted world? Following the thinking of no-holds-bar public radio is quite absurd. Yes, one can consciously change the channel; however, if one is not of a particular mental state, can one true gauge the artist value? According to Dan Hollis, a Journalism professor at Marshall University, our nation is concerned about protecting children; furthermore, who is going to argue not to protect them? Children, as we elders view them, really are not the rational creatures that it takes to decide the political, artistic, literary, and scientific worth of information and entertainment.

Of course, who is to say what is degrading, impure, and harmful material? I, being twenty-one-years-old, might enjoy and appreciate several things, which I would not want my little three-year-old sister or five-year-old nephew to see or hear because of the content of the material. Specially, due to the fact, I do not believe he or she processes the abilities to wager the circumstances surrounding situation or situations and the motives of the individual or individuals promoting these words or images.

My father, once when I was younger, told my grandfather in a conversation, which I--looking up at both of them--recall vividly, said, “The way I view it I shouldn’t be anywhere I can’t take my kids.” Somewhat, I agree. However, there are times children may not view the material in the satirical way it was intended.

As of now our nation is a free country--meaning an adult can view any thing they might desire: hard-core or soft-core pornography and graphic violence or listen to offensive lyrics and crude humor, if one chooses to do so. We, as a nation, believe the older one is the more conscious one is. That is debatable. However, in the name of child protection anything accessible via the public airways should be, in my opinion, regulated (watered-down, if one will).

Here is an assignment my Journalism professor posed the class: "Should there be regulations on public airways--broadcast television, radio." I hope this drives your thoughts on the touchy balance between protection of children and free practices of consenting adults.

The Awakening of a Still Dream

A young man from Greece--working his way across the Atlantic, as a ship-hand in the early decades of last century--was given a dime to purchase a nickel cola by one of the passengers, as the vessel coasted into the New England harbour. The young man ran down the painted wooden plank, peeling from the saltwater air, to the nearest diner. Once there, he asked for two colas and paid with the dime. Back aboard the ship, he sold the second cola, first, to another passenger for a dime itself. Then, he gave the first cola to the original passenger who sent him for it, and the passenger said, “Keep the change for yourself, sonny.”

The young man stood on the dock, after the crowd dispersed, looking toward the city with dime in hand and said to himself, “That’s the American Dream.”

Would you say this story is true?

Would you say you believe in the American Dream?

First, what is the American Dream? Let us make this clear. Coming from a meager existence to soar up the ladder of success that may take others a lifetime climb. Maybe. Or bettering oneself passed that of one’s parents’ success. Possibly, maybe not really. The American Dream is simply in one word: opportunity--given, taken, or made.

Everywhere in our society--either through a rock or pop song on the radio or an actor on the big screen or the small, or even in a C.E.O. meeting on the 19th story of a New York office building or a heartfelt speech delivered on the Senate floor--we are surrounded by the American Dream.

Everyday when we step out of our houses or dorm rooms, we are in the presence of Americans and non-Americans alike striving for their own level of satisfaction (wherever or whatever that may be), and that itself is witness to the American Dream. We, as members of the human species, are a myriad of backgrounds, races, creeds, languages, ideologies, and financial statuses, and we coexist in time and space.

The soul of America is opportunity--the ability to move through the social and economic platforms to settle where one chooses. This opportunity is sometimes given (by someone’s largesse or reluctance) or taken (by someone’s emotional blindness or mental ignorance); however, it is predominately made (by one’s ever-longing personality and never-dying fortitude).

Of course, opportunity in our nation is not as equal as it would be in the Utopian fantasy; nonetheless, the American reality is as close as any other society thus far.

I used to believe that we were running out of American heroes—the American Dream awoke to a reality of nightmares. But I was sadly mistaken. Last year a random thought sparked hours of conversions between myself and my family and friends.

Nevertheless, my grandfather, 72, shared a tale about a man he knew, while working as a state trooper in Hardy County, W.Va., called Nick “the Greek.” The tale he told was the opening story of this article; so yes, that story was true. Mr. Nick went from entering this country with a few dollars to becoming a rather wealthy individual before his passing.

Finally, I conclude: we are America--dreams do not die here, they are realized here. We are not running out of heroes, super or mild-mannered. We are trapped in the incalculable glory of a multitude of heroes. The American Dream is opportunity and the American Dream is still here today.


Yep, this is the second column for the campus paper, The Parthenon. I like it (not the paper, particularly, but the connection); I like feeling in touch with other students (and people in general). Coming out of class last Friday two girl stopped me and asked me if I was “that guy.” One of the girls was so generous with her compliments, and she was so sincere in her emotions. I felt like I touched someone and that is one of the greatest feelings in the world.