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Annotated Bibliography

Media Consolidation and Deregulation

Brandon Cook
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
March 15, 2016

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Annotated Bibliography
Gattuso, James. The Myth of Media Concentration: Why the FCCs Media Ownership Rules
Are Unnecessary heritage. The Heritage Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 March 2016.
The author of this article argues that despite the concentration of ownership in the media
industry, there is more competition in the market and consumers have an overwhelming
amount of choice as to what they consume. The author goes on to state that media
monopolies themselves are not a danger, but that the true threat is from FCC regulation.
He claims that the regulations are old, therefore unnecessary and outdated, that they dont
have any relevance to a modern free media market, and that regulations impede
advancement in media markets and technologies. One such outdated and unnecessary
regulation that he cites is The Local TV Ownership Rule. Adopted in 1941, it limited TV
networks from owning TV stations that reached more than 25 percent of households; that
limit was increased in 2000 to 35 percent. It was increased again in 2003 to 45 percent,
however that figure was later revised to 39 percent. He claims that the ability to own
multiple outlets would increase the ability of media outlets such as NBC to compete with
others such as Fox and CNN. However, he doesnt discuss how small, locally owned
outlets competitiveness would be affected. Additionally he claims that it would be
beneficial to consumers due to increased content diversity and the ability to target niche
markets. He cites cable TVs seemingly endless number of channels to illustrate his point.
At the end of the article the author calls for eliminating media ownership rules entirely,
claiming that they are old, therefore irrelevant, and that these regulations hurt the
consumer. The author makes his case entirely upon economic reasons such as increased
competitiveness among media conglomerates, and the ability to reach more target

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audiences, while ignoring the possible effects upon society and culture, and the impact
such deregulation would have on the small, local media outlets. James Gattuso is a Senior
Research Fellow with The Heritage Foundation and manages the organizations regulatory
and telecommunications issues. The Heritage Foundation is considered one of the most
influential conservative think tanks in the United States, and has used its significant
influence to affect U.S. public policy making as far back as the Reagan administration.
Prior to his current employment with The Heritage Foundation, James Gattuso was Vice
President for Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. As Vice President he
managed the institutes policy work and acted as an overall manager of the organization.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a libertarian think tank claiming that it promotes
liberal ideals through analysis, education, coalition-building, advocacy, and, when
appropriate, litigation. Over the years CEI has continually led a campaign of
disinformation on global warming. One such instance was an ad campaign that produced
two commercials. One of the ads focused on carbon dioxide, calling it a positive factor in
the environment, claiming that it was misrepresented as a pollutant. The other was an ad
that claimed that the glaciers and ice caps of the world are actually growing, not
shrinking.
The author provided no citations or evidence to back up the claims made in the article,
furthermore, after looking into his background and the type of work he has engaged in, I
have serious doubts as to his credibility. I still plan on using this source in my paper
though so that I can represent the opposing argument.
I didnt learn anything new in the article, but I learned loads of things by researching the
authors past. I knew that intentional disinformation campaigns existed, but I didnt

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realize to this extent. Another interesting tidbit I learned is that the Koch Family
Foundations are one of the main sources of income for CEI.
Herman, Edward, and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the
Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books, 2002. Print.
Edward S. Herman was a professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School
of Business. He is a media analyst specializing in corporate and regulatory affairs. Noam
Chomsky has quite an impressive resume including such titles as a philosopher, linguist,
cognitive scientist, political activist, logician, and social critic. Chomsky is Institute
Professor Emeritus at MIT and has written over 100 books on various topics, mass media
being one of them. His political stance is one of libertarian socialism which favors a
decentralized system of politics and the abolition of authoritarian economic institutions.
Manufacturing Consent focuses on the propaganda model, a model that attempts to
explain the actions of the U.S. media by analyzing the institutional structure of the media
and the relationship it has with other powerful institutions. The basic premise is that the
media serves, or propagandizes, on behalf of powerful institutions that control and
finance them. It explores how these powerful institutions have goals and ideals that they
wish to advance, and how they are well positioned in terms of money and influence to
push these goals and ideals. It also analyses the structure of the relationship between the
media and both government and commercial interest. The structure of the media itself is
also discussed; such as how reporters and journalist obtain their information, where they
tend to congregate to obtain their news stories, as it is unfeasible to have journalists
stationed everywhere that news might happen. A propaganda model focuses on
inequality of wealth and power and its multilevel effects on mass media interests and

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choices. The propaganda model consists of what the authors describe as news filters.
These filters being: (1) the concentration of ownership of the media and the profit
oriented goals of media conglomerates; (2) advertising as the main means of generating
profit; (3) the medias reliance on information given by the government, business, and
experts funded by these powerful institutions; (4) the generation of flak; (5) in the
original publication the 5th filter was anticommunism; it has since been revised to the
war on terror.
Manufacturing Consent has pages upon pages of citations, and given the credentials of
these two individuals, I feel that it is a very reliable source. It has been extremely useful
in helping my understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the media and other
institutions. I will be using this source in my paper to describe these relationships and
their importance in relation to the concentration and deregulation of the media.

McChesney, Robert. Theses on media deregulation. Media, Culture & Society Vol. 25 (2003):
125-133. Web. 11 March 2016.
The author of this academic article makes the case that government regulation is
necessary for a competitive market, citing examples such as copyright law, broadcasting
rights, and the publishing of music and films. His purpose in writing this article was to
provide a counter to the public relations campaigns that are geared up to promote the joys
of deregulated media markets. He starts by identifying that the mainstream conception
of the argument over media policy is flawed. He argues that it is not, contrary to popular
belief, the government and regulation versus the free market and deregulation, but
government regulation serving public interests versus regulation serving private interests.
He also states that the more deregulated the media becomes, the more difficult it is for the

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public to affect the policy-making process. The reason for this, he claims, is that the
cultural, economic, and political power of these entities make it difficult for the public to
challenge or reverse the deregulation process. Using the U.S. as an example of this, the
author states that a conservative 99 percent of the U.S. population has no clue as to how
the media policy-making process works, including members of congress not on relevant
committees. Also he claims that despite media policy decisions being regularly made, that
there is almost no press coverage except that targeting business and investors. He states
that the deregulation has resulted in many mergers resulting in only two or three firms in
every market that own nearly all the stations. He uses clear channel as an example, which
in 2003, owned nearly 1200 stations. Going further he claims that this consolidation robs
the public of local content and journalism, replacing it with generic commercial content.
He argues against this concentration of the media because it is a means for
communicating culture, journalism, and information necessary to be an active participant
in a democratic system of governance, therefore it falls in the realm of public goods.
Overall he argues against deregulation and claims that a society can have a commercial
economy while holding the media as public goods.
Robert McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in
the Department of Communication. He has spent years studying communication and
specializes in the political economy of communication. An interesting fact that I learned
about McChesney is that he is founder and president of Free Press, one of my sources. I
had already found my sources and didnt come across that tidbit until I was researching
the authors.

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I learned several new interesting things about industries in general. One of these is
externalities, specifically in the media industry. This article has been extremely useful to
me in my research, therefore I will be using this source in my paper.
Who Owns the Media? freepress. Free Press. n.d. Web. 11 March 2016.
Free Press is an independent organization relying solely on charitable foundations and
individual donors. The organization works to increase public awareness and participation
in the media policy-making process. Free Press is against media consolidation, for net
neutrality, and works to create media policies that are public interest-oriented, yet
competitive. They also advocate for a strong noncommercial sector of the media.
The web page cited above has information on the media conglomerates in each sector of
the media; TV and radio, cable and telecommunications, print, and the internet. Each
section has a listing of the media conglomerates involved in those sections, as well as an
overview of each company, followed by the type of media owned and how much of that
medium each company holds.
I believe this to be a reliable source. They dont receive money from the government,
business, or political organizations. Also, all of the information on their website that I
have reviewed checks out. Additionally, its founder and president, Robert McChesney, is
a professor at the University of Illinois, Department of Communication.
This website has a wealth of information that will most certainly be useful in writing my
paper.