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Who decides what is news and what is not news? Eduardo De Jesus Hernandez Herrera Senior, Political Science

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reserach study about how news are choosen in the United States

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Page 1: What is news and what is not news?

Who decides what is news and what is not news?

Eduardo De Jesus Hernandez Herrera

Senior, Political Science

“In fulfillment of course requirements, PS 426/526 Politics of the News Portland State

University, June 01, 2008”

Page 2: What is news and what is not news?

Abstract

The following research includes: a) A description of the theory behind news coverage in

a democratic society, b) The function of the media in a democratic society c) Commercial

interests pressuring the media’s function of providing unbiased news coverage, c) A case

analysis in which the following actors are involved 1) Mass Media 2) Big corporations 3)

A variety of news networks owned by the same entity 4) Journalists fighting for a honest

news coverage against a big corporation 5) The judicial branch of the United States 6)

The United States agency FDA, responsible for creation and executions of political

policies of human health. The purpose of analyzing a concrete case is to test the

rationality behind the theory that states that the Mass Media cannot perform its moral

obligation and social function of informing the public in an impartial way due to its

commercial role and nature in the market place.

Page 3: What is news and what is not news?

Introduction

In democratic societies the role of the media is to keep the public informed in

order to promote political participation, social integration, transparency of governmental

acts, awareness of public needs, political action in public policies and social justice. If the

Media performs a biased role informing the public, society will have an inaccurate

perspective of the reality. Public policies cannot be performed if the public does not

know real issues that threaten democracy. The Mass media needs to be one of the most

honest and trustable sources of information in a democratic society. If there is a

concentration of power and monopoly of information and news coverage, public opinion

can be easily controlled and manipulated, public policies can be shaped, public consent

can be addressed to satisfy the needs and demands of the powerful elite that decides

what’s news and what is not news.

The following research presents democratic doctrine of mass media and real case

analysis that shows that our economic system needs to be challenged and addressed in

order to follow those principles in which a democratic society was founded.

Page 4: What is news and what is not news?

Thesis Statement and Literature Review

The US Mass media is systematically biased in favor of big corporations and

political interests because its commercial role of market competition, agenda setting and

increasing their profits takes priority over its social function of keeping the public

informed.

The Mass media works with financial resources earned by advertisements paid by

big corporations such as Wal-Mart stores, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, General Motors and so

forth. The Mass media as a business needs to have profits in order to function.

The Mass Media is constrained and pressured by the economic system showing

positive news coverage supporting big corporations. Big businesses are the main entities

that provide financial sources to the Mass Media by buying advertisements. If the Mass

Media presents news that damage the image of its clients (big businesses) the Mass

Media might lose the companies that pay for advertisements. Big business will not pay

for advertisements from those companies that present a bad image of them. The Mass

Media needs to be biased in favor of big companies in order to be competitive, keep their

main source of finances and keep its business going.

Walter Lippman states that Democracy can not rely on newspapers at all. In

Newspapers he states that newspapers have no objective standards on choosing what

news need to be shown to the public. The main priority of a newspaper is to keep the

reader engaged and entertained for a certain amount of time rather than educate or

Page 5: What is news and what is not news?

inform. In our economic competitive market the newspaper that keeps the reader more

engaged is the most successful newspaper. Walter Lippman states that news and truth are

not the same thing. The function of the truth is to signal an event and the function of the

truth is to bring to light hidden facts.

Linda L. Putman in News coverage of environmental issues explains how the

media establishes the framing in which conflicts are conducted. She collects data from a

variety of conflicts using the NEWSBANK database, the Texas Natural Resource

Conservation Commission (TNRCC) and contributions from stakeholders interviewed in

this study. Her work illustrates that the media needs societal conflict to function and it

profits from the continuation of the conflict and how the media forms images of the

nature of the dispute.

Michaels in Why democracies need an unlovable press states that journalists are

constrained in professional culture, dependent on official sources narrowing public

discussion and diminishing democracy. Therefore the people who make the news and the

audience who reads and watches news are middle upper class individuals. There is

stratification in the ways in which news are delivered to the public. The Mass Media tries

to reach clients that have enough financial resources. Those clients are the ones who have

the economic capacity of buying products that the Mass Media shows in its

advertisements and commercials. Therefore, the Mass Media is not interested in directing

its news coverage to the lower economic class. There is a biases way of conducting news

coverage.

Everett M. Rogers and James W. Dearing's work of Agenda-Setting Research:

Where has it been, where is it going? is focused on how different interests play an

Page 6: What is news and what is not news?

important role setting the media agenda, the influence of the media on perceptions and

attitudes towards the public, and what issues politicians need to address in relation with

public opinion. It explains the importance of distinguishing an issue from an agenda

when people take into account political issues. Their work demonstrates that the media

impacts federal policymaking and implementation by either speeding up positive issue

coverage or slowing down the process with negative coverage.

The mass media needs to keep their business going. Legally and economically the

main goal of a business is to increase its profits. In order to succeed in the market place

Mass Media businesses needs to identify the wealthiest advertisement buyers. Those

wealthiest advertisement buyers are the most important clients, and the Mass Media

needs those wealthiest clients in order to succeed and compete in the market place. In

other words, the Mass Media needs to have wealthy commercial buyers in order to

function and exist. Even though keeping the public informed is a moral obligation of the

media and a principle of journalism to present unbiased and impartial news, the role of

the business takes priority over its moral obligation.

As Noam Chomsky states: “the powerful are able to fix the premises of discourse,

to decide what the general populace is allowed to see, hear, and think about, and to

“manage” public opinion by regular propaganda campaigns, the standard view of how

the system works is at serious odds with reality”

Increasing profits remains the main goal of the Mass Media. The way in which

conflicts are presented to the audience will attract more audience. Therefore, journalist

tend to be sensationalist and melodramatic in order to increase newspaper sales, to

increase the audience in T.V. shows, and gain more audience in news coverage in order

Page 7: What is news and what is not news?

to compete with the other Mass Media T.V. channels, radios and newspapers.

Linda L. Putman explains in News Coverage of Environmental Issues how the

media establishes the framing in which conflicts are conducted. She collects data from a

variety of conflicts using the NEWSBANK database, the Texas Natural Resource

Conservation Commission (TNRCC) and contributions from stakeholders interviewed in

this study. Her work illustrates that the media needs societal conflict to function and it

profits from the continuation of the conflict and how the media forms images of the

nature of the environmental dispute. Furthermore, Delli Carpini in Constructing Public

Opinion Michael and Bruce discover how television viewers interact intellectually with

television during discussions as much as they were members of the environmental

discussion, and such interactions were not limited to talk shows or environmental news

coverage. Their work illustrates that those TV viewers have a limited autonomy when it

comes to dealing with environmental issues. TV viewers in the report admitted the need

to distinguish the dramatic elements from the more factual bases.

If many channels carry the same message the greater the possibilities are that the

audience will have limited autonomy creating their own opinion about news coverage,

political issues and economic lifestyle.

McQuail in The influence and effects of mass media points out that the more

channels that carry the same message the greater the possibility of acceptance, stating that

the whole society is affected by the social power of the mass media. Farnsworth in The

Struggle over shaping the news explains that journalists' coverage can determine winners

and losers in the political arena. The fight over who decides what news should be

presented to the public becomes severe when financially powerful sectors compete

Page 8: What is news and what is not news?

against powerful political actors for media support. Journalists seek controversial

scandals of famous political actors in order to increase their profits and political actors try

to influence the media with their power. This illustrates different levels of power that

different political actors have in the political arena in contrast with different ranks of

power that journalists and the media have in the economic and social sphere.

The press should keep the public informed about important issues in society in an

impartial way. Society needs to be objectively and well informed in order to have a

functional democracy. On the other hand, there is a subtle principle of stratification of the

language in which news is conducted. If only the college educated middle upper class has

an understanding of the news, there is a marginalization of the uneducated sector of

society, excluding them from the political arena. Michael Schudson in Why democracies

need an unlovable press concentrates his work on how journalists have a clear and

largely secular, college educated, upper middle class vision that excludes different sectors

of society from exercising their freedom of expression. Schudson's essay shows that

journalists are constrained in a professional culture, dependent on official sources

narrowing public discussion and diminishing democracy.

Furthermore, the majority of the population including audiences with college

education and audiences without college education rely on soft news offered by

traditional media. Mathew A. Baum in How Soft News Brings Policy Issues to the

Inattentive Public discusses how news broadcasters discovered that real life human

drama attracts a larger audience than fictional drama. Cheap framing and real life drama

of soft news has successfully been accepted by the majority, explaining and informing the

public about complex economic and political issues. Soft news tends to reach more of

Page 9: What is news and what is not news?

the public than academic complex news, and that the inattentive public appears to be a

majority of the audience.

MaQuail in The influence and effects of mass media focuses on general behavior

in society such as buying, donating to charity, portrayals of immigrants, attitude and so

forth. If the Mass Media is controlled by big corporations, there will be a biased tendency

to try to influence the public to spend money on goods produced by big corporations.

Frank C. Erwin Jr.in What moves public opinion? is a specific study concentrated

on media impact on a variety of opinions about public policy issues before and after

audiences have been exposed to a variety of news. The study of Frank Erwin and Shapiro

demonstrates how television affects, influences and shapes public opinion about public

policy. Their work discovers an intrinsic and inherent connection between the way in

which news is presented and public opinion. The study suggests that TV news influences

short-term and long-term opinion change in issues such as rising educational levels,

cohort replacement, racial migration, and alterations in the family.

Gilliam in News Coverage Effects on Public Opinion about Crime illustrates how

certain groups of society avoid neighborhoods and contact between specific racial groups

that are criminalized by news coverage. Their work illuminates the focus of the study on

media and politics, illustrating that there is a connection between news exposure to

specific racial group perpetrators and support of more punitive justice policies, and how

semantic and visual stimulation conditions public attitudes about crime.

Thomas E. Patterson in The Miscast Institution argues that the news media fills a

political role that political parties ought to play. He explains that the function and

principles of the media differ with political values and principles that guide elections in a

Page 10: What is news and what is not news?

democratic society. He affirms that the United States is the only democracy that

organizes its national election campaign around the news media. Candidates use the

media to reach voters and they are forced to follow commercial goals instead of moral

principles of democracy. The work of Patterson questions the role of the mass media

during election campaigns and delegating more responsibilities to political parties

engaging voters with democratic processes and challenging our current political system's

efficiency and legitimacy.

Timothy E. Cook in The Uses of the News: theory and (Presidential) Practice

establishes that the media should be the forth branch of the government. He believes that

the more control the government has over the media the better that public policies can be

executed and the more participation that society can have in the government. Timothy

explains how different forms of government can be applied, challenging our system of

governance, the way in which Mass Media works and questioning current legal

institutions that are considered democratic.

Karen M. Kedrowski in How Members of Congress Use the Media to Influence

Public Policy explains, in the major findings of four case studies, how Congress uses the

media to influence public policy creation and execution. This essay illustrates that the

media has an enormous amount of power over political policies. Further study should be

made in order to determine which strategies should be applied in order to improve

democratic participation and unbiased news coverage over public policies.

Stephen J. Farsworth and S. Robert Lichter in The Struggle over shaping the news

explain that journalist's coverage can determine winners and losers in the political arena.

The framing of issues in which there is political conflict determines the influence of

Page 11: What is news and what is not news?

political movements. Doug McAdam Strategies of the American Civil Rights Movement

explains that civil rights movements have learned to take advantage of situations in which

the government appears to be undemocratic because public support in favor of the

dictatorial policies declines. Martin Luther King Jr. attracted media coverage of

undemocratic actions and mobilized public support constraining social influence of

segregation groups. This essay shows that the media can increase or decrease the power

of different political sectors, and political actors can strategize planning on how to gain

power through the media to pursue their political goals.

Page 12: What is news and what is not news?

EVIDENCE

In order to test the hypothesis that The US Mass media is systematically biased in

favor of big corporations and political interests because its commercial role of market

competition, agenda setting and increasing their profits takes priority over its social

function of keeping the public informed a case analysis will be conducted in which the

following actors are involved 1) Mass Media 2) Big corporations 3) A variety of news

networks owned by the same entity 4) Journalists fighting for honest news coverage 5)

The judicial branch of the United States 6) The United States agency FDA that is the

responsible entity of creation and executions of human health political policies.

The case of Akre and Wilson

Akre and Wilson reported that they lost their jobs at Tampa’s Fox-owned WTVT

when they refused to change their news report about a product of Monsanto. Both

reporters visited dairy factories and found out that bovine growth hormone (BGH) a

product of Monsanto was injected to each cow in the region. The product was present in

all the state’s milk products. The hormone product affected the health of the cows,

making them sick and stimulating production of bacteria into the milk.

Jane Akre states that: “….With Monsanto I didn’t realize how effectively a corporation

could work to get something into the market place, the levels of coordination they had to

have, they had to have university professors into the fold, that had to have reporters into

the fold, and they had to get the FDA into the fold… and they did that, very, very well”

Jane Akre states that the product was not properly tested on humans in order to verify if it

would be harmful to humans.

Jane Akre says that the federal government only did studies on rats for 90 days.

Page 13: What is news and what is not news?

Canadians scientists did not approve the use of BGH because it was extremely dangerous

and harmful for humans. Robert F. Kennedy Jr says that: “In various studies BGH has

been linked to cancer, New Zealand, and the entire European community did not approve

it. Akre and Wilson’s report said that Monsanto had been accused of fraud in connection

with information it had provided to the EPA concerning dioxin, published deceitful

statements about food safety, and funded favorable studies about the product from tame

scientists. The newscast also reported on allegations that Monsanto had attempted to

bribe public officials in Canada”

Jane Akre states that Fox news was afraid of showing negative news of

Monsanto’s product BGH because it was afraid of losing advertisement dollars.

Therefore, they only wanted to show positive news about Monsanto. Jane Akre says that

Rupert Murdock who owns 22 television stations was afraid of losing advertisement

dollars from all Monsanto products in all the television stations.

Jane Akre and Steve Wilson explained that Dave, the Director of Fox news, tried to

change the report of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson into a positive way favoring Monsanto

product: “…..we will tell you what the news is, the news is what we say it is” Steve

Wilson affirms that Fox news tried to bribe his wife and him in order to prevent them

from publishing the news that would show bad implications in health for humans and

cows.

David Boylan fired the reporters in December 1997. Jane Akre and Steve Wilson

sued Fox news. Robert F. Kennedy points out: “In August 2000, following a five month

trial, a Florida jury awarded Akre $425,000 under Florida’s private sector whistle –

blower’s statute, which prohibits retaliation against employees who threaten to disclose

Page 14: What is news and what is not news?

employer conduct that is “in violation of a law, rule or regulation”

Akre and Wilson decision was reverted by the Florida’s Court of Appeals and the

Court decided that they had to pay $1.7 million in legal fees to Fox in 2003. In 2003 Jane

Akre and Steve Wilson won the “Nobel Prize for grassroots work”

Who owns the Media?1

1 Taken from http://live.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

Page 15: What is news and what is not news?

General Electric

Time Warner Walt Disney News Corporation

CBS

Television networks: NBC Networks, Telemundo

Cable: A&E, History Channel (part), NBC Entertainment, NBC News, NBC Sports, NBC Television, NBC Universal, CNBC, CNBC World (Arabia, India, Asia, Europe), MSNBC, Bravo, Sci Fi Channel, Sundance Channel (part), Trio, Telemundo, USA, and Weather Plus

Production and distribution companies: NBC Universal Television Studio, NBC Universal Television Distribution

Network: the CW (a joint venture with CBS), Kids' WB, Telepictures Productions, Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO, Cinemax, HBO Sports, HBO Pay-Per-View, HBO Video, HBO Independent Productions, HBO Multiplexes, HBO on Demand, Cinemax Multiplexes, Cinemax on Demand, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, as well as HBO channels around the world), Court TV (50% Time Warner, 50% Liberty Media), TBS, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Europe, Cartoon

Disney Media Networks, a company whose holdings include:

The ABC Television Network: ABC Entertainment, ABC Daytime, ABC News, ABC Sports, ABC Television, ABC Kids, and Touchstone Television.

Cable Networks:

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN PPV, ESPN Deportes, ESPN International, ESPN Classic Sport Europe, ESPN Latin America, ESPN Asia, ESPNU, ESPN2 HD, Disney Channel (cable and satellite), International Disney Channels, Toon

Networks: Fox, Fox Business Channel, STAR (satellite television in Asia), Fox Movie Channel, Fox News Channel, Fox College Sports, Fox Sports Enterprises, Fox Regional Sports Networks (14 owned and operated), Fox Sports En Espanol, Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Net Bay Area (40%), Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Reality, Fox Pan American Sports (38%), Premier Media Group (Australia 50%), Premium Movie Partnership (Australia 20%), Cine Canal (Latin America 23%), Telecine (Latin America 13%), FUEL TV, FX,

Networks: CBS Network, Showtime Networks, Inc. (SNI) owns Showtime, the Movie Channel, Flix, Showtime Too, Showtime Showcase, Showtime Extreme, Showtime Beyond, Showtime Next, Showtime Women, Showtime Familyzone, TMC XTRA, Showtime HD, the Movie Channel HD, Showtime on Demand, Sundance Channel (joint venture, SNI owns 30%), Showtime PPV, CBS Entertainment, CBS News, CBS Sports, CSTV Networks, Inc.

CBS Network consists of 27 stations.

Page 16: What is news and what is not news?

26 television stations, owned under the “NBC Universal” division. These include NBC affiliates, Univision affiliates, and a small number of independents.

International Channels: 13eme Rue (France), 13th Street (Germany), Calle 13 (Spain), Sci Fi Channel UK, Studio Universal (Germany), Studio Universal (Italy), Universal Channel (Latin America), CNBC Asia, and CNBC Europe

Programming: NBC Network News, NBC Universal Global Networks, NBC Universal International Channels, The Today Show,

Network Latin America, Cartoon Network Studios, Cartoon Network Asia Pacific, Cartoon Network Japan (70% share), NBC/Turner, Williams St. Studio, New Line Television, Turner Classic Movies, TCM Europe, TCM Asia Pacific, TCM Classic Hollywood in Latin America, Turner Network Television, Turner South, TNT, TNT HD, TNT Latin America, TNT CNN / US, CNN Airport Network, CNN International, CNN Headline News, CNN Headline News in Asia Pacific, CNN Headline News in Latin America, CNN en Español, CNN en Español Radio, CNNj, CNN+, CNN Turk,

Disney, SOAPnet, ABC Family Channel, JETIX Europe, JETIX Latin America, A&E Television Networks (37.5% equity; includes A&E, the History Channel, the Biography Channel, History International, A&E International), Lifetime Entertainment Services (50% equity; includes Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women, Lifetime Radio for Women, Lifetime Home Entertainment), E! Networks (39.6% equity; includes E! Entertainment Television, the Style Network), Buena Vista Television, Walt Disney Television

The ABC Television Network has

National Geographic Channel (US 67% and Worldwide 50%), SPEED Channel, National Sports Partners, National Advertising Partners, My Network TV, Fox Television Studios

In the United States, News Corp. owns 35 television stations.

Satellite Television:Europe: SKY Italia includes Sky Sport, Calcio Sky, Sky Cinema, Sky TG 24; British Sky Broadcasting (37%) includes Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Travel, Sky One, Sky Movies

Latin America:Sky Latin America DBS Platforms include Brazil (Sky Brasil 50%), Irect TV

Programming: CBS Television Distribution: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, Jeopardy!, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Early Show, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Face the Nation, CW Network (50% with Time Warner), CBS Paramount TV, CSTV Networks, MountainWest Sports Network (50%), Smithsonian Networks (90%).

Page 17: What is news and what is not news?

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Dateline NBC, Meet the Press, Early Today, CNBC, Squawk Box, Mad Money, Tim Russert, CNBC World, CNBC Arabia, CNBC-India TV-18, Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Rita Cosby Specials Unit, Morning Joe, Mun2, Sleuth, A&E [part], The History Channel [part], The Sundance Channel [part], ShopNBC (27%), Ion Media Networks, Universal HD.

CNN-IBN, CNNfn, CNN International, CNN Mobile, CNN Newsource, CNN Pipeline, CNN to go, CETV (China), n-tv (German news network; Turner owns interest), BOING (family channel in Italy; joint venture with Mediaset)

Local cable news channels: Capital News 9 Albany, Albany, NY; MetroSports, Kansas City, MO; News 8 Austin, Austin, TX; News 10 Now — Syracuse, Syracuse, NY; News 14 Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC; News 14 Carolina-Raleigh, Raleigh, NC; NY1 News, New York, NY; R News, Rochester, NY; Urban Cableworks of

226 affiliated stations reaching 99 percent of all U.S. television households. The company owns and operates ten ABC television stations in the nation’s top markets.

Programming: Good Morning America, World News with Charles Gibson, World News Now, 20/20, Primetime, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, ESPNU

Latin AmericaAsia:Space TV (India DBS 20%), Phoenix Satellite Television (38%), Hathway Cable and Datacom (26%), China Network Systems (17 affiliated cable systems), BSkyB (38%), DIRECTTV, SKY Italia.

United States: DIRECTV Group (38%)

Programming: Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox Report with Shepard Smith, On the Record With Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes

Page 18: What is news and what is not news?

Philadelphia (joint venture with Urban Cableworks); Texas and Kansas City Cable Partners, LP (joint venture with Comcast)

Programming: American Morning, CNN Newsroom, Live From The Situation Room, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360

On Demand Services: Video on Demand, Digital Video Recorders, High Definition Television, Local News Channels

DISCUSSION

The case of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson shows how corporate interests play a big

Page 19: What is news and what is not news?

role in the process of deciding which news needs to be presented, which news should not

be presented, and how it has to be presented to the public. Jane Akre stated that Rupert

Murdock was afraid of losing advertisement dollars from Monsanto products in the 22

television stations that he owns. In this case the thesis statement The US Mass media is

systematically biased in favor of big corporations and political interests because its

commercial role of market competition, agenda setting and increasing their profits takes

priority over its social function of keeping the public informed is proven right. Rupert

Murdock had to decide to support Fox’s interests of increasing profits. If Rupert Murdock

had chosen to show the news report that would have demonstrated to the public that BGH

is a very harmful product to human and bovine health, he would have lost Monsanto’s

advertisements dollars.

Many countries prohibited the use of BGH including Canada, New Zealand, and

the entire European community. Akre states that in the United States Monsanto bought

the approval of the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) in order to gain legal support for

BGH in the marketplace. The FDA is an agency of the US department of human health

responsible for safety and regulations of foods, biological products and so forth. FDA is

one of the entities of the US government that is in charge of human health policies. Karen

M. Kedrowski in How Members of Congress Use the Media to Influence Public Policy

explains in the major findings of four case studies that Congress uses the media to

influence public policy creation and execution. How Members of Congress Use the

Media to Influence Public Policy shows that the media has an enormous amount of power

over political policies. Therefore, if the Mass Media would have shown that BGH is a

harmful product to human health, the FDA would have changed its human health political

Page 20: What is news and what is not news?

policies due to the awareness of American milk consumers. The Mass Media has a

tremendous influence over political policies. The agenda setting of Fox news shapes

political and public opinion. As Timothy E. Cook points out in The Uses of the News:

theory and (Presidential) Practice the more control the government has over the media

the better that public policies can be executed and the more participation that society can

have in the government. McQuail confirms in The influence and effects of mass media

that the more channels that carry the same message the greater the possibility of

acceptance by the audience, stating that the whole society is affected by the social power

of the mass media. Rupert Murdock owns 22 big TV channels. Monsanto having the 22

biggest TV channels of the United States promoting and advertising Monsanto’s products

represented a big and powerful business tool.

In the case of Akre and Wilson the thesis statement of The US Mass media is

systematically biased in favor of big corporations and political interests because its

commercial role of market competition, agenda setting and increasing their profits takes

priority over its social function of keeping the public informed has been verified. The Fox

media made a biased decision in favor of Monsanto not showing the negative aspects of

BGH. Fox’s commercial priority of market competition and increasing its profits

determined the decision of censoring the news report of Akre and Wilson. The agenda

setting of Fox supported Monsanto’s product along with the FDA. The social function of

the Media of keeping the public informed of the harmful damages to human and bovine

health was not a priority in Jane Akre and Steve Wilson’s case.

The table show that News Corporation owns the following networks: Fox, Fox

Business Channel, STAR (satellite television in Asia), Fox Movie Channel, Fox News

Page 21: What is news and what is not news?

Channel, Fox College Sports, Fox Sports Enterprises, Fox Regional Sports Networks (14

owned and operated), Fox Sports En Espanol, Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Net Bay Area

(40%), Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Reality, Fox Pan American Sports (38%), Premier

Media Group (Australia 50%), Premium Movie Partnership (Australia 20%), Cine Canal

(Latin America 23%), Telecine (Latin America 13%), FUEL TV, FX, National

Geographic Channel (US 67% and Worldwide 50%), SPEED Channel, National Sports

Partners, National Advertising Partners, My Network TV, Fox Television Studios, In the

United States, News Corp. owns 35 television stations. Satellite Television:

Europe: SKY Italia includes Sky Sport, Calcio Sky, Sky Cinema, Sky TG 24; British Sky

Broadcasting (37%) includes Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Travel, Sky One, Sky Movies

Latin America: Sky Latin America DBS Platforms include Brazil (Sky Brasil 50%), Irect

TV Latin America, Asia:Space TV (India DBS 20%), Phoenix Satellite Television (38%),

Hathway Cable and Datacom (26%), China Network Systems (17 affiliated cable

systems), BSkyB (38%), DIRECT TV, SKY Italia.

United States: DIRECTV Group (38%)

Programming: Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox Report with Shepard Smith, On the

Record With Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity and

Colmes. It means that if a decision was made in court supporting Jane Akre and Steve

Wilson more than 50 networks news coverage would have changed, public policy of

human health would have been affected and the profits of several multinational

corporations would have decreased due to loss of profits produced from BGH.

Conclusion

Page 22: What is news and what is not news?

The Mass Media tries to survive as a business in an aggressive capitalist system in

which only the strongest companies can survive. The main economic goal of a business is

to increase its profits. There are many big corporations that have merged in the past 20

years in order to grow as a business. The bad side of the merging part is that there is

oligopoly of the Mass Media. Concentration of power of the media leads to a

misinformed public. In a democratic society there has to be a variety of companies

competing to have the most impartial news coverage. In economic and democratic theory

the market place is responsible for encouraging journalist to cover news in an impartial

and professional way. The invisible hand would regulate efficiency and quality of the

news coverage. In the United States there are a few powerful corporations who control

the information, and they decide what is news and what is not news. There is a

systematically biased system that does not allow the media to be honest.

We have to create new mechanisms that will guarantee that news coverage will be

produced by trustful sources. Honest journalism is one of the bases of our democracy.

There should be laws that would punish the mass media when it presents wrong

information to the public. Currently, here is no legal punishment to the media for being

dishonest.

Page 23: What is news and what is not news?
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Citations

Denis Mcquail (2003) The Influence and Effects of Mass Media. In Doris A.

Graber (ed) Media Power in Politics (pp. 19-35) Washington, DC CQ Press.

Michael Schudson (2005) Why democracies need an unlovable press. In Doris A.

Graber (ed) Media Power in Politics (pp. 36-45) Washington, DC CQ Press.

Walter Lippman (1950) Newspapers. In Doris A. Graber (ed) Media Power in

Politics (pp. 48-55) Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Linda L. Putnam (2002) News coverage of environmental issues. In Doris A.

Graber (ed) Media Power in Politics (pp. 66-75) Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Everett M. Rogers and James W Dearing (1988) Agenda-Setting Research: Where

has it been, where is it going? In Doris A. Graber (ed) Media Power in Politics

(pp. 80-97) Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Benjamin I. Page Robert Y. Shapiro, and Glen R Dempsey (1987) What moves

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