2.13: Media Qwnership

There is a growing feeling around the world that the media only represent certain viewpoints because of the way the media are owned. The debates around Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in 2022 showed that some scholars and journalists were concerned because they feared Twitter would become right-wing biased. But this is generally true for all large media outlets – most of them are owned by people with specific political views.

Media interests and ownership have become more concentrated over the past few decades, not only in other countries but also in South Africa. Increasingly, a number of large companies control the most important media outlets. In a country such as South Africa, there are three or four large media companies and the public broadcaster (the SABC). However, increasingly, there are also more independent voices in the media, thanks to the ease of publishing online.

When just a few big companies own the media, they can create a monopoly on information by controlling a sector of a market. When a media conglomerate has policies or restrictions, they apply to all stations or outlets under its ownership, potentially limiting the information citizens receive. Conglomerate ownership also creates circumstances in which censorship may occur because of the interests of the owners. They might not want to publish negative stories about their main advertisers because they need the income from advertisements.

The main media companies in South Africa are Arena Holdings, Media24, Independent Media, Caxton, and Primedia, as well as the SABC. In South Africa, many newspapers or magazines owned by these companies have been closing down because of economic reasons. However, there are many smaller newspapers and community radio and TV channels, as well as independent news websites and entrepreneurial journalists who still provide a variety of views and different voices.

As computers and the internet began to enter households, media companies wanted to take advantage of the prospect of providing additional media services under one umbrella. Media convergence (already discussed above) refers to the merging of technologies that were previously developed and used separately. For example, a newspaper might decide to open a website, provide visual news by using videos and also enter the traditional radio market by creating podcasts.

But consolidated media ownership has indeed led to a decrease in localism in terms of local news and local journalists, radio DJs, and editors who work for the large media conglomerates in the country.

The rise of social media and independent journalistic voices show that the public now simply express themselves and tell their own stories when they feel media conglomerates do not represent them well.

Summary

This chapter provided you with a broad overview of technology and the mass media, the development of different mass media platforms, the audience and media effects. It ended with a discussion of journalism and its role in society. In the next chapter, you will be introduced to the concept of news.