A presentation I found interesting was on Media Consolidation. It feels like there is so much content on television, the internet, and social media. I feel overwhelmed by all the different things I have access to and I am sure a lot of people think the same way. There are shows with different political opinions, companies producing several genres of films and shows, and websites that cover many aspects of life. We think we have so many options. That is until we stop and realize that a few companies own all of these apps and content. This is known as Media Consolidation. Only a limited amount of companies control all media we see. This is extremely problematic. According to Gallup, only 36% of people trust the media to accurately present the news. We do not trust them, nor should we. They have shown an innate ability to lie to us and treat us like sheep who will believe everything they tell us. To counteract this we might go to another source to find different information. Then we realize that that they are controlled by the same people that already lied to us. It is really to hard to find accurate information when all the news is controlled by so few companies.
The person giving the presentation did a really nice job when they brought up Disney. The mouse house might be the biggest offender when it comes to Media Consolidation. Disney has interests in film, television, sports, politics, and theme parks. They control some of the biggest film IP's in the world including Marvel and Star Wars. Disney has bought so many IP's to put on their streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. The company owns ESPN which makes them the main producer of sports content in the world. Disney World and Disney Land are by far the biggest theme parks in the world. They also own ABC. ABC is a channel that produces both shows and political news. Disney has dipped their toes in so many media ventures that it feels like they own everything. I like how the presenter compared the relationship between ABC News and Disney as a whole. If someone gets in trouble for doing something bad at Disney, what incentive does ABC News have to report on it? Why would ABC report on a story that actively hurts their parent company? Odds are they probably will not. If ABC will not report on a scandal why would CBS report on a scandal at Paramount? CNN will not talk bad about Warner Brothers. Because so few companies control all of the content we will not be given accurate information that hurts their bottom line. This we lead to even more distrust in the media, which seems like it can not get any lower than it already is.
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