Winter

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Capitalistic vs. Public Interest What is the Business of Global Media?

To what extent are global media flows governed by capitalistic interest of multinational conglomerates?

Christoph Schattleitner
1.582 words

Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) // Global Media

This essay explores the business of media and its conflict between journalisms task to serve the public interest and the capitalistic interest of the media. Multinational conglomerates operate in a free, capitalistic world and therefore global media flows are also governed by their interest in making profit. Firstly, I explain the conflict of the media world, after that I will give two examples of two conglomerates and how their capitalistic interests are appearing.

THE PUBLIC INTEREST

In classic understanding, journalism and media are seen as the Fourth Estate and watchdog of a democracy. This function for society is so important that even the constitution is protecting press freedom. The so-called model of public sphere is according to social theorists crucial for a democracy. (Croteau and Hoynes W. 2006) Referring to the studies of the German sociologist Jrgen Habeas, the public sphere model posits an open media system that is widely accessible. It argues that information should circulate freely, without government intervention to restrict the flow of ideas. (Croteau and Hoynes W. 2006, pp. 22) Which will be discussed referring to this quote later: There are not only governmental, but also restrictions from the owner of the media. But back to Habermas, who said that ownership should be broad and diversified, with many owners instead of a few large ones. (Croteau and Hoynes W. 2006, pp. 22) Whereas normal business are measured by its profits, medias contribution to the democracy can be immeasurably, predicted they promote public discourse, citizen participation, etc. From the public spheres perspective, media should prepare citizens to participate in public life by serving information, which is in the public interest. (Croteau, D. and Hoynes W. 2006) Summarized by me: In a democracy media are playing a fundamental role. A society, which is self-governed, needs to be informed truly for making correct decisions. More about journalisms role can be found in the essays Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel (2001).

THE CAPITALISTIC INTEREST

In the last paragraph I pointed out that media are different from other businesses, in this one I want to show that they are (also) businesses like others. Does that sound strange? That is the conflict media makers live with. Markets first obligation is to make profit. Beside self- and governmental restrictions, markets are in general amoral; so are private media companies. They supply whatever is demanded (by attention, money or both). Or in different words: They do not distinguish between products that might be good for so ciety versus products that might be harmful. (Croteau and Hoynes, W. 2006, pp. 24) Market-orientated media see their audience as consumer and not as citizens. This is why they have a tendency to produce economic benefits and simultaneously create (or at least help to sustain) democratic deficits. (Croteau and Hoynes, W. 2006, pp. 25) Ideally, market criteria match with the public interest, but we know from our own, that there is news, which are more interesting than others, though they are not that important. Journalist should make the significant interesting and relevant(Kovach and Rosenstiel 2001, pp. 27), but firstly that is a tough job and secondly why not covering news which is already interesting (but not important)? We now know that there are two models, two aims of media, in conflict with each other. The question that follows now is, to what extent capitalistic interests of multinational conglomerates harm the public interest in true and objective information.

Christoph Schattleitner

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WOULD YOU WRITE BADLY ABOUT YOURSELF?

When we are talking about multinational conglomerates, we have to consider that they are interlinked with large national, but also regional companies in different areas of the world. And: I am not only talking about media. Disney for example does not only own the major movie studios, TV channels, which are available in 190 countries, but also theme parks, resorts and cruise lines. Furthermore The Walt Disney Company is involved in the merchandising production from books to home dcor. (Arsenault 2011): Their business field is unbelievable broad and not limited to the media sector. Because of that crosspromotion enters a new dimension of possibilities. In Disneys chase that can mean that they (= Disneys media like ABC, Super RTL, etc.) give Disney films a good review, but competitors bad ones. Furthermore it is very unlikely that Disney would publish critical stories about their own business. Fulfil the public interest and follow journalistic rules would mean that Disney loses profit. In its capitalistic nature, a conglomerate would not do that. I would like to show you a self-researched example how Disney is cross-promoting their products, namely by increasing their level of awareness.

EXAMPLE 1: WHEN DISNEY IS (ONLY) REPORTING ABOUT DISNEY

The American broadcaster ABC, owned by Disney, made a report about which brands kids now. Remarkable is the fact, that every brand (except Shell) named in the article is owned by or cooperating with Disney. Lets go trough the article chronological: The first brand appears as Cars, the movie produced by Disneys Pixar and released by Walt Disney. The Japanese Nintendo claims on their homepage that they are in cooperation with Disney since 1959 (Nintendo 2013). Next one is Dannons Danimals, a yoghurt for kids, which is also cooperating with Disney, namely that various Disney characters are on the yoghurt packing. But what about McDonalds? They do not have anything to do with Disney , do they? Lets think about which toys in the Happy Meal are. Right: Toys from the Disney movies. Even Toyota sells Disney Princess Cruisers and Nike is offering Mickey Mouse shoes. It is not surprising any more that the last brand mentioned in the article, Kleenex, is selling kids tissues with Disney characters. (ABC 2010)

Disney in form of the ABC is therefor only reporting about their products and cooperated companies, which increases undoubtedly their level of awareness. Of course, all of that can be a coincidence and I cannot prove anything, but it is remarkable that ABC is covering this story whereas other media do not. It seems like good for our own became another news value. F rom an entrepreneurial view that makes sense and there is the possibility to do so. Completely legal.

Christoph Schattleitner

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EXAMPLE 2: RUPERT MURDOCHS EMPIRE BETWEEN CAPITALISM AND POLITICAL

POWER
Rupert Murdoch is the founder, chairman and CEO of the worlds second -largest media conglomerate News Corporation. He is known for using his medial power to promote his political, namely conservative, interests. In Britain for example he used his media to help Conservative candidate Margaret Thatcher win election as prime minister. (Bagdikian 2004, pp.39) One good turn deserves another, so Thatcher helped Murdoch to acquire both Times newspapers, which was before forbidden by Englands Monopoly Commission. (Bagdikian 2004, pp.39). Murdoch is known as deep-seated conservative (Bagdikian, B. 2004, pp.38), but if he wants something sufficiently valuable, he can momentari ly suspend his personal politics. (Bagdikian 2004, pp.39) The BBC reported critically about Communist China, which China disapproved. As a reaction Murdoch dropped the BBC form his Asian satellite programs. (Bagdikian 2004, pp.39) His capitalistic interest did not only censor critical journalism, but also made his deepest political beliefs dumb. He is known as the media mogul with the strongest political intentions, but when it goes about making business, he is betraying himself like this example shows. Last but not least, Murdoch is a good example how capitalistic interest of conglomerates can harm the public. A lot of media companies are fighting for the broadcast rights for popular sports events. Murdoch and its Fox channel found a way, how to be both buyer and seller: Murdoch bought the teams, which are selling the broadcast rights. He raised prices, which of course, result in higher payments by the public. (Bagdikian 2004, pp. 37-38)

CONCLUSION
For democracys sake media are demanded to not only make profit. For Multinational conglomerates, which operate in a free market - also known as a capitalistic system this claim can be a contradiction. As shown in the examples, conglomerates can use global media to get a competitive advantage by promoting their own business. You can also name Murdochs Thatcher deal as corruption and his investment in sports team as a fraud in the public. This essay wanted to explore the conflict between the public interest in independent information and the capitalistic interest of multinational conglomerates, which are making global media. It gave a brief introduction to the topic by explaining the dilemma of media business and further mentioning two examples that are showing how capitalistic interest are responsible for global media flows. The topic is very complex, for a fully understanding of how conglomerates work. If more space had provided, I would go more into detail of the biggest five media conglomerates and how their capitalistic interests are influencing global media flows.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
reporter (2010) http://abcnews.go.com/Business/kids-mcdonalds-toyotadisney/story?id=10333145 Arsenault, A. (2011) The Structure and Dynamics of Communication Business Networks in an Era of Convergence Mapping the global networks of the information business in Winseck, D. and Jin, D. (ed.) The Political Economies of Media. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 101-120 Bagdikian, B. (2004) The new media monopoly. Boston: Beacon Press books Baker, E. (2007) Media Concentration and Democracy Why Ownership matters. Cambridge: ABC Cambridge University Press Branston, G. with Stafford, R. (2010) The media students book. Abingdon: Routledge Croteau, D. and Hoynes W. (2006) The Business of Media. United States of America: Pine Forge Press Page 4 of 5

Christoph Schattleitner

Kovach, B. and Rosenstiel, T. (2001) Journalisms first obligation is to tell the truth, Elements of Journalism, 55:2, pp. 10 Nintendo (2013) http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Disney

Christoph Schattleitner

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