But perhaps the most important feature of the modern media landscape comes down to money. More precisely, an endless flowing river of oligarchic monopoly money.
Well-functioning media systems typically include some kind of public restraint or oversight that prevents journalism from straying too far from its fundamental mission of informing the public. Such public participation may take the form of regulation (eg through broadcast licenses), support from large public broadcasting corporations (BBC in the UK, CBC in Canada) or through a variety of other mechanisms (eg the old fairness doctrine in the US).
In the US, public restrictions on the media have largely disappeared. But this does not mean that the system has been handed over to the “market”. Today, for example, 40 percent of all local television news stations are controlled by the three largest broadcast conglomerates: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television and Nexstar Media Group. Their stations (each company now owns about 100 stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC) operate in more than 80 percent of U.S. media markets. A conglomerate with a clear and well-documented right-wing bias like Sinclair has enormous influence over our information ecosystem.
