Mediaboss Marketing

By Hazel Henderson

The days in the past century whenrebels captured the main radio station totake over whole countries are long gone. Todays political takeovers are now by corporate mergers, online giants, big data, computers, artificial intelligence and AIalgorithms. All these new forces are winning over traditionalpolitics, democracies and grassroots citizen organizing. Mediocracy is now the dominant form of governance in many countries.

In this context, we see todays power grab by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of 170 TV stationscovering38 percent of the current 39 percent limitover U.S. audiences and markets, as in rulings of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sinclair is now lobbying the FCC and politicians toexpand its power over U.S. audiences by buying Chicago-based Tribune Medias 42 stations which would extend its reach to cover 72 percent of U.S. viewing households and markets. As with somany government agencies, the FCC has been under the influence of the media corporationsit is supposed tooversee.

This kind of regulatory capture of somany government agencies is documented by manyeconomists. The Trump administrations new appointee Ajit Pai, as chairman of the FCC, is corporate-friendly, evidenced already by his position in the net neutrality battle. Pai is now expected togrant Trump-supporting Sinclair with a loophole for its expansion of control over U.S. markets and audiences. This means the the trusted local TV stationwill now be under new corporate control.

The founders of the United States feared concentration of power in government. They installed separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution buttressed by freedom of the press. The very first Amendmentreinforced this free media which became known as the Fourth Branch of U.S. democracy.

Today, twonew threats have emerged:

Crusading media experts reports, such asJacques Elluls classic Propaganda (1968), Marshall McLuhans The Medium is the Message (1964) on the power of advertising and television and Ben BagdikiansThe Media Monopoly (1983) all warned us of the accelerating merger and consolidation of control of U.S. and global media. Todaythe 50owners of 90 percent of U.S. media described by Bagdikian is down to six! The takeover of media ownership now controls most of the news and information the public sees, hears, reads and accesses online. [Ed. note: making independent publications like TriplePundit all the more important!]

These giants ofour mediocracies are steered by big finance, such as hedge fund kingmaker Robert Mercer, funder of the Trump campaign, Breitbart, Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. Funders include the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and others on the right wing described by Jane Mayer in Dark Money (2016), and smaller players on the left, such as George Soros.

In Mediocracies and Their Attention Economies(2017) I described this new form of government overlooked by most political and social scientistswhich I first documented in Building A Win Win World (1996). Media control as a favorite government strategy for power is well-known and common from Putins RussiatoMugabes Zimbabwe.

Yet the world is less awareofpower grabsby the newer forms: corporate media and control by finance and technological superiority. Today, control of media content and access, and intimidation of journalists exist in many countries. Meanwhile commercial advertisingdominates consumer education worldwide withits globalmarket of $570billion tightly-held by giant corporate conglomerates.

The battle in todays mediocracies is about trust and truth, access todata, facts and scientific evidence. Trustin the past was based in family, community, tribeand face-to-face knowledge. Trust and confidence are the basis of all markets, banking and finance. Trust does not scale easily, the basic dilemma ofall large complex societies, as they search for new forms on blockchains and in cryptocurrencies. Trust and truth are alsothebasis of free media and journalistic excellence. Will new grabs by corporate power succeedoverfreedom of the press and the publics right-to-know, access tounbiased information and truthful advertising? Truth versus propaganda? Stay tuned!

Hazel Henderson,D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, CEO, of Ethical Markets Media, also founded the EthicMark Awards for Advertising That Uplifts The Human Spirit In Society.

Image credit: Pixabay / PublicDomainPictures

See original here:
Commercial Influence at FCC: A Challenge to Free Speech - Triple Pundit (registration) (blog)