|
Some countries are relatively free of direct government control
over the press -- but there are still limits on journalists'
freedom due to the economic structure of the news industries.
The role of advertising
Most news organizations generate virtually all of their revenue
by charging other companies to advertise in their papers, websites,
and broadcasts. (It is easy to forget this when searching for
news in library databases, because the advertisements aren’t
included when the articles are put into these databases.)
Although journalists try to minimize the influence of advertisers
over the news, advertisers do exert subtle pressures over news
production. For example, if a chain of discount stores spends
a lot of money to advertise in a particular newspaper or to
sponsor a news program, that newspaper or program may shy away
from reporting on how such companies treat their workers who
try to organize a union.
This problem of advertiser control is compounded by media consolidation,
in which huge corporate conglomerates are buying up news media
with the sole intent of increasing their short-term profitability.
The more advertisers they offend, the lower the profitability.
Self-censorship
The end result is that journalists often fail to pursue news
stories that they believe would reflect poorly on their advertisers
or fail to serve the interests of the huge corporations that
own their media companies. They may feel—and rightly so—that
certain articles would not get published anyway and that they
may even lose their job for forcing the issue. This behavior
on the part of journalists is known as self-censorship.
A corporate-friendly perspective often prevails
Understanding the role of advertising and media consolidation
on the news can help you understand what is going on if most
of the articles you find tend to take a perspective that focuses
on corporate interests and profitability rather than on the
concerns of workers, the environment, etc. You may want to think
about revising your search strategy to try and get different
perspectives on the issue if you're having this problem.
page 7/11
|
