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Media Critic Ben Bagdikian & The Media Monopoly
by Nashwa GewailyIntro
Ben Bagdikian (b. 1920) has made a name for himself as a journalist, editor, and media critic since arriving on the scene as a reporter in 1941. Having won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, Bagdikian is best known for his incisive criticism of the continually accelerating trend of media consolidation. His landmark text,The Media Monopoly (1983) is often credited as one of the earliest and most influential critiques of modern media concentration and its implications for a free press.
Media Analysis
Bagdikian describes “the media monopoly” as the dominance of large multinational corporations which have dwindled in number and increased in concentration through mergers and take-overs to control most of American media output. In the early 1980s, an "alarming" number of 50 companies comprised this elite segment, but the six editions of The Media Monopoly that followed offer updated analyses of the economic and political milieu that has led to the absorption of these corporations into the hands of five major conglomerates. Badgikian contends that the problem is "not one of universal evil among the corporations or their leaders", nor of "a general practice of constant suppression and close monitoring of the content of their media companies"; but essentially it is in the contradiction between the values of free enterprise and the "system that supports gigantism in corporate life" (The Media Monopoly, Ivii.) Throughout his work, he lays out two "alarming developments": the repercussions of concentrated control held by these corporations, and the "subtle but profound" impact of advertising on the content and presentation of newspapers and other media formats. In outlining his case, Bagdikian addresses issues such as the role of government coercion; limitations on access to official sources; pressure from advertisers and interest groups; downsizing; and the consequences legislation geared toward deregulation such as the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Criticisms
Upon publication in 1983, The Media Monopoly was frequently dismissed or ridiculed as "alarmist", and Bagdikian was chastised for "not trusting the market to correct itself" (Barsamian 211.) Though such criticism largely subsided after the realization of many of the predictions he laid out, his assertions still find controversy among dissenters who view his analysis as overwrought, radically left-wing rhetoric. One of his most outspoken critics is Slate.com commentator Jack Shafer, who in a 2004 piece titled "The Media Monotony", points to Badgikian's claim that "These five corporations decide what most citizens will—or will not—learn" as an example of his style of "typical overstatement", describing his analysis as "misguided". Shafer counters: "In the long run, competition and the dynamism of markets keep any five media conglomerates from dictating "what most citizens will learn.” Similarly, Ben Compaine, co-author of Who Owns the Media?, described Bagdikian's concerns as "overblown", writing: "I have never heard a convincing argument that any individual in the United States in 2003 cannot easily and inexpensively have access to a huge variety of news, information, opinion, culture, and entertainment…If that is what passes for media concentration, we should consider ourselves pretty lucky."
Works Cited:
Bagdikian, Ben H. The Effete Conspiracy and Other Crimes by the Press. Harper & Row: New York, 1972.
Badgikian, Ben H. The Media Monopoly: Sixth Edition. Beacon Press: Boston, 2000.
Barsamian, David. Louder than Bombs: Interviews from "The Progressive" Magazine. South End
Press: Cambridge, 2004.
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