Econimics in the Newsroom

A business exists to make a profit. This is a statement that even a child understands. In order to keep the doors open and to be successful a company must find ways to keep costs down and revenue up. The business of media is no different. One way that the media corporations try to do this is by merging together with other media outlets and becoming more streamline. They are able to combine their resources and in turn bring down prices for the consumer.

In the piece by Michael K. Powell called, "Yes, The FCC Should Relax Its Ownership Rules", he makes a very valid argument for the liberalization of ownership rules by the FCC. I think one of his best points was identifying how many media outlets there are today, thus making it harder to monopolize what is reported on. If people don't like the information they are getting from the big corporations, they are able to go elsewhere such as other news shows or the internet.

Another benefit for the consumer of relaxing ownership rules is that it will promote localism. By allowing cross-ownership it will allow for companies to better serve their communities by airing more local news. The article also talked about the benefits of newspaper-broadcast television combinations having produced much better news coverage.

There is a very narrow line to toe when you talk about the merging of companies. We have learned from the past how damaging monopolies can be, not just for other business, but also for the consumer. Our government needs to handle these types of cases very carefully and decided what's in the best interest of all involved. I feel that in the case of media corporations it is alright to relax on ownership rules, but we cannot let them step over the line into all out monopolies.

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