Access Denied

The fact that China and other countries control the information that their people can view is something that really stuck with me throughout this week and got me thinking about the topic of information control. I don’t think it is right that information is with held from people, especially on the internet. This is just the government’s way to keep the power of the collective people in check. But it got me thinking about information control in our own society. There is no question that it exists, but I guess Americans are just more crafty and subtle in the way they control information.
As media conglomerates continue to gain power and the number of corporations controlling our news and information slowly dwindle the opportunity for information control in our society will grow. The Media Reform Information Center reports that in 1993 there were 50 major corporations in the United States that controlled the media. In 2004 that number was down to 4. Media Reform Information Center
With so much emphasis on the bottom line, I think it is only a natural progression that we will see more information control by the major corporations that control our media especially as our options for news and information gathering increase. And the fact that these major corporations have their hands in the kitchens of all avenues of media, they will do what it takes to make sure their business succeed. This means heavy cross-promotion of their brand across all platforms through content. Take CBS for example. Say as a hypothetically example that there is a new episode of CSI coming out that deals with a killer who finds their targets through internet chat rooms. In addition to running promos for the show in national spots, the local CBS news outlets might run pieces in their local news either the night before the show or after it airs, dealing with crime on the internet. The online content team at CBS might run stories detailing the most popular internet crimes and run promos within CSI and other CBS shows to logon to the internet to get clips from the show that can only be seen on the internet.
As technology continues to advance and our options for news and information continue to grow, the competition for media companies to maintain ratings and viewers will only increase and that is why they will use all their resources to hold onto every viewer and consumer they have. As a result, the information which we are receiving and will receive in the future will be controlled in the fact that it is produced in the best interests of the company. This means editorial decisions will be made based not on what is a good story, but what will help the bottom line.