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The Current State of Media Concentration
How to become a Media Mega-Conglomerate:
1. Deregulate
What is deregulation?
- The practice of repealing national and international
laws that govern trade, organization, property, production, and consumption.
- It is also, however, the implicit promotion of a new
vision of social organization. One that transfers the balance of power
from the nation-state to corporations and the individuals who own them
(not just company executives, but mutual funds, investment groups, and
stake holders in any given corporation).
Landmarks
- In 1984, the U.S. Government dismembered AT&T,
which had held monopoly control over telecommunications in the U.S. It
spawned a host of "baby Bells," and is responsible for the fact
that you now have both long distance and local carriers in fierce competition.
- Between 1984 and 1996 the U.S. and British governments
helped deregulate the planet by pulling out of the international bodies
responsible for setting regulation internationally, chiefly UNESCO.
- In the same period, NAFTA was signed, a treaty that
helped dissolve almost all trade barriers between North America, Canada,
and Mexico. The Urugay round of the GATT talks helped deregulate trade
even further amongst its 23 signatories.
- 1996 Tele-Communications Act. Chiefly remembered for
the censorship and indecency clauses, this act made some of the most sweeping
changes to date, including:
- 1. Relaxing the restrictions on ownership of radio
stations (no restriction), television stations (no limit), and television
networks (35% of a market, up from 25%);
- 2. Repeals the rule against television network/cable
cross- ownership;
- 3. Extends legal protections against signal piracy
to Direct Broadcast Satellite;
- 4. Provides for closed captioning of video programming
for hearing-impaired viewers;
- 5. Eliminates the prohibition against foreign officers
and directors of licensees and their parent companies;
8 may 1997