(This is a reproduction of an original paper produced by me for a communications class. This was a formal paper and therefore includes MLA citations, The use of said citations does not constitute endorsement by the Author, or by the Vistua Office.)

In the old, old days, those years of long ago, most cities likely had two or three network TV stations, sometimes a PBS station, assorted radio stations, and one or two daily newspapers. That is now over. Today Rochester, NY, a fairly average American city has five network stations, only one daily, and a very large number of radio stations.

We have four “major” network affiliates, WROC-TV the affiliate of CBS (“CBS Stations”), WHEC-TV an affiliate of NBC (“About News 10NBC”), WHAM-TV an affiliate of ABC (“Local Stations”), and A FOX affiliate WUHF-TV (RNYN, “WUHF”). We also have WXXI-TV, our PBS station (“Station Finder”).

The author has chosen to take a closer look at WUHF-TV, the FOX affiliate. Going by the on-air identifier “Fox Rochester” (“WUHF”, RNYN) WUHF-TV started as an independent station in 1980, owned by the Malrite company. Six years after signing on for the first time, WUHF became one of the first FOX affiliates (“WUHF”, Wapedia).

WUHF-TV is in a more than usually complex ownership structure. The name on the FCC license is WUHF Licensee, LLC. (“TV Query”). The station however is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group (“Television Stations”), and a large percentage of it’s operations are performed by Nexstar Broadcasting (“Glance”) through an arrangement which is called a “Local Marketing Agreement” or LMA. (“Local Marketing”).

The FOX network is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s huge conglomerate, News Corporation. News Corp also owns tabloids and newspapers such as The New York Post and The Times. The Twentieth Century Fox film studio, Harper Collins, and Regan Books, as well as paperback publishers such as Avon Books and specialty publishers like Zondervan, even film review site Rotten Tomatoes (“Television”, “Who owns What”, “Other Assets”).

Such a widely tentacled organization is likely to raise concern in the minds of many about the power that it might exert over our nation, or indeed all human economies. Another concern is that the large scope of such an organization would produce inferior output, as the author thinks has happened to news.

The news operation of WUHF is now controlled by Nexstar (“Glance”). When the new newscast debuted it was quite different from what had come before, it was much shorter, and featured more up-beat music and a visually exciting set, there was also quite a lot of weather (Walthall).

The opinion expressed by the author in the Slacker Online piece was that the newscast is of low quality and that the cause of this problem was that far-away corporate bosses are out of touch with reality. While this is only an opinion and cannot be empirically proved, it is often perceived that the quality of news has begun to suffer severely.
Self-evidently it is of great benefit to the message-sender if the organization is as efficient and profitable as possible. It is, on the other-hand, unclear that maximum efficiency is in the long-run good for the message-receiver. For instance NUJ, a pressure group, official Jeremy Dear recently complained that the BBC’s plan to downsize it’s venerable news department, because of budget cuts, would compromise the organization’s news-gathering abilities. (qtd. in “BBC”).

The effect of corporate bungling or incompetence or bureaucracy could easily be felt in non-news operations as well, for instance in a film studio. If the suits and the artists are at odds, who wins? The author has not wanted to see any film produced in the last two years; it looks like the suits won.

Another dubious benefit of mass media conglomeration is what is commonly termed “Vertical Integration”. If a company is vertically integrated then it owns or operates a large number of aspects of a business which support each other. The infamous Standard Oil Trust was a good example of a real-life vertically integrated business. Standard Oil prospected for, refined, distributed, sold, and drilled for oil.

This might be good, because it could encourage profitability and reduce inefficiency, but it might also be bad, it could reduce competition and thereby eliminate the motivation to produce high quality products at low cost. It would also lead to greater risk of ethical conflicts.

A book published by Harper Collins might be promoted on MySpace, on Fox News Channel, and reviewed favorably in The Times Literary Supplement. This integration raises ethical concerns, readers of the TLS are being told that it’s a straight up honest review of the book withal, if The Supplement’s parent companies stand to benefit from a dishonestly inflated review… perhaps it’s not.
The author already cited his opinion piece, which harshly criticizes the quality of the news being broadcast on WUHF-TV, and declares mass media conglomeration a major factor in this issue.

But what do other people think? In 2002 Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting Corp attempted to merge, this attempt did finally succeed in 2003, but not without considerable controversy (Gregor 62). The combined entity controlled an enormous share of the Spanish-language television and radio market (Roman 58). Critics of the plan feared that this kind of corporatism could lead to the corruption of “authentic” Hispanic voices (Gregor 62).

Billboard defended the merger in an editorial saying “…complaints appear to be driven by fears about motive and intent, in the sense that bigger can never be better.” (“The Fear” 10) and arguing that the Spanish-language market is not separate from the English-language market (“The Fear” 10)

Overall, the author believes that mass conglomeration is not good or bad inherently, therefore each instance should be evaluated as it happens to determine if the effects will be good or bad. It is further the author’s position that the State should not become involved because conglomeration is ethical and offers no risk to life, limb or property.

Works Cited

“About News 10NBC.” 2007. WHEC-TV, LLC. 10/30/07

“At a Glance.” Democrat and Chronicle [Rochester, NY] 23 Aug. 2005 metro ed.: 8D

“BBC Trust failing in it’s duties.” 2007. National Union of Journalists. 10/30/07

“CBS Stations in HDTV.” 2007. CBS Broadcasting, Inc. 10/30/07

Gregor, Allison. “What’s Spanish for “Big Media?”” Columbia Journalism Review 42.3 (2003): 62

“Local Marketing Agreement.” 2006. TV IV. 10/30/07

“Local Stations.” 2007. ABC, Inc. 10/30/07

“Other Assets” 2007. News Corporation. 10/30/07

Roman, Monica. “Muy Grande Broadcaster” Businessweek 6 Oct. 2003: 58

“Station Finder.” 2007. Public Broadcasting Service 10/30/07

“Television Stations.” 2007. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. 10/30/07

“Television.” 2007. News Corporation. 10/30/07

“The Fear Factor in Mergers.” Editorial. Billboard 4 Oct. 2003: 10

“TV Query Results.” 2007. Federal Communications Commission 10/29/07

Walthall, John. “Attack of the Nuclear Cooking Devices.” Editorial. Slacker Online 3 Sept. 2007

“Who Owns What.” 2007. Columbia Journalism Review 10/30/07

“WUHF.” 2007. RNYN 10/29/07

“WUHF.” 2007. Wapedia 10/30/07

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