Because of the rapid decline of newspapers and the rise of multi media, there has been a shift in the ownership of the newspapers. There are very few privately owned newpspaers left, but the majority has turned to chain ownership in order to survive. With this new shift of ownership, some sacrafices have been made in regards to, I think, the quality and objectivity of the paper.
The growth in popularity of television news caused a change in the structure of ownership in newspapers. According to “The News About The News” by Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert Kaiser, in the early 1960’s a national opinion poll was conducted by the Roper Survey and the majority of Americans said they predominantly got their news from television. Newspaper readership began to decline since then and many newspapers were forced to close because of declining revenue and profit. It seemed Americans would rather watch brief news segments on television as oppose to in-depth coverage and facts that a newspaper story could provide. Only a few newspapers in metropolitan cities were able to survive and remain profitable, but because of increasing pressure many of those newspapers were collected into large chains.
This shift in ownership ultimately modified the nature of the newspapers. Towns and cities form where the newspapers were located no longer had control. Good, contextual local news began to decline because the power shifted to distant corporate headquarters led by corporate executives, whose main goal was profits rather than content. Downie and Kaiser explained that family owned newspapers took pride in their papers and often sacrificed profits for public service, as oppose to the chained owned newspapers who sacrificed content for profits.
“The first owners of the three television networks were also willing to sacrifice some profit for public service. Today’s new patterns of corporate ownership have fundamentally altered the nature of news organizations by changing the incentives and rewards that guide their proprietors. When a sharp downturn in the American economy caused newspaper advertising revenues to plummet in 2001, for example, newspapers’ corporate owners ordered deep cuts in news staffs and space in the papers for news to maintain large profit margins.” (Downie, Kaiser pg.26).
Another drawback of chain ownership is censorship and suppression of the journalists themselves. Many times these major industries are more conventional and prefer a more conservative view of news and politics. This view can trickle down to its journalists, oppressing their thoughts in order to secure their position in the paper. Ben H. Bagdikian author of “Media Monopoly” said,
“Now that these industries own the country’s daily printed and broadcast news, it is not surprising that their newly acquired staffs have to come to understand that they remain in their employers’ good graces by downplaying or keeping unwanted ideas out of the printed and broadcast news. With time, this shrunken social-political range becomes the accepted definition of what is news.” This is a huge problem because the journalists may unnoticeably censor themselves in order to maintain their position and in return the paper will not be fully informing its readers. Worse yet, the newspaper might unobtrusively become partisan or favored to a specific group or idea and the original purpose of the newspaper will be eradicated.
