Bagdikian, Ben H. The Media Monopoly. 3rd edition. Boston: Beacon Press,
1990. 288 pages.
"At the end of World War II, 80 percent of the daily newspapers in the
U.S. were independently owned, but by 1989 the proportion was reversed, with
80 percent owned by corporate chains. In 1981 twenty corporations controlled
most of the business of the country's 11,000 magazines, but only seven years
later that number had shrunk to three corporations. Today, despite the more
than 25,000 outlets in the U.S., 23 corporations control most of the business
in daily newspapers, magazines, television, books, and motion pictures....
An alarming pattern emerges. On one side is information limited by each
individual's own experience and effort; on the other, the unseen affairs of
the community, the nation, and the world, information needed by the individual
to prevent political powerlessness. What connects the two are the mass media,
and that system is being reduced to a small number of closed circuits in which
the owners of the conduits ... have that golden commodity they speak of with
financial joy, a 'guaranteed audience.' But the term 'guaranteed audience' is
another way of saying 'captive audience.' ...This book describes two alarming
developments in the mass media in the last 25 years. One is the concentrated
control of our media.... The other development is the subtle but profound
impact of mass advertising on the form and content of the advertising-
subsidized media -- newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting." (pp.4-5, xxii)
Author Ben H. Bagdikian is a professor of journalism at UC Berkeley.
ISBN 0-8070-6159-X
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