Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Cross-ownership of media occurs when a person or company owns outlets in more than one medium (i.e., →  newspapers , →  radio , and →  television ) in the same geographical market. It is a business strategy driven by advances in technology and also a public policy issue due to concerns over increased concentration of ownership (→  Media Policy ). Cross-ownership is aimed at achieving economies of scope across multiple media. Costs may be reduced through the “synergy” of sharing of staff and content between outlets in different media, and revenues may be increased through the sale of multimedia advertising packages. On the other hand, diversity of media ownership is considered crucial to insuring diversity of news information (→  Plurality ). As a federal circuit court of the US noted in 2004, “diversification of media ownership serves the public interest by promoting diversity of program and service viewpoints as well as by preventing undue concentration of economic power” ( Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC , 373 F.3d 372, 383 [3rd Cir.] 2004; →  Public Interest ). Various media competition laws and regulations are widely accepted in connection with a society's significant interest in insuring a wide range of information and opinion for citizens through pluralistic media (→  Competition in Media Systems ). That is, media cross-ownership is a matter of freedom of expression as a right ... log in or subscribe to read full text