Media Conglomeration: Here. There. Everywhere?

As the demand for news and the demand for entertainment increases, it seems media conglomeration frequents the industry more and more. But to understand conglomeration, you have to understand the basics of it first. A conglomerate, when defined, is the combination of two or more companies or businesses that essentially work with each other creating a final product. Specifically, a media conglomerate describes companies that own a number of other smaller companies in various medias. Examples of media conglomerates today are Time Warner, Disney, and Viacom.

In my personal opinion, media conglomeration allows the top six media corporations, or the "Big Six" to own and have the most say in what we as an audience here and see on a daily basis. It has a large impact in that these media corporations essentially feeding society information that they want us to believe. In the end, we have six main companies that gives us information and not much more of an opinion from an outside source. Almost like bullies or "the cool kids" on the playground. They have the say and they have the power.

Conglomeration in the media affects other markets in other countries in that the information the audience receives goes in two ways: either too broad or too limited. If a there are only so many conglomerates holding news agencies and the press, societies only gets so much news rather than a larger span of information. The market is affected in that there is a large divide. Companies with many smaller corporations under them gain much of economy's money and news "trust" while smaller conglomerates or more independent based companies attain a smaller audience and earn less money than larger corporations.

Indonesia currently has 10 major prominent business groups that own most of the country's media and news. Its largest media conglomerate at the moment is Kompas Gramedia Group. According to this article in The Jakarta Globe, Indonesia Media Conglomerates "... are seen as a new threat to the press freedom..." And also states that the media conglomerates are an opposing threat to press freedom in itself, leaving a large imbalance of power with limited checks and balances.

After following the news for for Indonesia recently, I've noticed that most of the news sources and information stem from three main corporations or news agencies, primarily The Jakarta Post, and the Jakarta Globe, both of which circulate a large amount of news within the country and have a large audience following.

In the end, media conglomeration brings many advantages and disadvantages. Advantages such as large capital and growing funds for a strong conglomerate and opening up new media and markets to other countries, and disadvantages such as limited balance in the control of the media and news, stemming back to the bullies on the playground having the power where as the underdogs aren't as equally appreciated.

Many who rely on these large conglomerates would say that media conglomeration has more positives than negatives while those of more smaller independent companies argue the unfair advantages that these companies hold. The various views are endless but as our society continues to grow and as our dependency on media increases, its difficult to tell whether conglomerates are truly a positive or negative force to society.