Why Is Media Ownership Important

Why is media ownership important? How might concentrated transnational media ownership impact on national cultures? What policy initiatives might diminish the effects of concentration of media ownership?

Media ownership is important for a number of reasons. The main reason being that if it is concentrated into one or two ownerships, many undesirable outcomes may follow. These outcomes include:

- Media may become commercially driven.

- The concentrated media owners have a large influence on its readers or viewers, as they are the primary source of information.

- Low levels of competition may result in poor efficiency levels, resulting in slower innovation and higher prices.

These reasons highlight the importance of media ownership. Higher levels of competition are healthier for the market, providing a wide range of ideas, views and information, and forcing companies to become efficient and more innovative.

Australian mass media is concentrated into a small number of owners. For example 11 of the 12 major newspapers in Australia are owned by Rupert Murdoch's news corporation or John Fairfax Holdings. In addition to this Rupert owns a major slice of foxtel.

With the expansion of media technologies, traditional media services are being challenged by new digital technologies, resulting in the emergence of new players, content and platform, which may in fact benefit national cultures, as they are now able to receive more information from alternative sources. However, this being said concentrated media only shares specific views, ideas and information to the public, influencing an individual's opinion. If an individual is open to a wide range of ideas and information, he or she is then able to obtain their own opinion, and therefore not be influenced by the majority.

Policies such as regulation of media in relation