Media Ownership

Media Ownership and Freedom of Press

By:

Pooja Shah (62)

Sub: Press laws and ethics.

T.Y.B.M.M. Journalism

K.C. College, Churchgate

Introduction:

Towards the end of 1980s and through the 1990s and 2000s huge conglomerates emerged in media industry. It was then the issue of Media ownership came into being with the entry of corporate groups in Indian Media market. When the trend of conglomerates emerged advertising was their big source of revenue. Advertising companies used this move to their advantage and used media to create demand. They needed media to change the perception and the priorities of the people and hence started investing and sponsoring media to achieve their personal goal. The big tussle of price war resulted in low quality of journalism.

Media conglomerates became interested in selling ads and involved stongly in both horizontal and vertical ownership. News started defining news as something that is comes between two ads. Journalism hardly retained its socialist attitude and started giving them what they need instead of doing something for their real goal.

This trend of corporatization is leading to drop in media diversity. Media diversity is very important for freedom of press. People with political background have started investing and owning mass media for their vested interests resulting in mass media becoming pawns in the hands of the controllers. The control of media in India by foreigners through ownership is another big threat to freedom of press.

Case study:

• STAR India Group:

The STAR India group is one of the biggest (in terms of turnover) media conglomerates in the country. It claims it has the largest number of viewers for its 32 channels in eight languages, including STAR Plus, STAR One, STAR Gold, Channel V, STAR Jalsha, STAR Pravah, STAR World, STAR Movies, STAR Utsav and joint venture channels such as Asianet, Sky News, FX, Fox Crime, STAR Vijay, STAR News, ESPN and STAR Sports, among others.

The STAR group has also partnered the Tata group for its direct-to-home (DTH) TV distribution operations. Ownership of so many medium under hand of one owner reduces the changes of media pluralism and which is very evident in STAR group case.

• NDTV:

It is a TV news channel funded by funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired