COMM 102 - Media Ownership Concentration & Digital Newspaper Models

This essay addresses two key questions related to media and journalism. First, it examines the concentration of media ownership in Canada, using examples of large media conglomerates and discussing economic integration and the political/policy and economic factors that enable media convergence. The essay then shifts to the business models for newspapers in the digital age, analyzing their impact on journalistic values such as copyright, freedom of the press, diversity of opinion, accessibility, and affordability of news for Canadians. The analysis draws upon various sources to support its arguments and provide a comprehensive overview of these critical issues in the media landscape.

Running head: COMMUNICATION 1
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COMMUNICATION 2
Some people have argued that Canada has among the most concentrated media
ownership situation in the world. Do you agree? Discuss using two examples of large
media conglomerates and demonstrate the various types of economic integration. What
are the political/policy and economic factors that allow for media convergence in
Canada?
Canada contains most concentrated television industry ownership than any other G8
country. It is also second in terms of audience television concentration. This has been revealed in
one of the new report which aims at measuring the effect of projected Bell Canada-Astral Media
blur. The report which comes from a Boston-based Analysis Group says that 81.4% of value for
Canada Television dissemination market is controlled by the companies which also created the
content like that of broadcasters plus production companies. This is by the leaps plus bounds
with the utmost percentage within the G8. The country that follows Canada is Japan. Japan
occupies only 37.5 % of its own television distribution. This percentage is controlled by the
content creators. It covers 23.5% of the United States population. Despite most people arguing
that Canada has one of the most concentrated media within the world, this has never been proved
fully because there is very little empirical evidence which can prove the argument. The report
from the Analysis Group shows the degree in media concentration is becoming increasing in a
rapid way within the nation of Canada. In the year of 2009, only the population of 40% of
television dissemination marketplace was within the hands of the content creators. According to
the report, this is less than ½ of the percentage today. The report further states that “The
Canadian media sector is highly concentrated in comparison with other G8 countries, and the
level of vertical interaction exceeds any other country.” However, the state of Canada becomes
the second worst in terms of television audience concentration. The largest company of Media in

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Canada is Bell. Bell Media gearshifts 28.6% of television viewing market. This is according to
the report. Mediaset being the largest broadcaster in Italy, it controls 45% of the Italian
viewership. (The broadcast was formed is still up to date under the control of the ex-Prime
Minister Silvio Berluscon). (Skinner, Compton & Gasher, 2015).
Even if Bell Media gets an allowance f buying Astral, it will only have its control on
37.6% of television viewing audience. This is still below the levels of Italy but very high than
any other country within the G8 countries. Bell-Astral union has brought the subject for media
concentration within Canada to the lead (Winseck, 2009). This is after the simmering at the back
burner for many years. The coalition of television distributors started a campaign within the last
one week so as to put on to hold the Merger, using the data from Analysis Group Study in
backing up its spat which states that giving an allowance to the union of Bell-Astral, it would
lead to hurting the consumers. However, the companies that are involved in the coalition,
comprising of Rogers Communications, they tend to be vertically integrated hence contributing
towards the concentration for media ownership (Winseck, 2010).
The consumers advocate for the worry of the impact that is there towards the media
concentration in relation to diversity of the opinion and fairness within the business. For
example, when America bought Comcast, the cable provider, some concerns were raised that
some television distributors such as Comcast would find the reason of favoring NBC content as
compared to those of other producers. Some reports early this year shows that American Justice
Department has taken an initiative of investigating Comcast plus others over the allegations of
limiting the competition from the providers of internet videos (Winseck, 2011).

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What are some of the key business models for newspapers in the digital world of the
twenty-first century? Discuss how these models will impact key journalistic values such
as copyright, freedom of the press, diversity of opinion, accessibility, and affordability of
the news to Canadians.
Journalists have a very bad habit of trying to forget that most people also do work in
their own organizations. The logic here is that they purport to preserve the jobs for the
journalists that report the news. However, they do not put in mind that the people who buy
those magazines usually look at the columns. Therefore, what is seen in the newspapers of
today is just a skeleton; the business which has been systematically looted for many years so
as to get to send funds to the corporate headquarters. People are unquestionably loosing
important information because the newspaper business models has implode. For instance in
Canada, the idea for the philanthropists getting into community gen business is not a new
thing. It is neither bad. On the other hand, not for profit media is not a new thing within the
country. However, some organizations such as NPR and PBS do not have the agenda of
making profits. They just need the business models like any other profit enterprise (Picard,
2014). Nonprofits exist within the country so as to ameliorate the failures in the market place
for profit. Markets always fail and they fail in a frequent way. Therefore, the market failure
for the newspaper business has not been felt by the by the journalists in the past century but
has been felt by the sellers plus the services within the community. This has been due to the
monopoly status in Canada within the newspaper business. This has led to the journalists
getting high profits from the advertisers that do not have any other alternatives (Kovach &
Rosenstiel, 2014).

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The other point in relation to business model is that there is an explosion of
innovation. The innovation is either coming from the organizations of news and others coming
from the perspective of people who are trying to adopt to the business models and journalism
plus information techniques (Carson, 2015). Therefore, funding is needed for those adaptive
projects. The other point is that most essential part for the non-profits is for addressing the
failure that has been experienced within the new market. This is because reporting needs
funding and time (Gillmor, 2018). Market failure in the business of newspapers within the past
century was being felt by the journalists. However with time, the business became well spread
hence becoming saturated. This in turn affected the sellers and the buyers of those
newspapers. For instance if one meets with the person that used the classifieds for eBay plus
hose of craiglist, the person will confirm that the current market place is a total failure. During
that time, the editorial staff had good time whereby they enjoyed a stable employment which
was long term. They also had a good distance from the advertiser influencer above contents
for the news pages. During that time, the journalists were excellent and superb. To add to that,
practicing journalism was one of the greatest things. However, being conservative was not
their thing.

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References
Gillmor, D. (2018). http%3a%2f%2fwww.historystudies.net%2fdergi%2f%2fbirinci-dunya-savasinda-bir-
asayis-sorunu-sebinkarahisar-ermeni-isyani20181092a4a8f.pdf. History Studies International
Journal of History, 10(7), pp.241-264.
Carson, A. (2015). Behind the newspaper paywall–lessons in charging for online content: a
comparative analysis of why Australian newspapers are stuck in the purgatorial space
between digital and print. Media, Culture & Society, 37(7), 1022-1041.
Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2014). The elements of journalism: What newspeople should know
and the public should expect. Three Rivers Press (CA) pp.245-456.
Picard, R. G. (2014). Twilight or new dawn of journalism? Evidence from the changing news
ecosystem. Journalism Practice, 8(5), 488-498.
Skinner, D., Compton, J. R., & Gasher, M. (Eds.). (2015). Converging media, diverging politics:
A political economy of news media in the United States and Canada. Lexington Books.
Winseck, D. (2009). The state of media ownership and media markets: competition or
concentration and why should we care?. Sociology Compass, 2(1), 34-47.
Winseck, D. (2010). Financialization and the “crisis of the media”: The rise and fall of (some)
media conglomerates in Canada. Canadian Journal of Communication, 35(3).
Winseck, D. (Ed.). (2011). The political economies of media: The transformation of the global
media industries. Bloomsbury Publishing.