Resources for the media activist.

In general, the lobbying operations of peace groups focus too much on politicians and not enough on media. They'll spend months trying to get a half hour meeting with a Congressperson about Nicaragua and ignore the fact that every day that Congressperson is reading lies in "The New York Times" or "The Washington Post". That's a little naive.

I'd love to see lobbying organizations aim 10-20% of their efforts at the media. Dozens of small, organized grassroots groups who regularly write, call, telegram and petition their local and national media in the ways I've mentioned would be ideal. It doesn't require a lot to have an impact. This kind of lobbying would reinforce the usual kind, since politicians would then see peace leaders actually quoted in newspapers or participating in a debate on Nightline. We continue to ignore the media at our peril, because politicians don't ignore the media--they swear by it. They read the two papers of record and watch the nightly news programs very closely.

TV programmers are often spineless. They believe themselves to be majoritarian, programming "what the viewers want." All private media outlets are, after all, businesses. What they are selling actually, is access to their viewers. They don't sell news and entertainment. They sell advertising time or space. So it is very important for them to attract and keep viewers and readers so that advertisers will want to buy their advertising time or space. That's why programmers are so sensitive to what the viewers say. They need to hear from viewers who are peace oriented, who are angry about these panels, and who suggest new people who should be on these panels.

The first thing is to get beyond this syndrome where people watch the media and grumble about it. It's just not good enough. You have to take your complaints directly to the media. Don't take the media lying down.

from an interview with Jeff Cohen, Executive Director of FAIR

The following is a Media Resources List I recently received from FAIR. It contains a great deal of data about the information industry in our country. It's important to treat the major media the same way one does the politicians--let them hear from you--especially when you disagree with the way they are, or are NOT covering an issue you care about.

FAIR Resource Lists

  1. Recommended Reading
  2. The Media Business
  3. Alternative Media
  4. Media Analysis
  5. Journalism Organizations
Adapted from "Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in the News Media" by Martin A. Lee and Norman Soloman

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

130 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001

212/633-6700

RECOMMENDED READING

THE MEDIA BUSINESS

The world's ten biggest media companies:

  1. Time Warner
  2. Bertelsmann, A.G. (West Germany)
  3. CapCities/ABC
  4. Thomson (Canada)
  5. News Corporation Ltd. (Murdoch)
  6. Hachette (France)
  7. Gannett Company
  8. Knight-Ridder Inc.
  9. Pearson PLC (Great Britain)
  10. Maxwell Communication Corp. (Great Britain)
[Source: "MacLean's" 7-17-89]

The 23 dominant corporations that control most of the U.S. media (newspapers, magazines, books, television, and motion pictures, in alphabetical order):

  1. Bertelsmann, AG. (books)
  2. Capital Cities/ABC (newspapers, broadcasting)
  3. Cox Communications (newspapers)
  4. CBS (broadcasting)
  5. Buena Vista Films (Disney; motion pictures)
  6. Dow Jones (newspapers)
  7. Gannett (newspapers)
  8. General Electric (television)
  9. Paramount Communications (books, motion pictures)
  10. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (books)
  11. Hearst (newspapers, magazines)
  12. Ingersoll (newspapers)
  13. International Thomson (newspapers)
  14. Knight-Ridder (newspapers)
  15. Media News Group (newspapers)
  16. Newhouse (newspapers, books)
  17. News Corporation Ltd. (newspapers, magazines, motion pictures)
  18. New York Times (newspapers)
  19. Reader's Digest Association (books, magazines)
  20. Scripps-Howard (newspapers)
  21. Time Warner (magazines, books, motion pictures)
  22. Times Mirror (newspapers)
  23. Tribune Company (magazines)
[Source: "The Media Monopoly", Ben Bagdikian]

The fourteen companies that dominate the daily newspaper industry:

  1. Gannett Company--"USA Today" and 87 other dailies.
  2. Knight-Ridder, Inc.--"Philadelphia Inquirer", "Miami Herald" and 27 others.
  3. Newhouse Newspapers--"Staten Island Advance", "Portland Oregonian", and 24 others.
  4. Tribune Company--"Chicago Tribune", "New York Daily News" and 7 others.
  5. Times Mirror--"Los Angeles Times", "Newsday" and six others.
  6. Dow Jones & Co.--"Wall Street Journal" and 22 Ottaway newspapers.
  7. International Thomson--120 dailies (mainly in Canada).
  8. New York Times Company--"New York Times" and 26 others.
  9. Scripps-Howard Newspapers--"Denver Rocky Mountain News" and 22 others.
  10. Hearst--"San Francisco Examiner" and 13 others.
  11. Cox--"Atlanta Journal and Constitution" and 19 others.
  12. News Corp. Ltd--"Boston Herald" and 2 others.
  13. Media News Group--"Dallas Times Herald" and 17 others.
  14. Ingersoll Newspapers--"New Haven Register" and 36 others.
The three dominant corporations in the magazine business:

  1. Time Warner--"Time", "People", "Sports Illustrated", "Fortune", etc.
  2. News Corp.--"TV Guide", "Seventeen", New York", "Premiere", etc.
  3. Hearst--"Good Housekeeping", "Cosmopolitan", "Esquire", etc.
The six companies that dominate book publishing:

  1. Paramount Communications--Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, etc.
  2. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
  3. Time Warner--Little, Brown, Warner Books, Book-of-the-Month Club
  4. Bertelsmann, A G.--Doubleday, Bantam, Dell, etc.
  5. Reader's Digest Association
  6. Newhouse--Random House, Ballantine, etc.
The four firms that dominate the motion picture industry:

  1. Buena Vista--Disney
  2. Paramount Communications--Paramount Pictures
  3. Murdoch--20th Century Fox
  4. Time Warner--Warner Brothers
[Source: "The Media Monopoly", Ben Bagdikian]

The 15 top network television advertisers (January through June 1989):

  1. General Motors
  2. Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
  3. Proctor & Gamble Co.
  4. Kellogg Co.
  5. McDonald's Corp.
  6. Ford Motor Co.
  7. Unilever N.V.
  8. Johnson & Johnson
  9. Pepsico, Inc.
  10. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
  11. Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
  12. American Home Products Corp.
  13. Chrysler Corp.
  14. Sears Roebuck & Co.
  15. Coca Cola, Co
. [Source: Television Bureau of Advertising]

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

NATIONAL ALTERNATIVE PRINT MEDIA

To find out about local newsweeklies in your area, contact:

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies

c/o Jane Sullivan Bay Guardian 2700 l9th Street San Francisco, CA 94110

415/255-3100

ALTERNATIVE NEWS SERVICES:

NATIONAL ALTERNATIVE BROADCAST MEDIA:

RADIO:
TELEVISION AND VIDEO:

MEDIA ANALYSIS RESOURCES

JOURNALISM ORGANIZATIONS

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