In recent years, media merging (consolidation) has become a frequent occurrence, with large corporations acquiring smaller media outlets, or merging with other large corporations, with the aim of gaining market share and increasing profitability. While this can lead to more resources for content creation and distribution, there is a significant impact on transparency, accountability, open governance, accessibility, and diversity of information within a given area.
Transparency, accountability, and open governance are crucial aspects of media integrity. Transparency allows the public to trust the information presented to them by media outlets and ensures that news is reported fairly and accurately. However, media merging can lead to a lack of transparency, as ownership of multiple outlets becomes concentrated in the hands of a few corporations. This can lead to conflicts of interest and a lack of journalistic independence. It can also lead to a monopoly on certain types of content or viewpoints, further limiting the public’s access to diverse and unbiased sources of information.
Accountability ensures that media organisations are held accountable for any errors or misrepresentations in their reporting since they are responsible for disseminating information to the public.
However, with media mergers, it can become difficult to hold these larger corporations accountable for any missteps, as ownership becomes more opaque and responsibility becomes more diffuse. This can lead to a culture where media outlets prioritise profit over the accuracy, further eroding the public’s faith in the industry.
Open governance is key to ensuring that media outlets are responsive to the needs and interests of the public. By allowing for input from the wider community, media organisations can ensure that their content is relevant and reflects diverse perspectives. However, media mergers can limit the scope of open governance initiatives, as corporate interests may take priority over the needs of the public.
As such, it is important for media organisations to remain open and accountable to the communities that they serve, and to prioritise the public good over short-term gains.
It is notable to say that media consolidation though it is an effective business model, has raised a lot of concerns that are hindering access to information. One of the most concerning impacts of media consolidation is its effect on competition. Consolidation results in fewer media companies, and therefore less competition, which in turn can lead to less diversity of information. With fewer companies, there is less opportunity for differing viewpoints and perspectives to be presented, and the potential for media coverage to become more one-sided.
Another impact is the risk of consolidation leading to bias in the news coverage. With fewer perspectives and fewer journalists, there is a risk that a narrow ideology may begin to dominate the media content from a single major platform. In such a monoculture, independent thoughts and investigations could be oppressed, and the public may be deprived of access to alternative opinions and interpretations of the events and situations happening around them.
Moreover, media consolidation can have consequences for public discourse and democracy as a whole. When a small number of companies control a large portion of media content, they have immense power over what information is disseminated and how it is presented. This concentration of power reduces the diversity of opinions and decreases opportunities for honest and fair reporting. The public may eventually become less informed, less able to hold the powerful accountable, and less skilled in critical thinking.
Media consolidation can have serious consequences not only for the information environment but more broadly for the democratic health of a country. Although the consolidation of media companies may lead to profits for shareholders and company executives, this cannot be pursued at the cost of access to information and public discourse. It is up to the public and the regulatory authorities to demand policies that guarantee diversity of views and ensure that access to information continues to be a right, not a privilege.
*Givean Samulandela is an information officer in the MICT