Media Convergence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Media Convergence - Essay Example Or as Jenkins (2006) states, there is a cooperation between all multiple media industries, and media audiences will look for information where they can find it. This essay will look at convergence and what is meant by it, and will look, briefly, at the dangers of convergence, then will examine the Astral-Bell merger and analyze the merger from the voices of the people and the voices of the individuals who are behind the merger. Media Convergence According to Jenkins (2004) there is an inherent danger in media convergence, in that the multinational media conglomerates have the potential, and live up to this potential, to dominate every sector of the entertainment industry. Thus, the power elite had the potential to rule the airwaves, putting out its message to the masses, and the message is the message that benefits the corporations and the powerful (Brenkman, 1979). The media may be associated with large structural forces (Havens, et al., 2009). And the message may become more like p ropaganda, which makes the mass media more of a propaganda machine than a marketplace for free ideas (Murray, 2005). Giroux (2004) states that one of the dangers of media convergence, when certain corporations become too powerful, is that the message that goes out to the people is the message that benefits the corporations that own these multi-media conglomerates, which is the message of the neo-liberal – low taxes, deregulation and private enterprise is good, the opposite is bad, and an unequal distribution of wealth in society is a good thing. This is because the corporations that own these conglomerates are the very corporations that would benefit the most in this kind of society of profit above all else. Media convergence has the power to do the bidding of powerful people (Rossman, 2004), such as when Clear Channel, which is a multimedia conglomerate based in the United States, organized a boycott against the country group The Dixie Chicks, after the lead singer, Natalie Maines, told a crowd that she was embarrassed to be from the same state as George W. Bush, and Clear Channel, wanting to get favorable legislation for its plans to expand, organized the boycott to please the Bush Administration. In short, media convergence has the potential for great harm. Too much power in any one hands would cause the marketplace of ideas to falter, and the message that is disseminated will be the message that is crafted by this particular entity. It is in this context that the merger between Bell and Astral will be examined. The Bell-Astral Merger The View of the People According to Winseck (2012), the Bell-Astral merger refer to the fact that Bell is attempting to buy Astral media, and this would represent a major deal between the largest Telecom-Media-Internet conglomerate in the country, and they would have revenues of over $22 billion. Winseck (2012) states that the merger would mean that the country would have lost an independent station, which is what Astra l is, having revenues of just over $888 million in 2010. Winseck (2012) looks at this in the context of the Ronald Coase, economist, idea that the two ways of dealing with business environment uncertainties are the market and the hierarchies, and that the Bell-Astral merger would be essentially elevating the hierarchies over the markets. If the merger goes through, according to Winsec