Investigating Media conglomeration and homogenization

Investigating Media conglomeration and homogenization

Bicalho (2018) says that the media has a very outstanding role in today’s society.  It is involved in creating and shaping of public opinion and strengthening of the society. It acts as a watchdog since it protects the interests of the public from social malpractices by creating a public awareness. As a way of playing a critical role in the society by shaping the opinions of the people, the media is considered as an independent institution from the other institutions. On the other hand, a media conglomerate, or else the media group is a large company that owns many companies involved in mass media enterprise. The conglomeration may include television, magazines, newspapers and the internet (Kim & Hastak, 2017). The list is long. Media homogenization on the other hand is ensuring the independence of the media by making sure that all groups of the media work in the same way and without any major differences. The aim of this paper is to investigate media conglomeration and homogenization.

There are different examples of magazines which serve different purposes. The common ones includes the National Geographic, The New Yorker, Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today, People, Women’s Health, Entertainment Weekly, The Atlantic, The Fantasy Fiction Magazine and the Readers Digest, just to mention a few of them. All these magazines have different roles in shaping the interests of the society because they all pass different massage to the public (Nucci, 2018). However, with the huge and solid media conglomeration, such magazines plays have different publishers. The National Geographic magazine is published by the national geographic society, in Washington DC and contains fascinating stories that elaborate much about nature and its beauty. The New Yorker is a magazine published by Conde Nast and the CBS Corporation and it is considered as one of the best magazines for reporting, criticism, commentary, cartoons and poetry (Aluç & Ersoy, 2017). The active publishers, who are the Conde Nast makes the magazine so interesting by incorporating satire in its fiction stories.

According to Bicalho (2018), the Cosmopolitan is a magazine published by the Comcast publishing house and is considered as the best-selling young women magazine in the United States of America. Psychology today is a product of the Sussex Publishers and its top information is what is happening in today’s society. It is also a criticism of many other psychologists who used professional jargons to make their work. Nevertheless, the People magazine is published by Karen Kovacs publisher and it specializes in stories about the professional lives of celebrities by elucidating much on their journeys towards their massive achievements (Kim & Hastak, 2017). The Women’s Health magazine contains top stories that focus on women fitness, nutrition, sex and lifestyle, with well explained details which it done by its publishers in Pennsylvania. The entertainment weekly is published by the Meredith Corporation and it contain short stories, both fiction and non-fiction which arise on weekly basis. The Atlantic Magazine on the other hand is published by Hayley Romer and covers news on business, culture, politics and technology. The Fantasy Fiction magazine is a product of A & E networks and it’s an interesting magazine about fantasy stories. Finally, the Reader’s Digest magazine is currently under the publication of the New York Times and contains top stories and games that makes the reader to think, as explained by Nucci, (2018).

Sociology has been so much rooted in the media and thus there exists a very close relationship between these two since they are complimentary to one another. As defined by Creedon (2018), sociology refers to the study of human behavior in the society, which is reported by the media. Sociology thus provides a guide in which the mass media shapes the behavior, values, beliefs and perceptions of people in the society. Basing my arguments on the ten magazines that I have selected and read, I have understood how media plays a key role in promoting the growth of sociology (Aluç & Ersoy, 2017). These have been well touched and discussed by various media conglomerates, for example the News Corporation, Walt Disney Company, Viacom, Comcast and Time Warner. Other media conglomerates in were sociology has been put it to consideration during publication are the CBS Corporation, the Discovery Networks and A & E Networks (Creedon, 2018).

One of the major concepts of sociology that I have derived from the magazines is the social change and socialization. From the Psychology Today magazine, social change has been defined as the significant alteration in the behavior patterns and cultural norms and values of people that takes place over time (Aluç & Ersoy, 2017). Nevertheless, the magazine defines socialization as a learning process that involves internalizing the ideologies and norms of the society. This socialization has been explained to be either normal or informal. Again, culture is a concept in sociology that has hit the media conglomeration. Sociology defines culture as a way of people’s life.  The People Magazine well explains what culture is and how the media has recognized it (Kidd, 2016). From the magazine, culture has different dimensions and it is also shaped through socialization. It can be a high culture that is pursued by upper class, the popular culture which refers to the media appeal to the society and the cognitive culture which gives us the meaning culture as elaborated by the media. This was argued by Creedon, (2018)

Other important concepts that I have studies from the magazines are the  expressions given, expressions given off and the front stage behavior, which have been discussed in details in the Women’s Health Magazine (Bicalho, 2018). These two concepts explains much on the conduct of women in relation to their behavior and change. Nevertheless, the magazines are a hub for gender and gender roles. Despite socialization, gender has been given an outstanding attention because it defines our roles in the society (Kim & Hastak, 2017). Gender roles are not static but rather changing and this is brought as a result of the incorporation of new ideas and concepts in the society as a result of socialization.

In conclusion, media conglomeration has brought a positive impact to the society by exactly outlining the outstanding benefits of the media to the society. As a matter of fact, it has played a significant role in safeguarding the society from cultural alienation and false gratification.  A lot of research about the effect of the media to the society has been conducted, where the media is the independent variable while the society the dependent variable. This has provided the correct results for the importance of media conglomeration and homogenization. Finally, despite the media conglomeration playing a key role in shaping the culture of the society, many critics have accused large media conglomerates of monopolizing the media by the use of unfair practices. This has greatly affected the amount of information that has to be published in a certain time, hence limiting the societal access towards information.