�\RBBS\DL\INFMNPLY.TXTTHE INFORMATION MONOPOLY The rapidly increasing concentration of media ownership in the U.S. raises critical questions about whether the public has access to diverse opinion. And not surprisingly, the impact of this information monopoly continues to be ignored by the mass media. In 1982, when media expert Ben Bagdikian completed research for his book THE MEDIA MONOPOLY, he found that 50 corporations controlled half or more of the media business. By December 1986, when he finished a revision for a second edition, that figure had shrunk to 29 corporations. Six months later, when he wrote an article for the media publication EXTRA, the number was down to 26. Some Wall Street media analysts predict that by the 1990s six giant firms will control most of our media. Bagdikian notes that of the 1,700 daily papers, 98 percent are local monopolies and few than 15 corporations control most of the country's circulation. A handful of firms control most of the magazine business, with Time, Inc. alone accounting for about 40 percent of that industry's revenues. The three broadcasting networks -- Capital Cities/ABC, CBS, and NBC -- still have majority access to the television audience, and most of the book business is controlled by fewer than a dozen companies, with major categories like paperback and trade books dominated by still fewer firms. The situation is exacerbated by the conflict of interest caused by interlocking boards of directors. An earlier study, by Peter Dreier and Steven Weinberg, found this phenomenon in major newspaper chains like Gannett, which shared directors with Merrill Lynch, Standard Oil of Ohio, 20th Century Fox, Kerr-McGee, McDonnell Douglas, McGraw-Hill, Eastern Airlines, Phillips Petroleum, Kellogg Company, and New York Telephone. The most influential newspaper in America, THE NEW YORK TIMES, shared directors with Merck, Morgan Guaranty Trust, Bristol-Myers, Charter Oil, Johns-Manville, American Express, Bethlehem Steel, IBM, Scott Paper, Sun Oil, and First Boston Corporation. Bagdikian's warning is ominous: "A shrinking number of large media corporations now regard monopoly and historic levels of profit as not only normal, but as their earned right. In the process, the usual democratic expectations for the media -- diversity of ownership and ideas -- have disappeared." Sources: EXTRA!, June 1987, "The 26 corporations that own our media," and MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, September 1987, "The Media Brokers," both by Ben Bagdikian; UTNE READER, Jan./Feb. 1988, "Censorship in publishing," by Lynette Lamb. From: UTNE READER, September/October 1988, pp. 84-85.