COMS 591 Blog 1

Response on:
So Much for the Magic of Technology and the Free Market: The World Wide Web and the Corporate Media System - by Robert McChesney

There is the common belief that the Web runs public space for everyone to use, but in fact, Robert McChesney suggests that it may be the commercial media companies that are controlling it through their possession of new technologies and large capitals, which thus gives them the power to dominate and control audiences. He also points out that these very media corporations try very hard to maintain their status by limiting the power of smaller firms to enter or produce in the market. It is a sad but true fact that “power is [largely] determined by how much money an individual has”.

Although it may be somewhat true that the big media corporations are dictating the Web and other digital communication technologies, the government has always been there to try and best control and prevent monopolistic action. Despite the fact that the government is frequently accused of helping set up monopolies by regulating and thus controlling the free market, McChesney does not fail in giving credit to the unmentioned efforts the government has provided for continual research and development in the field.

On another note, it is said that the Web has the capability of taking away the monopolies of “media giants” because the Web creates competition among corporations. Through competition, it can be said that the Web revolutionizes society in terms of expanding the global exchange of information as well as offering an opportunity for different medias to converge with one another and create more new technologies. As a result of these new technologies, McChesney states that only positive things are achieved: more ambitious entrepreneurs are taking part in the markets, and companies are competing to produce better-improved products at a lower cost, which will overall benefit the whole of mankind.

However, when new technologies are at hand, it is only natural for big media industries to want to stay ahead of others and thus engage in constant competition to seek the next innovation. This accumulated knowledge is what gives a media corporation more power and more importantly, profits. This being said, I have to wonder if the normal citizen is even interested or concerned about the economics or any details involved in the structure and system of the market? I think the majority of society is clueless and uninterested because the battle for discoveries of new technologies is only seemingly making their lives more efficient, “better” and more-improved. People are just not critical enough about the consequences and are not asking the vital questions he lists in the article. This is why further research into the new media category is imperative.

One thing I found interesting was that the article pointed out the idea that the Web may be devaluing other media. For example, it is a very possible matter that when the Web combines with other medias such as television or radio, it will not only be taking away the value but the entire entity of the “older” media giants themselves. He says there will be a blurring of communications and media into a single sector of digital technologies. Again, will society give it a second thought to question what the consequences are going to be when this happens? I think McChesney gives us a great start in venturing more into the research of this area as he very thoroughly points out in his article the positive and negative effects surrounding new media and its communication technologies. He also informingly teaches us how to avoid unwanted outcomes.