(www.next.thesuperspade.com)
Citytv was always known as the little station that could. It was founded in 1972 in the city of Toronto. Citytv, which was once owned by Chum Media, has always been known to broadcast local news and information. Chum owned stations in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg as well as the A-Channel stations in Victoria, Barrie, Ottawa, London, Windsor and Wingham. These stations were always known to spotlight day to day life in local communities.
Chum Media and Citytv newscasts provided an alternative to the national newscasts that were produced by CBC and CTV. Citytv was a place to find local news and learn more about your community. However, on June 8, 2007, Chum Media was torn apart. The local Citytv stations were sold to Rogers Communications, while the smaller A Channel stations were sold to CTV Globemedia. The Chum name disappeared and the local Citytv station that could now belonged to a major Canadian media company.
Rogers Communications is a major media company in Canada. Rogers owns 13 magazines, including Maclean’s Canadian Business, and Chatelaine. They own 11 specialty channels including CPAC, the Biography Channel, and the Shopping Channel. They run 19 television stations that include Citytv and Omni as well as 36 local Rogers stations. They have 52 radio stations that include 98.1 CHFI, 92.5 Jack Fm, and 680 News. Furthermore, Rogers also owns, Fido, Rogers Wireless, Rogers Center, Toronto Blue Jays, and Rogers Internet.
Rogers is one of Canada’s biggest communications companies. However, because it owns so many media properties, the issue of cross media ownership begins to arise. Imagine the influence that Rogers could have on our country. For example, lets say that the president of Rogers supports a radical idea. He could promote his ideas easily through the over 100 media properties that Rogers owns. The media controls a huge part of our lives. Every day, millions of people watch television, read the news, listen to the radio, and browses the internet. Rogers owns many of the television stations you watch, the news you read, the radio station you listen to, and the internet you browse. The impact that Rogers could have, through their media properties, is alarming.
The number of companies that run the United States media has decreased in number over the years. In the article, The New Global Media, Robert W. McChesney explains how “the global media market has come to be dominated by the same eight transnational corporations that rule US media: General Electric, AT&T/Liberty Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom and Seagram” (www.thenation.com). The number of companies that run the US media will continue to decrease. What would happen in a world run by one media company? Cross media ownership only allows a certain number of opinions and voices to be heard. If the media was only run by one company, then their would be one voice and opinion on the news, television, radio, newspaper, magazines, and internet.
Cross media ownership is extremely damaging. It allows a handful of companies to choose what you view. Only a certain number of voices and opinions would be heard and everything that was distributed would be biased.
Work Cited
McChesney, Robert W. “It’s a Small World of Big Conglomerates.” 11 Nov. 1999. The Nation. 6 Nov. 2008. [ http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991129/mcchesney].
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