Sometimes I channel surf and feel like I have seen everything or the programs are too similar. Through research I found out it was because of parent companies such as Disney, Viacom, CBS, and Comcast. As far as television goes there is really only six companies that run the networks that viewers have to choose from. Companies like Viacom, Disney, AOL Time Warner, Vivendi, News Corporation, and Bertelsmann have turned television media into an oligopoly. An oligopoly is when a small amount of companies run a certain type of business. Out of all these media moguls I decided to cover the company Viacom. Viacom owns broadcast companies such as MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, and BET. These stations cover a wide span of demographics of viewers which explains why people think they do not have much choice in what they see. I understand how they feel yet at the same time I feel like their is plenty to watch but I think we can solve this problem eventually given the right situations.
I do like the fact that Viacom has much to choose from such as BET for
their black target audience, CMT for their country music lovers target
audience, or Nickelodeon for their children and family target audience. I do not think the problem is cable television not having enough options but instead the viewers having an over whelming desire for more and different materials. People want all the information they think they missing because they over heard something else from another source. Audiences in the present day world of media have way more options and know way more information then audiences 25 years ago; however, spectators perceive it as less or insufficient because they are use to constantly receiving more in media. My grandmother constantly reminds me that when television was first popular it only had around three channels and it went off at a certain time. In my whole lifetime I experienced television as a 24 hour, several hundred or more channels, colored source of entertainment that always had something to offer. When I was young I tuned in for educational purposes watching Sesame Street and Arthur. A few years later I found television to be a source of entertainment, so I watched shows such as All That, Kenan and Kel, and Cousin Skeeter. More years went by and as a young teen I felt I was ready for TV14 rated shows such as Degrassi, Family Matters, and Everybody Hates Chris. Now as a young adult I find myself watching more adult shows like The Game, Guy Code, and The Hard Times of RJ Berger. So as far as I was concerned I could always watch what I wanted and sometimes even what I needed. However I do understand why people feel the urge to request more. After all "When you're used to filet Mignon it's hard to go back to hamburger helper" - Jay-Z. Meaning we are conditioned to all these great things why settle for less now? I think what Viacom brings to television is very entertaining and full of options but just like most media fanatics I could use more shows and channels. There is much this world has to offer us but not all of it makes it to television for one reason or another. Viewers believe this is another type of censorship where the media hides the things they do not want us to know or see for what ever reason, and blow up and repeat the things they want us to watch, hear, feel, and remember. Most people consider them conspiracy theorist but I do believe they might be on to something. For instance, moments such as the attack on the world trade center or the Holocaust they always say never forget; however hundreds of years of slavery and the Rodney King beating is something they want people to get over. There is nothing wrong with getting over things but why pick and choose, how do they pick and choose which one is more important than the other, and why don't "we the viewers" get a say, after all it is all for us.
What should be done about all this is to possibly adding more channels and television shows but that would just make these oligopolies stronger, richer, and have a larger fan base to support them. What can be done is being done but very poorly and has been taking viewers away from television and towards the internet. What can be done is for local stations to allow local broadcasters to show their most recent idea of entertainment and if it does well these media moguls will pick them up and add them as a program on one of their stations. In reality, local stations mostly show news and don't give many people a chance, which is why people take their business to the internet hoping they will get recognized there.
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