Media giants took the words out of your mouth
Media conglomerates around the world are growing steadily. It is no longer enough for a media company to own a diverse range of distribution channels, they want to have the whole production circle under their control - from tv studios and record companies to video rental stores and electronics manufacturers.
Finland is a test laboratory for concentrated media ownership. From the times when the state owned Yleisradio dominated the media field we have moved to a situation where a few private owners are in control. The developement and success of media is now evaluated based on far more commercial values.
This year commercial tv channel MTV3 has started to inform their viewers that for more in-depth news information they should turn 'Iltalehti', a tabloid magazine from the same owner. Similar suggestions would have been considered to be shameful activity for any media company in the 90's.
The annual turnover of the Finnish media industry is 2.7 billion euros. The three biggest companies (SanomaWSOY, AlmaMedia and Yleisradio) are responsible for 85% of the total turnover and they are employing close to 20 000 people.
It is undeniable that the concentrated media ownership does affect the information content of the media. When the volume of communication increases, the messages become more uniform. Growing media companies don't see complex and potentially difficult subjects as a way to reach growing audience figures. Playlists, cheap and popular daytime tv series from Hollywood, bigger movie theaters and blockbuster movies are their solution.
The concentrated ownership of media is a clear threat to freedom of speech, when most of the public receives the news from sources owned by one private company. This is the case especially with Finnish newspapers. The issues becomes political when unifying content creates an illusion of unified opinions, culture and general well-being. Strong media conglomerates in control of production and distribution monopolies are selecting the issues which get publicity, often leaving out the voices of minorities and criticism. Concentrated control of media does not necessarily lead to totalitarism, but totalitarism requires concentrated media control.
Companies are aiming to maximising their profits. In the stock market economy, the benefits of the stock holders and advertisers will limit free information distribution. Closer relationships between media companies and advertisers will result in increasing censorship.
Last year one of the main news items was a scandal within Sonera telecommunications company. This was partly a result of criticism that Sonera representatives gave towards journalists, who in turn gave the issue even more attention. Similar criticism and exposure would not have taken place, if the scandal would have taken place within the media company.
Alternative options to media monopolies show up rarely in Finland. Critical and alternative magazines have low reader numbers and small tv channels either face bankruptcy or are bought by bigger ones. The young minds claiming to renew the media are mostly focused in publishing small magazines, mostly read by a small group of similar young minds. Strong expectations have been put to Internet but so far the results have been quite marginal.
Open publishing tools, which make the difference between the audience and journalists less clear, have just taken their first steps in the Finnish media environment. Vaikuttava Tietotoimisto put together by political activist community was the most ambitious project so far, but unfortunately had to stop its activities in August 2003 due to the lack of resources. This project also often faced the situation of the idea of objective journalism reducing into superficial, subjective on-line chatting.
Open publishing as serious journalism and political power requires professional creators with serious effort. It will not stand up from the noise of electric communication, unless the creators have knowledge of how traditional journalism functions. Open publishing has a chance to be provocative and analytical but is often just a platform for populistic content or an arena of verbal fights between the authors.
Small media initiatives still have hope : pirates have been successfully fighting against the media monopolies for a long time already. Smaller resources and a motivated group of people
Hanna Nikkanen