(The Economic Collapse Blog)—We live in a society that is literally addicted to consuming media content. Unfortunately, control of that content is dominated by just a handful of ultra-powerful corporations. Back in 1983, the media industry was controlled by a group of about 50 large companies. Today, the media industry is controlled by just 6 gigantic corporations. They own television networks, streaming services, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites.
Sadly, most of us don’t ever stop to think about who is feeding us the endless hours of news, sports and entertainment that we constantly ingest. But we should. The truth is that each of us is tremendously influenced by the messages that are constantly being poured into our heads. We are addicted to the “programming”, and we just keep coming back for more. Most of us spend multiple hours each day consuming media content, and many of us actually begin to feel physically uncomfortable if we go too long without watching or listening to something.
The six corporations that collectively control the media industry are Disney, Time Warner, National Amusements, News Corporation, Comcast and Sony. Collectively, the “big six” absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. If the “big six” were a country, they would have the 26th largest GDP in the world. But even those areas of the media that the “big six” do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, iHeartMedia now owns over 1,200 radio stations in the United States, and companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook are increasingly dominating the Internet.
When you control what Americans watch, hear and read, you acquire a great deal of influence over what they think.
The content that they produce for us is called “programming” for a reason.
The power to shape our culture is the power to alter the future of our society. We have witnessed seismic cultural shifts in recent decades, and the media industry has been the driving force behind many of those shifts.
These gigantic media conglomerates are much larger than most people realize. Below, I have listed just a sampling of some of the media properties that are owned and controlled by the “big six”…
Disney
- ABC Television Network
- Disney+
- Pixar
- Disney Publishing Worldwide
- ESPN
- A&E
- Lifetime
- The History Channel
- Marvel
- Lucasfilm
- Buena Vista Home Entertainment
- Buena Vista Records
- Buena Vista Games
- Disney Records
- Hollywood Records
- Miramax Films
- Touchstone Pictures
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Vice
Time Warner
- CNN
- HBO
- Time Inc.
- Time Warner Cable
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
- Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
- Castle Rock Entertainment
- CW Network (partial ownership)
- TMZ
- New Line Cinema
- Time Warner Cable
- Cinemax
- Cartoon Network
- DC Entertainment
- TBS
- TNT
- America Online
- Sports Illustrated
- Fortune
- Marie Claire
- People Magazine
National Amusements
- CBS Television Network
- Paramount+
- Paramount Pictures
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- Showtime
- Black Entertainment Television (BET)
- CBS Films
- CBS Games
- Comedy Central
- Country Music Television (CMT)
- Gamespot
- Logo
- MTV
- Nickelodeon
- Nick at Nite
- Nick Jr.
- Spike TV
- The Movie Channel
- TV Land
- VH1
- The Smithsonian Channel
- Pocket Books
- Simon & Schuster
News Corporation
- Fox Television Network
- Fox News
- Fox Sports
- Fox Business
- Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
- The New York Post
- Barron’s
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- Beliefnet
- FX
- The Speed Channel
- Times of London
- 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- 20th Century Fox International
- 20th Century Fox Studios
- 20th Century Fox Television
- The Wall Street Journal
- Fox Broadcasting Company
- Fox Interactive Media
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Harlequin
- The National Geographic Channel
- Tubi
- Zondervan
Comcast
- NBC Television Network
- Peacock
- MSNBC
- CNBC
- NBC News
- Bravo
- NBC Sports
- Comcast Sportsnet
- The Golf Channel
- Fandango
- FanDuel
- Oxygen
- Syfy
- Telemundo
- USA Network
- The Weather Channel
- Focus Features
- NBC Universal Television Distribution
- NBC Universal Television Studio
- Universal Parks & Resorts
- Universal Pictures
Sony
- Sony Pictures
- Sony Pictures Animation
- Sony Entertainment Televsion
- Sony Music
- Sony Interactive Entertainment (Playstation)
- TriStar
- Triumph Films
- Affirm Films
- Animax
- Crackle
- CSC Media Group
- Columbia Pictures
- Destination Films
Big tech companies such as Amazon, Apple and Netflix have started to produce their own content in recent years, but their content is nearly indistinguishable from that produced by the “big six”.
The primary goal of these behemoths is to make money.
So they aren’t going to do anything that will threaten their relationships with their biggest advertisers. This is one of the reasons why large pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on advertising. They realize that executives at these companies will be desperate to keep the gravy train rolling, and so negative coverage of pharmaceutical companies will be almost non-existent.
Fortunately, an increasing number of people are starting to wake up and are realizing that the media industry should not be trusted.
In fact, a Gallup survey that was conducted in October 2024 found that only 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in the mainstream media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly”.
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The good news is that as the mainstream media loses credibility, the alternative media is growing.
Americans are starting to look elsewhere for the truth, and that has allowed independent journalists such as myself to flourish.
Of course the establishment has responded by aggressively censoring the alternative media, but now that we have a new administration in Washington that is anti-censorship, hopefully we will see some significant changes.
Every day, we are in a battle for hearts and minds. Most of the population is still plugged into “the matrix” and still consumes endless hours of “programming” that is produced by the “big six”. Meanwhile, those of us in the alternative media are desperately trying to get people to wake up and think for themselves.
Sadly, even most people that think that they are “awake” are still being very heavily influenced by movies, television shows and news programs.
The “programming” that they are constantly offering to us is so seductive, and very few are able to break the addiction entirely.
Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
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