There's More Than Meets The Eye

When watching my favourite stations, my favourite movies, or listening to my favourite music, it has never once crossed my mind who may own the company who creates my favourite things. For example if I’m watching the Hills on MTV, I am in return, in some way or another, supporting the company Viacom as well as all the other companies Viacom owns.

Viacom is known today as Viacom Inc. after its separation with CBS Corporation and is a multi-million dollar company. Viacom Inc. explains the several companies in which they own

“MTV Networks includes favourites like MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, COMEDY CENTRAL, and CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV, TV Land, Logo and approximately 155 networks around the world. In addition, digital assets such as Neopets, Xfire, Atom, Harmonix and Quizilla offer compelling and interactive content, providing an even deeper connection with our devoted and focused demographics. BET Networks presents the best in Black media and entertainment featuring traditional and digital platforms. Brands including BET, BET J, BET Gospel, BET Hip Hop, BET.com, BET Mobile, BET Event Productions and BET International deliver relevant and insightful content to consumers of Black culture in more than 100 million households. And with Paramount Pictures Corporation, audiences have access to a huge library of top films through brands like Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Home Entertainment” (Viacom).

These are just a small list of the companies in which it owns. I had no idea that these companies were owned by a much larger media company. There may also be a number of these companies who are partially owned by other companies, in most cases they could come full circle.
Large media companies who own large amount of smaller companies have the chance to have their opinions and views disturbed to a larger group of people. They have the power to manipulate these different mediums for their benefit; they cover any holes they might have. When we look at the sign of MTV or CMT, we don’t think of the symbol for Viacom; we don’t think of it being owned by a larger company. We merely think of it as a sole company which in actuality it’s not. According to Robert W. McChesney in the New Global Media it’s a Small World of Big Conglomerates he explains,

“The global media system is fundamentally noncompetitive in any meaningful economic sense of the term. Many of the largest media firms have some of the same major shareholders, own pieces of one another or have interlocking boards of directors. When Variety compiled its list of the fifty largest global media firms for 1997, it observed that "merger mania" and cross-ownership had "resulted in a complex web of interrelationships" that will "make you dizzy." The global market strongly encourages corporations to establish equity joint ventures in which the media giants all own a part of an enterprise” (McChesney, 2).

One thing to remember is that when you support one company you never know who else you are helping out. Cross media ownership allows companies who are known for their manipulation to manipulate through other companies. It’s all a big mystery. They subtle get messages across several different companies, McChesney explains,“with a few notable exceptions, the journalism reserved for the masses tends to be the sort of drivel provided by the media giants on their US television stations. This slant is often quite subtle” (McChesney, 3).

Any news broadcast or specific commercials on any of the companies that Viacom owns will have to be approved by Viacom. Viacom will most likely never allow anything that will give the company a bad rap/image and if they allow that, you can guarantee it will have a positive spin to it. As long as they have the control of what it is said, the company is happy. It’s not about the good of the public; it’s about the good of the company.

Works Cited

McChesney, Robert. “The New Global Media: It’s a Small World of Big Conglomerates.” The

Nation. 11 Nov 1999. 7 Nov 2008.

Viacom. “About Viacom” 24 Nov 2008.

http://www.viacom.com/aboutviacom/Pages/default.aspx