There are many different ways in which people communicate such as, through the phone,
through personal encounters, and by attending work place, school, seminars etc. Though
media is not the only communication medium used to dispense the flow of information, its
importance in developed countries is worth mentioning as it has been the main source to
inform people on political issues or current affairs as well as being as the main source of
entertainment. The flow of information from one geographical location to another has
increased in speed considerably with the advent in digitally enabled communication
devices. Different network channels over cable or satellite TV, newspapers and radio
channels are emerging at a very rapid pace providing the people with a medium to connect
themselves with the outside world. Print media has always been a dominant medium
throughout the decades in the western civilization, but it is the emergence of the television
which has become the backbone of the global commercial development. Television
contains the ability to produce multimedia content and thus has the immense power to
change an individuals perception of reality. It is of no wonder that in order to believe in
something, one has to have complete faith in the source of information. This source of
information could be ranging from one person to any academic institution. However in
todays connected society it is the media, which has become the main source of information
The role media is playing as being the main source of information is a controversial issue.
It is being debated what are the media functions in a society and what are its impact on an
individual. The term media is a general term which is not restricted to a particular entity
but in order to understand the term “commercial media”, the US provides the best platform
for critically analyzing the role of media in a society. Regardless of what type of sources of
media are analyzed from newspapers to network channels, medias role in society is to
reflect the interests of the elites and those who possess the power in a capitalist society like
United States in order to maintain the status quo of a politically stable society.
Since the early 1980s the national media industries experienced a dramatic restructuring,
the trend of deregulation and privatization in the media industry gave birth to “commercial
media market”. The control of the media saw a shift into the hands of private ownership
from public ownership. “Public ownership is devoted to providing communications as a
public service. On the other hand private ownership is devoted to providing
communications for profit”(Mass communication in Canada-pg.206). The role of “public
sphere” has played a very important role towards the formation of a democratic society
providing “places and forums where issues of importance to a political community are
discussed and debated, and where information is presented that is essential to citizen
participation in community life”(Global media-pg.3). BBC is a good example which
symbolizes the best of public broadcasting until 1996 when the channel decided that its
survival depends on commercial programming. In United States, a defining moment in the
restructuring of the media industry came after the appointment of Ronald Regan as the
new President. Regans policies were mainly focused on issues such as cutting the
government spending on social welfare programs and stimulating the establishment of a
true capitalist society. An era of deregulation and privatization started with the enormous
growth in the power of the corporate culture of dominating the “concentration” of power in
the hands of the business culture. Social welfare programs were being cut and private
sector was handed over the responsibility to provide services to the public. Furthermore,
the sophistication in communications and the ability of the private sector to invest money
in this growing industry saw the development of a, “global media system dominated by
three or four dozens large transnational corporations(TNCs), with fewer than ten mostly
US-based media conglomerates towering over the global market”(Global media-pg.1). The
private ownership of media is one of the defining features of the corporate capitalism
which “rest on ownership control and therefore will tend to represent a narrow class
interest; and because of increasing economies of scale and scope, as well as other benefits
of large size, media ownership tends to become more concentrated over time, aligning the
media more closely with larger corporate interests”(Global media-pg.6). Not only that the
privately owned media tends to concentrate the power in the hands of the owner but also it
“depends on advertising revenue and must therefore compete for advertising revenue and
must therefore compete for advertiser attention and serve advertiser interests to
prosper”(Global meida-pg.6). It is the domination of the owner and advertiser which gives
the commercial media a dual bias threatening the pubic sphere. The public sphere role is to
provide public services and allowing the public to participate in the political process of the
society. However, private medias main purpose is to maximize the profits for its business
owners and attract the advertisers to reach the public. “News and entertainment are merely
instrumental to the goal of the advertiser. They are there to win audiences for the
advertisers, to keep people tuned in and turned on. The objective is commercial gain, the
sale of mass-produced goods to a mass market”(Inventing reality-pg.70). For example,
right now there are a number of channels which are directed towards children which are
filled with a heavy dose of advertisements which are directly targeted towards children.
