Chapter 4
1. Pick two or three local news outlets in your region (a newspaper, a television station, a radio outlet).
Find information about the ownership. Are the outlets owned by families, chains, a non-profit group?
What other entities does the company own? How easy is it for students (and the public) to find this
2. Read Ken Doctor’s 2011 Neiman Journalism Lab blog post about media concentration
(http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/07/the-newsonomics-of-u-s-media-concentration/). After reading this
chapter, research if these trends have continued in recent years. Are we seeing “smart, digital-first roll-
3. Invite the publisher of your local newspaper or the general manager of a local broadcast outlet to
class to discuss issues raised in this chapter. What pressures does he or she feel from above to maximize
profits? How do you balance that with the need to do quality journalism? Are there parts of the
4. An alternative if you cannot connect with a local media executive is a video on the same issues. In
2015, some former members of the Federal Communications Commission were part of a panel
5. Visit an interactive Sanford University history project on the spread of American Newspapers
throughout the United States (http://www.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-
bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapers). The site is fun to play with and to visualize the spread of