Corporate Bias 2
and criticized, it will take some time before the impact of these business dealings will
positively or negatively impact society (Robin, 2001).
Media companies merge because product options expand, costs decline, prospects
for profit increase, and the opportunity to cross promote helps the economic goals of the
organizations (Tseng and Litman, 1997). This conglomeration is evident when analyzing
the rise of companies such as AOL Time Warner, Disney, and Viacom. Each has become
a dominant player in nearly every facet of the entertainment and information business
(McConnell, 2002). These conglomerates are mega media carriers and are able to own,
provide, deliver, and control news and entertainment programming to millions of
consumers through multiple media channels, such as print, television, motion pictures,
and the Internet. These factors lead to questions about the impact of cross promotion and
financially-motivated, bottom-line business realities have on the media. The current study
aims to investigate the effects of corporate ownership on media content. It is a concern
that revenue will be the driving force behind media coverage and that this will produce a
new type of bias: corporate bias.
Bias
Dictionary.com (2003) defines bias as, “A preference or an inclination, especially
one that inhibits impartial judgment; An unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice”
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bias). This definition is applied to the current
study. The scholarship on media bias is well established within the context of political
communication, but few studies have examined it within a corporate setting. Research
indicates that there are differing types of bias in the media, such as situational structural,
partisan, and negative (Lichter, Rothman, & Lichter, 1986, Cirino, 1971).
Convention