Archives: Media Ownership

Who owns the media in your town? Most towns only have one cable company and only one daily newspaper – often owned by a company that controls newspapers in towns all across the state. In many areas there are hardly any real local radio stations, TV stations or newspapers because the corporate owners cut costs by centralizing operations and sending out pre-packaged programs, news and weather through a main office.

A few huge corporations – Viacom/CBS, News Corp/Fox, Disney/ABC, GE/NBC, Time Warner/AOL and Clear Channel – own most of the popular TV channels, radio stations, movie studios, public billboards, book publishing companies and magazines.

This guide will help you find out what others are doing and give you important tools to start your own community action.  You might take a moment to click on HearUsNow's issue Overview, What's at Stake, and Frequently Asked Questions, to give you detailed background information to help you speak out, or read on:

Join Forces: Add your voice

• Join a national campaign
• Who's fighting for better media choices in your community?
• Share Your Story

Tools for Community Action

• Get Organized
• Spread the Word
• Some Questions for your Community 
• Campaign Models: What to Fight For
• Effective Government and Media Strategies
• Essential Information and Research Tools 

Help Build This Guide!

We are eager for suggestions and feedback. If you have ideas for how this site can help you in your advocacy work and what kinds of information would be useful to you and your organization, or to suggest links, please contact us.