Media Ownership

The author feels the merger is so harmful because it seems like it would be taking away his freedom of speech as a citizen who is enveloped in the media. His understaning is that this AOL-Time Warner merge is going to dominate the media industry, pulling away the "notions of a free, diverse and independent press". As a civic issue, this merge affects the society in the way that the views of this large media influence may be biased and not include the views of the country as a whole. It could be controversial because citizens may not share this point of view, however as a large media conglomerate, the views of Time Warner may perceive that their views are the views of the country. As a journalist, the issue with the merge between AOL and Time Warner would take away their freedoms of writing and voicing their own opinions. The bigger issue is that what is being written may be the opinions of the conglomerate company, which may not be shared between the journalist, thus showing that the freedom of an indepedent press is out the window. The issue of taking away this freedome affects the press in the sense that their own voices would be muted. Everything could be right-wing, where the opinion of the AOL-Time Warner company merge would influence much of the media, having a biased opinion, proving that they have power over the media, which may be a main reason for the merge. The author believes that the AOL-Time Warner merge creates these issues and takes away these freedoms, harming society as a whole.

The danger of not having a free and independent press is that the individual opinions of the people of the media, would be silenced. This would go against their rights that were given to them years ago by the presidents of the past. If there was not a free and independent press, controversy could erupt because of the potential unshared opinion between the press and the citizens. A free and independent press is a central aspect of democracy because a democratic government allows its people to have a say in how the country is run. Without an independent press, a branch of freedom of speech is gone, thus creating a controversial state where the media and the people do not get along.

The ideas and opinions on the internet I think are screened, but are relatively free and outspoken. Because the internet is a public source, anybody can post their opinions without being pressed by the media to write what they believe should be written. You can get news on the internet on news websites, online newspapers, blogs, etc. News can be found anywhere on the web because it is a public knowledge source.