Mass media in the United States

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Media of the United States
)

People using smartphones, devices associated with young people, but commonly used by people of all ages

There are several types of

music industry. New York City, Manhattan in particular, and to a lesser extent Los Angeles
, are considered the epicenters of U.S. media.

Many media entities are controlled by large for-profit corporations who reap revenue from advertising,

material. American
convergence are under way, leading to mega-mergers, further concentration of media ownership, and the emergence of multinational media conglomerates. These mergers enable tighter control of information.[1] Currently, a handful of corporations control the vast majority of both digital and legacy media.[2][3][4] Critics allege that localism, local news and other content at the community level, media spending and coverage of news, and diversity of ownership and views have suffered as a result of these processes of media concentration.[5]

Theories to explain the success of such companies include reliance on certain policies of the American federal government or a tendency to natural monopolies in the industry, with a corporate media bias.

The organization

Hispanic-American
" news coverage in the English-language media is "absolutely pathetic," but he was optimistic, arguing that demographic shifts would inevitably render the Latino media a significant presence in the context of American media.

According to a May 2023 AP-NORC poll, 74% of respondents said the media is to blame for increased political polarization in the United States.[9]

Newspapers

After being widely successful in the 20th century, newspapers have declined in their influence and penetration into American households over the years. The U.S. does not have a national paper. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today are the most circulated newspapers in the United States and are sold in most U.S. cities.[10]

Although the primary audience for The New York Times (NYT) had initially been the residents of New York City and its surrounding metropolitan region , the NYT, nicknamed "the Grey Lady" and which has won the most Pulitzer Prizes of any publication, has gradually become the dominant "newspaper of record" for the U.S. media. Apart from its daily nationwide distribution, the term means that back issues are archived on microfilm by every decent-sized public library in the nation, and the Times' articles are often cited by both historians and judges as evidence that a major historical event occurred on a certain date. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are also newspapers of record, to a lesser extent. Although USA Today has tried to establish itself as a national paper, it has been widely derided by the academic world as the "McPaper" and is not subscribed to or archived by most libraries.[11]

Apart from the aforementioned newspapers, all major metropolitan areas have their own local newspapers. Most metropolitan areas will generally support one or two major newspapers, with many smaller publications targeted towards particular audiences. Although the cost of publishing has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has generally remained low, forcing newspapers to rely more on advertising revenue and on articles provided by a major news agency wire service, such as the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters[12] for their national and world coverage.

The Washington Post on Monday, July 21, 1969, stating "'The Eagle Has Landed'—Two Men Walk on the Moon".

With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as

McClatchy
, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families.

Most general-purpose newspapers are either being printed one time a week, usually on Thursday or Friday, or are printed daily. Weekly newspapers tend to have much smaller circulation and are more prevalent in rural communities or small towns. Major cities often have "

L.A. Weekly
, to name two of the best-known. Major cities may also support a local business journal, trade papers relating to local industries, and papers for local ethnic and social groups.

As competition from other media has evolved, the number of daily newspapers in the U.S. has declined over the past half-century, according to Editor & Publisher, the trade journal of American newspapers. In particular, the number of evening newspapers has fallen by almost one-half since 1970, while the number of morning editions and Sunday editions has grown.

For comparison, in 1950, there were 1,772 daily papers (and 1,450 – or about 70 percent – of them were evening papers) while in 2000, there were 1,480 daily papers (and 766—or about half—of them were evening papers.)

Daily newspaper circulation
is also slowly declining in America, partly due to the near-demise of two-newspaper towns, as the weaker newspapers in most cities have folded:

Year Circulation
1960 58.8 million
1970 62.1 million
1980 62.2 million
1990 62.3 million
2000 55.8 million

The primary source of newspaper income is

circulation income. However, since the late 1990s, this revenue source has been directly challenged by Web sites like eBay (for sales of secondhand items), Monster.com (jobs), and Craigslist
(everything).

Additionally, as investigative journalism declined at major daily newspapers in the 2000s, many reporters formed their own non-profit investigative newsrooms. Examples include

Texas Tribune at the state level and Voice of OC
at the local level.

The largest newspapers (by circulation) in the United States are USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

In August 2019, it was announced that

GateHouse name, at the Gannett headquarters but under New Media's CEO.[13][14] The acquisition of Gannett by New Media Investment Group was completed on November 19, 2019, making the combined company the largest newspaper publisher in the United States.[15]
Immediately after the merger was finalized, all GateHouse Media URLs began redirecting to Gannett.com.

La Opinión is the most read newspaper website in the United States, reaching more than 6 million readers each month. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and the second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after The Los Angeles Times).

Magazines

The first issue of Time (March 3, 1923), featuring Speaker Joseph G. Cannon.

Thanks to the huge size of the English-speaking North American media market, the United States has a large magazine industry with hundreds of magazines serving almost every interest, as can be determined by glancing at any newsstand in any large American city. Most magazines are owned by one of the large media conglomerates or by one of their smaller regional brethren. The American Society of Magazine Editors sponsors the annual National Magazine Awards recognizing excellence.

The U.S. has three leading weekly news magazines: Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. Time and Newsweek are center-left while U.S. News & World Report tends to be center-right. Time is well known for naming a "Person of the Year" each year, while U.S. News publishes annual ratings of American colleges and universities.

The U.S. also has over a dozen major political magazines, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine and Foreign Policy among others. In entertainment the magazines Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, L.A. Record and Billboard are very popular. In arts Smithsonian and Art in America magazines are major magazines.

Finally, besides the hundreds of specialized magazines that serve the diverse interests like

Architects
.

Two Mundos Magazine (Miami
) are two bilingual (English/Spanish) lifestyle and entertainment magazines. It's not a coordinated exodus for magazines in the United States but the transition from print's primacy to digital's that has started at the turn of the century.

Radio

Fireside chat on government and capitalism (September 30, 1934)

American radio broadcasts in two bands: FM and AM. Some stations are only talk radio – featuring interviews and discussions – while music radio stations broadcast one particular type of music: Top 40, hip-hop, country, etc. Radio broadcast companies have become increasingly consolidated in recent years. National Public Radio is the nation's primary public radio network, but most radio stations are commercial and profit-oriented.

Talk radio as a political medium has also exploded in popularity during the 1990s, due to the 1987 repeal of the

Fairness Doctrine, which meant that stations no longer had to "balance" their day by programming alternative points of view.[citation needed
]

The

.

A new form of radio that is gaining popularity is

Sirius XM Radio
. Unlike terrestrial radio music channels are commercial free and other channels feature minimal commercials. Satellite radio also is not regulated by the FCC.

During the advent of the internet in the 21st century,

. Although, the recording industry also sees Internet radio as a threat and has attempted to impose high royalty rates for the use of recorded music to discourage independent stations from playing popular songs. Spotify listeners can choose the songs they want to play, when they want to play them. ... Pandora is a way for users to discover new music that matches their tastes, while Spotify—even though it offers radio stations, too—is better suited to stream and share music that users already know and love.

Nielsen ratings
) for national and local radio stations in the United States.

Digital Audio Broadcasting goal is to replace FM broadcasting and become the future of radio. Some industry experts are wary of this new transmission method. ... However, this method of transmission could benefit internet radio stations that want to develop local coverage and keep up to speed with FM radio stations.

Television

Press photographers and film crews at Barack Obama rally, February 4, 2008

Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one.

ViacomCBS. The merger was completed on December 4, 2019.[18][19][20][21] The company will have 50% interest in The CW
.

The five major US broadcast networks

Several Spanish language broadcast (as well as cable) networks exist, which are the most common form of non-English television broadcasts. These networks are not as widely distributed over-the-air as their English counterparts, available mostly in markets with sizable Latino and Hispanic populations; several of these over-the-air networks are alternatively fed directly to cable, satellite and IPTV providers in markets without either the availability or the demand for a locally based owned-and-operated or affiliate station.

The largest of these networks, Univision, launched in 1986 as a successor to the Spanish International Network. Its major competition is Telemundo (est. 1986), a sister network of NBC (which acquired Telemundo in 2001). Founded: 2009 Estrella TV is another Spanish-language broadcast television network.

Public television
has a far smaller role than in most other countries. However, a number of states, including West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and South Carolina, among others, do have state-owned public broadcasting authorities which operate and fund all public television stations in their respective states. The income received from the government is insufficient to cover expenses and stations also rely on corporate sponsorships and viewer contributions.

AT&T U-verse and Verizon Fios
with 5–6 million each.

Motion pictures

Robert Rodriguez directed the 1992 action film El Mariachi, which was a commercial success after grossing $2 million against an initial budget of $7,000 (before studio production costs) and launched his own cable television channel, El Rey thanks to advances in technology.[23]

In the 20th century, the motion picture industry rose to become one of the most successful and powerful industries in the U.S. Along with other intellectual property industries, its relative importance to the American economy has strengthened as the importance of manufacturing and agriculture have decreased (due to globalization).[24]

Rise of the home video market (1980s–1990s)

The 1980s and 1990s saw another significant development. The full acceptance of

commentary tracks with the films.[citation needed
]

Rise of digital distribution

DVD and high-definition

streaming services. The range of viewing devices went through another mass expansion with the popularization of tablet computers and smartphones
.

During the

drive-in theaters
reported an unexpected surge in attendance in several U.S. states as, unlike with indoor theaters unable to operate because of bans on mass gatherings, these were allowed to operate.

Video games

A Marine playing a video game
A US Marine playing Top Gun

The United States has the largest video games presence in the world in terms of total industry employees.[26] In 2017, the U.S. game industry as a whole was worth US$18.4 billion and consisted of roughly 2457 companies that had a rough total of 220,000 people employed.[27][28] U.S. video game revenue is forecast to reach $230 billion by 2022,[29] making it the largest video game market in the world.[citation needed] Over 150 million Americans play video games, with an average age of 35 and a gender breakdown of 59 percent male and 41 percent female.[30]

In 2011, the average American gamer spent an average of 13 hours per week playing video games.[31]

Internet

The Internet has provided a means for newspapers and other media organizations to deliver news and keep archives public. Revenue is generated through advertising or subscription payments. Aside from web portals and search engines like

and more popular websites.

Online streaming

Online

streaming now makes it possible to watch everything from live news and sports to classic movies to modern TV favorites in their own time, on any device. With the popularity of online streaming rising cable companies are having to extend offers to compete in this 655 billion dollar digital market.[32]

The

launched in 2020.

streaming wars" was coined to discuss the new era of competition between video streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Funimation, Crunchyroll, etc.[33]

Broadcast and entertainment cross-ownership

Most of the current major film studios have become part of corporate conglomerates that also include major television broadcast networks and some of the most popular news and entertainment cable television channels. Sony Pictures has been an exception, and Fox sold its film properties to Disney in 2021, retaining its television and radio broadcast operations. All of the major entertainment companies have launched streaming services as they face competition from new media companies. Amazon purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, one of the "big five" studios in the Golden Age of Hollywood, in 2022. Comcast is also a major Internet service provider, representing a high degree of vertical integration.

This conglomeration gives owners the ability to reuse the same content between theaters, broadcast, and streaming, and to use intellectual property from

video games. Constantly looking for fresh source material, the major entertainment companies often compete to buy the rights to adapt books and independent films
; Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery own the country's top two comic book publishers. Some media franchises are also cross-licensed, especially for streaming and theme parks.

Corporate parent US broadcast networks Studios Streaming services US cable channels Theme parks and retail Other properties
Warner Bros. Discovery The CW (12%), The WB (defunct) Warner Bros., Rooster Teeth, HBO Films, RKO Pictures library (with extensive libraries)
Vudu, Philo
(joint venture)
TBS, Discovery Channel, HBO, Cinemax, Magnolia Network, CNN, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet, Oprah Winfrey Network, Travel Channel, TNT, TruTV, TNT Sports (including NBA TV and MLB Network) Warner Bros. theme parks (some characters licensed to NBCUniversal and Six Flags theme parks), Discovery Destinations parks and hotels
movietickets.com), more...
Comcast / NBCUniversal NBC Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Working Title Films, Illumination Peacock MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Syfy, Bravo, Telemundo, E! Oxygen, Golf Channel, Sky Group (international) Universal Studios parks; The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is licensed from Warner Bros and Super Nintendo World is licensed from Nintendo; Warner Bros. Studio Store (defunct)
more...
The Walt Disney Company ABC Walt Disney Studios, including Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and former Fox properties 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu (formerly a joint venture), Philo (joint venture)
History, Lifetime, and FYI
Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, other parks, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Store Marvel Comics National Geographic expeditions (73%)
Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) CBS, The CW (12.5%), UPN (defunct) Paramount Pictures, Miramax (49%), Nickelodeon Animation Studio, MTV Entertainment Studios, extensive libraries Paramount+ with Showtime, Pluto TV, Noggin, BET+, CBS News (streaming service), Philo (joint venture) Showtime, MTV, VH1, BET, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CMT, Paramount Network, TV Land, Smithsonian Channel, Pop, Flix, Logo
Nickelodeon Store, Paramount Parks
(defunct)
Ed Sullivan Theater, more...
Fox Corporation Fox, MyNetworkTV Fox Entertainment Studios, Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox First Run, XOF Productions, Bento Box Entertainment, Studio Ramsay Fox Nation, Tubi Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Fox Weather 20th Century Fox World (defunct) TMZ
Sony Get (TV network) Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Aniplex Crunchyroll, Funimation Sony Movie Channel, Game Show Network
Columbia Pictures Aquaverse, Metreon
(formerly)
PlayStation, more...
Amazon (none) Amazon MGM Studios Amazon Prime Video MGM+ Amazon Books (MGM Resorts International is separately owned) Twitch, Goodreads, Whole Foods Market
Netflix, Inc. (none) Netflix Pictures, Netflix Studios, Netflix Animation, Albuquerque Studios Netflix (none) Temporary attractions:
Stranger Things Experience, The Queen's Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, Netflix-themed restaurant; permanent "Netflix Houses" planned[34]
Millarworld (comics), StoryBots, Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, several video game developers

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America. Business Insider. June 14, 2012.
  3. p. 189:
  4. Robert William Jensen, review essay of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times," published in The Texas Observer
    , September 17, 1999, archived here Archived December 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "World Press Freedom Index 2014". Reporters Without Borders. Archived from the original on February 14, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  6. The Huffington Post
    . Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  7. ^ Brenan, Megan (July 18, 2022). "Media Confidence Ratings at Record Lows". Gallup. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  8. ^ Klepper, David (May 1, 2023). "Americans fault news media for dividing nation: AP-NORC poll". Associated Press. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  9. ^ Stynes, Tess (October 28, 2014). "USA Today Remains Top Newspaper by Circulation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  10. ^ Shaw, David (August 23, 1987). "The making of McPaper: The inside story of USA Today". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  11. ISSN 0013-0613
    . Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  12. ^ Darcy, Oliver (August 5, 2019). "USA Today owner Gannett merges with GateHouse Media to form massive newspaper company". CNN. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  13. ^ "New Media Investment Group to Acquire Gannett". www.businesswire.com. August 5, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  14. ^ Tracy, Marc (November 19, 2019). "Gannett, Now Largest U.S. Newspaper Chain, Targets 'Inefficiencies'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  15. ^ "Television". www.csun.edu. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  16. ^ Schneider, Michael (December 29, 2022). "Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2022's Winners and Losers". Variety. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  17. ^ Gasparino, Charles; Moynihan, Lydia (August 13, 2019). "CBS, Viacom agree to merge, forming a $28B entertainment firm". Fox Business. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  18. ^ Szalai, George; Bond, Paul; Vlessing, Etan (August 13, 2019). "CBS, Viacom Strike Deal to Recombine". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  19. ^ "CBS and Viacom To Combine" (PDF). CBS. August 12, 2019.
  20. ^ "Viacom and CBS Corp. are officially back together again". CBS News. December 4, 2019.
  21. ^ Consumers wary of Comcast, Time Warner Cable merger – USA Today, February 13, 2014
  22. ^ Craig Hunter (November 17, 2013). "T2's Robert Patrick & More Join 'From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series'". Thehollywoodnews.com. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  23. PMID 20713399
    .
  24. ^ Oscars 2015: The Guinness World Records alternative Academy Award
  25. ^ "US still the gaming super power | GamesIndustry International". Gamesindustry.biz. December 11, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  26. ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 14, 2017). "The U.S. game industry has 2,457 companies supporting 220,000 jobs". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  27. ^ Gough, Christina (August 12, 2019). "Video Game Industry – Statistics & Facts". Statista. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  28. ^ "Games software/hardware $165B+ in 2018, $230B+ in 5 years, record $2B+ investment last year | Digi Capital". Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  29. ^ "Industry Facts". Entertainment Software Association.
  30. ^ "Time spent gaming on the rise – NPD". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 23, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  31. S2CID 125570249
    .
  32. ^ "Streaming Wars". www.theverge.com. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  33. ^ 'Netflix houses', where fans can immerse themselves in their favorite shows, will open in US by 2025

Further reading

External links