Monopoly

A monopoly is where a company or individual has a share in a particular product, medium or argument. Rupert Murdoch has a large monopoly of many companies in the media; under News International are the newspapers: the Sun and the Times, along with over 800 other smaller companies around the world including Fox, Sky and HarperCollins.

It is important that no single media producer in the UK has a monopoly because all media would be bias and almost fascist in that certain news/opinions could be censored or endorsed to manipulate peoples own interests or concerns to uniform.

Consumer choice is important as it allows individuals to opt for services which they think best suits them. People choose specific newspapers published by different companies because it expresses the political views they believe in, people choose certain TV packages from different companies because the programming is best suited to them; a younger person may choose packages with ITV 2, MTV and similar, an older person may prefer Sky Arts, ITV 3 or similar. If there was no consumer choice then everything would be the same, specific to what one company or government believes people should be allowed to know or see.

Censorship is the restrictions put in place to avoid perverting people’s interests. In pre-recorded broadcast media, censorship can occur in words or conversations being edited out. In many countries, censorship is more restrictive than others; for example in China, all references to politics is prohibited (not just in the media) – websites, TV shows and movies from outside countries are all either edited or banned before being released in China.

There is a fine line between censorship and protecting public interest because censorship is put in place to protect public interest only by non-restricting companies or governments: when a James Bond film was shown on British Airways, a scene involving a Virgin plane was cut from the movie – it was not to protect the public interest but to shun a rival company. In restrictive governments, like Russia or China; censorship is used broadly to protect the public from what that government thinks they should be censored from; not necessarily what they believe is dangerous (like references to Homosexuality) but anything which degrades their country’s leaders or could influence a revolt against them.

Under18s should be subject to particular consideration by regulators as the majority are easily influenced by the media. If there was no censorship for under 18s, then they could be subject to  violence or ‘foul’ language which could traumatise them. Agreed, the system is flawed and many believe that it should be changed, but there should be a system in place to censor under 18s.