Stop it Copy Cats!

When reflecting on the effects of mass ownership of all media, the decline of original thought these days is absolutely on its way. As media conglomerates become larger through the buy outs of smaller corporations, the likelihood of a decline in original thought in media is eminent. Media conglomerates such as News Corp., Time Warner, General Electric, and Disney are prime examples. These large corporations are competing to become the "top dog" in their arena. Because of this competitive drive to be number one, I believe that all media will eventually be under one corporation, which therefore means that all media will be produced by that one company.

Even today there is little trace of original thought. The post modernist idea of no original works or thoughts has swept over the media spectrum. Corporations fight to be the highest power based on the responses they receive from their audience. The more interest an audience shows in a corporation, the more power they hold. When fellow corporations see a great response, they mimic the same success tactics while adding an additional twist expecting greater success. There are prime examples of this on television all the time. I have chose crime dramas as a chief example. When you turn on the TV, one can find: CSI (a couple different versions), NCSI, Law & Order, and Shark, etc. I use this example to demonstrate that corporations leech off of one another's success and are in battle to outdo one another. However, I believe these corporations fail to realize is that the reason why a certain type of show flourishes is the fact that it is different and unique – not a copycat of another show. People are drawn to individuality. Corporations should stop mimicking one another and come up with something new and inventive. Corporations need to focus more on producing quality media of substance rather than focusing only on numbers. I believe true power comes when a corporation alters their approach from solely caring about outdoing the competition to creating quality media that will draw in the masses.