Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c151IR // #c151Synthesis

Ben Bagdikian stresses the fact that despite the large media numbers, the twenty-nine largest media systems account for over half of the output of newspapers, and most of the sales and audiences in magazines, broadcasting, books, and movies. He contends that these “constitute a new Private Ministry of Information and Culture” that can set the national agenda.

— In our words · Source: Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman)

[Use when]

When the sheer number of outlets is offered as proof of press freedom.

[Why it matters]

Twenty-five thousand media entities, twenty-nine setting the agenda — ownership concentration as the first filter, with 1986 numbers.

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