Media Hegemonies

During a lecture in mass communications class we watched a clip of an episode of 30Rock. The episode featured Tracy Jordan (played by actor Tracy Morgan) approaching Jack Donaghy (played by actor Alec Baldwin) with a proposal for "The Tracy Jordan Meat Machine" Jack Donaghy green lights the proposal after claiming it was not the worse celebrity endorsed idea he had heard, but informs Tracy Jordan that General Electric will not produce "The Tracy Jordan Meat Machine"due to the products uh "uniqueness". Donaghy then pulls down a corporate food chain that maps General Electric and all of its subsidiary companies. After mapping out the companies to whom General Electric are major shareholders such as Winnipeg Iron Works, Pokerfastlane.com and NBC, Donaghy concludes that AHP CHANAGI PARTY MEATS in North Korea will produce the product.

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/simbadogg/?action=view¤t=asdf6.flv( Link to the video)

The purpose of this parody is primarily to entertain, but after this clip was played I realized that 30Rock is broadcasted on NBC and decided to further research the factual content featured in the clip.
cjr.org is the official website of an organization called Columbia Journalism Review and their resources page enables people to enter the names of fortune 500 companies and map their far reaching ownership.
By selecting General Electric from a list of companies, it is revealed that GE is a primary shareholder and or owner within many industries. As of 2008, General Electric is the proud owner of:
• 14 NBC stations in the USA
• 14 Telemundo in the USA and Puerto Rico
• NBC Universal Television Studio
NBC Universal Television Distribution
• CNBC
• MSNBC
• Bravo
• Mun2TV
• Sci-Fi
• USA
• Sleuth
• Oxygen
• Universal Pictures
• Universal Parks and Resorts
As well as their primary GE products:
• GE Aircraft Engines
• GE Commercial Finance
• GE Consumer Products
• GE Industrial Systems
• GE Insurance
• GE Medical Systems
• GE Plastics
• GE Power Systems
• GE Specialty Materials
• GE Transportation Systems

General Electric was founded By Thomas Edison and initially was viewed as a power generation company, but with its growth GE has been able to acquire the ownership of various companies in various sectors. General Electric has a huge impact on what Americans view throughout the day. Viewers who believe that they are receiving a subjective opinion by watching MNSBC news and a local Spanish Telemundo newscast are receiving information from the same source. General Electric has a huge impact on what Americans view throughout the day. General Electric has a huge impact on their consumer’s perception. This type of media hegemony allows General Electric to promote its agenda and potential biases through the media usually undetected.
Due to the fact most people are not aware of such media hegemonies many people are under the impression that they are exposed to a wide array of views when they are in fact passed through the same filter and provide viewers with the content and biases corporations deem as appropriate to their audiences.
Fortunately in Canada the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (an independent media "watchdog" has introduced laws barring Canadian corporations from the same level of media hegemony prevalent in the US. The law allows corporations to only have shares in two major broadcasting mediums.
Although Canada is trying to prevent the monopolization practiced in the United States, I highly recommend that everybody educate themselves about media hegemony so as viewers and consumers we can filter the information being served to us and think objectively.

Works Cited

"CRTC denies CAIP application, but will examine Internet traffic management practices." Site Web du CRTC - Bienvenue | CRTC Web Site - Welcome. Web. 22 Nov. 2009

Who Owns What |." Columbia Journalism Review. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. .