EXCERPTS:

"In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market and the consolidation of more than a thousand radio stations via the Clear Channel network.
 

"Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit six dependency symptoms--two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include using TV as a sedative; indiscriminate viewing; feeling loss of control while viewing; feeling angry with oneself for watching so much; inability to stop watching; and suffering withdrawal when forced to stop watching TV."
 

http://www.corporations.org/media/ [Go to website address to access links
below.]

Media Reform Information Center

Links and Resources on Media Reform

In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 5 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation.
 

http://www.corporations.org/media/ [Go to website address to access links below.]

Media Reform Advocacy Groups:
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) (the #1 media watchdog group)
Media Channel (check out their Issue Guides)
Media Tank (fighting the FCC on media consolidation)
Media Access Project
Media Alliance
OpenAirWaves.org (from the Center for Public Integrity)
Take Back the Media (consumer pressure group fighting corporate-friendly
mass media coverage)
mediareform.net (excellent collection of links, alerts and email lists)
Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME)
Media Watch (challenges racism, sexism & violence in media)
Media Transparency: The Money Behind the Media
Rocky Mountain Media Watch (takes on the TV "news" media)
Debate This! (opening up the Presidential Debates to 3rd parties)
Media Geek

Media Reform Articles/Books:
Robert W. McChesney's website (author of several books on media and democracy) Media Control, Propaganda, and Democracy (excellent compilation of articles)
The Making of a Movement (article on the media reform movement in The Nation magazine's media reform issue (Jan 2002))
Off the Record: What Media Corporations Don't Tell You About Their Legislative Agendas (by the Center for Public Integrity)

The Media Monopoly / Corporate Media Ownership:
The Big Ten (chart of the 10 largest media corporations and their holdings, The Nation, Jan 2002)
Who Owns What (comprehensive list of media ownership by the Columbia Journalism Review)
Global Concentration: The Media Ownership Chart
Mega-Media's Interlocking Directorates (FAIR, June 2001)
Consumers Union testimony before the U.S. Senate on Media Concentration (7/17/2001)
Media Industry Efforts to Eliminate and Weaken the Ownership Rules
PBS's Media Giants Site
Mega-Mergers in the Telecommunications Industry (up to 1997)
Media Industry Efforts to Eliminate and Weaken the Ownership Rules: What
it Means for the Public and the Future of the Internet
Democratic Media Legal Project to Challenge Media Monopoly
The Media Monopoly (Book by Ben Bagdikian, published by Beacon Press):
Excerpts and quotes from The Media Monopoly
More Excerpts and quotes from The Media Monopoly
Media Monopoly (read excerpts here at Amazon.com)

May 1999 Congressional Testimony of Henry Labalme, Executive Director of TV-Free America:

"Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit six dependency symptoms--two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include using TV as a sedative; indiscriminate viewing; feeling loss of control while viewing; feeling angry with oneself for watching so much; inability to stop watching; and suffering withdrawal when forced to stop watching TV."

------------- and many more links for the serious researcher provided at http://www.corporations.org/media/

See also http://www.takebackthemedia.com/owners.html 
               [Go to <-- this website address to access links for numerous charts and articles on WHO OWNS AND CONTROLS THE MEDIA]