The impact of media concentration on professional journalism

For five decades Lithuania had very limited media: television, newspapers and radio stations were controlled by the state. In 1990 when Lithuania regained its independence, the situation changed: commercial television appeared, private radio stations were created, newspapers experienced an “explosion”. In sixteen years of independence an opinion came about that due to various reasons (newspapers buying other newspapers, there are less owners of media channels, owners are more concerned with profits and less with informing the public) the choice of media is getting poorer, the quality of journalists’ work is getting worse. Several years of changes created increasing media concentration in Lithuania. Lithuanian journalism market is being divided among large business corporations and media magnates. Despite of that, owners and growing media concentration are not talked about – information is hidden, media corporations do not answer to the public. Professional journalism has an important function in the society: it helps to keep democracy, increases public society activity, satisfies public needs and ensures the feedback, but at the same time remains a passive and objective information transmitter. These functions are best delivered by pluralistic journalism, but the question is whether pluralism remains in media concentration. Today there are several opinions regarding media concentration. There are proposals to stop media concentration with rules and regulations or encourage media transparency, i.e. inform the society of the owners of corporations. Lithuania has a law on the provision of information which makes media corporations’ owners declare which companies they own. This article discusses several hypotheses: while media concentration increases, pluralistic journalism decreases; professional journalism is not fulfilling its mission, which is satisfying public interests; large media corporations are manipulating the thoughts of society; transparency can increase the credibility of media. Media concentration is a widely discussed topic in other countries and there are a lot of articles written about it. It is relatively new in Lithuania and there is only one article written about it, i.e. Ovidijus Lukosius master’s degree in 1999 “Media Concentration Tendencies in Lithuania and Europe”. So, six years later we can witness new tendencies in media concentration in Lithuania. Media concentration and its influence on pluralism and professional journalism is being discussed according to different authors (David Croteau, Anthony Smith, Denis McQuail, Jurgen Habermas, Ben H. Bagdikian), European Union, Lithuania’s and other countries’ laws, articles in newspapers and so on. This work consists of three parts. First part explains the notion of media concentration, its importance in journalism. Second part discusses the importance of foreign investment in Lithuania’s journalism market, foreign companies’ integration. Third part presents a research “The Impact of Media Concentration on Professional Journalism”. The aim of this article is to discuss the reasons for media concentration and what influence it can have on pluralistic journalism and journalists’ work