ABSTRACT
A survey of the media provides a picture of newspaper chains covering large areas, the elimination of competing newspapers in almost all communities, and the cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations. The power to inform and shape public opinion is held in fewer and fewer hands. Furthermore, the media are unwilling, as always, to provide effective criticism of their own performance. In the course of the decision the Court found that promotion of diversity in broadcasting was an acceptable goal. Diversity can be assisted by deconcentration and that in turn may be achieved by facilitating development of new technologies and the entry of new groups to the media as well as by acting to reduce actual concentration of control. The government should foster diversity in communications either by facilitating the creation of new channels of communication through policies encouraging development or by subsidizing, directly and indirectly, certain forms of communications where necessary.
