Ownership of Newspapers: The View from Positivist Social Science

By C. Edwin Baker

A paper by C. Edwin Baker, fall 1992 fellow, analyzes the claim that concentration in media ownership has mostly objectionable effects on the media produced. Baker finds numerous flaws in the methodology of the research published on this topic, and writes that the research creates only a “tepid” case for the reduction of chain ownership. Baker argues that improved research is very much needed in order to effectively guide media policy.

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