Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. Media Concentration and the First Amendment Section. Papers.

These two papers consider the implications of industry concentration in the mass media industry. The first, "Selling the Store: Policy Implications of the 1986 Bonanza in Television Station Transfers" (Joseph Foley, Ohio State University), analyzes the relationship between key market variables and prices paid in 1986 television stations transfers, and draws conclusions about the emerging patterns of media ownership and the implications of those patterns for the expression of divergent views. Six figures and 31 references are included. The second paper, "Measuring Media Concentration" (Mark S. Nadel) (abstract only), suggests that media concentration should be regarded as a problem only when there are too few suppliers of some particular media product to some particular media market. It recommends that general measures of industry concentration, such as the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, be adjusted before they are used to measure such things as concentration among news suppliers, given the ease with which news can diffuse through a market. (Author/EW)