ips are abundant. NBC network owned by the politically conservative GE Corporation. The ABC network is now owned and controlled by the conservative Disney Corporation. Parentis sites the example of when Disney took over ABC, they fired critics and analysts who they found to have populist views, and did not share the views of the company. A reporter wrote “it can be difficult to fully report on America’s political and economic elite when your bosses are a member of that elite.” Also, the EEBT generally assumes that the economic and media elites agree on how our society should function. If these individuals did not agree, then we would see a mix of different messages being sent through our TVs, radios, and printed media. But there appear to be a general consensus since the message is uniform. With a general understanding of how the IBT and EEBT work, we are able to apply them to a current issue receiving a great deal of media coverage. The example is the scrutiny of the Napster music swapping company. By examining this through the IBT, one needs to identify the principal sources used by the media to cover this story. When the story broke about the basic controversy and lawsuits that were filed against Napster, the media immediately needed to identify sources to cover the story. Like in all other situations, the media contact the officials of the major Internet and record companies. They also contacted lawyers at major universities to get views on the competing legal arguments. Because downloading data and records from the Internet was a relatively new technology, there were few official sources on the side of Napster. In addition, Napster’s founder was Shawn Fanning, a 19-year-old college student, who seemed to lack the credentials that would make the public taking him seriously as a source. The record company officials, musicians, and the record company’s legal counsel all had an interest in protecting th...
