examination of the growing concentration of media ownership. At the time, he calculated that 50 corporations controlled half or more of the media business. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the last edition of the Media Monopoly was published by Beacon in 1993, the number had fallen to less then 20. Since then, and the numbers are still falling. The fear is that a few media giants are slowly dominating the Internet where the top 100 web sites attract nearly half of all page views. In fact, web surfers now spend almost 20% of their online time visiting only the top 10 sites. This is a major concern for smaller startups that dont get the exposure needed to compete on the internet.The significance of the AOL/TimeWarner merger is that AOL has been the leading advocate of the Open Access debate allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) access to cable lines. AOL has been a vocal proponent of forcing AT&T to open up its cable lines to other high-speed access providers. Now that AOL has teamed up with Time Warner's roughly 20 million cable subscribers, some industry observers think AOL may change its tune. Giving them the ability to control what the first screen consumers see when the first log onto the Internet and who gets to bill them for the service. AOL/Time Warner Chairman Steve Case assures its partners in the Open Access debate that it will continue the charge, and allow other ISPs the same access over its own newly acquired cable systems, but that remains to be seen.Another great concern to the public and journalists is the massive control that these few media Giants will have over the news that is put out. No different then the way CNN or the New York Times controls what it publishes, these companies will decide what is put out to the public. With more and more dominance of the airways or "Cableways" there is less opportuni...
