Media, Consolidation & Democracy: Linking Cultural Research with Data Resources

Shawna Kidman
Communication
UC San Diego

Andrew deWaard
Communication
UC San Diego

Our media system is increasingly consolidated, financialized, and homogenized. Two to four corporations dominate each sector, limiting the diversity, democratic potential, and creative capacity in news, film, television, music, and publishing. This state of affairs has long been a concern of cultural scholars, but its salience has risen sharply in recent years. Unfortunately, media ownership is complicated, and the lack of critical, empirical, and visual resources has hampered public awareness and the development of better policies. This faculty working group aims to overcome these obstacles with a digital humanities project putting data, visualizations, and humanities-informed analysis within reach of scholars, journalists, instructors, policy makers, and citizens. Our proposal brings together early career and senior faculty from media and culture programs at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine to generate multiple research projects for presentation and publication via the Media And Consolidation Research Organization (MACRO) Lab, now operational at macrolab.ucsd.edu. Founded at UC San Diego in 2021, the MACRO Lab is a scholarly community, research lab, and public-facing online resource. The UCHRI grant significantly broadens the scope of this emerging project, transforming it into a UC-wide research collaboration dedicated to publishing empirical research and advocating for independent media.