Have you ever listened to the radio and heard the same song playing on two different stations simultaneously? Though it may seem coincidental, there is a reason behind this occurrence: the Big Six.

The Big Six are the six major corporations that basically control the media because they own so many companies. These conglomerates include GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. There are smaller conglomerates as well. For example, if you listen to Z100 (100.3), KTU (103.5), Q-104.3, 106.7 Lite FM, or the IHeartMusic Festival, you’ve been listening to songs selected by the same company: Clear Channel Communications. If you happen to listen to the news, you’re most likely listening to CBS Radio. They own most of the news radio stations in the United States, as well as popular stations Fresh 102.7 and 92.3 Now.

The Big Six aren’t limited to radio. They also influence other forms of media including television, the Internet, and the news as well. You will realize this if you’ve ever found any similarities between two television shows, or watched news stations which are biased by political standpoints. GE owns Comcast, Universal Pictures, and NBC, while Disney owns Hulu, ABC, Marvel Entertainment, most of ESPN, as well as its own material.  If you’ve watched FOX, or read
the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post, then you’re reading News Corp material. What’s the association between Time, CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros? The answer is Time Warner. Your childhood was likely defined by Viacom, a company which accounts for all Nickelodeon shows, MTV, Neopets, and even Paramount Pictures. Not only that, but Paramount Pictures owns Dreamworks SKG Studios.

We depend on these mass media conglomerates for the same reasons they indirectly profit: entertainment. As we listen to the radio, watch television, wait for movies to start or videos to load on YouTube, ever-irksome advertisements are slipped in by the companies. They control what they own, and we, in turn, watch or listen to what they release.

But, as viewers and listeners, we have more power than you think.

We as a society may not realize it, but we also control these companies. If a television channel does not get much traffic, less advertising companies will go to them for publicity. Therefore, the channel’s company won’t be paid by the advertisers, and they won’t survive in the business without support or money.  When this occurs enough, we will get monopolies and mass media conglomerates, at this moment known as the Big Six.

As consumers, what we see and what we hear are determined by executives of the Big Six and other mass media conglomerates.

So the next time you hear the same Justin Bieber  song on three different radio stations, you can thank the Big Six.