World Media Economics and Management Conference 2016

Media ownership and diversity have been areas of scrutiny and concern for the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for decades, particularly as the media industry matures and ownership becomes more concentrated. Such issues cut to the core of the idealized marketplace of ideas and representation of voices within a democracy. In this study, the effects of ownership type upon ethnic and racial diversity within television newsrooms are explored. A content analysis of a randomly selected sample of local U.S. television stations (N=268) was analyzed to compare the diversity levels of on-air personnel for stations that were network owned and operated (O&O), as well as stations that took part in Shared Services Agreements (SSAs), a growing ownership arrangement in the U.S. that has been under FCC scrutiny. Findings reveal that there are significant effects for network owned-and-operated stations, but none for SSA-attached stations. Possible explanations and future research suggestions are offered.