The Collegian

The Collegian is the student newspaper of San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif. The paper is published six times a semester.

As a First Amendment newspaper we pride ourselves on a commitment to the students of Delta College while maintaining independence.

We reinvigorate the credo that the newspaper speaks for the students, checks abuses of power and stands vigilant in the protection of democracy and free speech.

can be seemingly impossible to choose where you receive your media from and what media you choose to consume.

There is also the fact that most media is controlled by only a handful of companies. This brings us to the illusion of choice. The illusion of choice is the idea that of the seemingly unlimited products you are being offered, you are making a decision on your own and with no outside influence, but you would be wrong.

Concentration of media ownership refers to the increasing amount of media being controlled by only a handful of companies, such as Disney, Comcast, or Warner Bros. Currently 90 percent of media is controlled by only six main companies.

The paradox of choice is harmful, but it must also be understood that it exists within the illusion of choice. So you may be choosing between five different news channels to watch, but if they are all owned by one parent company, you are likely choosing from one. An example of this can be seen with Sinclair Broadcasting Group.

Sinclair Broadcasting is a telecommunications company with a conservative political leaning. The company is the largest owner of local television stations in the country, with 173 stations in 81 broadcast markets that stretch from coast to coast and just about anywhere in between, at a time when local news outpaces national news outlets both in overall viewership and trust,” said a 2018 Chicago Tribune article.

Chances are that not many people know what Sinclair Broadcasting Group is, let alone that they own the local news channel that they watch regularly. If your local news channel is owned by a conservative company, then the local news channel will likely reflect similar views, and thus the consumer may develop those views too.

It is important as a consumer to practice media literacy and do your own research. The first step you can take towards media literacy is researching who is giving you information because once you know who is providing that information, your ideas may change.