Given the importance of their agenda-setting role, it becomes crucial to understand who influences what appears in the media. These megacorporations own TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, cable networks, book publishers, and many other media ventures. And they are linked to giant corporations in many other industries. Critics of the media giants, such as Texas populist Jim Hightower, have been fired for questioning their bosses on the air. Advertising is another form of subtle control of the media, and it is again the largest corporations that have the resources to withhold or bestow advertising dollars upon news or entertainment productions.
Networks review programming to avoid giving offense to advertisers.
Also, programming is geared to those with the highest disposable income. News magazines and newspapers fill their pages with information and advertisements directed at the affluent. The stock market is profusely covered, but there is little notice of labor union activities. If the existence of corporate influence raises important questions, government influence on the media also exists. The obvious forms of influence include the power the Federal Communications Commission wields over the regulation of ownership and licensing rights and restrictions.