Media, Culture & Society

After class last Thursday, I found it hard to believe that an online startup such as MySpace would be owned by a large media conglomerate, such as News Corporation (think Rupert Murdoch and Fox News).  But, the media behemoth has seen the profit potential in the online social network that is MySpace.  Therefore, in July of 2005, News Corporation bought the online social networking website for $580 million dollars.  News Corp. is already looking to amp up the volume.  By partnering with the dominant online advertiser (Google), not only has Murdoch increased the amount of advertising that will be seen on MySpace, but also increased the stock shares of both companies.  Although nothing really has changed yet with MySpace, in my opinion it is an ominous sign for Net Neutrality when the large media conglomerates begin buying up the most visited sites on the net (ones that started out as independent-small ventures).  Check the article out here.

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