Many people have heard of media giants like ESPN, ABC, and A&E but most may not realize that they are all owned by Walt Disney Company. Mass communication can be helped and harmed by oligopolies such as this. One way that the media can be helped is the interaction and benefit sharing between the different branches of the Company. Disney can use the various stations to meet the demands of the TV viewers. One example of how they do this is by airing various sporting events on ABC while using the production efficiencies and expertise of sports giant ESPN. This not only helps the station by saving them money through using resources wisely but it also helps the experience of the viewer as they get an experience with sports expertise when they may not expect it. Another pro to the oligopoly structure could be Disney's ability to reach niche groups of people that it may not have the resources to if they were a small media firm.
However, not all aspects of Disney being an oligopoly are good. One disadvantage is that if Disney wanted to share a bias or push an agenda they could make it seem very popular by sharing it throughout their outlets that people may not know are connected. There is also something to be said for mass media outlets being independent of each other. In this case, the outlets owned by Disney are obviously not independent. People would put more trust into the outlets if they were not all interrelated. The outlets may be able to operate in a way more beneficial to the public if they could pursue that as their goal rather than achieving the objectives of the parent company.
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