



In LRQ, socialization captures the most common meeting place between the people and the media, for news organizations not only exist within a market, but also are the generators of one - a market of ideas. However, experiments conducted over the last 15 years clearly demonstrate that media can shape and alter people's opinions. This is all the more dangerous when media ownership is heavily concentrated (URQ). Until the second half of the 20th century, many news organizations, especially newspapers, were small independent businesses. In 1983 fifty corporations dominated the media market and the biggest merger was worth $340 million. Today, after deregulation, we are down to six corporations and the biggest merger is worth 350 billion, thus enormously increasing the agenda setting power of giant business conglomerates. The ULQ indicates the role of government agencies to counteract business monopoly through regulatory provisions which guarantee pluralist access to media sources and contents. The LLQ stresses the growing role of polls as a substitute for democratic participation and the most widely used channel to give citizens a voice in between elections. [Israel Wasmal-Manor]