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Disney's Magic Kingdom. Billed as the Happiest Place on Earth. But how safe are you -- and more importantly, your children -- at Disney's empire in Florida? All theme parks are magnets for pedophiles. But our four -- month investigation found that Disney's hiring practices actually allowed the employment of convicted pedophiles at its parks and resorts. And law-enforcement sources we talked to say Disney is less willing to cooperate with authorities battling the problem than are other parks. Is Disney placing its youngest and most exploitable customers -- your children -- at unnecessary risk? Stay tuned for our ace investigative reporter's troubling report.... Though this isn't a real promo, this was a real story. But it never ran. It didn't because this was an ABC News story, and since 1996, ABC has been a relatively small, financially struggling division of the mammoth Walt Disney Company. David Westin, president of ABC News, killed the story after a bitter clash with the journalists who had nearly completed work on it -- igniting suspicions that the story would have been told, but for Disney's ownership of the network. Especially troublesome is how ABC went about evaluating and killing the story. The whole mess validates the viewing public's worst fears about conglomerate ownership of major news outlets. In this case, an otherwise powerful, prestigious news operation has shown itself incapable of covering -- or unwilling to cover -- a major cultural and economic force in American life.

Great site on media conglomerations and ownership of the media

Free Press works to ensure people have a seat at the table for important policy debates and decisions in Washington, D.C., and beyond.  Want proof that our media needs changing? Look no further than Free Press' thorough analysis of the state of Internet freedom, journalism, public media, election coverage and media ownership."

Chart of the big 6 media conglomerates

"One solution to the problem of cross-media ownership dominating an entire media landscape in Britain and across the world is incorporating a one media owner per one media outlet policy. I have continued to support this idea for media reform but it was fascinating to hear other solutions discussed at an all-day event called the Media Democracy Festival in London last month. "The problem is independent voices are rarely heard. It is essential that we protect journalists working with big corporations - who are put under editorial pressures - if we are to reach media freedom". Natalie Fenton, founder of Media Reform Coalition (MRC) and -professor of media and communications made this point in her speech at the event hosted by the MRC and Goldsmiths University. Her speech was one amongst many made by campaigners, academics and journalists, all there to answer the event's central question: How can we create a more democratic media?"

"The Federal Communications Commission is pushing a plan to gut its 30-year-old newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban. This proposal would allow one company to own a local paper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in a single market. Advocates of more media consolidation argue that allowing TV stations and newspapers to merge is critical to cutting costs and saving local journalism."

"Smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis. The survey also finds there is no clear consensus among teens about the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as mostly positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative. These are some of the main findings from the Center's survey of U.S. teens conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17."

"Naturally, they know what you've browsed or bought on their main service. They also know what you've asked Alexa, watched on Prime, and read on your Kindle. They know even more thanks to their ownership of Whole Foods, Ring, Eero, Twitch, Goodreads, IMDB and Audible."

"A precipitous drop in the happiness, self-esteem and life satisfaction of American teens came as their ownership of smartphones rocketed from zero to 73% and they devoted an increasing share of their time online. Coincidence? New research suggests it is not. In a study published Monday in the journal Emotion, psychologists from San Diego State University and the University of Georgia used data on mood and media culled from roughly 1.1 million U.S. teens to figure out why a decades-long rise in happiness and satisfaction among U.S. teens suddenly shifted course in 2012 and declined sharply over the next four years."

"In order to visually elucidate that point, Oxfam International created a comprehensive infographic that reveals the extensive reach of the "Big 10" food and beverage companies. Unlikely ties between brands we largely don't associate with one another show how easy it is to be misinformed about the American food system. F"

Comcast/NBC Media Holdings

"Let's take this in order: Who controls the media? If we're talking traditional, corporate media it typically looks like this:"

"Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet"

"With 20 years' experience as an investigative reporter, Brian Ross of ABC News knows a good story when he hears one. He is also not stupid. He knew the story he heard last spring might raise difficulties because it involved ABC's parent, the Walt Disney Company, but he thought he had enough solid information to pursue it. The story involved accounts of pedophilia and lax security at theme-park resorts, including Walt Disney World, and once Mr. Ross and his longtime producer-partner, Rhonda Schwartz, had finished their reporting, they thought they had a solid investigative piece for ''20/20,'' ABC's news magazine program. But the report was killed last week, or at least shelved. ABC News executives refuse to discuss the reasons in detail and have urged those involved not to discuss the matter publicly. Disney issued a statement saying that its executives had nothing to do with the decision. The saga of the Ross-Schwartz report -- and how ABC dealt with it -- illustrate the thorny problems reporters have in examining their own companies, especially in this age of conglomerates, when many parent companies of media outlets are also involved in many other businesses. Can reporters investigate them the way they would any other subject? If not, where must a line be drawn?"

"Global mobile traffic now accounts for 15 percent of all internet visits, and 91 percent of mobile internet access is used for social activities. By investing heavily in this space Twitter can essentially guarantee a richer future… and a significant audience uptick. This infographic from Super Monitoring takes a closer look at the state of mobile 2013."

Graphics that show the huge corporations that own all the major brands and media outlets in the world

"How a children's toy can be an identity marker for adults"

"A handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day, says design thinker Tristan Harris. From Facebook notifications to Snapstreaks to YouTube autoplays, they're all competing for one thing: your attention. Harris shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit and calls for a design renaissance in which our tech instead encourages us to live out the timeline we want."