Transindustrialism and synergy: structural supports for decreasing diversity in commercial culture

In the United States, neo-conservatives began legalizing transindustrial media conglomerates under the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. Subsequent Administrations have ‘stayed the course’ by further deregulating broadcasting/cable services, retreating from any enforcement of anti-trust law, and defunding governmental services (Streeter 1996; Tillinghast 2000). By withdrawing governmental entities from the oligopolized markets for network television, television and cable programmes, cable channels, cable system ownership, and satellite services, neo-conservatives claim that they ‘let the market decide’ how those industries ought to be organized. With this appeal to Adam Smith’s market model, they gloss over the fact that, at the national level, these were oligopolistic markets whose very existence depended on federal laws and regulations.