Noam Chomsky theorizes that a social minority control both the access to and the content of mass media. This minority is referred to as elite authority, and is attributed the corporate America by Chomsky who possess the capital and technical ability to control massive broadcasts to the western world. In many of America's conglomerates, traditional family ownership has been maintained even through massive acquisitions, mergers and investment which have increased the need for large corporations to aggressively seek profitability through mediated advertisement and information control. Ben Bagdikian brought attention to the fact that twenty nine of the 1500 daily newspapers account for more than fifty percent of newspaper output in the United States. These dominant publishers also have a significant hand in major magazines, movies, books and broadcasting and constitute "a new Private Ministry of Information and culture" (manufacturing consent pg. 5) according to Bagdikian. Chomsky notes that many of these smaller regional daily newspaper publishers mimic the content and information flow of major news companies such as the NY Times and the Washington Press. Agenda setting media in this system makes create a top tiered system by which such news content is channeled and contrived primarily through three main media companies. ABC, CBS and NBC all have parent corporate owners. This tear system would contradict Meyrowtz's stance pertaining to dominant elite media tycoons identifying a hypothesis that mass media reduces the ability of social elites to develop authority.
             Meyrowitz's hypothesis that mass media reduced the reign of the social elite and that information access through various media is summarized on the concept that a leader "may be able to keep a close watch on thousands of follwers, but thousands of followers can keep an even closer watch on one leader". In essence electronic media ...