This week on CounterSpin: Four academic studies about the effects of media concentration on media content have been published by the Benton Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. Appropriately, the studies come as the FCC is holding hearings about consolidation and whether broadcast corporations should be able to have even more broadcast licenses. We'll talk with Benton Foundation president and former FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani.

Also on the show: Research earlier this year revealed that TV stations around the country are passing off video news releases produced by PR firms as their own news. The FCC launched an inquiry, but now the industry is pushing back. We'll update that story with one of the authors of the original research, Diane Farsetta of the Center for Media and Democracy.

Links:

—Does Bigger Media Equal Better Media? (Benton Foundation, 10/2/06

—Center for Media and Democracy