The article was written based on older memes about those corporations. I agree with the sentiment of it, but it's unfortunately stale info. The article is a year old, the merger was a year before that, and the graphics are sourced enough to probably track down.
From the article itself:
"Of note, this infographic is dated and does not reflect the current media owners of some of the news outlets."
This is a writer who found something controversial and refreshed the topic, but added a disclaimer that it's based on older pieces of information.
All that said, I'd be wondering if it's a placement piece for YouTube's NowThisWorld user/channel. Or if it's young editors at the website just stirring things up for traffic and/or relevant content for their audience.
Sure, but it wasn't a shareable meme that could go viral. I'm referring to the comment about it passing the sniff test, my belief is it doesn't pass the sniff test because the concept of it being "6 corporations" is a decade old. And, as you suggest, perhaps much older.. I'm referring to when it was popularized as only 6.
Personally, I think it's naive to blame some exact set of companies... but in reality I never would've thought about it until someone pointed out how severe the consolidating was, and in plain sight.
The 6 corporations "owning the media" concept came out just shortly before, and during, the rise of social media (e.g. I recall it circulating as far back as 2010-'12). In fact, reddit and social media are how a large number of people became aware of it.
Without picking a side or making an argument, it's basically a repeatable factoid that gets people wondering how much collaboration, and potential illicit collusion, is really being applied to the stream of messages they are exposed to on a daily basis.
From the article itself: "Of note, this infographic is dated and does not reflect the current media owners of some of the news outlets."
This is a writer who found something controversial and refreshed the topic, but added a disclaimer that it's based on older pieces of information.
All that said, I'd be wondering if it's a placement piece for YouTube's NowThisWorld user/channel. Or if it's young editors at the website just stirring things up for traffic and/or relevant content for their audience.