It is an everyday part of life for many college students.

Sign onto America Online’s Instant Messenger and up pops the scrolling news ticker. A story catches our eye, and it’s so convenient to just click and read.

Likewise, as news goes 24 hours a day on the two CNN stations, it’s easy to turn it on anytime and not wait for an evening broadcast. If that’s not convenient, then just log onto the Web site — oh, and a link to Time magazine. How effortless.

But with the freshly approved AOL Time Warner merger, consumers should critically examine the routine ways in which they access their news.

Mergers are undoubtedly a part of capitalism, but colossal mergers like AOL Time Warner’s will leave consumers with less variety of media sources.

Particularly alarming about the AOL Time Warner merger is that it encompasses companies that already had unbalanced amounts of market power.

CNN alone not only has its two American cable networks but also includes its radio and air port networks as well as its international network.

With companies such as AOL, CNN, HBO, Time, and Warner Bros. Films, AOL Time Warner’s umbrella now covers all aspects of communications from Internet and television to movies and magazines.

We may think we are getting a variety of viewpoints by reading one newspaper, watching another television station and picking up yet another magazine.

With mass media mergers, these "different" sources become fused. They might have separate editorial departments, but they answer ultimately to the same boss — and are paid by the same boss. Media companies always claim mergers will have no effect on objectivity, but the financial influence on the news is inevitable.

What these huge parent companies are trying to sell us is the convenience of it all. But it will end up more costly in the long run to the consumer with such concentrated market power in the hands of the corporate elite.

While the individual may feel personally powerless when his or her consumer choices are narrowed, they still have a choice by making the effort to seek information from alternative media sources.

It’s easy to jump from link to link or change channels without thinking twice about what company is really behind the news. We must be active viewers and readers and not be fooled by the different logos on the outside when the inner-workings are all the same.

Deals between media moguls bring us convenience as well as a challenge: to be more critical consumers than we ever have before.