Rupert Murdoch : The King Of Convergence And The Master Of Manipulation Essay

Martin Gilens and Craig Hertzman at Yale University, have conducted a study on the Corporate ownership and news bias through the newspaper coverage of the 1996 Telecommunication Act addressing the claim: “Financial interests of corporate owners lead America’s news bureaus to downplay the significant issues surrounding the growing concentration of ownership of the country’s mass media” (Martin and Hertzman, 2000.)

Today’s media is far too consolidated. In 1983, fifty companies owned 90% of the media, but in 2011, that same 90% was owned by just 5 (1). This is why I propose that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lower the limit on the amount of market share that an organization can own; moving us closer to an ‘ideal democracy’. I also add the stipulation that if media was struggling to find a foot hold in the market, the FCC could grant all media outlets non-profit status; however, this stipulation is simply a clause in case breaking up outlets had unintended consequences and this will not be explored through this paper.

Corruption in media and journalism is growing throughout the US in today’s society. The documentary “ Orwell Rolls in his Grave: Devastating Expose on American Journalism and Media Concentration: Leading Thinkers” makes points to show where there is corruption and how media is being brought up to. The documentary covers the topics of the conspiracy of the 2000 US Presidential election of Bush vs. Gore and concentration of media ownership. However, this film is a biased point of view because it is a liberal view of these topics.

Gina Rinehart’s accumulation of Fairfax shares is used as a case study in the context of a political economy analysis because of the existence in the case study of political systems protecting economic and power structures in society. The traditional justification for journalism has been that it can act as a watchdog on powerful government and corporations. The issue with Gina Rinehart’s share in Fairfax, is that one of the most powerful sectors in Australian society, the mining industry, were seeking to dominate one of the important accountability mechanisms in a democracy though economic means. Gina Rinehart, who is Australia 's richest person, began accumulating shares in Fairfax in late 2010. In February 2012 she became Fairfax Media’s largest shareholder, purchasing a 14 per cent stake in the company. She later increased her stake and was believed to be planning a takeover before being forced to sell down to 14.99 per cent (Sarah Thompson 2015). When Rinehart bought the shares in 2012 it was widely expressed, even by Fairfax Media, that she was interested in gaining ‘influence’ rather than making a commercial decision (Barnes 2013). As well as her stake in Fairfax Media, Rinehart also owns 10% of commercial television network Ten, where she holds a board position. In 2010, when she bought a large stake in Channel Ten, conservative columnist Andrew Bolt also wrote that, ‘Rinehart is on a mission. Channel 10 is just the vehicle’ (Barnes 2013).

Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and

Fox News is a perfect example of the relevance of Marxist theories in modern, Western society. Characters like Rupert Murdoch epitomise Karl Marx’s example of the bourgeoisie, with their power hungry and money fuelled quests for superior economic capital, the news broadcasting industry as a whole, is one that is extremely corrupt. Although the BBC’s aims to logically avoid these discrepancies through its ‘funded by the proletariat’ setup, due to examples and individual cases like its subtle leaning towards the ‘No’ campaign at the time of the Scottish referendum, has monumental effects on modern culture, and this stance may have been one of the key, outlying reasons that Scotland is still a member of the United Kingdom. As a medium, news-broadcasting channels are unable to avoid these issues, and are prone to manipulation and biases throughout various

Until the 1980s, the control of the media was in the hands of the national government. From then, the control shifted to private outlets and by the 1990’s, there were more than fifty multinational companies who controlled it (“Mass Media”). Today, only about six major companies control the larger fraction of media in America (Williams, Par. 1). Norman Solomon wrote in the New Political Science Journal that most reporters and editors work for just a few huge companies. These journalists and editors are on the payroll for “mega-media institutions”, of which, only about six exist (Solomon 297). How much will the public learn if these companies generally control the output of information?

As an isolated and largely remote nation, Australia since settlement has been dependent upon all forms of media communication, even more so today. As will be observed in this review, the question of whether Australia needs greater media diversity, by exploring and discussing the existing media landscape within Australia’s current Broadcasting Services Act 1993 (BSA) referred to by critics as protecting Australia’s media moguls, such as Rupert Murdoch. As well as investigating the governments proposed media ownership laws, analysing the consequences and effects on Australia’s media landscape.

The capitalists also control communication, technology, and media to their advantage to manipulate the vast public, justifying corporatization and its consequences in the process. Amazon’s Bezos not only uses technological data-driven management that provides continuous data on an individual worker’s performance, but he also owns The Washington Post (Kantor, pp.4, 16). Hence, aggressive competition is nurtured through corporatization, and its ugly side-effects such as, dehumanization, are almost completely kept under the radar through media-control. Communication and interaction between the capitalists are then extremely important for an effective dominance over economic and political power, for multiple strategies only bear confusion and incoherency.

The author of this article, Piers Akerman, has political views analogous to his employer - media proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.

Finally, the social ramifications of corporate media control contradict the culture of democratic institutions in American culture and society. This has become a major issue in the clash between government regulators and the corporate institutions that are continuing to consolidate into larger, and more powerful companies in the 21st century. In this manner, the regulation of corporate media organizations tends to deny the existence of “democracy” in the U.S., which continually makes claims about the freedom of expression and diversity of its populations. This is also true of the reduction of government regulation, which continues to allow the consolidation of corporate media into a small group of transnational corporate owners. One of the

In the documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism”, Fox News began as a seemingly innocent, right-winged, news channel, with the slogan “We Report. You Decide.” However, as time moved on from the first airing of the news channel, it was as if Fox had followed a more biased and corrupted route than what had been proposed. It primarily discusses how Fox News, and perhaps other popular media news outlets, have begun to actively misinform their viewers for personal or business gain. Originally, Rupert Murdoch, a news corporation CEO, was deemed as the overall instructor of what was to be represented on the Fox outlet. However, at the time of his ownership, the news outlet was said to have had “zero news value.” Therefore, as Roger Ailes, a former media strategist for several Republican presidential campaigns, joined, and inevitably took over the channel, Fox News began to “evolve” into something called “fair and balanced” news reporting. Unfortunately, “fair and balanced” was far from the truth. In fact, after several examinations performed by both journalists and former Fox News contributors, it was discovered Fox News had been continuously using sinister tricks, such as

Building a sense of direction in life and a personal identity is difficult when society and media creates unrealistic models on how to live life, how to learn, and how to think. Media manipulation a constantly around us and needs to be treated as a problem. Media Literacy means attaining an understanding of mass media and how they construct meaning- requires a critical process that takes one through the steps of description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement (Campbell, Martin, Fabos, 2014). Media is often thought of in broad terms, but it’s known that six corporations owns 90% of media. The six media companies are The Walt Disney Corporation, Comcast, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS Corporation, and News-Corp (Lutz,2012). The Telecommunication Act of 1996 substantially changed the rules concerning ownership of the public airwaves because the FCC eliminated most ownership restrictions on radio (Campbell, Martin, Fabos, 2014). The Act in which overhauled the nation’s communications regulations, most regional and long-distance phone companies and cable operators, competed against one another to provide connections to the Internet. It is amazing and frightening at the same time to know that these six corporations will continue to dominant 90% of everything an American citizen hears, sees, and considers meaningful. When corporations’ turn into an oligopoly, corporations lose the original purpose for news, which is to inform the public with facts and the act of informing and telling the truth is determined by money. These corporations are more focused on what media gets them more viewers and money Media corporations distract the public by reporting news cycles that constantly switch every day and bombard the public with excessive coverage of absurdity news. These corporations cut out contrasting educated opinions, newsrooms, and

Its good to explore the concept of how Capitalism works and why it pertains to corporations like News Corp. Capitalism is an economical and sociological philosophy that exercises the idea of hard work and free will when it comes to how you want to live you life. If a person wants to start a business it is open to do and if another person wants to work in a gas station the freedom to do so is there. Rupert Murdoch decided to work with the newspaper business that his father left him and used his economic skills to expand and make more money. Because of how capitalism works Murdoch had enough freedom to turn his company into a huge media monopoly and now has great economical prestige. It exists to make money and to make media a more accessible to the

News Corporation accounted for six popular national newspapers in the UK. This level of ownership impacts the variety of ideas and values that can circulate. Concentration of media ownership threatens democracy in political journalism(Baker, 2007), leading to over-representation of political viewpoints, values that are favoured by media owners. There is a negative correlation between media domination and levels of pluralism which is needed in society, to sustain representation. The concentration of media ownership leads to less competing suppliers, thus leaving a gap in a democratic political system. Due to Rupert Murdoch’s large media empire, it has been said that he has wielded political power through his influence over headlines. It could be interpreted this way when considering the support given by News Corporation owned newspapers, to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and Tony Blair in 1997. The impact of Rupert Murdoch can also be shown