Brief biographical details

Rupert Keith Murdoch is a famous media mogul, born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931 but now a citizen of the United States (Biography, 2017). Murdoch was born into the media business, with his father, Keith Murdoch, a reporter, editor, senior executive and owner of the Herald and the Weekly Times (Biography, 2017). Following his father’s death in 1952, Murdoch inherited these papers, beginning what would be a long and successful career in the business. Murdoch soon began expanding the empire, buying a range of newspapers and magazines both nationally and internationally. These include famous tabloids the Sun, The News of the World, and the Mirror, with Murdoch also creating his own newspaper, the Australian (Biography, 2017). Perhaps one of Murdoch’s arguably most noteworthy career highlights is that of the founding of News Corporation, or News Corp, a mass media holding company (Biography, 2017). News Corp is the fourth largest media group in the world. Murdoch also expanded into television, creating FOX Inc, a large American television network (Biography, 2017). Currently, Murdoch is 86 years old, and was named the 13th richest man in the world by Forbes magazine (Biography, 2017). Despite his many successes, however, there have been controversy regarding Murdoch, and this will be touched on throughout. To view a brief documentary on Rupert Murdoch, click here.

The interest of Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch interests me because his professional values align with mine. For example, his business, News Corp, thrives off the motto “Passionate. Principled. Purposeful.” (The Financial Times, 2017) Spending over 50 years in the business, it is clear that Murdoch is extremely passionate in the job he does. This is evident as Murdoch is still running the business at the ripe old age of 86 with seemingly no plans to retire soon. These actions by Murdoch appeal to me, because, as stated in my first assignment, one of my core values is that I am very passionate, particularly when it comes to business. I therefore find it very inspiring looking at Murdoch, who has created an extremely successful business empire through his passion for his job.

Additionally, Murdoch described his beginnings as starting with “one small newspaper and a very overdeveloped ambition.” (The Financial Times, 2017). This ambition is one that has guided Murdoch throughout his entire career, with Murdoch beating many trials and tribulations, such as debt, media regulations, and scandals within his family and newspaper management. However, thanks to his unwavering determination, he overcame these challenges to ultimately achieve success.

Furthermore, I find Murdoch extremely inspiring, due to the long-standing impact he has had in the media business, both nationally and internationally. In an industry that is ever changing and evolving, it is extremely impressive that Murdoch has managed to maintain control in the industry for over 50 years, demonstrating Murdoch’s skills at adaptation and perseverance, and a skill that is particularly valuable for someone like me, who is interested in a career in the media business, to learn.

Finally, I find Murdoch’s philanthropy an extremely admirable quality, with Murdoch contributing to educational, cultural and medical charitable organisations worldwide (NewsCorp, 2017). Additionally, when asked by journalist Ken Auletta in 2007 what gives him pleasure in regards to business, Murdoch responded with “being involved with the editor of a paper in a day-to-day campaign…. Trying to influence people.” (The Conversation, 2017) This demonstrates that to this day, Murdoch still remains true to his original goal to provide information to people from all walks of life.

Unit concepts

There are multiple concepts which have played a large part on Murdoch’s career in the media industry.

Convergence

The first concept is convergence. Convergence occurs when “content that has traditionally been confined to one medium appears on multiple media channels.” (Turrow, 2009, 5). In other words, as stated by Sternberg (2017), it is the process of blurring the boundaries between different elements of media systems and the interaction between different elements of media systems.

In 1985, due to the increased rise and popularity of the television, Murdoch purchased American film company Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporations, creating within this television network FOX Inc (Biography, 2017). To expand within Fox Inc, Murdoch created the FOX News channel, and the Fox Television Stations group, which is made up of 28 television channels (Biography, 2017). This decision to expand from newspapers into television, in particular news broadcasting, demonstrates the effect industry convergence had on creating the Murdoch empire, in which Murdoch went from simply publishing newspapers, to branching into the television industry.

Furthermore, fuelled by the increasing use of the internet, and the implementation of technological devices such as the smartphone, Murdoch made the decision to put the majority of his newspapers and magazines, such as the Australian, the Wall Street Journal, and The Sunday Times, online, allowing the public to subscribe and instead read the texts online, either on their computer, phone, or iPad (WSJ, 2017). This implementation would not have occurred were it not for the rise of the computer, another example of the power and necessity of technological convergence.

However, while both initiatives have been successful, Murdoch’s implementation of a Twitter account was something that was not considered as such. Joining the 313 million other users, Murdoch decided to create a Twitter account in 2011, in which he voiced many opinions on current news events, particularly politics (Twitter, 2017). These tweets sparked a wide range of controversy, in particularly Murdoch’s tweet referring to Muslims as “jihadist cancer’s,” along with another tweet in which he was accused of “fat shaming” a woman (Newsmax, 2017). This demonstrates the issues that come with social media, in particular due to the publicised nature of it, with millions of people exposed to, and even influenced by, these tweets.

Globalization

Globalization is a concept, that as defined by industrial relations professors David Held and Anthony McGrew, “denotes the expanding scale, growing magnitude, speeding up and deepening [the] impact of transcontinental flows and patterns of social interaction.” (Flew, 2007,67)

In other words, it is a process of increased media transmission across global boundaries, in which contemporary trends are having significant impacts on all facets of media. (Sternberg, 2017)

Globalization has significantly influenced Murdoch’s career, with Herman and McChesney stating that News Corporation “provides the archetype for the twenty first century global media firm…” (Flew, 2007,67) Thanks to globalization, Murdoch could expand his media empire across the globe, owning media assets in multiple countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and America.

Furthermore, globalization has influenced Murdoch’s career due to the use of global news networks, with FOX news, the broadcasting station run by Murdoch, helping to spread knowledge and increase the transmission of information (Flew, 2007,88). FOX News airs in countries all around the world, including America, Australia, and Columbia, thereby exposing people from all around the world to different news stories and events. (fox news, 2017)

With News Corp playing a large part in the role of globalization, due to the increase transmission of information, there have been arguments from critics who state that there is an issue of dominance thanks to the availability of companies to control media channels from all over the world (Flew, 2007,72). Rupert Murdoch has largely been criticised for his ownership of a substantial portion of the media, with media theorists, including critical political economists Edward Herman and Robert McChesney, stating that global commercial media can “use their ability transmit information and images across borders as a form of propaganda for their own corporate interests, and the interests of global corporations more generally.” (Flew, 2007,88).

The Fourth Estate

The fourth estate, as stated by professor and author Mark Hampton, “signifies that, whatever the formal constitution, genuine political power resides in the informal role of the press, which in turn derives from the relationship between the press and its readers.” (Hampton, 2009, 3) In other words, the fourth estate is an unofficial branch of power that enables citizens to understand what is going on in society. (Sternberg, 2017)

Through breaking news stories within his many newspapers and broadcasting stations, Murdoch has contributed to the fourth estate. An example of this is at the very beginning of his career, in 1959, when Murdoch reported on the story of an Indigenous man who had been charged for murder without proper evidence, resulting in the freedom of the accused man (newsbusters, 2015). This act is an example of the “watchdog” institution in which media outlets have, with the paper fulfilling its role to hold powerful institutions to account- in this case, the courts and the legal system. Without the reporting of this story, it is unlikely that the story would have become public knowledge, and justice would not have been served to the wrongly accused man.

However, despite the success of the fourth estate, there has been increasing criticism of market-driven journalism within Murdoch’s media outlets, in particularly with his Queensland newspaper The Australian, which has been under fire for using stories with “clickbait” or misleading titles, such as “How to become rich” and “How to make friends.” (Crikey, 2017)

Another criticism is the increased trivialisation of news, in which news corporations are publishing stories that have no merit and are not valuable in contributing anything to society. An example of this is the publication of a photoshopped crab, or ‘crabzilla’ off the coast of England. (abc, 2017) This story raised many questions as to the necessary publication, due to the pointlessness of the story, with Bennett stating that “topics that were once relegated to gossip columns and the screaming headlines of the tabloids are now increasingly the stuff of mainstream news.” (Hampton, 2009, 33)

The Public Sphere

German sociologist Jurgen Harbermas describes the public sphere as a place in which “the press was for the first time established as a genuinely critical organ of a public engaged in debate.” (Calcutt; Hammond, 2011, 107) In other words, the public sphere is a metaphorical place where people can debate and exchange ideas and discuss issues to reach agreement about matters of importance free from prejudice and social distinction (Sternberg, 2017). Rupert has played a significant role in the fourth estate, thanks to his role in News Corp, with many of his newspapers creating stories and content that sparks debate about important issues. Examples of this include the Courier Mails’ publication of controversial stories, including one entitled “the debate on free speech laws,” in which the new Queensland laws regarding free speech was discussed (Courier Mail, 2017).

However, despite this there has been criticism of the commercialisation and vested interest within Murdoch’s publications, with many stating that Murdoch has vested interest in political events, due to Murdoch’s strong support for the right wing. For example, in 2013, Murdoch was accused of publishing bias headlines during the Australian election to get readers to vote for his friend, Liberal leader Tony Abbott (abc, 2013). Furthermore, all of Murdoch’s Australian newspapers supported the coalition during the last election (Quora, 2017). This sparks concern stated by critics, who argue that “corporate media have a built-in bias towards presenting news in such a way as to create an overall favourable environment for business, not least that of the media companies themselves.”

Additionally, Murdoch created an extremely large scandal in 2013, in which News Corp was accused of hacking the phones of living and deceased influential people. This sparked a large outcry over the privacy and ethics of journalism, and of the trivialisation of news.

Despite this major scandal, Murdoch has managed to successfully continue as a media powerhouse.

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