1. Media Power
Kim Williams former CEO of News Corp spoke with Eleanor Hall about his short
time spent in the company. Throughout the interview Kim talks about the strong
hegemony that exists within the company making change difficult to implement.
He believes this to be a big contributor to News Corp failing to confront the
challenges that the digital era are having on print media. Gramsci describes
hegemony as manufactured consent being developed through alliances of
interest and the organisation of consent (Gramsci 1971). Marx and Innis
believed that having control of the means and modes of production of media
brings political, economic and social power. This is certainly the case for Rupert
Murdoch who has a strong influence over The Australian newspaper. Having
been such a big part of the newspaper for so long and socially accepted in this
role even Kim Williams was aware in his CEO position that Murdoch would
always have control. Williams also talked about the public being less trusting of
big print mastheads as they become increasingly aware of the bias that can come
from such powerful media companies. This is particularly a current issue of
interest as media conglomerates attempt to consolidate which would give them
less competition and hence increase their power and influence on media content
and where that media would be available.

2. References
Gramsci, A 1971, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, New
York, International Publishers