Trend in Media and Media Personalities (Essay Sample)

…..universityMEDIA CAREERS OF ALFRED HARMSWORTH (1ST VISCOUNT NORTHCLIFFE) AND RUPERT MURDOCHMedia Influence on PoliticsAuthor name2/19/2015.
Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc412204324 \h 2Trend in media and media personalities PAGEREF _Toc412204325 \h 2Alfred Harmsworth (First Viscount Northcliffe) PAGEREF _Toc412204326 \h 3Rupert Murdoch PAGEREF _Toc412204327 \h 5Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc412204328 \h 8References PAGEREF _Toc412204329 \h 8
Introduction
Rupert Murdoch and Alfred Harmsworth (1st Viscount Northcliffe) are no doubt some of the most powerful media heads to have ever lived. They both have had a substantial say in the U.K. politics by directly and indirectly petting various administrations. Their career success has substantially attributed to the amount of power they hold and fame. Stephen Baidsey, (2011), in his article Power and News Media, points out how the owning the media interprets to social power .
Their careers in the media will be noted, compared and contrasted. The influence they imparted on various regimes in the UK and elsewhere will be analysed. The revolutions these figures brought about using their careers and companies will be depicted. In doing so, the authority over politics exerted by the will be uncovered whilst drawing causal elucidations.
Trend in media and media personalities
In the earliest days of media and journalism, features of a pronounced news society and revolt against oppression of public awareness can be identified. Over the years, journalism can be said to be struggling with numerous hurdles along its path (Hatchen, 1998). The entire field can be viewed as an intersection of many conflicting interests (Conboy, 2004). These are power, authenticity in reporting, and neutrality (Niblock, 2010). Some of these have had higher priority than others over decades. In fact some, like neutrality have been completely ignored by media for most part of the century (Conboy, 2004; McQuail, 2013) in his work, Journalism and Society, points out that the field entails; having reference to recent or current events, factual and informative form of reporting, public and open in terms of content and audience regular print appearance and secularity and miscellaneous in subject matter.
Modern media has developed a trend that scandal has to appear on the headline of every media post. Anna Wainwright (2010) in her week review for France Today wrote, "It is believed that Madame Sarkozy is currently living with Mr. Biolay … rather than at the Elysee with Sarkozy." The overemphasis on war, political turmoil depravity and extreme of occurrences are the other areas of reporting that the media has obsessed over.
Alfred Harmsworth (First Viscount Northcliffe)
Alfred Harmsworth developed a passion for journalism at age seven when he was given a printing set for his birthday present (Adcock, 2011). His first major accomplishment was attained when the he bought the Evening News which by then was not doing so well. His magic was in magazines and once bought them, he would consolidate them up until grew into the empire we now know. Perhaps the most important asset he has is that he understands his audience well and knows how to manipulate this information for his benefit (Temple, 1998). After the introduction of the newspapers, politicians respected newspaper owners and Harmsworth used this to gain favours. He influenced the war via his companies as early as the 19th Century by creating charity funds for soldiers in the Boer war ( Books & Boots, 2012).
After 1899, the crisis in South Africa had quickly escalated almost into war; - all available soldiers were recalled to service plunging most families into dire poverty. A feeling of patriotism awoke in many nationals and charities for those families left behind were existed in most corners of the nation. Most notably was the unique thought that occurred to Daily Mail news boss Harmsworth to contract Rudyard Kipling to compose a poem for the paper’s charity account. That is how the poem, Absent-Minded Beggar was created (Books & Boots, 2012).
Later on, Harmsworth turned down an offer to be knighted after his extemporal assistance in the success in the battle of Boers in South Africa. In the next year, 1905, he accepted an offer to join the peers and was made Baronet becoming the youngest peer at the age of 40 (Duffy, 2009). Argument is that his career and power over occurrences of national interests such as this propelled the offer.
During the rule of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, Harmsworth aggressively attacked Lord Kitchener on all manner of issues. However the news headline that shook the entire nation was "Shell crisis in 1915" (Duffy, 2009). Targeting the entire administration at the time, Harmsworth expounded on this story from all possible vintages to describe how soldiers had lost their lives because they had been issued the wrong type of shells in the war. By doing this, he directly opposed H.H. Asquith’s rule that had previously been weakened by countless demonstrations campaigning for women’s right of representation. A coalition government was formed in response to the national unrest to save the current government but inevitably Herbert Henry Asquith resigned and was succeeded David Lloyd George, 1916 (Simkim, 2009). The prime minister reacted albeit too late to this (Duffy, 2009).
He accused Harmsworth of being disloyal to his country. The Prime Minister however retaliated on the issue and appointed David Lloyd George as the minister of munitions to oversee the production and distribution of munitions during the World War I (Simkim, 2009).
Not surprisingly, Lloyd George would later appoint Harmsworth to be a viscount in his government later during his rule (Winstone, 2014). Harmsworth only accepted the offer after much convincing in 1918. Lloyd George figured that he would rather have the media in his government rather than against it (Duffy, 2009). This perhaps demonstrates the revere with which the political wing of the UK held Harmsworth.
Alfred Harmsworth had previously claimed that Germany was afraid that David Lloyd George would become Prime Minister (Duffy, 2009). This was to discredit H.H. Asquith on the war efforts. In order for Lloyd to get Harmsworth support, he had to accept a list of names to include in his government. Lloyd George declined but still won the elections without Harmsworth support (Simkim, 1997; Duffy, 2009). Despite all these, Lloyd could not afford to have such a powerful media personality against him.
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch came from a family that had been in the media industry for a long time. His father was Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch, a then powerful Australian newspaper proprietor. Upon graduating at Oxford University he became the managing director at News Limited in 1953 after the death of his father in the previous year, 1952, focusing majorly on acquiring more news station and expansion (MEDIAMAN, n.d).
He was successful in creating the first weekly television magazine, TV Week at Southdown Press, Melbourne (MEDIAMAN, n.d.). He acquired finances for expansion from government owned, commonwealth Bank of Australia (MEDIAMAN, n.d). Murdoch was in a business of power acquisition as evident from his alliances throughout his career. The career man would later establish News Corp, a mass media company owning; Foxtel (TV), Authonomy (online), BallBall (Japan), Vogue Australia, Australian Golf Digest, Donna hay (Australia), The Sun(UK), The Times(UK), Sunday Times(UK), Press Association(UK), New York Post(US), Wall Street Journal(US), Dow Jones and Company et cetera. Murdoch literarlly owns over a hundred News and Lifestyle companies around the world (Woopidoo, n.d).
He allied with John McEwen the leader Australian County Party and also a governor in the coalition with Menzies-Holt Liberal party. Murdoch used the Australian (his invention - the very first nationwide newspaper in Australia) to campaign for McEwen and this was the flint with which the coalition was burnt down with. A sample headline on the Australian: July 15, 1964, first edition front page: "Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares." (MEDIAMAN, n.d) The debt was reimbursed by McEwen by assisting Murdoch to purchase his rural property and cleverly allowing Murdoch to transact a large sum of money without permit from the Australian treasury (MEDIAMAN, n.d). Investigation mostly ended up terminating under unknown circumstances.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused Rupert Murdoch of planning anti-Labour campaigns because he was threatened by the trending NBN, a rival to his Foxtel. On the days of election, Murdoch’s papers in Australia published hate slogans towards Rudd’s administration (Wright, 2013). In later years Murdoch would extend his influence and government manipulations to the UK.
In 1978, Murdoch supported Thatcher during her elections and during the day of the elections he published a campaign advert on her behalf saying that voting her would be good especially for the working class (Jukes, 2013). This was a big divergence from the traditional worker reports on the Tabloid (Jukes, 2013) which were against Thatcher’s manifesto.
Later on Murdoch supported Labour Party with his newspapers and acquired a good friend in the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He unleashed a big campaign through the Sun for the party in 1997 against John Major who was the contestant to Blair (Wright, 2013). As it would later come to be revealed, Murdoch was a major shareholder in the Labour Party to the dislike of some of the party members (Byers, 2015).
Stretching his media influence to Americas, Murdoch hosted a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton despite his Fox News and some others media been attacking at Hillary’s politics for years. This could be ...