Who is Rupert Murdoch?
In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before
expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the
World followed closely by The Sun.
He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market, but retained interests in Australia and
Britain. In 1981, he bought The Times,
his first British broadsheet, and became a naturalized US citizen in
1985.
In 1986, keen to adopt newer
electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations
in Wapping, causing bitter
industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox
(1985), HarperCollins
(1989) and The Wall
Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during
the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000
Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries
with a net worth of over $5 billion.
In
July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the
phones of celebrities, royalty and public citizens. He faces police
and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British
government and FBI investigations in the US. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of
News International.
What influence
has he got in UK?
In the worlds of
politics as well as media, Mr. Murdoch has been one of the most influential
figures of our time, and nowhere more so than in Britain, where he made his
mark in newspapers. When David Cameron became prime minister in May 2010, one of his first visitors at 10 Downing
Street was Mr. Murdoch, who entered clandestinely through a back door.
Murdoch made his career—and billions—developing media
properties into powerhouses. He's aiming to do it again with MySpace, the
social network he bought in 2005 for a mere $580 million. Under the ownership
of News Corp. (NWS),
MySpace has morphed from a site where users post messages to friends and listen
to unsigned bands into a full-fledged Web portal for entertainment content that
pulls in an estimated $800 million per year in revenue. The site, which has
more than 117 million users worldwide, has signed deals to distribute
television shows and original programming and, this September, launched MySpace
Music—a joint venture with the four major record labels and Indie players. Now
Murdoch's challenge is to turn all the traffic and premium content into ad buys
capable of competing with the likes of Yahoo.
Murdoch
also controls the nation's largest broadcaster, nicknamed BSkyB, but actually
owns only 39 percent of it.
Rupert
Murdoch whose influence over Britain's relationship with Europe – the single
most important relationship facing postwar Britain even today – remains baleful
and lasting. If the Murdochs walked away from Britain today, their influence on
the European question in British politics would remain for a generation.
"He has more
power than any other private citizen in the United States," said media
commentator Michael Wolff, founder of Newser.com and author of "The Man
Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch."
Forbes ranked the chairman and CEO of News
Corporation as the 117th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $6.2
billion.
BusinessWeek ranked Murdoch as one of the 25 most influential
people on the internet.
"There
are two reasons for Rupert Murdoch's clout in the U.K. One has been a
perception that his newspapers have influenced the outcomes of elections.
That's doubtful. What Rupert Murdoch does is before elections: He backs winners
or political parties he thinks are going to win," Labour MP Paul Farrelly
says.
Some
people called Murdoch's News of the World "News of the
Screws." His Sunday tabloid has been known for its brutal, gossipy
takedowns of out-of-favor politicians.
Having owned media institutions since the 1950s how is Mr
Murdoch tapping in to a fragmented media audience?
He attempts by using his power and money he has gotten
over the years. As mentioned above, he uses his newspapers, television stations
that are well known, to influence the outcomes of elections.
Also, He has used his influence to
buy police officers as well.
Derived from London Evening Standard News: “A network of corrupt police
officers and public officials regularly took cash bribes from Rupert Murdoch's
News International, an inquiry heard today.Scotland Yard's chief investigator of phone hacking
revealed that a ring of public servants received payments of up to £80,000 in
return for information.
Journalists at The Sun allegedly handed out cash to police
officers, prison officers and officials in health and government offices.Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said that payments
were not for an "odd drink or a meal" but were "regular,
frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public
officials by journalists".”
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