What is the theory?

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher who came up with the idea of hegemony. Hegemony is a theory which suggests that ideas are enforced by an ongoing hegemonic struggle between the elite class and the working class, with the elite class generally having the upper hand resulting in them creating new cultural norms.

Evidence from CSP?

The idea of hegemony is vividly projected from big newspaper company Daily Mail as we can find evidence for this theory by exploring its ownership. The Daily Mail is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust which is owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Rothermere who is a prominent supporter of the conservative party in the UK and David Cameron. The Daily Mail and General Trust has been passed down the family in terms of ownership starting in 1896 with Alfred Harmsworth (Jonathans grandfather) .The Daily Mail also happens to be supporting the conservative party in all recent elections which shows us solid proof of the elite class (Jonathan Harmsworth) enforcing ideas on the working class through powerful forms of communication and information sources such as newspapers.

What does this tell us?

This ownership of big newspaper companies show us sufficient evidence for Gramsci’s theory of hegemony as we can clearly see the elite ruling class enforcing their ideologies and political stances on the working class, in this case Jonathan Harmsworth enforcing his political stance on the UK society. A good example of this taking place in UK politics was Brexit gaining the majority of votes which was more seen as a conservative choice within the UK.