Gramsci’s theory of hegemony focusses on the idea that the view of the ruling class in society (upper class) has the power to influence and manipulate mass audiences. Their view becomes the cultural ‘norm’.

Evidence from CSPs

The Daily mail has accusations of being racist, sexist and homophobic. A former Daily mail reporter, Brendan Montague, stated that “None of the front-line reporters I worked with were racist, but there’s institutional racism.”

This links heavily to Gramsci’s theory because institutional racism is know as racism that has become a norm in a culture or institution. With regards to The Daily mail the hegemony isn’t shown as manipulating a mass audience yet influencing the employees of the mail. Some would believe that the more this behaviour is supported in the working environment, the more it may start creeping into journalism seen inside the paper.

The idea of hegemonic views becoming societal norms links to Gerber’s cultivation theory. The more society is exposed to certain views the more they will normalise them.

Conglomerates such as The Daily Mail and general trust who own several newspapers including the i and Daily mail which both have a large readership have the power to influence more people than someone who owns less of the media. As well as this, if we consider the i, which is aimed at travellers and those with limited time, we can expect a large diversity of readership since it is often found in large travel hubs such as Gatwick airport. The Daily mail also has a larger readership not only because it is a well know newspaper but because it is known as a ‘middle market’ newspaper which means it provides entertainment as well as sport and news therefore caters to a wider audience.

The Daily mail is known to be a right winged supporting newspaper yet the i (which is owned by the same company) is know as centralist and liberalist.

Another example of hegemony within the print media is Evgeny Lebedev. He is the owner of Lebedev holdings ltd who owns the Independent (the former sister paper of the i). They also own the evening standard which is known to be conservative. This is due to Lebedev’s close relations with conservative leader Boris Johnson. Lebedev was nominated for a life peerage by Boris Johnson. The implication here being that Lebedev uses his power of influencing society to win Johnson more supporters in return for political power.