- Keith Rupert Murdoch born 11 March 1931
- founded (1979) the global media holding company. the News Corporation Ltd.
- First job- briefly worked as an editor on Lord Beaverbrook’s London Daily Express.
- His father having died, he returned to Australia in 1954 to take over his inheritance, the Sunday Mail and The News.
- Worth: $17.1 billion
- Murdoch turned failing newspaper, The Adelaide news, into a huge success. After he started the ‘Australian’ which was the first national paper in the country.
- Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, The Wall Street Journal, and HarperCollins.
- In 1968, Murdoch entered the British newspaper market with his acquisition of the populist News of the World, followed in 1969 with the purchase of the struggling daily The Sun from IPC.
- Murdoch became a US Citizen in 1985 in order to be able to expand his market to US television broadcasting.
- In 1985 he acquired the Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation (later called 20th Century Fox)
- then consolidated both these ventures into a new company Fox Inc, which has since become a major broadcast television network in the United States.
- In Britain in 1989 Murdoch inaugurated Sky Television,
- The following year Murdoch sought to expand his presence in American television with the launch of Fox News, a news and political commentary channel that became highly influential.
- In July 2011, Murdoch, along with his youngest son James, provided testimony before a British parliamentary committee regarding phone hacking. In the UK, his media empire came under fire, as investigators probed reports of 2011 phone hacking. This was later known as ‘Leveson’, which came to the public eye after a young girl who was murdered had her phone hacked by reporters/journalists in order to make a story. claiming that he had been unaware of the hacking.
- On 15 July, Murdoch attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he personally apologized for the hacking of their murdered daughter’s voicemail by a company he owns. he apologized for the “serious wrongdoing” and titled it “Putting right what’s gone wrong”.
- May 2012 a parliamentary panel tasked with investigating the scandal released a highly critical report, which stated that Rupert “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company” and that he showed “willful blindness” concerning misconduct within his corporation
- In 2015 Murdoch was succeeded as CEO at 21st Century Fox by James.
- . In 2017 he agreed to sell most of the holdings of 21st Century Fox to the Disney Company. Two years later the deal closed and was valued at about $71 billion. The hugely profitable Fox News and various other TV channels were excluded from the sale, and they became part of the newly formed Fox Corporation.
All posts by Georgina Foord
Filters
Bombshell
Summary- Women who work at Fox News, which is based in the US, make attempts to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.
Roger Ailes was an American television executive and media consultant who was the chairman and CEO of Fox News. He resigned from Fox News after being accused of sexual harassment by several female Fox employees. He abused his power which went unnoticed or unpunished for a while due to the fact that he had such a high position.
Bombshell end of movie: Defeated, Ailes is fired by Fox co-creator Rupert Murdoch. Ailes settles Carlson’s lawsuit for $20 million and an apology from Fox, but the agreement contains a non-disclosure agreement. Fox eventually paid the victims of sexual harassment $50 million, while paying Ailes and O’Reilly $65 million in severance.
Second and Third Wave Feminism
2ND WAVE OF FEMINISM:
- 1960/70’s
- Societal counteraction towards previous feminist ideas and positive change sparked a feminist cultural movement that began to shift societies views on abortion, homosexuality, birth control and divorce etc.
- Singular, one dimensional. Centred around middle class, white feminists.
Naomi Wolf
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, coined by Naomi Wolf, it was a response to the generation gap between the feminist movement of the 1960’s and ’70’s, challenging and re-contextualising some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period. In particular, the third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.
Meaning that feminism became an umbrella term for equality, not just in middle class white women, but for all women with all different expressions and even now its updated to equality for men too.
- an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
- individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
- fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
- cyberactivism
- the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
- sex positivity
According to Ariel Levy, in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs raunch culture is on the one hand, the idea of liberation involves new freedoms for sexual exhibition, experimentation and presentation. -women were learning to embrace their sexuality and addressing “taboo” subjects related to sex.
‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in the media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality’
Miley Cyrus was a representative of this.
Feminist Critical Thinking
Toril Moi’s (1987) distinctions of feminine, female and feminist:
- Feminist = a political position
- Female = a matter of biology
- Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
The issue of women’s inequality has a history that pre-dates the 1960’s.
“Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female.”(Michelene Wandor 1981:13)
1st wave of feminism:
- 1848 to 1920’s
- Suffragette and Suffragists movements.
- women campaigned for basic rights such as an education.
- Virginia Woolf touches upon the fact that women have less rights to such things as education, art and literature. she challenges this and asks what if men had the same restriction? Society would have missed out on people like Shakespeare. And was he really talented? or did he just have a good education?
Wider reading
Key Notes:
Judith Butler:
- “our gendered identities are not naturally given but constructed through repetition and ritual.” – showing that this is how we act because it is a rigid stereotype given by society.
- our bodies or sex do not define our gendered identities. – we do not have to conform to society’s demands of being masculine or feminine.
- contemporary culture reinforces a traditional gender binary- identities that fall outside of that binary are constructed as subversive.
- the media assists in the marginalisation of subversive identities through absent representations, abjection and parody.
- the performance of gender trouble is a difficult, sometimes painful, process given the entrenched nature of heteronormativity.
David Gauntlet:
- “Audiences realise they can change their identities”– David refers to Anthony Giddens’ theory who suggests “late- modernity” – where our identities are transitioning from the rigid stereotypes and starting to construct our own.
- Audiences are in control of the media – adapting and assimilating ideas about themselves through the various representation that the media presents.” – illustrating how audiences are collectively adapting cultural norms and adapting themselves to fit in to society.
- “Contemporary media practices mean that heteronormatitvity does not completely dominate”– showing how heterosexuality is not in complete control over society and that we are becoming a more inclusive community.
At Home notes
Judith Butler Notes:
- Butler states that gender is ‘performative’ and a ‘social construct.’
- Best known for her book “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. ”
- Butler says that historically we have viewed gender in a binary fashion- dividing gender into categories based on stereotypes or characteristics which cannot be changed. She believes this limits us.
- “gender should be seen as a human attribute that shifts and changes”
- views are complimentary to modern identities
- believing that gender is fluid and changeable- dependent on who we are with/situations/ different times
- links to David Gauntlet’s theories about identities being fluid, constructed and collective.- and how cultural norms are constantly changing.
- Butler believes gender promotes the patriarchy and suppression of feminism where we constantly compare men and women to each other.
- ‘nobody is a gender from the start’
- ‘no “repetitive” acts can determine who you are’
Score Notes:
The man is sat at a higher position to the women who are holding the seat at shoulder height. This could foreground the patriarchy and the negative connotation that he is more superior then the women. Which is a reactionary representation of the relationship between men and women as the patriarchy is a dominant ideology and can still be seen in present day society. In the 1960s it was typical for men to go out to work and to provide the money for his family and for the women to be stay -at -home-wives/mums who would do the cooking and cleaning because woman weren’t seen as capable of the things that men were. Men were superior and sexism was an accepted way of living. The women in the advert are seen in less clothing or clothing that has been altered to accentuate their body figure. This links with Feminist Laura Mulvey and her theory of the “Male Gaze” where women are as objects to be looked at and men are the “lookers”. They have been over-sexualised in order to help promote this product, however this has negative consequences on how women are perceived by both men and women. This also shows the link to voyeurism as this is encouraged in order to increase the sales. Furthermore this shows the growing number of men conforming to toxic masculinity and believing that by over-sexualising and objectifying women makes them masculine. It teaches women to also sexualise themselves as they believe that they will be considered attractive if they are submissive and their body is owned by the male perspective. The women are also seen as trying to ‘stroke’ the man and touch him in some sort of way. This makes him seem desired and irresistible to women which they have justified with the hair product “score”.
Maybelline:
This production is a radical representation of gender and masculinity and connotates to Judith Butler’s theory of gender being ‘performative‘ and not in a binary fashion. Gender is fluid and can change depending on many different things. The Maybelline’s advert shows this with including their first male influencer (Manny MUA) to promote this product which is counter-typical to the kind of model who would normally be used in a cosmetic advert as make-up is considered feminine and only for those who identify themselves as female. It creates a new representation of what it means to be a ‘man’ and that wearing make-up can still be masculine. As an influencer he is constructing his own identity in a positive way and helping others around him to embrace their feminine side as well as their masculine side and that having interests that would normally be considered feminine doesn’t make them less masculine.
Judith Butler and Harry Styles
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is a philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. She is best known for her book “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. ” In this book she explores and challenges the existing “feminist model” and how it has defined the female gender. Butler says that historically we have viewed gender in a binary fashion. Meaning that men and women are divided into distinct categories that are fixed and cannot be changed. She argues against this and says that “gender should be seen as a human attribute that shifts and changes”. She believes that by categorising ourselves in this way limits our ability to choose our own identities. Her views are complimentary to modern identities such as non-binary (you don’t identify yourself as neither male or female) and gender fluid (you change your identity to either male or female but it is not fixed) and states that gender is a “performative social construct.” She believes that gender categorises ourselves to a stereotype which can have negative connotations, limiting our own unique identity where we feel more insecure about the characteristics of our personality. She also expresses the idea that gender identity is changeable and fluid a we ‘perform’ and display different elements of our gender identity at different times, in differing situations and around different people. Her theories also link to David Gauntlet’s theory about identities who says that we construct our own identities by being influenced by different people/experiences/interests which may not be the “traditional cultural norm.” Butler mentions that by believing gender is binary promotes patriarchy and the negative dominant ideology of women by separating them into distinct categories and constantly comparing them to each other, continuing with this old fashioned “gender battle.” Contrasting to common knowledge, it limits both genders and forces a toxic stereotype of what masculine and feminine means and what being a man or a woman means.
Harry Styles and his Brand ‘Pleasing’
Pop sensation Harry Styles has set up his own brand called ‘Pleasing’ which concludes of a range of beauty products including nail polish and other cosmetics. With him being an influential opinion leader, his counteracting opinions of masculinity and femininity helps people to become confident about who they are and what they like. He is representing masculinity in a radical way as he shows himself as a feminine man whilst also identifying himself as heterosexual. This also supports Butlers theory of gender being performative. Styles claims that he aims to “blur the boundaries” of the gender binary and show that regardless of what you identify yourself as, beauty cosmetics is for everyone, not just women.
David Gauntlet: Identity
Fluidity of identity– Gauntlet comments on how someone’s identity can change because of how men and woman are being represented in media. Showing how our identity is not always fixed because we are constantly adapting to new cultural norms. He now says we have a “greater diversity of identities”.
Constructed identity– Even though the representation between men and women are becoming more balanced, there are still a variety of cues we use to construct our identities. Magazines, Movies or the opinion leaders who dominate our society (influencers, celebs) all help us to “construct” this identity for ourselves suggesting ways of living by acting on their advice or recognising ourselves in a character of a film.
Negotiated identity– A negotiated identity is a balance between our own desires and meeting the expectations of others. Showing how we want a balance of being with others and retaining our own strong identity.
Collective identity– This refers to our sense of belonging to group, weather that be out of a shared interest/experience or even something in common. Our desire to engage with others and “fit in”.
Leveson 10 years on
Leveson was a public, judge-led inquiry set up by Prime Minister, David Cameron, to examine the culture, practice and ethics of the press. This inquiry was inspired by the ‘News International, phone hacking scandal.
In 2007, News of the world royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were convicted of illegal interception of phone messages. In July 2011, it was revealed that ‘News of the World’ reporters had hacked the voicemail of murder victim Milly Dowler. Messages were deleted by the journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance in order to “free up space for more messages”. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly that she might still be alive. Similar incidents have happened with celebrities including Sienna Miller, Charlotte Church and Hugh Grant, who say they have been badly treated by the British press. The public inquiry would be chaired by Lord Justice Leveson on 13 July 2011.
