The Media God

I have been reading a biography written about Rupert Murdoch, the name we worshipped as the media God during our student life. I am only three-quarter into the book and have already bemused to see how he turned his father’s newspaper ambitious into a global media empire, owning from print to broadcasting, from film studios to satellites. I am more fascinated to read about his art of manipulating news to sell his papers, his charm of engaging governments to give him wavier on media ownership, his coarser nature of intimidating his rivals to overbid for business. He is the world’s most powerful media barons and the one I always respect and worship since the time as a media student.

The gripping facts of M&A among media companies and the conflicts between editors and proprietor allow me to I understand more about behind the scene operations of the media – fact is no longer the key element. What can sell the papers outweighs what is actually happening. The fourth estate is playing its role of making political agenda and spinning emotionally factors for the very fact of boosting circulation.

After the decease of Kerry Packer and the growing age of Rupert Murdoch, it will be another new world for this 21st century.