Media & communications - openDemocracy (Page 149)

Hackgate, power elites and the limits of the “corruption” critique

The real significance of the "hackgate" scandal in the UK is in revealing an underlying truth about the governing classes and their mode of rule which anyone who’d been paying attention has known all along.

By Guy Aitchison

/ 18 Jul 2011

A democracy of journalists

The stramash over abuse of power and standards at Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp should reinvigorate the idea of journalists’ self-regulation, says Neal Ascherson.

By Neal Ascherson

/ 18 Jul 2011

After Murdoch

A potentially awesome shift in the UK’s power structure is taking place if the role and influence of Murdoch’s newspapers is really undermined. This is because the mess that Jeremy Hunt wishes to see sorted out is the very fusion of politicians, journalists and media owners that govern us - the po

By Anthony Barnett

/ 17 Jul 2011

OurKingdom forum: The fall of Murdoch - What next?

An ongoing forum in which OurKingdom authors consider why the fall of Rupert Murdoch has taken place, what it tells us about the state of Britain and what the key lesson are for the media and government.

By James Curran, Nick Couldry, Suzanne Moore, Ryan Gallagher and Julian Sayarer

/ 15 Jul 2011

Anger at Murdoch must be built on swiftly

Anger at News International needs to be used, fast, and with firm goals in mind: to re-establish proper boundaries between corporation and state, to reform our laws on media ownership and to remove Murdoch from Britain.

By Oliver Huitson

/ 14 Jul 2011

Cybersecurity: politics, interests, choices

The threat of cyber-attack is driving states and corporations to devote ever-greater resources to meet the challenge. The accompanying debate about the scale of the risk has profound implications for the future of the internet, says Ben Schiller.

By Ben Schiller

/ 13 Jul 2011

Politicians aren't scared of Murdoch; they're scared of a world without him

People assume that politicians are simply terrified of Rupert Murdoch. But chiefly they have allowed and encouraged the rise of the Murdoch empire because it protects them from authentic, principled, unpredictable journalism

By Bruce Page

/ 12 Jul 2011

Cameron on Murdoch: how his language reveals the crisis in British democracy

British Prime Minister David Cameron gave a press conference on the scandal of Murdoch's tabloid hacking and suborning the police. In it he produced a new definition of democracy. What does it signify?

By Anthony Barnett

/ 11 Jul 2011

Is Assange the "world-spirit embodied"? A Hegel scholar reports from the Žižek/Assange Troxy gig

WikiLeaks combats the hidden but constant brutality of institutionalized violence, not just by the news content it brings to light but by disturbing the formal functioning of power itself: it has the power to circumvent the oblique ways in which information flows and thereby rewrite the very rules

By Petri Autio

/ 9 Jul 2011

Reality Management: Hack-gate, Hari, Milibot and the Cyber War

The closure of the Murdoch-owned British tabloid News of the World amidst an escalating phone hacking scandal is just one aspect of a bigger crisis that is undermining the reality management system upon which the media, politicians and the financial sector rely

By K-punk Punk

/ 8 Jul 2011

Hack-gate: the latest cultural contradiction of British conservatism?

The Murdoch-owned British Sunday tabloid, 'News of the World', has sunk deeper into an ongoing hacking scandal. Given that the right-wing tabloid press is a bastion of the British conservative establishment, how will the scandal affect the character of UK conservatism?

By William Davies

/ 7 Jul 2011

The Murdochs are not fit and proper people

It's a "truly dreadful situation" declares the UK's Prime Minister on learning of the latest revelation of the outrageous lawlessness of the Murdoch empire. The response should go further than criticism of journalists and editors, it is the proprietors, Murdoch senior and son, who should be held t

By Anthony Barnett

/ 5 Jul 2011