MythA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWmedia conglomerates; globalization of
media; ofcom: office of communications
(uk); predatory pricing. See also Dictionary
Preface.
▶Michael Wolff , Autumn of the Moguls (Flamingo,
2004); Bruce Dover, Rupert’s Adventures in China
(Tuttle Publishing, 2008); A Chance for Change
(Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom,
2011), pamphlet dealing with questions of media and
democracy, ownership and regulation.
Musical: film musical Essentially the inven-
tion and hallmark of the US, and of Broadway,
New York in particular. Th ough Th e Jazz Singer
(1927) was not by any means the fi rst fi lm to be
accompanied by music, it is nevertheless classi-
fi ed as the fi rst fi lm musical as well as the ‘talkie’
that made the break-through for synchronous
sound. The first all-talking, all-singing, all-
dancing fi lm was Th e Broadway Melody (1929).
Colour in musicals was used with earliest
success in Th e Wizard of Oz (1939).
Th e hey-day of the musical stretched glitter-
ingly from the 1930s to the end of the 1950s,
when vastly increased production costs and
the decline in mass audiences made musicals
uneconomical. They were replaced in their
extravagance with musical stories such as
Oklahoma! (1955), West Side Story (1961) and My
Fair Lady (1965), with Th e Sound of Music (1965)
capping all at the box-offi ce. Imitations failed,
though Cabaret (1972) proved that old forms and
old patterns could be creatively extended; while,
against the odds, Moulin Rouge (2000), directed
by the Autralian Baz Luhrmann, proved both a
critical and a box-offi ce success.
Music Television See MTV.
MySpace Social networking service launched in
Beverly Hills, California, in 2003; purchased in
2005 by News Corp Digital Media (the Murdoch
empire, see news corp) for US 580 million,
only to be sold off for an estimated US 35
million (21m) to Specifi c Media in June 2011. As
with other social sites such as Bebo and Friends
United, MySpace failed to hold its own against
the rise in popularity of facebook; a third of
its workforce was laid off in 2009. New services,
like MySpace Karaoke, were added in order to
turn the business around, but January 2011 saw
further substantial job losses. See networking:
social networking; youtube.
Mystifi cation See hegemony.
Myth Th e generally accepted meaning of myth
is of a fi ctitious (primitive) tale, usually involv-
ing supernatural characters embodying some
popular idea concerning natural or historical
phenomena, and often symbolizing virtues orthe media by Rupert Murdoch and his global
organization news corp, the term relates to
processes of acquisition, control, expansion
and the targeting of rivals in the fi elds of media,
entertainment and sport which are seen to char-
acterize the Murdoch approach to business. In
terms of competition, it is ruthless; in terms of
ideology, rightist; in media approach, populist. It
is also visionary and decisive.
Murdochization is a related term describing
the broader eff ect of Murdoch’s impact on the
nature and processing of news and comment.
In a UK Guardian interview with Stephen Moss
(‘I’m very pessimistic about the future of the
BBC’, 15 March 2010), veteran reporter John
Simpson stated that Murdoch ‘and the newspa-
pers he’s run have introduced an uglier side, an
abusive side, into journalism and life in general
in this country’.
He has ‘introduced an ugly tone which he has
now imported into the US and which we see
every day on Fox News, with all its concomitant
effects on American public life – that fierce
hostility between right and left that never used
to be there, not to remotely the same extent’.
More pro-Murdoch commentators argue that
Murdoch’s often-ruthless entrepreneurialism
has benefi ted the media industry, showing the
way for others to follow (or fall by the wayside,
if not into Murdoch’s lap). From the outset
Murdoch proved a predator, identifying compa-
nies that had grown feeble through complacence,
and targeting them.
Not the least of the features that make up the
Murdoch eff ect is the mogul’s high level of risk-
taking. Between 1990 and 1993 News Corp was
close to bankruptcy, yet in 1992 BSkyB (British
Sky Broadcasting) outbid ITV for UK Premier
League soccer broadcasting rights. In the follow-
ing year Murdoch swiped American football
from under the nose of the NBC network.
For many, the most worrying aspect of
the Murdoch effect is the mogul’s perceived
influence on politics and politicians. In the
UK both the Labour administration and its
Conservative-Liberal Democrat successor
(2010) have been accused of bending the knee
to Murdoch in return for a favourable press.
In 2011 Murdoch’s ambition to increase his 39
per cent stake in BSkyB to 100 per cent looked
certain to be accepted by Culture Minister
Jeremy Hunt, until the phone-hacking scandal
engulfi ng the News of the World (and the paper’s
dramatic closure in July) put Murdoch’s plans
on hold. See anticipatory compliance;
berlusconi phenomenon; conglomerates: