Archive for 2019

[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]

[Commlist] New Book: Paper Emperors: The rise of Australia’s newspaper empires

Thu Feb 21 15:11:38 GMT 2019



New book announcement: PAPER EMPERORS: THE RISE OF AUSTRALIA’S NEWSPAPER EMPIRES by Sally Young (UNSW Press, March 2019)

https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/unfit-print/

‘A tour de force.’ — Professor Rodney Tiffen

Before newspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force, especially in Australia — a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers. In newsrooms, there is a saying that ‘the best stories are never printed in the paper’. This landmark book tells those stories; it reveals who owned Australia’s newspapers and how they used them to wield political power.

In the 20th century, Australians were unaware that they were reading newspapers owned by secret bankrupts and failed land boomers, powerful mining magnates, Underbelly-style gangsters, bankers and corporate titans. Newspaper owners were hidden behind elaborate company structures, shadowy trusts and proxy shareholders.

Paper Emperors is a corporate and political history of Australian newspapers across nearly 140 years, beginning in 1803 with Australia’s first newspaper owner, a convict who became a wealthy bank owner, and ending with the resignation of Menzies in 1941, and his conviction that a handful of press barons brought him down. It explains how Australia’s media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires and powerful family dynasties. It shows how newspaper owners influenced public policy, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internal party politics.

Sally Young has given us a new way of understanding how power worked — and no doubt still works — in Australia.


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------



[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]