In 2007, in a book about the Australian media, I confidently predicted: “Rupert Murdoch is an old man and will be dead soon. Many things may happen to media empires when the emperors have gone.” On any reasonable definition of “soon” I was badly wrong. The old man is still with us, though now taking a giant step back, despite his insistence that he will remain ubiquitous.
But my larger point – that we were entering a post-colonial period in media – was correct. Social media and digital publication altered the way that power worked.
