In the mid-1980s, as the Justice Department was breaking up AT&T’s hundred-year-
old monopoly, the government was authorizing a number of mass media mergers that
consolidated power in the hands of a few large companies. For example, when
General Electric set out to purchase RCA-NBC in the 1980s, the FTC, the FCC, and
the Justice Department had few objections. Most media companies have skirted
monopoly charges by purchasing diverse types of mass media rather than trying to
control just one medium. Now these large conglomerates can cross-promote their
products through their multiple channels.
Hegemony is the acceptance of the dominant values in a culture by those who are
subordinate to those who hold economic and political power. The word hegemony
has roots in ancient Greek, but Italian philosopher and activist Antonio Gramsci
came up with a modern understanding of hegemony. It is about how a ruling class in
a society maintains its power. It does so not simply by military or police force but
more commonly by citizens‘ consent and their deference to power. He explained that
people who are without power—the disenfranchised, the poor, the disaffected, the
unemployed, the exploited workers—do not routinely rise up against those in power.
This is how this process actually works in our society: lobbyists, the rich, and our
powerful two-party political system convince regular citizens that they should go
along with the status quo. Edward Bernays, one of the founders of modern public
relations, wrote in his 1947 article “The Engineering of Consent” that companies and
rulers couldn’t lead people—or get them to do what the ruling class wanted—until the
people consented to what those companies or rulers were trying to do, whether it was
convincing the public to support women smoking cigarettes or convincing them to
support going to war. You can see how this played out after 9/11 and even in
everyday commercials, which play on our fears, as well as “fake news,” which
distracts us from looking deeply into what is actually going on.