Concerns of media over tech giants

NEWS Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has warned of the dangers of “digital disruption” in the media landscape, and expressed concern about the unchecked power, reach, and influence of the tech giants across the globe.

Appearing via videolink before a Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia, Mr Thomson said he welcomed the opportunity to “have a more sophisticated debate about the impact of social media and the potency of digital platforms”.

The News Corp chief (pictured) said the issue of media diversity was “profound”, and argued that while there was now “indisputably” a greater variety of potential news sources both in Australia and overseas, there had been a shift “in power, influence and profitability from the creators of news content to the distributors of news content”.

Asked by Senator Kim Carr whether the big tech platforms were, in fact, “publishers”, Mr Thomson said they should be considered thus.

“They are … they publish information,” he said. “But one of the distinctions is that if people have a complaint about an article – and there needs to be accountability with a newspaper – there are so many routes by which we can be held accountable. We clearly make mistakes and we should be accountable for mistakes. Unfortunately, that’s not yet the case for the big digital players.”

In his opening statement to the hearing, Mr Thomson said: “Proliferation is not the issue, and yet publications are struggling to survive even as their audiences and potential audiences have grown exponentially.

“That is why the Australian Media Code is so crucial and has served as inspiration to countries around the world.”

News Corp, publisher of this newspaper, and several other media organisations reached payment-for-content deals with Google and Facebook in Australia earlier this year.