The 2025 federal election demonstrated Australia’s media landscape has changed. Edward Hurcombe writes big players are no longer “kingmakers” in politics.

Influencers on TikTok and Instagram have seemingly become journalists. Politicians are going on podcasts, and campaign advertising has become memes.

Australia’s news media has historically been concentrated in the hands of a few large companies. Now there are fresh new voices.

But who are these new players? Are they even “journalists”? And to what extent are older media, such as News Corp, still influential?

Labor’s stunning victory defied even the most optimistic predictions. But it was also evidence of the apparently declining influence of the largest commercial media company operating in Australia, News Corp.

In the recent past, News Corp and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, were regarded by politicians as a major factor in deciding elections. Getting on Murdoch’s good side was an important goal for budding prime ministers.

But despite its major papers supporting the Coalition at every state and federal election since 2010, the Labor Party still wins elections.

In the aftermath of the Coalition’s smashing defeat, commentators were even openly considering whether the Liberal and National parties were providing Murdoch and his Sky News channel with too much........

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