Hegemony
In the 19th century, hegemony came to denote the "Social or cultural predominance or ascendancy; predominance by one group within a society or milieu". Later, it could be used to mean "a group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society". Also, it could be used for the geopolitical and the cultural predominance of one country over others, from which was derived "hegemonism", as in the idea that the Great Powers meant to establish European hegemony over Asia and Africa.
Discourse of power
The shaping of ones reality or perception is based on three elements including experienced reality, symbolic reality, and socially constructed reality. Much of the symbolic reality is based on media practices that we are exposed to daily. Individuals make assumptions on the world based on what their media tells them. The media is a hegemonic form of power that maintains their position, not through force, but through elaboration of a particular world view, an ideology, or a particular notion of common sense, which is widely infused into everyday cultural practices. This results in people consenting to power even when it may not be in their best interest. The assumption of media hegemony is that the ideas of the ruling class become ruling ideas in society, because of this the mass media are controlled by the dominant class in society which uses it as a vehicle for exerting control over the rest of society.