tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/australian-media-3756/articlesAustralian media – The Conversation2023-11-28T02:14:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185962023-11-28T02:14:47Z2023-11-28T02:14:47ZAt a time when journalism needs to be at its strongest, an open letter on the Israel/Hamas war has left the profession diminished<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562011/original/file-20231128-19-vlf74t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C6%2C4059%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pov-female-war-journalist-correspondent-wearing-1982400632">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The journalists who signed an <a href="https://form.jotform.com/233177455020046">open letter</a> to Australian media organisations last week calling for ethical reporting on the war in Gaza have succeeded in intensifying the dispute over whether the coverage has been fair. At the same time, they’ve called their own impartiality into question.</p>
<p>At last count, the letter had attracted 270 signatories from journalists at a range of institutions including the ABC, Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Conversation and Schwartz Media.</p>
<p>At the Herald and The Age, both owned by the Nine company, senior editorial executives, including the papers’ editors, have <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/sydney-morning-herald-says-journalists-who-signed-gaza-petition-now-unable-to-participate-in-any-reporting-related-to-the-war/news-story/6a5acb546faea77a7da974c6cfe29a36">banned those staff</a> who signed the letter from having any role in covering the war.</p>
<p>The ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, did not go that far, but <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/journalist-union-meaa-backs-scepticism-campaign-against-israel/news-story/c7932eabaa30edbf1eb5765ed4618b02">warned his staff</a> that if they signed the letter, their ability to cover the story impartially may be brought into question.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-chief-is-right-impartiality-is-paramount-when-reporting-the-israel-gaza-war-218100">ABC chief is right: impartiality is paramount when reporting the Israel-Gaza war</a>
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<h2>Addressing journalist deaths</h2>
<p>The signatories to the letter, in addition to the individuals, were the journalists’ section of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and its house (branch) committees at the ABC and Guardian Australia. It is not clear exactly under whose auspices the letter was written, but it is clear it has the endorsement of the union. </p>
<p>The letter raises two main issues. </p>
<p>One is that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has killed <a href="https://cpj.org/">at least 53</a> journalists in the course of the present conflict and has a history of targeting journalists. </p>
<p>The letter provides links to reputable organisations – Reporters Without Borders, the International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists – each of which provides substantial detailed evidence making a strong case against the Israeli Defence Force.</p>
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<p>The letter states: </p>
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<p>As reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around Australia, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families and apparent targeting of journalists by the Israeli government, which constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions.</p>
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<p>That much of it can be defended as an attempt to stand up for press freedom and hold the Israeli forces to account.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-one-journalist-per-day-is-dying-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict-this-has-to-stop-217272">More than one journalist per day is dying in the Israel-Gaza conflict. This has to stop</a>
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<h2>Clear implications of pro-Israel bias</h2>
<p>However, the letter then goes on to argue in a veiled but unmistakable way that the Australian media’s coverage of the war has been pro-Israel. </p>
<p>This is achieved by a series of what, on the surface, look like journalistic motherhood statements:</p>
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<p>We call for […] Australian newsroom leaders to be as clear-eyed in their coverage of the atrocities committed by Israel as they are of those committed by Hamas.</p>
<p>The immense and disproportionate human suffering of the Palestinian population should not be minimised.</p>
<p>Apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas […] The Israeli government’s version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking.</p>
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<p>The clear implication is that this is not being done, and that taken together they add up to a pro-Israel bias that needs to be corrected. </p>
<p>That is a highly contestable proposition and it needs evidence, but none is provided.</p>
<p>The letter goes on to urge that “adequate coverage be given to credible allegations of war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid”.</p>
<p>The position taken by the ABC on the use of these terms was <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-chief-is-right-impartiality-is-paramount-when-reporting-the-israel-gaza-war-218100">set out</a> ten days ago by its managing director and editor-in-chief, David Anderson. He said the ABC would report other people’s use of them but would not adopt them for itself.</p>
<p>This is the conventional way for impartiality to be applied when such politically charged language is used. When they are reporting atrocities of the kind perpetrated by both sides in this war, on what authority do journalists take it upon themselves to apply these definitions?</p>
<h2>Messy fall-out amid messy messaging</h2>
<p>A further question concerning impartiality then arises: does signing this letter disqualify a journalist from being involved in covering the war? Does it justify the action taken by the Herald and The Age?</p>
<p>Those two newspapers have traditionally taken a strict line on these issues, and their decision this time is consistent with that tradition. Many years ago, a Herald reporter was taken off the reporting of state politics when he declared his membership of the Labor Party.</p>
<p>The reason given by the editorial executive who made this decision was not that his coverage had been biased but that there would be an apprehension among those who knew of his affiliation that his coverage might be biased.</p>
<p>A strict line on impartiality is fine, if it is applied impartially, but Crikey has <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/11/03/australian-journalists-politicians-trips-israel-palestine/">drawn attention</a> to an uncomfortable fact: that three of the four editorial executives at Nine who imposed the ban have participated in trips to Israel sponsored by pro-Israeli groups.</p>
<p>You might think the handling of these problems by the media industry and the journalism profession couldn’t get much messier, but it could.</p>
<p>On November 11, a group of journalists calling themselves MEAA Members for Palestine <a href="https://overland.org.au/2023/11/meaa-members-in-solidarity-with-palestine/">published a separate letter</a> in Overland magazine, and in this there was nothing veiled about the position they took.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-just-find-it-very-hard-to-talk-about-it-without-getting-emotional-top-journalists-reveal-their-trade-secrets-to-leigh-sales-211426">'I just find it very hard to talk about it without getting emotional': top journalists reveal their trade secrets to Leigh Sales</a>
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<p>They condemned the Australian government’s support for what they called Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, called on the government to demand that Israel withdraw its forces and stop the bombing in Gaza, and condemned “the silencing and intimidation that our members experience when expressing support for, or reporting on, Palestine”.</p>
<p>They called on the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance to support the Palestinian solidarity movement and join with trade union action across the world to “end all complicity and stop arming Israel”.</p>
<p>As a trade union, the alliance undoubtedly has the right to take sides, even in a war. But doing so is irreconcilable with the professional ethical obligations of its members to report impartially. </p>
<p>The Overland letter and the more restrained open letter to the media organisations might be two separate documents but it would be naïve in the extreme not to think that the first was parent to the second.</p>
<p>The whole episode, including the obvious hypocrisy of the Nine editorial management, has left the profession and the industry diminished at a time when Australian society needs them to be at their strongest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of Australian journalists signed an open letter to news organisations calling for better coverage of the war. It calls their impartiality into question.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114322023-08-30T00:41:54Z2023-08-30T00:41:54ZMore work to do: how Chinese-Australians perceive coverage of themselves and China in Australian media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544879/original/file-20230827-109574-ityzdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian media have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-27/australian-medias-coverage-of-china-hong-kong-trump-trade/11538770">significantly increased</a> their reporting on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Chinese-Australian communities in the past few years.</p>
<p>But how fair is that coverage? The <a href="https://poll.lowyinstitute.org/charts/australian-media-reporting-about-china/">Lowy Institute</a> asked 2,000 Australians exactly this question in 2022. In response, 61% said it was “fair and balanced”, while 10% of respondents said it was “too positive”. Only 26% said it was “too negative”.</p>
<p>Lowy then asked the same question of Chinese-Australians. In <a href="https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/chinese-communities/reports/2023%20Being%20Chinese%20in%20Australia%20Poll%20%E2%80%93%20Lowy%20Institute.pdf">2022</a>, 42% of Chinese-Australian respondents said Australian media reporting about China was “too negative”. By contrast, in the previous year’s <a href="https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/chinese-communities/reports/2022%20Being%20Chinese%20in%20Australia%20Poll%20%E2%80%93%20Lowy%20Institute.pdf">poll</a>, 57% had said such reporting was “too negative”.</p>
<p>What accounts for the striking difference between the assessments of mainstream Australians and Chinese-Australians?</p>
<p>Lowy’s survey of Chinese-Australians included individuals of various backgrounds: different histories and trajectories of migration, and countries of origin.</p>
<p>The 2021 <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/latest-release">Census</a> found just under 550,000 respondents were born in China. This makes up 2.2% of the entire Australian population, with 227,414 (41%) of these PRC-born individuals <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021/Cultural%20diversity%20data%20summary.xlsx">reporting</a> Australian citizenship.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-chinese-migrants-dont-always-side-with-china-and-are-happy-to-promote-australia-126677">New research shows Chinese migrants don't always side with China and are happy to promote Australia</a>
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<p>This raises another question: in what ways are people who have immigrated from China similar to, or different from, Chinese-Australians in general? And do they typically maintain closer ties with mainland China than other diasporic Chinese?</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.australiachinarelations.org/content/first-generation-prc-migrants-and-social-cohesion-views-news-about-prc-and-chinese">new research</a> for the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney sought to answer these questions by conducting three focus groups, a quantitative survey of 689 respondents and 20 in-depth interviews. </p>
<p>Three broad questions were pursued: </p>
<p>(1) how Australia’s PRC migrants see themselves and their community portrayed in the media</p>
<p>(2) how they see the PRC portrayed in the media</p>
<p>(3) what impact they think such portrayals have on Australia’s general public.</p>
<p>The rationale behind this research is simple. Social cohesion is fundamental to our <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/reconciling-the-australian-national-interest/">national interest</a>, and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/social-cohesion-in-australia/media-and-social-cohesion/AD802920F54D6F99273E0DCEA3316B55">research</a> tells us the media play an important role in building social cohesion. </p>
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<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>Interviewees generally expressed more trust in Australian media than in Chinese state media. Both focus group discussions and in-depth interviewees perceived a high level of professionalism in the Australian English-language media’s reporting on domestic issues. They acknowledge that Australia’s English-language media have different news values from Chinese state media, and so tend to adopt a critical stance on the issues they are covering. </p>
<p>At the same time, a substantial majority (78%) of survey respondents believed that when Australia’s English-language media report on Australia’s Chinese communities, they tend to lack balance, depth and independence.</p>
<p>Just over half (51%) believed Australia’s English-language media were either “relatively distrustful” (42%) or “completely distrustful” (9%) of Chinese-Australian communities. Seven in 10 (70%) believed the media tended to portray them, both collectively and individually, as objects of suspicion and risks to national security.</p>
<p>These findings point to a widespread feeling among respondents that their community is substantially more likely to be mistrusted, misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Australian English-language media now than in the past.</p>
<p>There is a widespread perception among survey respondents that Australian English-language media reporting on PRC-related issues has led to a low level of acceptance of their community by the Australian public. About six in ten (63%) respondents reported feelings of emotional and mental anguish in response to the media’s biased reporting.</p>
<p>Somewhat consistent with Lowy’s surveys of Chinese-Australians, more than half of survey respondents (53%) believe Australian English-language reporting on the PRC has been “too negative”. </p>
<p>Interviewees emphasised they did not have a problem with “negative” news about China. However, they frequently perceived a particular news-making agenda in Australian English-language media that frames the PRC and Chinese-Australians as hostile entities.</p>
<p>This in turn has posed serious challenges for PRC migrants in their efforts to be accepted into Australian society.</p>
<p>The majority of survey respondents (58%) believe they are better informed about the PRC than both Australia’s English-speaking public and the Chinese public living in the PRC. This in turn makes them feel better positioned than either group to assess the accuracy of the Australia’s media reporting on the PRC. They were also acutely aware of the widespread public perception that they had been “brainwashed” by PRC propaganda.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-media-normalises-war-mongering-how-chinese-australians-respond-to-talk-of-war-in-mainstream-media-202500">'The media normalises war-mongering': how Chinese Australians respond to talk of war in mainstream media</a>
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<p>Around six in 10 (63%) reported feelings of powerlessness in relation to having their voices heard by the media. While 14% reported having lodged complaints about media reporting by writing either to politicians (8%) or the media (6%), most reported they tended to process such daily feelings by airing them within their own community and through their own networks. This might mean discussing them with family and friends (55%) or sharing in their social media networks (23%).</p>
<p>There is a high level of ambivalence and uncertainty towards both Australia and the PRC when questions about belonging were discussed. </p>
<p>On the one hand, respondents seem to remain strongly committed to making Australia home. Compared with five years ago, one in three (33%) reported no change in their sense of belonging. Another 38% reported a stronger sense of belonging. Another 10% reported having a substantially reduced sense of belonging to Australia, while only 2% say they no longer have any sense of belonging. </p>
<p>On the other hand, 46% of respondents either strongly agree (17%) or are inclined to agree (29%) that reading media stories about the “China threat” has diminished their sense of belonging to mainstream Australian society.</p>
<p>An overwhelming majority of respondents (91%) are concerned by the Australian English-language media’s tendency to engage in speculation about war with China. This is primarily because they believe such speculation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are equally concerned about how Chinese-Australians would be treated if Australia found itself at war with the PRC.</p>
<p>Given that social cohesion and inclusiveness are crucial to national interest, these findings offer an important insight into Australia’s bid for social cohesion. They may also ask questions of Australia’s media in regard to their role in promoting or damaging that cohesion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wanning Sun received funding from the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI). She was the recipient of a UTS:ACRI research grant in 2023 for the project 'News consumption and belonging: Australian media coverage of China and Mandarin-speaking first-generation migrants in Australia'. She recently assumed the position of UTS:ACRI Deputy Director.
</span></em></p>New research shows Chinese-Australians believe Australian English-language media to be too negative about China and Chinese-Australians.Wanning Sun, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089532023-07-16T20:00:55Z2023-07-16T20:00:55Z‘Gorgeous goal getters’: 1970s media coverage of ‘soccerettes’ was filled with patronising sleaze<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536244/original/file-20230707-17-d1zm22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C4%2C3185%2C2407&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Daily Telegraph, September 4 1975. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the lead-in to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, it is revealing to look back on the media coverage of women’s international soccer to measure how far attitudes have shifted for today’s Matildas.</p>
<p>Media coverage is important. It builds personalities, creates public knowledge, sustains interest, draws crowds, attracts sponsors and generates participation. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-sportswriters-were-critical-to-the-growth-of-cricket-in-the-1930s-how-have-we-gone-backwards-175644">the 1930s</a>, sports journalists have written articles about sportswomen for major newspapers. These articles record years of player dedication and hard work. </p>
<p>But not all media coverage has treated sportswomen with respect. </p>
<h2>The first Australia/New Zealand match</h2>
<p>Women’s international soccer <a href="https://scholarly.info/article/book_author/marion-stell/">surged</a> in the mid-to-late 1970s. The first recognised international soccer game between Australian and New Zealand women was played in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/oct/06/40th-anniversary-of-first-matildas-match-highlights-forgotten-history">October 1979</a> on a Saturday afternoon in southern Sydney.</p>
<p>The day before the match, a small advertisement appeared on page 68 in the Sydney Sun. Accompanying it, the newspaper profiled only the male referee.</p>
<p>The crowd that attended the match numbered about 200. There were no sponsor banners, corporate boxes or grandstands. There was little media. No dignitaries addressed the crowd. No one remembers if national anthems were played. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two lines of women in yellow and green." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536432/original/file-20230710-239027-qnitc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Australian Women’s National Football Team in 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Football Australia</span></span>
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<p>The women filed out of the change room in ill-fitting, borrowed men’s uniforms. There was no official team photo. The controlling body, the Australian Women’s Soccer Association, sold a small program for 20c. </p>
<p>When football stalwart Heather Reid and I interviewed many of the players from that game 40 years later, their memories were hazy and uncertain. Even Heather, who had driven from Canberra to watch the match, could not recall specific details. </p>
<p>To fill the gaps of memory we sought out players’ scrapbooks – but we were uncertain what we would find.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/long-range-goals-can-the-fifa-world-cup-help-level-the-playing-field-for-all-women-footballers-205213">Long-range goals: can the FIFA World Cup help level the playing field for all women footballers?</a>
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<h2>Collecting the clippings</h2>
<p>The leading men’s soccer player and Australian captain in the 1970s, <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/johnny-warren-the-godfather-of-australian-football">Johnny Warren</a>, amassed numerous scrapbooks filled with clippings, photographs, programs and fan letters. </p>
<p>Warren’s scrapbooks weigh more than 150 kilograms – more than twice his playing body weight. </p>
<p>We believed there had been little press coverage of women playing soccer in this era, and thought: how could women fill even one scrapbook? </p>
<p>What we found surprised us. It was rare for women <em>not</em> to have kept a scrapbook. Australian soccer captain <a href="https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/julie-dolan">Julie Dolan</a> had a folder of cuttings related to her career, as did many of the Australian and New Zealand team members from 1979. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Six scrap books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536186/original/file-20230706-22774-kf0lcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Yearly scrap books kept by New Zealand soccer player Wendy Sharpe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Here was not a dearth but a wealth of newspaper coverage. </p>
<p>But there was a sting in the tail. While the quantity existed, as I looked closely I found it confronting and unsettling. These scrapbooks contained newspaper clippings that belittled, trivialised and sexualised these women and the sport they played.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-sportswriters-were-critical-to-the-growth-of-cricket-in-the-1930s-how-have-we-gone-backwards-175644">Women sportswriters were critical to the growth of cricket in the 1930s. How have we gone backwards?</a>
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<h2>The sexist, underestimating press</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Headline reads: Gorgeous goal getters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536242/original/file-20230707-17-x62shn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The players were described as ‘gorgeous’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The press coverage had recurring themes around appearance, fashion, body parts (especially eyes, legs and hair), sexual attractiveness, implied sexuality and general unwelcome sleaze. </p>
<p>Even a neutral match report would attract a sub-editor’s headline such as “Gorgeous goal getters” or “Fashion on parade at Australian titles”. </p>
<p>Captions to newspaper photos suggested their skills were more about dance than soccer. Press photographs were selected to reinforce this view: “Booted ballet”; “Shall we dance – cha, cha, cha”; “Remove the boots and these ladies could be doing the hustle, the bump or any of the other dance crazes sweeping the nation”. </p>
<p>Male journalists reported the women, although skilled, were “easier on the eye” than their male counterparts. </p>
<p>Players were asked to apply make-up after training for photographers. Femininity was emphasised. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536245/original/file-20230707-29-2owghu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Players such as Shona Bass were instructed to put on lipstick for news photographs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one article, New Zealand coach Dave Boardman rejected the label his charges were “butch types”. </p>
<p>“They are delightful young ladies,” he said.</p>
<p>The men involved in soccer played by women – the coaches and the referees – were portrayed in news articles as active and in charge. Their opinions mattered most to the press.</p>
<p>Player <a href="https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/pat-oconnor">Pat O'Connor</a> was one of the driving forces behind the growth of soccer in New South Wales, alongside her husband and coach <a href="https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news/vale-joe-oconnor">Joe O'Connor</a>. In one article about Pat, the journalist wrote: “Striker Pat has to obey her husband!” </p>
<p>When 24-year-old Bonnie Rae qualified as a referee, the headline read: “Bonnie gets all the whistles”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Newspaper clipping" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536239/original/file-20230707-21-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One newspaper reported ‘Bonnie gets all the whistles’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>AFL legend Lou Richards, commenting on the Victorian team, wrote he wanted “to have a cuddle with those pretty little soccerettes after every score […] I’d be quite willing to act as official trainer and masseur”.</p>
<p>The schoolgirls in the national teams were not spared. <a href="https://beyond90.com.au/1979ers-jamie-rosman-robertson/">Jamie Rosman</a>, just 15 when she was playing for Australia, was described as “attractive”, “leggy” and “dark-eyed”, “a gazelle” and “a model”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Headline reads: Jamie kicks on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536243/original/file-20230707-17-ls0670.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jamie Rosman was the youngest on the team – but that did not spare her from sexist media attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Being in the zone</h2>
<p>The articles in these scrapbooks are a toxic time capsule of sexism, misogyny and veiled homophobia. They remind us just how difficult it was for women and girls to navigate a safe space for themselves in soccer in the eyes of the public. </p>
<p>Good football players say they block out noise and play in a bubble – the “zone”. Is this the way the women also coped with the toxic media coverage of their soccer? Does this partly explain hazy memories of the first series in 1979? </p>
<p>When we spoke to the players about their scrapbooks, they recalled often feeling uncomfortable in their interactions with the press. Shona Bass said “I walked away with this unease about the way they had portrayed us […] it was almost patronising, almost scoffing”.</p>
<p>As the Matildas and the New Zealand Ferns move into hosting a historic home world cup, we can look forward to today’s media demonstrating a far greater maturity and higher level of respect. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-girls-to-lionesses-how-newspaper-coverage-of-womens-football-has-changed-209082">From 'girls' to Lionesses: how newspaper coverage of women's football has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marion Stell is an appointed member of Football Australia's Panel of Historians.</span></em></p>In the lead-in to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, it is revealing to look back on the media coverage of women’s international soccer.Marion Stell, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072142023-06-13T23:28:37Z2023-06-13T23:28:37ZWhy more than two-thirds of Australians think no news is good news (at least some of the time)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531532/original/file-20230613-17-qg8172.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 12 months, the news has been full of serious and negative news such as the war in the Ukraine, the surge in the cost of living, interest rate rises, and the climate crisis. </p>
<p>It’s not surprising, then, that more than two-thirds of Australians say they are actively avoiding news some of the time. What is surprising is that Australians avoid news more than consumers in many other countries.</p>
<p>The findings are contained in the latest <a href="https://doi.org/10.25916/v0mt-9k87">Digital News Report: Australia 2023</a> released by the University of Canberra.</p>
<p>The online survey of 2,025 Australians finds 69% say they avoid the news, occasionally, sometimes or often. This is higher than the global average of 63%, which is slightly declining. It also marks a 12 percentage point increase in news avoidance among Australians since 2017. </p>
<p>Not only do we avoid news more in Australia than other countries, we also avoid different news topics. In the majority of countries surveyed, news avoiders are more likely to steer clear of news about the war in the Ukraine, especially people in European countries. In Australia, we are most likely to eschew news about social justice issues such as race and gender inequality and LGBTQ+ rights. </p>
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<p>When it comes to avoiding social justice issues, there are strong differences based on people’s political orientation. Australian news avoiders who identify as right-wing are more than twice as likely to say they evade news about social justice issues (56%) than those who say they are left-wing (22%). This highlights the big challenge facing government and advocacy organisations seeking to promote the “yes” and “no” campaigns for the Voice referendum to a news audience that is polarised around particular issues.</p>
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<p>There are also big differences in news topics they avoid between Australian men and women. Women are much more likely to avoid news about sport and politics, whereas men will more readily keep away from stories about social justice issues, climate change and culture. </p>
<p>Because women are more likely to get their news from social media platforms than men, they are also more likely to scroll past the news to avoid it; men are more likely to consciously cut news out at particular times of the day.</p>
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<h2>Women are turning their backs on news</h2>
<p>These differences in avoidance behaviour point to a growing gender division in news consumption in Australia. Women are increasingly losing interest in news and consuming less of it, particularly Gen Z women. Over the past six years, the proportion of Australian women in our annual study who say they are very or highly interested in news has fallen 16 percentage points to 43%, compared to a much smaller drop – only 6 percentage points – among men. </p>
<p>Australian women are also among the lightest news consumers globally. Only 41% of Australian women say they access news more than once a day, compared to 59% of men. There are other indicators that point to the widening gender gap. Thirty-nine per cent of women say they trust the news most of the time, compared to 48% of men. The proportion of women paying for news is also declining.</p>
<p>The gendered decline in news interest and consumption this year can be partly explained by the types of stories that have dominated the news cycle, such as the war and federal politics, which women are less interested in than men. </p>
<p>Overall, the longitudinal decline among women points to be a much bigger issue facing the news industry that needs to be addressed if they want to stem the exodus of the female news audience.</p>
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<h2>But it’s not all bad news</h2>
<p>Our Digital News Report for 2023 also finds:</p>
<ul>
<li>The proportion of Australians who pay for online news has increased to 22% (+4pp from 2022).</li>
<li>More than half of Australians (56%) say they are interested in positive news stories, and 50% say they are interested in news that suggests solutions, report on the latest development, and investigates wrong-doing.</li>
<li> 60% of Australians surveyed say public service media, such as the ABC and SBS is important to society, and 52% say it is important to their lives.</li>
<li>More than one third of Australian’s surveyed said they were highly interested in politics (35%), a 3 percentage point increase from 2022.<br></li>
<li>Trust in news has risen slightly to 43%, higher than the global average.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Digital News Report: Australia is produced by the News & Media Research Centre (N&MRC) at the University of Canberra and is part of a global annual survey of digital news consumption in 46 countries, commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. The survey was conducted by YouGov at the end of January/beginning of February 2023. The data are weighted for age, gender, and region. Education and political quotas were applied.
In Australia, this is the ninth annual survey of its kind produced by the N&MRC.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fisher receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran McGuinness has received funding from Google News Initiative and the Australian Communications and Media Authority. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Community Media and Australian Council for the Arts. </span></em></p>Meanwhile, new research shows Australian women are turning their backs on news more than men, which has implications for the media industry.Caroline Fisher, Associate Professor of Communication, University of CanberraKieran McGuinness, Postdoctoral Fellow, News & Media Research Centre, University of CanberraSora Park, Professor of Communication, News & Media Research Centre, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047562023-05-22T20:05:48Z2023-05-22T20:05:48ZStan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?<p>This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. </p>
<p>“I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. </p>
<p>Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life.</p>
<p>Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. </p>
<p>Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him.</p>
<p>“This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.”</p>
<p>He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe?</p>
<h2>The death of the white queen</h2>
<p>In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. </p>
<p>Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. </p>
<p>Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. </p>
<p>History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">The End of History: Francis Fukuyama's controversial idea explained</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. </p>
<p>Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. </p>
<p>And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring.</p>
<p>Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">Racism is real, race is not: a philosopher's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2>
<p>In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. </p>
<p>The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants.</p>
<p>In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. </p>
<p>In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2>
<p>In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. </p>
<p>Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. </p>
<p>The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. </p>
<p>The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. </p>
<p>In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. </p>
<p>The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. </p>
<p>In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. </p>
<p>And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Norman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stan Grant’s new book, The Queen is Dead, is revealing in terms of his decision to step down from public life. ‘I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,’ he writes.Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060802023-05-22T08:52:30Z2023-05-22T08:52:30ZStan Grant’s treatment is a failure of ABC’s leadership, mass media, and debate in this country<p>The treatment of Stan Grant that has driven him off the ABC is a case study in how content on the professional mass media can fuel social media toxicity, especially on issues such as race.</p>
<p>It does not require the professional mass media to be overtly racist to accomplish this, but to send signals of intense disapproval that trolls then use as the basis for their racist attacks.</p>
<p>Grant himself clearly sees this. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">his statement</a> on ABC Online announcing his decision to step away from hosting Q+A on ABC television, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since the King’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate-filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He does not accuse the professional mass media outright of racism, and indeed it is difficult to find outright racist statements there.</p>
<p>Instead, he reserves his accusations of racism for social media, writing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On social media my family and I are regularly mocked or abused. This is not new. Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted. My wife is targeted with abuse for being married to a Wiradjuri man.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The professional mass media’s contribution to the racism he writes about is more subtle. It is to be found, first, in the singling out of Grant from the other members of the ABC panel whose discussion as part of the ABC’s coronation coverage has led to the outrage driving Grant away.</p>
<p>A review of The Australian newspaper’s coverage of the controversy in the period between the coronation and the day following Grant’s announcement shows that Grant was named 11 times: that’s more than the other panel members, Craig Foster, Julian Leeser and Teela Reid, put together.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grant-stands-up-to-racist-abuse-our-research-shows-many-diverse-journalists-have-copped-it-too-206063">Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too</a>
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<hr>
<p>He was portrayed as the personification of all that was said to be wrong with the panel discussion. Yet Foster, who was there as a representative of the republican movement, and Reid, an Aboriginal lawyer, were just as outspoken, in their own ways, about the effect of the monarchy and its place in Australian life.</p>
<p>But Grant is a tall poppy whose performance as the moderator of Q+A was already the subject of controversy, and the attention directed at him reflected that well-established stereotype.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1659504986605375492"}"></div></p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/hero/coronation-coverage-proves-black-armband-view-of-history-still-holds-sway/news-story/c5202f79eb4ff80cc78cfc45626f608d">some of the language</a> used to describe Grant’s words – “rant”, “tirade”, “steam-bath of emotion” – was calculated to intensify antipathy towards him. </p>
<p>That is all the trolls need. From there, the hate speech launches off into territory that will not be described here beyond a general statement that it involves varied references to skin colour and attitude.</p>
<p>This is not to say Grant or anyone else should be immune from criticism. Grant is frequently criticised for his interviewing style, and his views are open to legitimate challenge. But the line is drawn at the point where the criticism becomes personal: where his motives are impugned or his race invoked.</p>
<p>The professional mass media well understands the effects its work can have – for good or ill – on those engaged on social media. But it fails to give sufficient weight to this when making judgements about the portrayal of people who are vulnerable to being trolled: women, people of colour, ethnic and religious minorities.</p>
<p>It may be that the lack of diversity, especially in the upper echelons of media organisations, including the ABC, accounts for at least some of this failure.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of Grant’s announcement, Osman Faruqi, formerly a journalist at the ABC and now culture news editor of The Age, wrote a scathing assessment of the ABC in this respect. He <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/stan-grant-s-forced-exile-should-be-a-wake-up-call-for-australia-the-media-20230519-p5d9u3.html">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The higher up the organisation you go, the fewer and fewer diverse faces you see […] contributing to a culture that is, at best, dismissive of the needs and concerns of staff and audience who aren’t white and, at worst, actively hostile to them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the ABC management’s appalling lack of support for Grant, his fellow panellists and the journalists who conceived and executed the coronation coverage when they came under severe attack from reactionary elements in Australian politics.</p>
<p>Grant himself called it out, saying no one at the ABC offered a word of public support:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible. It is an institutional failure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was obvious even from the outside. Not until Grant had announced his withdrawal from Q+A did the director of news, Justin Stevens, come out with a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/programs/drive/justin-stevens-on-stan-grant-abc-news/102378614">statement of support</a>, saying the attacks on him were abhorrent and unacceptable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>And then, finally, the editor-in-chief, David Anderson, broke his silence. He <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-21/stan-grant-apology-review-racism-response/102374582">apologised</a> to Grant, saying he was “dismayed” at the “sickening behaviour” he had been exposed to, and announcing a review of the way the ABC responds to racist abuse of its staff. </p>
<p>These are fine sentiments, about two weeks too late.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1660505621844885506"}"></div></p>
<p>Where were they when some unnamed source inside the ABC was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-coronation-coverage-to-be-investigated-by-ombudsman/news-story/cf267bbf4204f5e3f726101fe9cb5dd7">briefing The Australian</a> that complaints about the coronation coverage were being referred to the organisation’s ombudsman and that senior management were reviewing the way the coronation had been covered?</p>
<p>Leaving the field open while your people are attacked is not the way to run a news organisation. A robust defence was called for when the whips were cracking, but it has taken Grant’s stand to bring it forth.</p>
<p>That defence is set out in the organisation’s editorial policies on impartiality: the requirement to present all principal relevant perspectives on an issue. The coronation was first and foremost an intensely political event, freighted with religious and political history, overlaid with spectacle. The journalists who devised the panel understood this and brought in the principal relevant perspectives: monarchist, Indigenous and republican.</p>
<p>As this article was being written, ABC staff were taking matters into their own hands, walking out in support of Grant. Leadership is coming from the bottom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The national broadcaster’s management has finally condemned the racist abuse directed at their high-profile presenter and apologised too him, but it has come far too late.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2043612023-05-01T20:01:19Z2023-05-01T20:01:19ZJournalists reporting on the Voice to Parliament do voters a disservice with ‘he said, she said’ approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523104/original/file-20230426-18-3i5rey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For much of the past two decades, polarisation and hyper-partisanship have weakened Western democracies, most notably in the United States and Britain. Australia has not escaped, although the consequences here have been nothing as compared with Brexit or the insurrection in Washington on January 6, 2021.</p>
<p>Social media has been the primary agent of this democratic dysfunction, but parts of the professional mass media have also contributed.</p>
<p>Impartial news reporting is an antidote to polarisation. The Voice referendum, with its impassioned arguments on both sides, presents the Australian media with an opportunity to show their capacity for truth-telling and impartiality.</p>
<p>While the overall performance so far is patchy, there does seem to be a lessening in the polarisation that was such a significant feature of federal political reporting between the overthrow of Kevin Rudd by Julia Gillard in 2010 and the defeat of the Morrison government in 2021.</p>
<p>A straw in the wind was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/raging-moral-coercion-on-voice-is-failing/news-story/e3dc9a7cce2ce0fd85bd525ba30d0e7d">a column</a> by Chris Mitchell, the former editor-in-chief of The Australian, in a recent commentary on coverage of the referendum. While supportive of the referendum’s critics, he made an appeal to both sides to respect the other. </p>
<p>It was an important point. As the Harvard political scholars Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have argued in their book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/">How Democracies Die</a>, it is lack of respect for the opposing side that has been so corrosive of democracy, especially in the US, over the past two decades.</p>
<p>There are other signs the Australian media are approaching the task of covering the referendum in a way that serves the public interest. Many platforms, for example <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8156075/the-voice-to-parliament-referendum-what-it-is-how-it-will-be-conducted-and-what-it-means/">the Canberra Times</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCnv3G0rDLo">ABC</a>, have published factual and straightforward “explainers” setting out the basics of the referendum.</p>
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<p>This is one way in which the media are doing their essential job of providing the public with a bedrock of reliable information. Another is by tracking public opinion through polls, and these have been reported at frequent intervals, revealing a slow but steady increase in support for the Voice proposal.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/yes-vote-for-the-voice-is-leading-in-every-state-and-territory-poll-20230429-p5d482.html">latest YouGov poll</a> is particularly informative because it shows results state-by-state as well as nationally. On those data, the “yes” side has majority support nationally and in four of the six states, which meets the double-majority requirement for a referendum to succeed. </p>
<p>So far so good in terms of coverage. But achieving impartiality in news is also challenging the media to abandon some bad old habits, and not everyone so far is up to the task.</p>
<p>There are plentiful examples where journalists have succumbed to the temptation to fall back on the simplest, safest yet professionally inadequate way to achieve impartiality: by simply reporting what someone says and then finding someone else to oppose it.</p>
<p>It is tempting because it saves time and does not demand independent evaluative thinking. It is professionally inadequate because it is journalism as stenography, rightly dismissed nowadays as “he said, she said” journalism.</p>
<p>The result is that absurd or far-fetched propositions go unchallenged other than by an opposing political voice. When this happens, journalism’s evaluative element goes missing, leaving the audience to figure out the rights and wrongs for themselves.</p>
<p>Maintaining impartiality does not require the media to publish nonsense, and certainly does not require them to publish nonsense without drawing attention to the facts or contrary evidence.</p>
<p>The starkest examples come from stories about the scope and power of the proposed Voice.</p>
<p>There is plenty of material against which to test what people say about this:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the <a href="https://voice.gov.au/">final report</a> of the Indigenous Voice Co-design group, which is the basis for the government’s approach </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Voice_Referendum/VoiceReferendum/Submissions">submissions</a> to the parliamentary select committee inquiring into the matter from constitutional experts </p></li>
<li><p>the opinion of Commonwealth Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue, contained in <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Voice_Referendum/VoiceReferendum/Submissions">his submission</a> to that inquiry </p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr7019_ems_30a282a6-7b5a-4659-b9cb-13da5698bca1%22;src1=sm1">exact wording</a> of the proposed constitutional amendment.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The best of the reporting so far imposes these tests. A good example was the challenge on Melbourne commercial radio 3AW by Tony Jones to Sussan Ley, deputy leader of the Liberal Party, who opportunistically seized on the approach of Anzac Day to say the Voice could seek to alter Australia’s national public holidays. </p>
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<p>The worst of the reporting does not impose these tests. An example was a front-page story in The Australian, amplified by Sky News, in which Opposition Leader Peter Dutton <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/voice-to-parliament/voice-to-parliament-could-influence-every-decision-of-government-peter-dutton/video/2db297df2bcd68f9c89c49aa7a9f9b3b">said the Voice</a> could offer advice on interest rates. </p>
<p>Attempts like this to panic the population have their parallels in the scaremongering over native title 30 years ago. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mabo-decision-and-native-title-74147">Australian politics explainer: the Mabo decision and native title</a>
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</em>
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<p>Then, the likes of Jeff Kennett, as Liberal premier of Victoria, promoted the populist furphy – which <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/i-was-wrong-on-mabo-kennett-20020601-gdu9dt.html">he later repudiated</a> – that native title represented a threat to people’s backyard. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr7019_ems_30a282a6-7b5a-4659-b9cb-13da5698bca1%22;src1=sm1">proposed new section 129</a> of the Constitution, which would establish the Voice, states the function of the Voice in these terms:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Commonwealth Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The key word is “representations”. As various legal opinions make clear, this word was carefully chosen in preference to “advice” because it has less forceful connotations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-if-the-government-goes-against-the-advice-of-the-voice-to-parliament-200517">What happens if the government goes against the advice of the Voice to Parliament?</a>
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<p>A second argument against the Voice – that its representations would lead to a cascade of litigation – can be tested against the opinions of Professor Emerita <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-if-the-government-goes-against-the-advice-of-the-voice-to-parliament-200517">Anne Twomey</a>, Donaghue and other constitutional law experts, who say this would not happen.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/pauline-hanson-slams-voice-to-parliament-as-australias-version-of-apartheid/news-story/b04fc5ac4052993b407ff109dc73118f">third argument</a> is that the Voice is a mechanism to enshrine racial difference as a feature of the Constitution. </p>
<p>The final report of the co-design group argues Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are, in practice, the only racial groups in Australia for whom laws are made exclusively. The implication is that racial difference is already part of the basis for law-making in certain circumstances, and that fairness dictates those people directly affected by such laws should have a say in their formulation.</p>
<p>People who put forward arguments against the Voice deserve a fair hearing. Inconsistencies in the wording of some of the documentation raise legitimate questions, and it is also legitimate to question why the executive government has been included alongside the parliament as an institution to which the Voice can make representations.</p>
<p>However, impartiality requires that where answers to these questions exist, they should be reported, not left hanging in the air for the audience to make of it what they will. With an issue as ripe for polarisation as the Voice, that is not good enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Maintaining impartiality does not require the media to publish nonsense, and certainly does not require them to publish nonsense without drawing attention to the facts or contrary evidence.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2046832023-05-01T06:35:44Z2023-05-01T06:35:44ZWhy was Bruce Lehrmann given the all-clear to sue media for defamation? A media law expert explains<p>Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann has been given the all-clear to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-28/bruce-lehrmann-allowed-to-sue-journalists-media-outlets/102269362">continue with defamation proceedings</a> against several media outlets and journalists regarding reporting about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations.</p>
<p>Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence, and no finding has been made against him. The rape trial was abandoned last year following juror misconduct, and a second trial was not pursued amid fears for Higgins’ mental health.</p>
<p>Lehrmann is suing the Ten Network and former presenter of The Project Lisa Wilkinson, as well as News Life Media (the publisher of news.com.au) and journalist Samantha Maiden.</p>
<p>In New South Wales since 2002, and across Australia since the beginning of 2006, the limitation period for defamation claims is one year. However, the court has the power to extend the limitation period for up to three years.</p>
<p>Lehrmann needed the court to extend the limitation period because both Maiden’s story on news.com.au, and Wilkinson’s interview with Higgins on The Project, took place in mid-February 2021. Lehrmann commenced his defamation proceedings in the Federal Court almost two years later.</p>
<p>On Friday, Justice Michael Lee of the Federal Court of Australia extended the limitation period in these two defamation proceedings brought by Lehrmann.</p>
<p>As Justice Lee observed at the outset of his judgement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any sentient person with an interest in newsworthy events in Australia would be familiar with the general background to the present disputes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1648207882201219073"}"></div></p>
<p>To have the limitation period extended, Lehrmann needed to persuade the court that it was “not reasonable in the circumstances” for him to have commenced his proceedings within the one-year limitation period.</p>
<p>If the court was persuaded, it would be required to extend the limitation period, although it had discretion as to the length of the extension.</p>
<p>Justice Lee was satisfied that it was “not reasonable in the circumstances” for Lehrmann to have commenced defamation proceedings within the one-year limitation period.</p>
<p>This was mainly because it was not reasonable to commence defamation proceedings while criminal allegations were unresolved. This was the legal advice Lehrmann received from the solicitor with criminal law expertise he consulted.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-was-the-lehrmann-trial-aborted-and-what-happens-next-193382">Why was the Lehrmann trial aborted and what happens next?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As Justice Lee stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whatever way one looks at it, for Mr Lehrmann to have started defamation proceedings absent the resolution of the criminal allegations would have been for him to take a step into the unknown. Everything might well have worked out, and all respondents may have been passive, but one cannot discount as misconceived advice that taking the risk of starting was imprudent and distracting while criminal allegations were unresolved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Justice Lee’s decision followed a decision of the Full Federal Court in Joukhador v Ten Network Pty Ltd in 2021.</p>
<p>In that case, the court stated that, in general, where a person is facing a criminal charge and the publication being sued upon raises an issue about the person’s guilt or innocence, it will ordinarily not be reasonable to commence defamation proceedings within the one-year limitation period.</p>
<p>Justice Lee therefore extended the limitation period in both of the proceedings.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1598570605775028224"}"></div></p>
<p>In April this year, Lehrmann also commenced defamation proceedings against the ABC. This concerned the broadcast of the National Press Club address by Higgins and Grace Tame in February 2022.</p>
<p>Justice Lee indicated that he was inclined to hear all three proceedings together.</p>
<p>Justice Lee also raised the prospect that the case may be an appropriate one for trial by jury. This is significant because civil trials in the Federal Court are presumptively heard by a judge sitting alone. However, the court has the power to order trial by jury if “the ends of justice appear to render it expedient to do so”.</p>
<p>The Federal Court has only ordered a jury trial in civil proceedings <a href="https://abcalumni.net/2021/05/29/whos-to-judge/">once before</a>. In 2009, Justice Rares ordered a jury trial in defamation proceedings brought against The Daily Telegraph for reporting about sexual servitude allegations (the matter then settled before the trial).</p>
<p>Justice Lee sought submissions from the parties as to whether there should be a jury trial in this case. Jury trials tend to take longer and are therefore costlier than trials by judge alone.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-juries-still-deliver-justice-in-high-profile-cases-in-the-age-of-social-media-193843">Can juries still deliver justice in high-profile cases in the age of social media?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If a defamation case is brought in a State Supreme Court (other than in South Australia), either party can elect to have trial by jury. Juries are not available in defamation cases in the territories.</p>
<p>The possible trial date is mid-November this year, lasting for approximately four weeks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rolph previously received funding from the Australian Research Council that ended in 2014.</span></em></p>The trial is likely to go ahead in November this year, and last for around four weeks.David Rolph, Professor of Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2025002023-03-27T19:01:35Z2023-03-27T19:01:35Z‘The media normalises war-mongering’: how Chinese Australians respond to talk of war in mainstream media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517531/original/file-20230327-16-fnkwc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Early this month, the Daily Mail published a story online implying three Chinese men taking photos at the Avalon Airshow in Melbourne were spies. After complaints and an <a href="https://cccav.org.au/open-letter-to-daily-mail-australia-demanding-apology-for-and-removal-of-the-racially-based-accusatory-article/">open letter</a> condemning the paper for racially profiling the Chinese communities and throwing around baseless accusations, the story disappeared from the Mail’s site without explanation.</p>
<p>Then The Sydney Morning Herald’s <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/red-alert-20230306-p5cpt8.html">Red Alert series</a> hit people’s WeChat feeds, claiming a war with China could happen within three years.</p>
<p>The Daily Mail, like many other media outlets, possibly believed it could make insinuations of spying with impunity, since many of its intended readers would likely be sufficiently primed to accept such narratives as common sense.</p>
<p>In fact, a <a href="https://www.australiachinarelations.org/content/utsacribida-poll-2022">2022 poll</a> reveals: “Just over four in 10 Australians (42%) say ‘Australians of Chinese origin can be mobilised by the Chinese government to undermine Australia’s interests and social cohesion’.”</p>
<p>Commenting on the Mail’s “spy” story, La Trobe University’s <a href="https://twitter.com/NickBisley/status/1632893637926477825">Nick Bisley tweeted</a>, “Yep, this is what happens when the red menace crap is thrown around carelessly”, apparently connecting it with the Red Alert series. Several foreign affairs specialists have called the series <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/16/pretentious-hyperbolic-and-irresponsible-what-was-behind-nine-newspapers-red-alert-series">“pretentious”, “hyperbolic”, “irresponsible” and “implicitly racist”</a> reporting.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1632893637926477825"}"></div></p>
<p>Similarly, a survey I conducted recently on behalf of UTS’s Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) points to another kind of fear. The respondents were 500 migrants from mainland China. A key aim was to understand how their reading of Australian media stories about China and Chinese-Australian communities affected their sense of belonging.</p>
<p>A full analysis of the survey will be detailed in a forthcoming ACRI report. But one survey question was: “To what extent would you be concerned about your own wellbeing and that of the Chinese-Australian communities if Australia were at war with China?” More than half (54.68%) said they were “extremely concerned”. Another 36.10% said they were “quite concerned”. Only around 9% said they were not concerned.</p>
<p>When juxtaposed, these two sets of survey figures raise a “red alert” of another kind: regardless of whether a war with China will ever eventuate, Chinese Australians are rapidly becoming the first casualties of persistent war talk.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/time-to-grow-up-australias-national-security-dilemma-demands-a-mature-debate-202040">Time to grow up: Australia's national security dilemma demands a mature debate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet, while there has been a highly polarised response to the Red Alert series, very few commentators on either side have thought much about how these publications affect Chinese Australians, especially first-generation migrants from mainland China. As Yun Jiang <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/mar/09/media-hype-of-war-with-china-forgets-the-impact-on-australian-society-yun-jiang">observes</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Among all talks about preparation for a war, preparing the population for a potentially divisive society is not part of it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mainstream media outlets and commentators seem to concern themselves even less with the emotional and psychological impact such media stories have almost daily on Australian citizens with Chinese ancestry.</p>
<p>Our recently <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/63429">published study</a>, based on three years’ longitudinal research of Chinese-language digital and social media in Australia, has revealed many first-generation Mandarin speakers here experience a high level of internal conflict in relation to mainstream Australian media coverage of China. Funded by the Australian Research Council, the study found these migrants, who by <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/6101_AUS">2021</a> numbered over half a million, were caught in an increasingly hostile relationship between the two countries.</p>
<p>The study also found most respondents did not identify with the propaganda of Chinese state media. However, they were increasingly disillusioned with the Australian English-language media’s interest in reporting on China with fairness and balance.</p>
<p>For many in the various Chinese-Australian communities, including mainland migrants, reading speculations about whether there will be a war with China within six months, two years or three years is not a matter of neutral speculation. It is a constant source of anxiety, fear and uncertainty.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1632942356537417728"}"></div></p>
<p>The specific nature of their anxiety and fear became clearer after I conducted in-depth interviews with 20 individuals in the Mandarin-speaking community about their media consumption habits.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-chinese-migrants-dont-always-side-with-china-and-are-happy-to-promote-australia-126677">New research shows Chinese migrants don't always side with China and are happy to promote Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>First, many of these interviewees wondered, with a growing sense of alarm, what would happen to them if war did happen. One middle-aged female accountant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During WW1, many German Australians were interned in Australia. During WW2, many Italian migrants were interned. Sure, ours is now a very multicultural society, but who can assure us that this won’t happen to us when war breaks out? When war happens, rationality may go out the window. Look at what happened to Jewish people. I’m really worried. My daughter recently came back from school and asked me if it’s true that China will invade Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Second, many interviewees expressed the fear that this loose talk about war in the media could make war more likely. A male interviewee who works in a university said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A few years ago, if someone mentioned a war between Australia and China over Taiwan, it would have sounded preposterous. But now, people no longer find such talk fanciful. I believe the media normalises war-mongering. It upsets me very much each time I read such predictions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Third, my interviewees, like many other Chinese Australians – and Asian Australians generally – <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3213950/asian-australians-fear-red-alert-warmongering-will-fuel-rise-racist-hate">know too well</a> they will be more vulnerable to random racist attacks in public, and treated as potential agents of a hostile country, as long as talk of war persists in the media. </p>
<p>It is for precisely this reason that the Daily Mail’s “spy” story sends a chill down the spine of many people and has aroused <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/chinese/2023-03-24/chinese-communities-concerned-about-spying-red-alert-reports/102107214?utm_medium=social&utm_content=sf265296683&utm_campaign=abc_chinese&utm_source=t.co&sf265296683=1">widespread condemnation</a> from Chinese-Australian communities. As one interviewee said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>These days, it doesn’t take too much to provoke a racist. All it takes is seeing someone who looks Chinese.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wanning Sun receives funding from Australian Research Council and Australian-China Relations Institute (ACRI) UTS. </span></em></p>New research shows Australians of Chinese heritage are extremely concerned about the way relations between the two countries are portrayed in the media.Wanning Sun, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004522023-03-08T19:06:53Z2023-03-08T19:06:53ZAustralia’s media improve on diversity – but there’s still a long way to go<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513863/original/file-20230307-26-52goxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian media have been widely criticised for not representing the diversity of the community they speak to and write for – nor, importantly, the people they report on. Our <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/research/valuing-news-diversity">latest research</a> shows that while the news industry is beginning to address its lack of diversity, there is still much work to be done. </p>
<p>Findings are showcased in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.25916/vwb0-6p96">Valuing Diversity in News and Newsrooms</a> report, released today. The analysis is based on a national online survey of 2,266 Australians and 196 journalists, combined with in-depth interviews with 27 journalists about their views on diversity in the news and in newsrooms. </p>
<p>Australia is a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/latest-release">multicultural country</a>. Half (48%) the population has at least one parent born overseas. Almost one-third (28%) were themselves born overseas. One in four lives in a non-English-speaking household. </p>
<p>However, the report shows only 39% of Australians believe everyone is treated equally, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background.</p>
<p>A key reason respondents may feel this is a sense of not being seen or heard in the news. Feeling equally valued and heard is an essential ingredient of social cohesion. </p>
<p>However, when asked about fairness and amount of coverage, less than half (46%) say the news covers culturally diverse people fairly. Only 44% say there is enough coverage of issues relevant to them, while 41% say the news is impartial and unbiased when reporting on these groups. These figures drop significantly among audiences from non-European, non-Anglo or Indigenous backgrounds. </p>
<p>Most Australians consider the news media to be doing a good job of covering the most important stories of the day (76%) and reporting stories accurately (70%). However, only around half say that news organisations are doing a good job of giving voice to the underrepresented (54%), with 38% saying they are doing a bad job at this. </p>
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<p>Journalists are generally critical of the state of diversity in the industry. Only 30% of journalists say there is enough ethnic or cultural diversity in their news organisation. Around one in ten say they have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic or cultural background, and 47% of women journalists say they have experienced discrimination because of their gender. Only around half say their news organisation is doing a good job of producing news content for ethnically diverse audiences. </p>
<p>Why are we not seeing diversity in the news? Some of the answers can be found in the structure, practices and cultures of news organisations. </p>
<p>First, there are simply too few people from different cultural backgrounds in newsrooms across Australia. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/employment-2021-census">Census 2021</a>, only about 9% of journalists are from a non-Anglo or non-European background. A <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/news-opinions/2022/who-gets-to-tell-australian-stories-2.0.pdf">study that analysed 103 news programs</a> over two weeks in June 2022 found 78% of presenters, commentators and reporters had an Anglo-Celtic background. </p>
<p>Second, competing news values often push diversity down the priority list. </p>
<p>Most journalists we interviewed agreed inclusive reporting is good journalism. In the survey, we asked journalists which area of newsroom diversity they would like to prioritise: “ethnic and cultural diversity” was ranked the top.</p>
<p>However, when they are on the job and making reporting decisions, understandably they prioritise relevance to their audience (91%) first. Compared to other news values such as exclusivity (47%), capturing attention (42%) or surprise and novelty (38%), only 29% say it is very or extremely important that news includes voices from multicultural communities. </p>
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<p>Third, the “glass ceiling and sticky floor” phenomenon is persistent. We found people from ethnically or culturally diverse backgrounds seeking a career in journalism continue to face discrimination. </p>
<p>Overall, 43% of journalists agree there are barriers to getting a job in their organisation because of ethnic or cultural background. And the majority (69%) of journalists from non-Anglo/non-European backgrounds say they have experienced barriers to career progression because of their ethnic or cultural background. </p>
<p>More than two-thirds “somewhat” or “strongly agree” their organisation’s junior level is doing a good job with employee diversity (67%). In stark contrast, only 23% “somewhat” or “strongly agree” that senior levels at their organisation are doing well with employee diversity. </p>
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<p>Fourth, there is not enough training and support from the organisation. </p>
<p>Over half (52%) of journalists say their news organisation has policies relating to language use about ethnically diverse communities. About half (49%) also say their organisation collects or monitors staff diversity. However, only 39% received training on how to cover issues of diversity in the past year. </p>
<p>The journalists we interviewed cautioned against inclusion as a “box-ticking” exercise, and labelling people from diverse backgrounds. A journalist from an Asian background talked about an inclusivity workshop where participants were all non-white, emphasising the importance of making sure journalists from all cultural backgrounds receive adequate training. </p>
<p>News organisations have made significant efforts to improve newsroom diversity in recent years. Despite this, we still have a long way to go in shifting the culture, removing unconscious bias and making space for journalists from diverse cultural backgrounds. </p>
<p>Trust and engagement with the news media are directly related to audiences’ perceptions of <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-06/apo-nid312650_0.pdf">adequate and fair representation</a>. So for news organisations seeking to regain audience trust, it is vital to have journalists from diverse cultural backgrounds telling stories from their experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Google News Initiative, Australian Community Media and Australia Council for the Arts. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jee Young Lee receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Google News Initiative, Australian Community Media and Australia Council for the Arts.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran McGuinness has received funding from Google News Initiative and the Australian Communications and Media Authority. </span></em></p>New research shows that while media companies are now much more reflective of the community they represent, there is still work to be done on inclusion in journalism.Sora Park, Professor of Communication, News & Media Research Centre, University of CanberraJee Young Lee, Lecturer, News & Media Research Centre, University of CanberraKieran McGuinness, Postdoctoral Fellow, News & Media Research Centre, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008212023-03-01T19:05:30Z2023-03-01T19:05:30ZInterviews with journalists can seem daunting – but new research shows 80% of subjects report a positive experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512823/original/file-20230301-24-nrewd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3840%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust, and betraying them without remorse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So begins Janet Malcolm’s renowned book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106480/the-journalist-and-the-murderer-by-janet-malcolm/">The Journalist and the Murderer</a>. It was written more than 30 years ago, yet this negative notion has endured.</p>
<p>Journalists are still frequently condemned for how they interact with the people they interview. Indeed, with the advent of televised press conferences, journalists are facing more scrutiny and criticism than ever about their interviewing techniques.</p>
<p>It’s a perception that’s rarely challenged, even by journalists. But our <a href="https://giwl.anu.edu.au/research/publications/going-record-gendered-experiences-media-engagement">new research</a> suggests giving news interviews is generally a positive experience.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>With colleagues from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at ANU, we surveyed 220 Australian adults who had given news interviews or who have the potential to do so.</p>
<p>Some were subject experts. Others were spokespeople for organisations or communities. We asked them about their willingness to speak to the news media and what may influence that decision. We also asked open-ended questions about what makes for a positive or negative interview.</p>
<p>More than 80% of participants reported their overall experience of giving news interviews was positive. Only 6% reported an overall negative experience. A female university expert said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve had a really positive experience with news media, which is not something I would have expected as someone who is actually quite shy and introverted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And a male community spokesperson said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>99% of my media experiences have been very positive and rewarding.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While most people also reported some issues such as rude journalists or rushed interviews, these tended to be the exception rather than the norm.</p>
<p>There’s little research about the attitudes of “sources” or “talents” who are approached by journalists to provide news interviews. Most of it has focused on people who frequently engage with the media, such as politicians.</p>
<p>The limited other research that considers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5225936_Interactions_with_the_Mass_Media">subject experts</a> and “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884916636125">ordinary people</a>” who engage with the news media aligns with our findings. Even though they may have found inaccuracies in the reporting, the sources considered the overall experience to be positive and beneficial.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-wants-to-change-the-way-politics-is-done-this-means-the-way-politics-is-reported-will-have-to-change-too-187778">Albanese wants to change the way politics is done. This means the way politics is reported will have to change too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Women are just as willing</h2>
<p>When I <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849211007038">interviewed 30 female academics</a> about their attitudes towards engaging with the media a few years ago, 90% described their overall experience as positive. All but one said they were willing to give news interviews.</p>
<p>This finding was replicated in our new research. More than 80% of people surveyed were willing to give news interviews. Women were just as willing as men.</p>
<p>This is significant because numerous studies from around the world have found news coverage is dominated by the voices of men. Around <a href="https://waccglobal.org/our-work/global-media-monitoring-project-gmmp/">75% of people quoted, heard or seen in the news are men</a>, according to research by the Global Media Monitoring Project.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1390542643738779649"}"></div></p>
<p>Some argue this is because women are less willing to do media interviews. Our research refutes this argument, but it does highlight some notable gender differences in experiences and attitudes.</p>
<p>Women reported significantly lower confidence than men. Only 5% were “very confident”, compared to 20% of men. Women were more likely to refuse an interview request due to concerns about their appearance, a perceived lack of expertise, and fear of online harassment.</p>
<p>Concerns about online harassment were legitimate, with 38% of participants saying they had experienced trolling in response to giving a media interview. Men and women were both targeted, but women were more likely to receive sexist abuse.</p>
<h2>Generally a valuable experience</h2>
<p>Despite these issues and reservations, the participants were generally willing to speak to the media, which makes sense – people usually welcome the opportunity to talk about their area of expertise or share their experience. Inclusion in the news signals credibility and authority. Yes, there are risks to speaking out, but there are significant benefits too. </p>
<p>And there are certain ways journalists can approach a prospective source and carry out interviews to make them feel more comfortable and confident. Our research outlines some of these strategies and techniques, based on feedback from our participants. For example, when you approach a source for an interview:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>be clear about what you are seeking from the source and why you want to speak to them</p></li>
<li><p>demonstrate that you’ve done your research</p></li>
<li><p>provide a quick run-through of what to expect</p></li>
<li><p>be courteous and flexible regarding timing</p></li>
<li><p>and provide a few questions beforehand.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-ever-okay-for-journalists-to-lie-to-get-a-story-196358">Is it ever okay for journalists to lie to get a story?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I’m looking forward to sharing these findings with my journalism students, who tend to believe that asking someone to give an interview is always a major imposition. This research is good news for established journalists too, who rarely get direct feedback about the interview experience.</p>
<p>But perhaps more importantly, it’s encouraging for people who engage with the media or have the potential to do so. The way journalists interact with politicians (who, they would argue, typically avoid answering questions) during press conferences is not reflective of the usual interview experience.</p>
<p>It might be intimidating to speak to the news media but our research suggests it’s generally a good and valuable experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Shine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though concerns about online harassment were legitimate, with 38% of participants saying they had experienced trolling in response to giving a media interview.Kathryn Shine, Associate professor, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951932022-12-01T22:59:43Z2022-12-01T22:59:43ZEthnic community media can play a key role in a crisis – but it needs our support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498382/original/file-20221201-24-16ycmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3597%2C1882&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/overwhelmingly-anglo-celtic-new-report-shows-diversity-still-lacking-on-australian-free-to-air-tv-news-195091">Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories?</a> report on diversity in Australian newsrooms revealed some grim, but unsurprising figures. The report found most television news and current affairs presenters on major Australian free-to-air networks are Anglo-Celtic. So too were most senior network news editors.</p>
<p>One part of this problem is a lack of <a href="https://melbourneasiareview.edu.au/the-place-voice-and-portrayal-of-asians-in-australia/?print=pdf">representation of Asian</a> people in Australian mainstream newsrooms.</p>
<p>Despite (or perhaps because of) this, ethnic media outlets have proved indispensable to Australia’s media landscape. For example, the first two years of the pandemic showed the crucial role ethnic media outlets can play keeping Australians informed in a crisis.</p>
<p>So what now? How can ethnic media be supported to continue to inform Australians, and how might mainstream media need to change to better serve these communities? Drawing on <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=Q4j9Q9MAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">our</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=GdZKkVEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">research</a> on Chinese and Sri Lankan communities in Australia, here are some possible paths ahead.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-stop-fake-election-news-spreading-in-migrant-communities-182119">How can we stop fake election news spreading in migrant communities?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Older migrants are online and looking for information</h2>
<p>Our research focused on older people, who are often assumed to be not particularly active online. But that’s not the case. </p>
<p>Older Australians have <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-05/The%20digital%20lives%20of%20older%20Australians.pdf">embraced digital technologies</a> and <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/communicating-covid-19-to-our-older-culturally-diverse-australians?utm_content=story&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR10yZQi5fDAiFJfRj-GuWbfJXU760Bu0qKpFfNMEofhXxawnb2v6PhJlXk">research</a> <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X221095582">has shown</a> many older Asian migrants use digital media. This is certainly true among older members of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X19875854">Chinese</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2022.2046895">Sri Lankan</a> communities we spoke with.</p>
<p>Our interviews with older Chinese and Sri Lankan migrants in Melbourne revealed nearly all had more than one digital device. Nearly all used social media to connect with friends and family in Australia and abroad. </p>
<p>Most didn’t get news and information from mainstream media outlets, with the exception of SBS’s in-language radio programs. But many didn’t know these programs also distribute news content on Facebook (in Sinhala and Chinese), WeChat (in Mandarin) and Telegram (in Cantonese). Our participants instead frequently accessed news from community Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups and WeChat news accounts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498379/original/file-20221201-18-iq7whf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many older Chinese migrants in Australia get their news from WeChat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the early part of the pandemic, many actively sought news and health information about COVID through traditional and digital news platforms. But our participants reported it was ethnic community media that played a central role keeping these Australians informed. These included media outlets such as Today Media and YeeYi Australia on WeChat, and Sri Lankan online community news media outlets such as Pahana and Aus News Lanka on Facebook. </p>
<p>All our Sri Lankan interviewees spoke fluent English and used Facebook, but felt Australian mainstream media did not satisfy their news needs. Instead, they preferred media sources attuned to their cultural contexts, which often included narrative and storytelling forms of reportage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/chinese/">ABC</a> and <a href="https://cn.theaustralian.com.au/">The Australian</a> have started to offer news services in Chinese (ABC also has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/indonesian/">Indonesian</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/tok-pisin/">Pidgin</a>). But they tend to distribute these daily news updates via Facebook and Twitter. None of our Chinese participants used these platforms. Both ABC and The Australian have WeChat accounts but they are not updated daily. Only SBS Mandarin uses WeChat to provide daily updates about news and current affairs.</p>
<h2>A greater role</h2>
<p>COVID serves as an example of the role ethnic media outlets can play in keeping Australians informed but it is far from the only challenge facing Australia.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/18/wed-have-lost-lives-cultural-officer-decries-absence-of-translators-in-shepparton-flood-response">Victoria’s recent flooding crisis</a>, for example, saw culturally and linguistically diverse communities negatively impacted by the absence of good systems to communicate important information quickly.</p>
<p>In future, perhaps governments and other authorities could engage Chinese and Sri Lankan community and ethnic media organisations to produce and disseminate disaster materials in language. A lack of engagement with ethnic media risks fuelling distrust of Australian authorities and creates the conditions under which misinformation can flourish.</p>
<p>Government and disaster authorities could consider creating registers of locally-based ethnic language media outlets (both digital and non-digital). These outlets could be briefed and called upon to spread important information when disaster strikes.</p>
<p>Governments could also consider funding training for staff working in ethnic media. Training could cover issues such as ethics, journalism codes of conduct, Australian media law, and ways to collaborate with their colleagues working in mainstream media.</p>
<p>There’s a role to play for mainstream media too. These organisations and their journalists should consult closely with migrant cultural associations to enable culturally inclusive coverage and the distribution of content that’s relevant to these communities.</p>
<p>Finally, governments should have a systematic approach to collaborating with ethnic language media to provide accurate, timely and culturally and linguistically accessible content to diverse communities during major public incidents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-communities-keep-our-cemeteries-alive-as-more-anglo-australians-turn-to-cremation-124180">Migrant communities keep our cemeteries alive as more Anglo-Australians turn to cremation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wilfred Yang Wang is affiliated with Victorian Multicultural Commission, Knox Multicultural Advisory Committee and Centre for Holistic Health. This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shashini Gamage has done consultancy work at the Australia Awards.
</span></em></p>How can ethnic media outlets be supported to continue to inform Australians, and how might mainstream media need to change to better serve these communities?Wilfred Yang Wang, Lecturer in Media & Communications Studies, The University of MelbourneShashini Gamage, Research and Teaching Associate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945402022-11-16T23:18:43Z2022-11-16T23:18:43ZLocal newspapers are vital for disadvantaged communities, but they’re struggling too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495249/original/file-20221115-21-3zokly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5538%2C3686&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As residents in the small Victorian city of Portland voiced concerns about the loss of vital healthcare services in their area, the local newspaper – <a href="https://spec.com.au/article/general/2022/06/05/hospital-woes-catch-opposition-leaders-ear/">The Portland Observer</a> – was there to cover the story. It produced a series of reports highlighting the impact on residents (including a <a href="https://spec.com.au/article/general/2022/04/08/it-was-just-good-luck/">baby being born in a carpark</a>), eventually attracting <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/mothers-devastated-as-birthing-unit-suspended-amid-portland-hospital-crisis-20220323-p5a710.html">broader media attention</a> and putting pressure on politicians to act.</p>
<p>This is just one example of how rural and regional newspapers can play an <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Local_Journalism_in_a_Digital_World/WsZKEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">important role</a> in serving their communities. </p>
<p>Small, local newspapers can campaign and advocate on key issues such as roads, telecommunications infrastructure, or improved mental health services. In many ways, they are an essential service for rural communities. </p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Regionalnewspapers/Report">future of rural newspapers</a> is uncertain. Advertising revenue is declining and they face tough competition from tech giants. Several closed their doors during the pandemic, leaving many areas without local news services.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495250/original/file-20221115-11-91vwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The future of rural newspapers is uncertain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/print-isnt-dead-major-survey-reveals-local-newspapers-vastly-preferred-over-google-among-country-news-consumers-160353">Print isn't dead: major survey reveals local newspapers vastly preferred over Google among country news consumers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>Portland, in the Glenelg Shire Council, is in the bottom third of the list of Australia’s <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/2033.0.55.0012016?OpenDocument">disadvantaged local government areas</a>. Across Australia, the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7ESocio-Economic%20Advantage%20and%20Disadvantage%7E123press%22%22">top ten regions for socio-economic disadvantage</a> are based in rural and regional areas. This means local newspapers are especially important in such communities.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.localnewsinnovation.org/">research team</a> examined the future of local, independently owned newspapers across country Australia. Of the 180 newspapers across the <a href="https://countrypressaustralia.com.au/">Country Press Australia</a> network, a considerable proportion serve disadvantaged populations.</p>
<p>Other areas, such as the mining town of Lightning Ridge in the Walgett shire (ranked 39 in the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/2033.0.55.0012016?OpenDocument">Australian Bureau of Statistics’</a> disadvantaged local government area list) have no local newspaper, and rely on an intermittent Facebook page. <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.996025496767872">Research</a> reveals local residents here feel they lack important information about civic, social and political affairs.</p>
<p>The role of local media in rural and regional areas is especially highlighted in times of hardship, such as during floods or drought.</p>
<p>When disaster strikes, local newspapers can promote community cohesion and resilience. A local printed newspaper is especially important in areas with poor <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-16/australia-digital-divide-millions-cannot-access-internet/101498042">digital connectivity</a> (in other words, much of rural Australia).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495272/original/file-20221115-13-87381l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A local printed newspaper is especially important in areas with poor digital connectivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It takes time, effort and money</h2>
<p>Of course, local media can also generate <a href="https://firstnationsmedia.org.au/sites/default/files/files/Submissions/Media%2520Diversity%2520in%2520Australia%2520submission%25202020.pdf">inequalities</a>. They can end up ignoring marginalised voices and privileging the powerful. </p>
<p>But here, we argue, the benefits of independent public interest journalism in local communities outweigh the negatives when it comes to spotlighting issues about disadvantage. They are, despite their imperfections, a fundamental essential service for disadvantaged rural and regional areas.</p>
<p>Practicing local journalism, however, takes time, effort and money. Many newsrooms operate, as one small newspaper proprietor put it, “on the smell of an oily rag”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.localnewsinnovation.org/">Our research</a> has looked at some of the sector’s structural issues especially, in an effort to find ways to maintain or improve resources for rural media. </p>
<p>This has included, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>stemming loss of revenue from local, state and federal government advertising spend, which has been redirected to social media</p></li>
<li><p>alternative business models</p></li>
<li><p>collaboration </p></li>
<li><p>drawing more on community contributed content.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-regional-media-bailout-doesnt-go-far-enough-here-are-reforms-we-really-need-144666">The government's regional media bailout doesn't go far enough — here are reforms we really need</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A role for government</h2>
<p>Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews recently <a href="https://www.danandrews.com.au/news/backing-regional-news-in-regional-communities">announced</a> an election pledge to guarantee his government would pay for a full-page public notice “every single week in every single regional newspaper”. This move, he said, would “bring some certainty to your business model”. </p>
<p>Subject to ironing out the finer details, this is an important and necessary step to securing the future of local news. The Victorian government recognises the importance of this type of expenditure more than any other government in the country, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Regionalnewspapers/Report">according to the latest government inquiry</a>.</p>
<p>A further challenge is to prioritise support for small independent media in the country’s most disadvantaged areas, where the commercial advertising dollar is arguably scarce. </p>
<p>In recent years, two rounds of <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-technology-communications/television/relief-australian-media-during-covid-19">federal government funding packages</a> have been open to media outlets to apply for help, employ new journalists and purchase digital equipment or online services. </p>
<p>However, new start-ups did not qualify for the funding, even when they play a vital role in keeping communities informed in the interests of democracy.</p>
<p>Any public money granted to private media entities must benefit community, so any
rural and regional newspapers receiving government funding will need to be monitored. With the right policy settings, we can support them to ensure they are producing quality, local, public interest journalism that represents their diverse communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Hess receives funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage program to examine the civic value of country newspapers with support of Country Press Australia. She also receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery program and the Victorian Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation Hub. This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison McAdam receives funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage program to examine the civic value of country newspapers with support of Country Press Australia.</span></em></p>Across Australia, the top ten regions for socio-economic disadvantage are based in rural and regional areas. Local newspapers are especially important in such communities.Kristy Hess, Professor (Communication), Deakin UniversityAlison McAdam, Lecturer in Professional Practice (Communication), Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931022022-10-27T23:00:52Z2022-10-27T23:00:52ZJournalists must be protected in police investigations. Here’s our five point plan for reform<p>Australia is now 39th in Reporters Sans Frontiers’ <a href="https://rsf.org/en/country/australia">World Press Freedom Index</a>, a staggering decline of 20 places since 2018. This reflects a fact acknowledged by both the Morrison and Albanese governments: Australia has a press freedom problem. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-raids-on-australian-media-present-a-clear-threat-to-democracy-118334">2019 AFP raids</a> on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC prompted two parliamentary inquiries and as many <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-did-the-high-court-find-in-the-annika-smethurst-v-afp-case-136176">constitutional challenges</a>. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/whistleblowers-on-trial-richard-boyle-and-david-mcbride">prosecutions</a> of whistleblowers David McBride, Witness K and Richard Boyle revealed the potential consequences for those who expose government wrongdoing. </p>
<p>Vast and complex <a href="https://theconversation.com/before-9-11-australia-had-no-counter-terrorism-laws-now-we-have-92-but-are-we-safer-166273">security laws</a>, set against an absence of protections unique in the Western world, have made public interest reporting a risky business for journalists and their sources.</p>
<p>These problems are well known, but we are yet to see actual law reform to support public interest journalism. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1521445500985036801"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-a-media-freedom-act-heres-how-it-could-work-125315">Australia needs a Media Freedom Act. Here's how it could work</a>
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<hr>
<h2>A commitment to reform</h2>
<p>Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus recently <a href="https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/speeches/address-national-press-club-australia-12-10-2022">assured</a> Australians his government was “going to do something” about press freedom reform.</p>
<p>Specifically, it would act on Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_and_Security/FreedomofthePress">recommendations</a> made in 2020 and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_and_Security/FreedomofthePress/Government_Response">accepted</a> by the Morrison government. </p>
<p>A central pillar of the committee’s report were reforms to federal warrant applications. </p>
<p>It recommended only senior judges have the power to grant warrants relating to journalists and media organisations. </p>
<p>It also said the “interests of public interest journalism” should be represented by a government-appointed “public interest advocate”. Otherwise, warrant applications should remain <em>ex parte</em> (meaning without the knowledge or presence of other parties, such as the affected media organisation).</p>
<p>The government has committed to these reforms. But as several overseas examples show, the proposals go nowhere near far enough to address the deficiencies in press freedom in Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/security-committee-recommends-bare-minimum-of-reform-to-protect-press-freedom-145105">Security committee recommends bare minimum of reform to protect press freedom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Learning from our allies</h2>
<p>Under US law, a blanket protection exists to prevent state access to journalistic materials, subject to strictly limited exemptions. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, as in <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-1977-047#pt.2-div.2B">Queensland</a> and <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ea200880/s126k.html">Victoria</a>, a journalist cannot be forced to show police materials that would identify a confidential source (unless a judge determines the public interest in the administration of justice outweighs the public interests in source confidentiality and press freedom).</p>
<p>In <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2017_22/FullText.html">Canada</a>, only a senior judge may grant police access to information a journalist holds – and only where there is no alternative and access is justified by a robust public interest test. </p>
<p>The most compelling framework is presented by the UK <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/contents">Police and Criminal Evidence Act</a>, which <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_115952/protection-of-journalists-sources-bill">New Zealand</a> is on the cusp of embracing.</p>
<p>UK police cannot get a warrant to see any journalistic materials such as recordings or documents (unless it is necessary to avoid seriously prejudicing an investigation).</p>
<p>Instead, UK law sets up a special process by which police apply for “production orders”, which the media gets a chance to contest. </p>
<p>Access to journalistic material will only be granted if other methods of getting the material have been tried (or would be futile) and if access is in the public interest.</p>
<p>In recognition of journalists’ ethical obligations to protect their confidential sources, police access to confidential journalistic materials is limited to terrorism investigations. Even then, strict limitations and protections apply. </p>
<p>These considerations are not taken lightly. UK courts have emphasised the high bar police must reach to obtain a production order, and the importance of rights to privacy and press freedom.</p>
<h2>A five point plan</h2>
<p>Australia remains the only liberal democracy lacking a national bill or charter of human rights, with the protections for privacy, speech and press freedom they usually entail. </p>
<p>Something would be better than nothing. But compared to international practice, the Parliamentary Joint Committee recommendations fall short.</p>
<p>Tellingly, Dreyfus and his Labor colleagues on the committee <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_and_Security/FreedomofthePress/Report/section?id=committees%2freportjnt%2f024411%2f73639">noted</a> the recommendations did “not go far enough” and were “a bare minimum – a starting point – for reform.”</p>
<p>Now Dreyfus is attorney-general and can actually drive reform. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, and Australia could introduce laws shaped by the experience of our closest international partners. </p>
<p>We suggest a five point plan based on comparative research and analysis: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>create a special framework of production orders for controlling state access to <em>all</em> journalistic materials, not just confidential source information.</p></li>
<li><p>have only senior judges determine access to such material.</p></li>
<li><p>create a mechanism by which access can be contested in court prior to being executed.</p></li>
<li><p>ensure substantive protection via a clear public interest test. Investigators should only be able to access journalistic material if there is no reasonable alternative source and the public interest in the investigation of crime outweighs the public interest in press freedom.</p></li>
<li><p>in exceptional circumstances, police may be able to get a warrant (without the knowledge of the media organisation they’re targeting) instead of a production order. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In these exceptional circumstances referred to in point five, however: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>a public interest advocate should be present to represent the public interest in press freedom</p></li>
<li><p>the warrant should be drafted as narrowly as possible, and </p></li>
<li><p>if a warrant is granted and executed, any seized material should be held by a court so media can challenge police access and, if necessary, for this to be resolved by a court. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Police raids on Australian media have tangible effects on press freedom, but they are not the whole story. Meaningful protections should also:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>safeguard journalists’ sources through privacy law</p></li>
<li><p>enhance whistleblower protections</p></li>
<li><p>limit data surveillance, and</p></li>
<li><p>include journalism-based defences to certain criminal offences.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>With both sides of politics behind press freedom reforms, now is the time to support democracy. Australia must not slip further down in global standings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Ananian-Welsh receives funding UQ Advancement funding.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Bosland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s press freedom problems have been acknowledged by both the Morrison and Albanese governments. However, we’re yet to see any actual law reform to support public interest journalism.Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of QueenslandJason Bosland, Associate Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928532022-10-26T00:27:29Z2022-10-26T00:27:29ZMedia ignore women’s diverse backgrounds when reporting on family violence: new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491282/original/file-20221024-4807-gedn81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>News reporting on sexual and domestic violence ignores the multiple inequities faced by victims from culturally diverse backgrounds, and First Nations peoples. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363392070_Australian_Media_Intersectionality_and_Reporting_on_Violence_against_Women_from_Diverse_Backgrounds">content analysis</a> of stories published in three prominent Australian media found only a handful of stories mentioned “intersectional” factors such as race, class, caste, sexuality, age and ability. These factors often make it harder for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to seek support. </p>
<p>The analysis of 191 stories about people from culturally diverse backgrounds, published by The Age, the Herald Sun, and the ABC during the second COVID lockdown in September-December 2020, did not contextualise their reporting on domestic and sexual violence. </p>
<p>Except for a handful of stories, most media reported the crimes as isolated incidents of violence rather than a social problem.</p>
<p>The reporting often ignored important information such as victims’ status as new immigrants, their visa status restricting them to work in Australia, financial and social isolation, and cultural backgrounds.</p>
<p>One of the exceptions was an article by the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/migrant-women-face-struggle-to-end-domestic-violence-nightmare/12925848">ABC’s Herlyn Kaur</a>, which noted many migrant women wanted to leave their violent marriages but were unaware of their rights. A growing number of migrant women are seeking help from women’s refuges, on average staying there for 46 nights, which is 14 nights more than non-culturally diverse women.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/no-public-outrage-no-vigils-australias-silence-at-violence-against-indigenous-women-158875">First Nations leaders</a> and <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/resource/changing-the-picture/">organisations</a> working to prevent violence against women and children have noted the use of stereotypes, framing stories in a sensational way, and ignoring violence committed against Indigenous women. </p>
<p>First Nations women are five times more likely to experience physical violence and three times more likely to experience sexual violence than other Australian women, according to <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/quick-facts/">Our Watch</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-public-outrage-no-vigils-australias-silence-at-violence-against-indigenous-women-158875">No public outrage, no vigils: Australia's silence at violence against Indigenous women</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Women from diverse backgrounds make up a significant proportion of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2021-census-nearly-half-australians-have-parent-born-overseas">the Australian population</a>. Almost 28% of residents are born overseas, while 22% use a language other than English at home. </p>
<p>The recently launched National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children (2022-2032), emphasises a need for using an <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-national-plan-aims-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-in-one-generation-can-it-succeed-192497">intersectional lens</a> when supporting victim-survivors of domestic and sexual violence. </p>
<h2>Greater diversity in media is also needed</h2>
<p>Australian newsrooms lag behind. This research found that less than a third (32.82%) of the stories about domestic and sexual violence against culturally and linguistically diverse Australians were reported by a journalist from a non-Anglo-Celtic background. A little over 69% of the news stories were reported by a journalist from an Anglo-Celtic background, while more than 41% were written by a male reporter. Some stories were written by more than one journalist, while about 5% had no byline.</p>
<p>In Victoria, family violence–related crimes increased by 7.5% between October 2019 and September 2020, with more than <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-s-crime-rate-rises-on-the-back-of-32-000-lockdown-breaches-20201217-p56o7t.html">90,000 offenses</a> recorded. But, the number of news reports on violence against women remained miniscule. In the study period, about 500 articles on domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual violence were published by the three media outlets. Of these, 191 referred to a person or the issue of culturally and linguistically diverse background.</p>
<p>The context of domestic and sexual violence is important, because nearly a third of <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-australia-2019/contents/summary">Australians believe</a> women who do not leave their abusive partners are partly responsible for the continuation of domestic violence. Moreover, 42% agree it is common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men. </p>
<p>Nuanced reporting of violence against women from culturally diverse backgrounds will sensitise the population to the complexity of the issue. It will also encourage governments to offer information, support and services that match the multitude of inequities they endure.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-national-plan-aims-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-in-one-generation-can-it-succeed-192497">A new national plan aims to end violence against women and children 'in one generation'. Can it succeed?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>This research finds an overwhelming number of news reports do not mention any factors that may affect victims and victim-survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The research raises a question: would a better understanding of the culturally diverse backgrounds of the victims help a journalist to report the nuances of these factors that multiply the suffering of victims? </p>
<p>The findings argue that diversity among journalists employed by Australian newsrooms is yet another area that needs attention. Increasing diversity would mean news stories about violence against women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and First Nations are reported with an intersectional lens.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that overwhelmingly, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whitewash-on-the-box-how-a-lack-of-diversity-on-australian-television-damages-us-all-143434">Australian television news and current affairs</a> programs are curated, framed and presented by journalists and commentators from an Anglo-Celtic background. </p>
<h2>Some signs of progress</h2>
<p>On a positive note, this research found that news reports came from a variety of sources. They include:</p>
<ul>
<li>violence against women experts, advocates, and representatives of organisations supporting victims (21.75%)</li>
<li>the courts (20.85%)</li>
<li>interviews with a significant number of neighbours, relatives, and eyewitnesses (19.03%). </li>
</ul>
<p>This is a positive change from the past, when research found <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources/PVAW/PVAW-in-the-media/VH_PVAW_Fact-Sheet_web.pdf?la=en&hash=5669704E56FC7C72C278FA41CB04A56E2498F23C">the dominant source</a> of stories about violence against women was law enforcement personnel.</p>
<p>Additionally, about a quarter of the stories raised some of the legal constraints that stopped journalists from providing important details. These included victims and their families being able to speak about the crimes without the risk of prosecution. </p>
<p>News articles in each of the three media touched on the campaign <a href="https://www.letusspeak.com.au/">#LetHerSpeak</a>, which was launched in November 2018 to abolish gag laws in some states in Australia that apply to sexual assault victims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192853/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>A new study of Australian media has found important cultural and social factors are omitted in reports about domestic violence. More must be done to improve understanding by journalists and audiences.Usha Manchanda Rodrigues, Professor, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1906452022-09-14T20:03:45Z2022-09-14T20:03:45ZMedia coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death began well, but quickly descended into farce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484589/original/file-20220914-18-bmfzf6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C17%2C3910%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saturday front pages of major papers commemorating the Queen's death.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">News Corp Australia, Nine Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia, as in Britain and the United States, professional mass media are part of the Establishment. This status even has its own name: the fourth estate. So at times like the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the pressure to conform to political and social expectations is intense.</p>
<p>Those expectations include treating such a story as being of overwhelming importance, and preferring to promote unity over divisiveness, respectfulness over criticism, the status quo over radical change, politesse over frankness, and sentimentality over hard-headedness.</p>
<p>It is a time when the fourth estate puts aside its fundamental role of holding power to account so as not to risk being pilloried for betraying those expectations.</p>
<p>The end result is what we have seen in abundance since Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8 2022. If it looks like a reflection of Establishment interests, that’s because it is.</p>
<p>But it is also, to an immeasurable but unmistakable extent, a reflection of public expectations too.</p>
<p>Queen Elizabeth was the only head of state any Australian not in their seventies has ever known. The esteem in which she was held has been obvious for many years simply by virtue of the accepted political wisdom that the prospect of Australians voting for a republic in her lifetime was nil.</p>
<p>It is only fair, then, that any critique of the coverage be set against the background of those realities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484575/original/file-20220914-16-m87akh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth’s death was a huge story and it was right for the media to treat it as such. But it went on for too long and became increasingly banal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Australian media certainly treated this as a story of overwhelming importance. On the Friday and Saturday immediately following the Queen’s death this was amply shown by rolling television coverage, commemorative lift-outs and wraparounds in the newspapers, followed by extensive coverage on inside pages.</p>
<p>There is a fixed routine to covering events like this – a trunk story summarising the main news points, reaction from political leaders, tributes, stories of ordinary people’s encounters with the queen, a potted history of her reign, reminiscences of her visits to Australia. It was all there.</p>
<p>So was the shmaltzy tone. From the Sydney Morning Herald: her “lasting love for the harbour city” and “We did but see her passing by […]”.</p>
<p>However, there was also in the SMH and elsewhere clear-eyed analyses of the fragile state of the United Kingdom and the contrast between the two Elizabethan eras. In the late 16th century, England was growing into a mighty military and commercial power; the reign of Elizabeth II was a period of long-run decline.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-queen-has-left-her-mark-around-the-world-but-not-all-see-it-as-something-to-be-celebrated-190343">The Queen has left her mark around the world. But not all see it as something to be celebrated</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>A striking aspect of the television coverage was that on the Friday night, Seven’s and Nine’s news bulletins heavily outrated the ABC’s. OzTAM TV ratings, from Australia’s five biggest cities, showed Seven News attracting 852,000 viewers, Nine News 736,000 and the ABC’s Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), only 201,000.</p>
<p>Even allowing for the fact the commercial bulletins usually out-rate the ABC’s, on a story like this it might be expected that the national broadcaster would at least close the gap.</p>
<p>However, over the weekend none of the networks’ news specials attracted many viewers. Seven’s coverage of the proclamation of Charles III attracted 279,000, its tribute to the Queen 136,000, and the ABC’s continuing coverage 206,000.</p>
<p>There is a lesson here. Public expectations about how stories of overwhelming importance are covered have clearly shifted. Rolling television coverage now loses impetus swiftly unless there is new material continuously replenishing it, as with the September 11 attacks on the US or bushfire emergencies. The same lesson probably applies to the print media also.</p>
<p>The steam had started to go out of the royal story by Saturday evening. The death of the Queen and the proclamation of the King had been done.</p>
<p>By Sunday, the only development was the start of the journey bringing the Queen’s body from Balmoral Castle to London.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beheaded-and-exiled-the-two-previous-king-charleses-bookended-the-abolition-of-the-monarchy-190410">Beheaded and exiled: the two previous King Charleses bookended the abolition of the monarchy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet the ABC’s 7pm bulletin stuck with this for 24 minutes, nearly all of it rehashed from the previous day, and on Monday the newspapers were still giving over six or more forward news pages to it.</p>
<p>The coverage has just got more bizarre and banal by the day: clouds containing visions of the queen’s head or the queen on a horse; the new king losing his temper over a leaky fountain pen; a little girl who dresses up like the queen when she rides her horse; another little girl cuddling a corgi.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1569815859895607296"}"></div></p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Ukraine there has been a decisive thrust by Ukrainian forces, which has pushed the Russians out of a substantial part of the Donbas region.</p>
<p>There comes a point at which editors and news directors need to recognise that expectations about the big story have been met. That point was reached by Saturday evening. Then was the time to cut back hard and wait for the funeral.</p>
<p>The fact that thousands of dollars have been spent sending teams to London doesn’t justify clogging up the news with non-stories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Australian media’s blanket coverage of the sovereign’s death was a reflection of public expectations, but it was allowed to drag on and became increasingly bizarre.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877782022-07-31T20:05:19Z2022-07-31T20:05:19ZAlbanese wants to change the way politics is done. This means the way politics is reported will have to change too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476646/original/file-20220729-5168-t3rcsj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3694%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If politics really is to be done differently, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised, then the way politics is reported will need to be done differently too.</p>
<p>This is because the media’s power to portray will determine how the electorate perceives whether change is happening.</p>
<p>It is a reciprocating process. The way politicians perform influences the media’s portrayal of them, and how the media portray politicians in turn influences political practice.</p>
<p>One benchmark for helping us assess whether the promised change materialises is provided by academic <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/may/judith-brett/morrison-s-power-without-purpose">Judith Brett’s characterisation</a> of the Morrison administration:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The blame shifting, the careless inattention, the failure to prepare, the blatant favouring of Coalition and marginal seats with government largesse, the focus on announcements with little follow-up, the absence of serious concern about corruption and integrity […] </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that benchmark takes into account only the performance of the politicians. What about the media?</p>
<p>The media do appear to be in the early stages of changing the way they report federal politics. But this change is tentative, patchy and uncertain.</p>
<p>For instance, the coverage of the government’s actions on foreign policy has on the whole been straightforward and informative. That was until someone in the media pack travelling with Albanese in Europe asked why the prime minister’s visit to Ukraine was not equivalent to Morrison’s holiday to Hawaii during the 2019 bushfires. Albanese slapped down the comparison as “offensive”.</p>
<p>The on-the-road media pack had a bad election campaign disfigured by exactly this kind of juvenile “gotcha” reporting. Clearly in some parts of the media, the atmosphere of anticipated change has not penetrated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476634/original/file-20220729-17-7ablg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some in the media are still struggling to adapt to the change of government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other parts of the media it clearly has, but there is an undercurrent of tentativeness, understandably so. Politics done differently suggests politics with fewer culture wars, fewer scandals, more policy focus, more incrementalism.</p>
<p>Moreover, a good deal of ideological steam has gone out of the political discourse as issues such as religious freedom, Safe Schools and transgender discrimination have faded from view. Climate change is now accepted by enough mainstream politicians, and media, to make the remainder look like cranks.</p>
<p>There has also been a dramatic structural change in the composition of the parliament, with the crossbench now representing a powerful third force. How will the media adjust from two-horse politics, so the crossbench gets a voice commensurate with its level of representation?</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-reality-distorting-machinery-of-the-federal-election-campaign-delivered-sub-par-journalism-183629">How the 'reality-distorting machinery' of the federal election campaign delivered sub-par journalism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All this implies the need for a shift in the priority given by the media to the various news values that turn content into news. Two of the most powerful news values, negativity and conflict, have been in plentiful supply since the collapse of the Rudd prime ministership in 2010.</p>
<p>Politics done differently, with a focus on policy formulation and implementation, makes the news values of impact and significance more salient. But this is not the stuff of clickbait, eyeballs, social media agitation and tabloid headlines.</p>
<p>This is a challenge at a time when every click and eyeball counts for a media industry still trying to recoup some of the devastating financial losses inflicted by the internet.</p>
<p>Will editors and news directors – and media proprietors – be up for the challenge? It is too soon to say. Conflict or negativity can always be manufactured, so there is no guarantee a more civilised and constructive political conversation will be reflected in more civilised and constructive coverage.</p>
<p>However, there are a few early signs of recognition in the media that change is in the air.</p>
<p>Author and freelance journalist Julie Szego <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/our-politics-is-suddenly-boring-and-that-s-worth-celebrating-20220726-p5b4jr.html">seems to be onto it</a>. In a column for The Age, she made the sardonic observation that Australian politics was suddenly boring. Once upon a time, she wrote, it was like the Danish TV drama Borgen, a world of cheap publicity stunts, the selling out of cherished principles, and morally bankrupt spin where a prime minister “creepily” washed a woman’s hair for a photo op. “But now it is all one big yawn.” Yet this was worth celebrating, she said, because it had produced a “background hum of steady-as-she-goes, the not un-genuine bid for consensus, the incremental steps toward something better”.</p>
<p>Covering the first sitting day of the 47th parliament, The Australian on its front page <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/building-watchdog-axing-will-cost-jobs-says-peter-dutton/news-story/c2279f71bbdb7bc7151fb1a041000f0f">tried kicking life</a> into the issue of construction union thuggery, based on a parliamentary question from a Liberal backbencher. But its editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/pms-test-to-break-cycle-of-firstterm-failure/news-story/1d7250217c7dd3eefc8edf1e4a1c8bb9">wrote reflectively</a> on the need for competence in government and for Albanese to break the cycle of first-term failure. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476635/original/file-20220729-22-p5drqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whether this ‘new style’ of politics holds remains to be seen – but the media must be able and willing to adapt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Katharine Murphy, writing in The Guardian Australia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/26/albanese-believes-in-politics-with-purpose-hes-determined-to-pop-morrisons-canberra-bubble">described</a> the first day of the new parliament as conveying “a sense of a corner being turned”.</p>
<p>She noted that Scott Morrison was absent, preferring to attend a conference of conservative politicians in Tokyo. This was perhaps for the best, she added, since the style of politics he indulged in had been “repudiated in myriad ways”. </p>
<p>Whether this change in atmospherics illustrated by these examples of the newspaper coverage percolates into television news is an open question. </p>
<p>However, if change is to occur in how politics is portrayed to the public, the performance of television is crucial. This is because television news is still the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-01/News%20in%20Australia_Impartiality%20and%20commercial%20influence_Review%20of%20literature%20and%20research.pdf">most general source</a> for Australian news consumers, with 66% saying they watch TV news and 42% saying it is their main source of news. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-do-mainstream-media-matter-in-an-election-campaign-spoiler-more-than-you-might-think-180780">How much do mainstream media matter in an election campaign? (Spoiler: more than you might think)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Television news is also the most formulaic of all professional mass media: tight scripts allied to footage that may or may not assist the viewer’s understanding, and grabs of people speaking, all compressed into short packages. There is little scope for reflecting anything except the most superficial elements of a story.</p>
<p>Even so, the wording of scripts, the way they are read, and the choice and juxtaposing of grabs do allow for change to be reflected.</p>
<p>Regardless of the medium, absorbing and implementing change like this takes effort, and the difficulty of breaking old habits should not be underestimated. Journalists and audiences alike are accustomed to established ways of telling stories, just as medieval minstrels and their audiences were. No departure from the established script is easily tolerated.</p>
<p>But if it turns out that tomorrow’s politics are indeed done differently, it would be a serious disservice to the public if the media overlaid on them the news template of yesterday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We don’t yet know if Anthony Albanese’s pledge to do politics differently will hold. But the media will do a great disservice to Australians if they remain wedded to their old ways.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854972022-07-18T03:00:27Z2022-07-18T03:00:27ZUniversity journalism courses need to teach about cultural safety before students enter the workforce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473545/original/file-20220712-26-7vncyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C0%2C5058%2C3180&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities throughout the country have obligations to ensure their graduates leave with the knowledge and skills necessary to interact in a culturally safe way with Indigenous people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">T.J. Thomson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Content warning: this article contains mentions of racial discrimination against First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>The ABC recently <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-16/abc-apologises-to-staff-for-racism-in-newsrooms/101159762">apologised to staff</a> for racism and cultural insensitivity in its newsrooms. This came after Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse ABC staff told an internal group they felt unwelcome in their workplace, their ideas were not being listened to and they received online abuse from the public. </p>
<p>Unfortunately these issues are not unique to the ABC and exist at other media <a href="https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2022/experiencing-racism-inside-the-media/">outlets</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-12/racism-it-stops-with-me-race-discrimination-chin-tan/101225550">newsrooms</a>. </p>
<p>We also know media organisations can produce content that is racist or hostile towards First Nations people. Decades of research <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aiatsis.gov.au/publication/34946&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1656089130836389&usg=AOvVaw2debqUgl7Iv9EV0hJRoGPF">show</a>, with few <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2021.1874484?casa_token=pQDp5J3Pkl0AAAAA%3Apc8B_dcKXosB9ViJb7ueboi_hodaIl_khyTXOa7z-1RMlVSWeZWshJRdnxiOaQgBtPDpILTz2rnC&journalCode=rjop20">exceptions</a>, many mainstream Australian media organisations have unfairly reported on First Nations Peoples over the years, and continue to do so.</p>
<p>This reporting has included <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-04/cartoon-an-attack-on-aboriginal-people,-indigenous-leader-says/7689248">racist cartoons</a>, prejudiced <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjOvZGm7u_4AhWZQ_EDHfZgAVEQFnoECEYQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kooriweb.org%2Ffoley%2Fresources%2Fmedia%2Fplater.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3W-axVFDaDtckzahUaiCaC">stereotypes</a>, questions of <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/case-against-bolt-to-test-racial-identity-freespeech-limits-20100929-15xg8.html">cultural identity</a> and portrayals of First Nations people as either <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-criminals-or-passive-victims-media-need-to-reframe-their-representation-of-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-158561">violent or victimised</a>.</p>
<p>Racist and inappropriate portrayals of First Nations people can also make newsrooms and other media outlets unsafe places to work for Indigenous journalists, as well as influencing how First Nations issues are covered and thought about.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1537567457552236544"}"></div></p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be this way. Australians working in media can improve their cultural competency during their university education. This way, they can enter and contribute to workplaces prepared to ethically and respectfully interact with and report on stories outside their own cultures.</p>
<p>However, our new <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ajr/2022/00000044/00000001/art00005&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1656089176596314&usg=AOvVaw2ct1W8KfdQFzu2lxYOLubN">study</a> shows many Australian universities with journalism programs have significant work to do in including cultural safety in their curricula.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-inclusion-of-indigenous-peoples-is-increasing-but-there-is-still-room-for-improvement-172130">Media inclusion of Indigenous peoples is increasing but there is still room for improvement</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australia needs cultural safety in its newsrooms</h2>
<p>Journalists can help shape national conversations and can influence audiences’ attitudes through how they choose to report. That’s why it’s critical for these journalists to be culturally safe in how they communicate about communities and individuals outside their own culture.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.health.vic.gov.au/health-strategies/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-cultural-safety">Cultural safety</a> aims to create a space where “there is no assault, challenge or denial of” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s identities and experiences. </p>
<p>It is built through non-Indigenous people <a href="https://www.vacca.org/page/get-involved/cultural-hub/video/dadirri---deep-listening-initiation-sharing-stories-and-cultural-information">deeply listening</a> to First Nations perspectives. It means sharing power and resources in a way that supports Indigenous <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/right-self-determination#:%7E:text=Self%20determination%20is%20an%20'on,a%20separate%20Indigenous%20'state'.">self determination</a> and empowerment. It also requires non-Indigenous people address unconscious biases, racism and discrimination in and outside the workplace.</p>
<p>First Nations groups and high-level institutions have been calling for more expertise and training in this area for decades.</p>
<p>The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/30017">report</a> called for journalism education to consider</p>
<blockquote>
<p>in consultation with media industry and media unions, the creation of specific units of study dedicated to Aboriginal affairs and the reporting thereof.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/Sub122.National%20Congress.docx">notes</a> Australian news outlets too often spread “myths and ill-informed or false stereotypes about Australia’s First Peoples, which in turn influence public opinion in unfavourable ways.” </p>
<p>This racism <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/Sub122.National%20Congress.docx">creates</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>a debilitating individual impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, devaluing their cultural pride and identity and having adverse impacts on their physical and mental health.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1537597096949207041"}"></div></p>
<p>In 2009 The National Indigenous Higher Education Network <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/PFII8/report_NIHEN_session_8_UNPFII.doc">recommended</a> universities “systematically embed Indigenous perspectives in curriculum”. </p>
<p>In 2011, Universities Australia issued an <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/policy-submissions/diversity-equity/indigenous-higher-education/indigenous-cultural-competency-framework/">expectation</a> that “all graduates of Australian universities will have the knowledge and skills necessary to interact in a culturally competent way with Indigenous communities”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-kids-make-up-about-20-of-missing-children-but-get-a-fraction-of-the-media-coverage-171666">First Nations kids make up about 20% of missing children, but get a fraction of the media coverage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/ajr/2022/00000044/00000001/art00005">study</a>, we reviewed in 2021 more than 100 media/journalism assessments from a sample of more than 10% of Australian universities with journalism programs. We found only one had an explicit focus on an Indigenous topic. Our interviews with 17 journalism students revealed how absent or minimal their education on Indigenous affairs has been.</p>
<p>In the words of a second-year university student: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is definitely more that should be done because stories and issues concerning Indigenous people is, like, such a big topic. And it would be very useful for people becoming journalists to understand their role in communication and storytelling and the influence their words have on the public perception of Indigenous peoples as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The students we interviewed largely expressed desire for more training on Indigenous affairs in Australia. They stated this would help them achieve confidence in reporting on First Nations Peoples in respectful and culturally safe ways.</p>
<p>The students also thought their universities could integrate Indigenous content and perspectives in a more sustained and concentrated way. “It can’t just be that one week we talk about racism,” according to a third-year university student. More education on Indigenous affairs would also benefit First Nations students. One Indigenous participant from our study stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Even just having some more Indigenous journalists come through, you can talk to them, find out what it’s really like for them being like a black sheep, essentially, from a very white-dominated industry. I think that there’s a need to be able to put more perspectives and Indigenous knowledges in education in there.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-an-indigenous-perspective-on-australia-day-heres-a-quick-guide-to-first-nations-media-platforms-174704">For an Indigenous perspective on 'Australia Day', here's a quick guide to First Nations media platforms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Journalism training needs to include cultural safety</h2>
<p>A possible solution could be increasing First Nations journalists in Australian newsrooms. However, the burnout rate for these journalists is high due to <a href="https://gijn.org/2020/08/10/the-real-reason-i-took-a-break-from-reporting-aboriginal-deaths-in-australia/">toxic</a> workplace conditions. This contributes to the low proportion of Indigenous journalists in Australia.</p>
<p>Universities need to provide their staff and students with time and resources to thoughtfully consider how to work with and report on First Nations Peoples. This would allow for a more culturally safe way of working. This could also provide a safer space for Indigenous people wanting to pursue a role in journalism. It could hopefully address the burnout of these journalists when they join the media workforce. </p>
<p>The integrity of our media system and the way our nation engages with Indigenous affairs depend on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council through DP210100859. He and his team have also received research assistant funding that supported the study referenced in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie McLaughlin and Leah King-Smith do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian media have and do unfairly report on Indigenous affairs and toxic environments are leading to fewer First Nations journalists. Should universities put cultural safety in journalism courses?T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Media, Queensland University of TechnologyJulie McLaughlin, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyLeah King-Smith, Lecturer and Academic Lead (Indigenous) in Learning and Teaching in the School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1846372022-06-14T20:00:18Z2022-06-14T20:00:18ZBattered by 9 years of Coalition government, the ABC now has a hard road of repair ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468606/original/file-20220613-14-7uiw35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Liberal-National Coalition government has been defeated, but the legacy of its nine-year onslaught on the ABC remains.</p>
<p>That onslaught consisted of relentless accusations of left-wing bias, a succession of pointless and enervating inquiries, punitive funding cuts, and the use of the ABC for target practice in the Coalition’s interminable climate and culture wars.</p>
<p>The government also joined with News Corporation in a pincer attack on the ABC. But worst of all, it stacked the board.</p>
<p>The Turnbull and Morrison governments routinely appointed to the board people not recommended by the independent merit-based selection process introduced by the Abbott government in 2013, in what turned out to be a piece of rank window-dressing.</p>
<p>Even so, when Scott Morrison took over from Turnbull as prime minister, he wasted no time in using an appearance on ABC television <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/30/abc-board-must-get-back-to-work-and-do-better-scott-morrison-says">to warn</a> the ABC board to “expect a bit more attention from me” if it didn’t “do better”.</p>
<p>In fact, the board was already stacked with people appointed by Turnbull’s communications minister, Mitch Fifield, outside the independent merit-based system.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/27/abc-board-members-appointed-by-fifield-despite-being-rejected-by-merit-based-panel">Documents obtained</a> at the time by The Guardian Australia showed Fifield had directly appointed five of the eight members then on the board, some of them having been rejected by the nominations panel. Fifield’s appointments included Vanessa Guthrie, chair of the Minerals Council of Australia, a fossil fuel lobby group. </p>
<p>On top of this, to replace chair Justin Milne, Morrison parachuted in his own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/09/two-media-executives-and-lawyer-passed-over-for-ita-buttrose-as-abc-chair-foi-confirms">captain’s pick</a> for chair, Ita Buttrose, disregarding three recommendations from the merit panel.</p>
<p>In May last year, Morrison’s communications minister, Paul Fletcher, appointed three further members to fill <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/former-news-corp-executive-joins-abc-board-20210516-p57se0">vacancies on the board</a>. Two of those – Peter Tonagh and Mario D’Orazio – were recommended by the independent nominations panel and one – Fiona Balfour – was not. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ABC chair Ita Buttrose was one of those appointed outside the usual merit process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The net effect of these comings and goings is that the minister directly appointed three of the seven current non-executive directors – Buttrose, Balfour and Joseph Gersh – outside the nominations process.</p>
<p>A fourth, Peter Lewis, was recommended by a politically loaded panel, including News Corp columnist and former board member Janet Albrechtsen and former Liberal minister Neil Brown, after Lewis had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/02/abc-efficiency-reviewer-peter-lewis-installed-board">produced a report</a> showing how the Abbott government could cut the ABC’s funding.</p>
<p>None of this is to question the integrity of the individuals appointed – in fact, Buttrose has been a robust defender of the ABC. But it raises legitimate questions about how well equipped they are for the job.</p>
<p>For example, does the board as a whole have the guts to stand up for the ABC’s editorial independence, or even a decent understanding of what the term means? The backgrounds of its members, aside from staff member Jane Connors, do not suggest they have any experience of what it is like to do the heavy lifting in journalism, where editorial independence really counts.</p>
<p>Buttrose, Tonagh and Lewis have a ton of experience in corporate media management, and Buttrose of course was a journalist, but not of the kind that makes programs for 4 Corners.</p>
<p>Investigative journalism exposes the journalists doing it to a degree of sometimes personal risk and often severe political and legal pressure. It is essential they have a rock-solid belief that the organisation they work for has their backs. As the founding editor of The Sydney Morning Herald’s investigative unit in 1984, I can personally attest to this.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The ABC’s journalists would be entitled to harbour doubts about this after the board announced in May it was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-17/independent-review-into-abc-complaints-and-handling-procedures/101072292">appointing an ombudsman</a> to oversee the complaints system.</p>
<p>Not only is this yet another layer of bureaucracy on top of an onerous complaints system already in place, but worse by far is that the ombudsman will report directly to a board that has been politically stacked.</p>
<p>Given most of the complaints that cause trouble for the ABC come from politicians or well-connected people with partisan political interests, that amounts to an outright betrayal of editorial independence.</p>
<p>The decision to appoint an ombudsman was based on a recommendation by a former Commonwealth ombudsman, John McMillan, and Jim Carroll, an experienced commercial television executive, who carried out <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ABC-COMPLAINT-HANDLING-%E2%80%93-REPORT-OF-THE-INDEPENDENT-REVIEW.pdf">a review</a> of the complaints process. However, they did not recommend the direct reporting line to the board. </p>
<p>This board decision had all the hallmarks of a pre-emptive buckle, the cutting witticism coined long ago by a radio producer to describe the way ABC management reacts to threats and pressure, real or anticipated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former NSW ombudsman John McMillan, along with TV executive Jim Carroll, carried out a review of the ABC’s complaints handling process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Moir/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this case it had the desired effect. A month after the ombudsman proposal had been announced, an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to set up a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints system was abandoned.</p>
<p>The decision to review the complaints system was taken in the aftermath of an earlier external review into a complaint about a three-part television series called Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire. The ABC’s complaints unit rejected the complaint, but this decision was vociferously challenged by a group of people anxious to protect the legacy and reputation of the deceased former premier of New South Wales, Neville Wran. One segment in part three of this series contained an unjustifiable implication that Wran was an associate of an organised crime figure, Abe Saffron, who the program alleged was connected with the fire.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ghost-train-fire-exposed-remarkable-police-corruption-yet-also-failed-abcs-high-journalistic-standards-167042">How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards</a>
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</p>
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<p>The review was conducted by distinguished political scientist Rodney Tiffen of the University of Sydney and the celebrated investigative journalist Chris Masters.</p>
<p>They found against that one segment but were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/cm/lb/13520202/data/review-data.pdf">otherwise generous</a> in their praise of the series. </p>
<p>The ABC accepted the praise but rejected the negative finding.</p>
<p>Shortly afterwards, in October 2021, the board established the complaints system review by McMillan and Carroll.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is important that ABC journalists feel the broadcaster’s management has their backs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The upshot is that ABC journalists are now working in an environment where, if their story generates a complaint, it can end up in the hands of an ombudsman appointed by, and answerable to, a board, four of whose members have been either appointed by ministerial fiat outside the independent merit-based system or by a politically loaded panel.</p>
<p>Former ABC Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/politicians-should-stay-out-of-abc-complaint-system-overhaul-20211126-p59ch2.html">has described</a> the existing complaints process as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a burdensome sledgehammer that chews up work time on sometimes vexatious and often trivial […] things. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The process is also prone to being bypassed by powerful people who get in the ear of senior managers, leading to investigations outside the system.</p>
<p>McMillan and Carroll say their anecdotal impression is the ABC often resists criticism, particularly of high-profile programs. Doubtless there is truth in this. The self-serving reaction to the Ghost Train Fire report is an example. </p>
<p>However, a simple solution would be to have someone with substantial expertise in investigative journalism seconded to the complaints unit to deal with complex cases like that.</p>
<p>There are many ways to destroy a media institution, but weak boards and uncertain editorial direction are two of the most effective. Look at the Fairfax newspaper company. For more than 150 years it seemed impregnable. Then in 1987, a Fairfax scion, “young” Warwick, privatised the company. It could not sustain the ensuing $1.6 billion debt and its bankers had it auctioned off.</p>
<p>Then a succession of purblind boards and senior management left it mortally exposed to the digital revolution that gutted its classified advertising revenue. Journalistically it struggled to harmonise its print and online content, staff were laid off in droves, and the shrunken remains were absorbed into the Nine Entertainment organisation.</p>
<p>At the ABC a reset is necessary but will take time. The recent appointment as news director of Justin Stevens, a journalist with real runs on the board, encourages the belief that at least the journalists in his division will be given a safe place in which to do good journalism.</p>
<p>However, the big test for the ABC is whether the board as a whole can engender confidence in its willingness to defend the ABC’s editorial independence and send the message to senior management and all ABC journalists that this a place where journalists can do good work without having to look over their shoulder to see if the corporation has their back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2021 I unsuccessfully applied for a position on the ABC board.</span></em></p>One of the national broadcaster’s most urgent challenges will be ensuing its journalists feel management has their backs.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794802022-05-30T23:43:06Z2022-05-30T23:43:06ZThe way we talk about First Nations issues is striking, as our analysis of 82 million words of Australian news and opinion shows<p>“We say sorry”.</p>
<p>With just three words, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd said in 2008 what his predecessor wouldn’t say in parliament.</p>
<p>And so swelled the tears, emotion and silent pain of generations of Indigenous Australians who looked on from the gallery above, together with those glued to the broadcast all over the country.</p>
<p>Sometimes words really <em>do</em> matter.</p>
<p>But this significant step towards Indigenous reconciliation in Australia didn’t occur in a vacuum. Sometimes our discourse – our narratives of disadvantage, freedom, hope and fear – take on a momentum all their own.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forgiveness-requires-more-than-just-an-apology-it-requires-action-177060">Forgiveness requires more than just an apology. It requires action</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Can discourse be quantified?</h2>
<p>But demonstrating this momentum is hard.</p>
<p>The federal election is a case in point. Indigenous people <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/19/a-forgotten-story-of-the-election-is-first-nations-voices-are-often-excluded-from-the-conversation">tell us time</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/voice-is-not-enough-what-happened-to-indigenous-issues-in-the-campaign-20220512-p5akkh.html">again</a> that First Nations concerns are often excluded from the public conversation. Major surveys suggest many voters <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-22/vote-compass-federal-election-issues-data-climate-change-economy/101002116">don’t seem to care</a>. </p>
<p>But what if we could quantify our discourse? What if we could apply statistical tools to chart trends, shifts and deflections in our national narrative around First Nations issues? What would we learn?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, we <a href="https://www.monash.edu/data-futures-institute/research/mdfi-flagship-projects/narratives-of-disadvantage">analysed</a> more than 82 million words of Australian public discourse. We obtained nearly 500,000 Australian news and opinion articles from 1986 to 2021 and filtered these down to 143,923 pieces speaking to broad issues of disadvantage in Australia. You can explore the data for yourself in our <a href="https://prfviz.org/">interactive dashboard</a>.</p>
<p>So what did we find?</p>
<h2>Discourse momentum and the Apology</h2>
<p>Our analysis revealed the relative attention our news and opinion pieces gave to First Nations peoples began to grow steadily from around 2005, with a huge peak (58%) in May 2007 coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Bringing them Home</a> report, which was about the Stolen Generations.</p>
<p>This peak was followed in February 2008 around the Apology itself. Remarkably, in that month, over two thirds (68%) of the news and opinion pieces that spoke to issues of disadvantage referred to First Nations peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Line plot of the relative intensity of discourse related to First Nations since 2006 in Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465952/original/file-20220530-22-ut39ys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First Nations relative discourse intensity in Australian news and opinion peaked around the ‘Sorry’ event, and has been on the up and up around Australia Day in the last few years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data: Factiva, Dow Jones, Visualisation: SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can see from the chart above the Apology was almost like a pressure valve being released: the relative share of First Nations discourse dropped steadily thereafter, bottoming out in 2012. Just in time protests of 2012 around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16736054">Australia Day</a>, or what many First Nations people call Survival Day or Invasion Day.</p>
<p>But we can also see that in the last few years, First Nations discourse is once again on the move. Like arms being lifted to the air, First Nations discourse share in our public media is rising up.</p>
<p>Some peaks speak to external triggers: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine">Rio Tinto’s destruction of the sacred, 46,000 year old Jukkan Caves</a> (May 2020), followed in quick succession by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/13/australia-protests-thousands-take-part-in-black-lives-matter-and-pro-refugee-events-amid-health-warnings">Australia’s own Black Lives Matter marches</a> (June 2020) both stand out.</p>
<p>But then there’s also a metronomic drum beat visible in our recent First Nations discourse.</p>
<p>The beat’s name? <em>January</em>.</p>
<h2>When we talk about First Nations – and when we really don’t</h2>
<p>To explore these trends further, and put some stronger statistical basis to our initial findings, we undertook a second form of analysis.</p>
<p>This time, instead of simply eye-balling line-plots, we used models that can uncover significant shifts in relative narrative intensity around certain key events in our national conversation.</p>
<p>Specifically, we fed in the exact date of federal budget night, and the federal election, dating back to 1986, and added to these dates the annual Australia Day/Invasion Day date across all years (January 26).</p>
<p>The models we used effectively ask, “did the relative share of First Nations discourse in Australian news and opinion change significantly during this week?”</p>
<p>To give some context, we also checked whether our discourse relating to a range of other groups shifted, and widened the search to the five weeks before and after these key events.</p>
<p>If anything, our work stands right behind Indigenous voices who’ve been saying the same thing for years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bar chart panel plots of significant changes in relative discourse intensity by week, around the Federal Budget week, Federal Election and Australia Day." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464937/original/file-20220524-30932-xp1omu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First Nations relative discourse intensity significantly drops around federal budget week (a) and federal elections (b), but peaks strongly around Australia Day (c).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data: Factiva, Dow Jones, Visualisation: SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the last four decades, in the weeks leading up to the federal budget and the election, Australian news and opinion talks relatively, and statistically significantly, <em>less</em> about First Nations peoples than at other times of the year.</p>
<p>The magnitudes may seem small (-6 to -8%), but these should be read against the background of average First Nations discourse intensity of around 20%. </p>
<p>So the deflection to our normal discourse is, in fact, very large, comprising a 25-50% decline against the baseline.</p>
<p>In collaboration with Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University researchers have created an interactive visualisation system to showcase the data and analysis resulting from this research. The <a href="https://ialab.it.monash.edu/discourse/then/">visualisation</a> allows visitors to read data-driven stories about narratives of disadvantage discussed in the Australian media and parliament over recent decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465450/original/file-20220526-23-qo0vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So what of the January bump?</p>
<p>Without question, the biggest single deflection we uncovered in our national discourse was towards First Nations during the week of Australia Day/Invasion Day each year: a huge 14% point climb during the week, and 4% in the week after.</p>
<p>But our results broadened the conversation. Not only do we discuss First Nations more at Australia Day/Invasion Day, we also significantly expand our share of discourse for migrants, refugees, and racial minorities.</p>
<p>January 26, it seems, is the closest Australia has to a national discourse of identity day. In effect, we collectively ask, “Who are we, and where have we come from?”</p>
<h2>A new day</h2>
<p>With a new government comes new opportunities.</p>
<p>With the Albanese Labor government committing to significant progress on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-24/federal-election-anthony-albanese-indigenous-uluru-statement/101092816">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a>, coinciding with a new <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/09/australians-urged-to-back-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-in-history-is-calling-campaign">grassroots campaign</a> to build support for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, the indications are there that 2022 may see a significant shift in our national discourse.</p>
<p>We were surprised then, when we checked our most recent data.</p>
<p>First Nations discourse share in our national news and opinion flatlined during the weeks leading into the election campaign. </p>
<p>Granted, this was an improvement on the significant negative shift in First Nations discourse share the models had uncovered over the last decades.</p>
<p>However, for the week starting Monday May 23, two days after the election, something remarkable happened in our discourse. First Nations share doubled from 14% over the week of the election to over 31%.</p>
<p>What a difference a new week can bring.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thirteen-years-after-sorry-too-many-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-children-are-still-being-removed-from-their-homes-159360">Thirteen years after 'Sorry', too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still being removed from their homes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon D Angus receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Judith Neilson Institute, and the Defence, Science & Technology Group (Department of Defence). He is a co-founder of SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School, and co-founder and the Director of the Monash IP Observatory, Monash University, and co-founder and director of KASPR Datahaus Pty Ltd. He serves on the board of City on a Hill Movement Pty Ltd. This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Dwyer currently receives funding from Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Defence Science and Technology Group and Victorian Institute for Forensic Medicine. He is a Professor at Monash University and directs the Monash Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Lab within the Faculty of Information Technologies. A philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation supported the development of the visualisation system mentioned in the article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacinta Elston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our analysis revealed the relative attention our news and opinion pieces gave to First Nations peoples began to grow steadily from around 2005, with a huge peak in 2007.Simon D. Angus, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Monash UniversityJacinta Elston, Adjunct Professor, Monash UniversityTim Dwyer, Professor, Department of Human Centred Computing, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836502022-05-29T19:54:39Z2022-05-29T19:54:39ZWill News Corp change its approach after Labor’s election win? Not if the US example is anything to go by<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465633/original/file-20220527-22-acn1fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=59%2C0%2C3892%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Key moments on Sky News in the week following the election result.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky News</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1953, the Communist East German regime quashed a widespread uprising and afterwards admonished the protesters, saying the government had lost confidence in the people. In a famous satirical poem, left-wing author Bertolt Brecht said that, if so, perhaps the government could dissolve the people and elect a new lot.</p>
<p>One guesses that after the recent Australian election, News Corp would also like to elect a new public, as the result highlighted its own irrelevance and how out of touch it is with the Australian mainstream. Rather than directly attacking the public, though, it aimed its vitriol at the Greens and the teal independents, both of whom had wildly successful elections, and against Labor, which regained government from opposition.</p>
<p>So far, the media company’s epic fail seems not to have occasioned any soul- searching. Indeed some in its stable – in a triumph of ideological fantasy over numeracy – have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/23/in-shock-and-anger-over-liberal-defeat-sky-news-commentators-urge-party-to-shift-right">asserted</a> the result was due to the Liberals moving too far “left”.</p>
<p>Questions remain about the future though: will the election lead News Corp to change, either out of professional shame or in the interests of expanding its market share beyond the right-wing, populist ghetto it inhabits? And how will it treat the incoming government?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-reality-distorting-machinery-of-the-federal-election-campaign-delivered-sub-par-journalism-183629">How the 'reality-distorting machinery' of the federal election campaign delivered sub-par journalism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Some insight might be gained from how the jewel in Murdoch’s crown, his greatest commercial and political success of the past three decades, Fox News, covered the administrations of US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both of whose elections it had vehemently opposed.</p>
<p>The opposition to Obama from Fox’s commentators was immediate and unrelenting. Even before he took office, after an economic setback during the global recession which had been going on for months, Fox News star Sean Hannity said Obama was to blame, because the prospect of his taking over had made wealthy people get out of the market. </p>
<p>On the day of the president’s inauguration, Rush Limbaugh <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/02/barack-obama-right-wing-pundits">declared</a>: “I hope he fails”. On day three, Laura Ingraham declared “our country is less safe today”. The next day, their new star Glenn Beck said Obama had ended the war on terror, and a week later asserted the country was on a march towards socialism.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, Fox gave oxygen to the “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37391652">birther</a>” issue. This was the claim that Obama was not born in America and so was not eligible to be president – that his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii was fake. In two months in early 2011, Fox devoted 52 items to “birther” stories, 44 of which featured the claim without any other view being put.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465421/original/file-20220526-18-zgajfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been a loud critic of Barack Obama and equally loud supporter of Donald Trump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Jacobson/AP/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Fox also took decisive steps transgressing what others would consider professional boundaries in becoming directly involved in the formation of the Tea Party, a right-wing movement that proclaimed it wanted to take their country back, who demanded ever more right-wing candidates in the Republican Party. Not only did Fox give abundant publicity to their rallies, its then most prominent star, Glenn Beck spoke at numerous rallies. </p>
<p>This points to an interesting paradox: Fox News probably persuades few Democrats to change sides. Rather, the biggest losers from Fox’s impact have been moderate Republicans, as Fox has helped move the party ever more to the right. </p>
<p>Could it be that News Corp is having, or will have, a similar impact on the conservative side of Australian politics, making it harder for the Liberals to develop sane policies on issues such as global warming?</p>
<p>After Biden’s election, several Fox presenters supported Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, that Trump had really won. This strikes at one of the fundamental pillars of democracy: that the vote count can be trusted.</p>
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<p>More recently, Fox has promoted an equally dangerous idea, especially promoted by its highest-paid performer, Tucker Carlson. This is known as the Great Replacement Theory. A long-term demographic trend in the US is that the proportion of whites is gradually declining as those of Blacks, Latinos and other ethnic groups grow more quickly. </p>
<p>Carlson and others turn this into a conspiracy theory: that Democratic elites are seeking to force demographic change through immigration, to replace the current electorate with new more “obedient” people from the Third World. </p>
<p>Carlson has made more than <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/05/18/tucker-carlson-replacement-theory-zw-orig.cnn-business">400 references</a> to this absurd conspiracy. In the past year these dangerous views have moved from the fringes, with substantial proportions of Republicans agreeing with some aspects of the theory.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
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<p>It is impossible to imagine a more moderate or centrist Fox News. Its business model is built on delivering a predictable product to its niche audience of alienated, older whites, mobilising their resentments over status anxiety, cutting through the complexities of the modern world with simple affirmations of their prejudices.</p>
<p>Its most successful shows rarely attract more than 2-3% of the viewing public, itself a shrinking percentage of the total population. But its mix of strong opinions and minimal expenditure on reporting has been wildly profitable.</p>
<p>There was a time when Rupert Murdoch had a shrewd populist touch and, for reasons of both patronage and reputation, aimed to be on the winning side in elections. Those days are gone. The past few decades have seen the “Foxification” of News Corp. </p>
<p>This does not mean we will see claims of electoral fraud or replacement theories in Australia. But it does mean that the company’s formula for commercial viability is giving a predictable product to a niche audience.</p>
<p>In turn, this means that Murdoch’s outlets are now rusted-on supporters of right-wing parties and views, indifferent to any electoral counter-currents. Many of his most prominent commentators have the consistency of a stopped clock.</p>
<p>Decades of conformity in a strongly hierarchical empire have produced a hardening of the editorial arteries, a mediocre culture that seems incapable of delivering anything other than more of the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Tiffen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>News Corp has its path on relentless right-wing championing, and it’s unlikely to change its ways now.Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836292022-05-24T20:05:03Z2022-05-24T20:05:03ZHow the ‘reality-distorting machinery’ of the federal election campaign delivered sub-par journalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464967/original/file-20220524-26-yvmvxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=580%2C5%2C3389%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The nightly television news coverage of the 2022 federal election was among the most juvenile and uninformative in 50 years.</p>
<p>Given that about 61% of Australians get their <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/588441/australia-news-sources/">news from television</a> in an average week, this matters.</p>
<p>The pattern was set early on: unimaginative, slavish PR-stunt footage of the leaders, combined with young go-getters in the travelling media packs trying to make a name for themselves with gotcha questions.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
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<p>It is a pattern that has been developing for a long time, and for which editorial leadership in Australia’s main newsrooms is responsible – leadership of my own generation included.</p>
<p>More than 30 years ago, it became obvious to editorial executives that having their senior political correspondents travelling with the leaders was a waste of time and resources.</p>
<p>Instead, the senior correspondents were encouraged to base themselves in Canberra and to be selective about where and when they went on the road.</p>
<p>They attended campaign launches and major set-pieces such as leaders’ debates or National Press Club appearances, but otherwise they focused on analysing issues and trends as they emerged.</p>
<p>Relatively junior staff took their places “on the bus”.</p>
<p>The reason it became a waste of time and precious resources to keep the senior people on the bus was that the party apparatchiks and campaign managers imposed increasingly limited access to the leaders, and increasingly absurd secrecy about the travel schedule.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464912/original/file-20220524-43418-m7ogej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The pattern was set early on, with some journalists fixated on asking gotcha questions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rick Rycroft/AAP</span></span>
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<p>It got to the point where the itinerary for the day would be slipped under journalists’ hotel doors in the early hours of the morning.</p>
<p>In these ways, the parties became able to exert a high degree of control over the media coverage. It is very difficult to prepare questions to put to the leaders if you have no idea where you will be the next day, what the leaders will be doing, or what opportunity you will get to ask a question.</p>
<p>As a result, journalists and camera crews have become hostage to the party machines – news takers rather than news makers.</p>
<p>They find themselves trailing around factories, building sites, hospitals, playgrounds, shooting footage of the most banal but politically self-serving kind: helmets and hi-vis vests; Scott Morrison as a welder, pastry cook, hairdresser or whatever else he is dressed up as; Albanese having an earnest cup of tea with an elderly voter or bent over some unsuspecting child at a daycare centre.</p>
<p>Then comes the fleeting stand-up media conference, often outdoors against random background noise.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464916/original/file-20220524-23-c2957e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Journalists travel around with the leaders to the photo op of the day, in which hi-vis vests feature prominently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Con Chronis/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Ten metres away and robbed of any meaningful preparation, the reporters shout questions that may or may not have anything to do with what they have just seen or with any issue of the remotest relevance to voter concerns.</p>
<p>Was there a question about climate change, corruption or gender equality at any of those stand-ups? Fitting such questions into the scenario controlled by the party machines is next to impossible.</p>
<p>So the stage is set for the gotcha question.</p>
<p>They have their place, as the one to Albanese in the first week about the unemployment level showed. It revealed him as astonishingly ill-prepared, but as John Howard said that night: “So what?”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-albanese-trips-morrison-claims-ignorance-of-huge-payout-in-tudge-affair-181070">View from The Hill: Albanese trips, Morrison claims ignorance of huge payout in Tudge affair</a>
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<p>After that, Albanese was peppered with them, and seemed quite unable to muster anything like Adam Bandt’s classic response when confronted with something similar: “Google it, mate.”</p>
<p>But as Howard implied, it told us nothing about Albanese’s capabilities as a potential prime minister.</p>
<p>His confidence strong once he had won the prime ministership, Albanese asserted himself in the face of the media pack: “You will not get the call earlier if you yell. Day one. Let’s get that clear.”</p>
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<p>This unedifying routine affects all news coverage, but television journalists suffer from it the most. The exigencies of television news bulletin production leave them little scope for persistent questioning and little time to prepare their scripts. It is all about grabs and pictures.</p>
<p>Newspaper journalists at least have the luxury of a little more time to prepare their print-edition stories, even if they have to file quickly for their online editions.</p>
<p>What can editorial executives do in the face of this?</p>
<p>For one thing, they do not have to run the tiresome, cliched footage of politicians doing stunts. Shoot it by all means, but there is no need to use it unless something newsworthy happens.</p>
<p>For another, they need to do a lot more to brief their junior staff on the bus about questions that might constructively inform the audience.</p>
<p>Take the unemployment figures. The outgoing prime minister and treasurer were understandably proud of the 3.9% unemployment figure that came out in the last week of the campaign.</p>
<p>But this statistic is in part an artefact of the participation rate. When people are so discouraged they stop looking for work, the unemployment rate looks better. So why not a question to the prime minister or treasurer about the participation rate? Or about under-employment?</p>
<p>Relatively inexperienced reporters being herded and hustled on the ground need not only guidance but also support in the form of necessary background information.</p>
<p>More strategically, it is time to call a halt to arrangements that co-opt the media into acting as a publicity arm for the two main parties.</p>
<p>The new reality is that there are three main forces in Australian politics: Labor, the Liberal-National Coalition and the Greens/Independents. Each attracted roughly one-third of the primary vote at the 2022 election.</p>
<p>This means the media will be paying more attention to the third force than they traditionally have, and so gives the media more leverage in dealing with the two main parties, which no longer have the power of a duopoly.</p>
<p>The media should insist on receiving travel schedules in reasonable time, on having media conferences held in settings where the exchange can be conducted civilly, and where there is time for the leaders to be subjected to questions of substance, including follow-up questions.</p>
<p>As the COVID-19 media conferences showed, these can elicit useful information because journalists are, on the whole, not piranhas but intelligent people keen to do right by the public.</p>
<p>It is not they, as individuals, who are to blame for the appalling television coverage we have seen over the past six weeks but the whole reality-distorting machinery in which they are caught up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The major parties have come to control the way the media can cover election campaigns – leading to dress-up stunts and gotcha questions instead of meaningful journalism.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1815992022-05-08T19:59:12Z2022-05-08T19:59:12ZAs News Corp goes ‘rogue’ on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461724/original/file-20220506-24-24idyq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C0%2C3778%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does a democracy do when a dominant news media organisation goes rogue during an election campaign?</p>
<p>In 2022, News Corporation is confronting Australia with this question once again, as it did in 2019, 2016 and 2013, and as it did in the United States in 2016 and 2020.</p>
<p>“Going rogue” here means abandoning any attempt at fulfilling one of the media’s primary obligations to a democratic society — the provision of truthful news coverage — and instead becoming a truth-distorting propagandist for one side.</p>
<p>The evidence that News Corp has gone rogue during the current federal election is plentiful. It can be seen every morning in its newspapers across the country, and every evening on Sky News after dark.</p>
<p>A sample of its election coverage over the period April 27 to May 2 makes the case.</p>
<p>On May 2, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney devoted its front page to a publicity puff for Katherine Deves, the Liberal candidate for Tony Abbott’s old seat of Warringah.</p>
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<p>Deves is campaigning to have transgender women banned from sport, but has had to apologise twice as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-15/trans-women-in-sport-politicised-and-weaponised/100989438">statements by her</a> have emerged claiming “half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders”, and likening her view on the issue to standing up to Nazis.</p>
<p>The Telegraph splashed the headline “They are all with me”, alongside a photo of a smiling Deves, pushing the argument that “the silent majority” supported her position. Rowan Dean on Sky went so far as to say this could win the election for the government.</p>
<p>On May 1, the Herald Sun in Melbourne turned its front page into a campaign poster for Josh Frydenberg. According to the headline, Frydenberg was in the “fight of his life” to retain Robert Menzies’ old seat of Kooyong against a “teal” independent, Monique Ryan.</p>
<p>Inside, the paper produced a double-page spread promoting Frydenberg with the banner headline, “Why you need to vote for me”, reportedly lifted straight from a Liberal campaign advertisement. </p>
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<p>Pictures of his wife and children featured prominently in this piece of rank propaganda.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on Sky after dark, the big guns Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and Paul Murray kept up a relentless barrage of pro-Liberal, anti-Labor and anti-teal propaganda.</p>
<p>Bolt picked up on a Scott Morrison jibe about Labor’s policy on the Solomon Islands, saying it involved sending the ABC to head off China in the south Pacific.</p>
<p>Over the week it was part of an eclectic contribution from Bolt, touching on Hong Kong, border protection, male birth control and a new twist on the concept of climate denialism. On Bolt’s planet, increasing power prices are the result of “being in denial” by thinking coal-fired power stations can be replaced by wind and solar energy.</p>
<p>Credlin also spent a lot of time on climate but had a quite different take. Having re-run a Liberal attack ad saying Labor is proposing a carbon tax, she went on to say the Coalition is divided more fundamentally than Labor on climate.</p>
<p>To her obvious chagrin, the Liberal Party had allowed itself to be distracted by this and by identity wars, a clear reference to the Deves problem, and she conceded the government was “a little bit shop-soiled”.</p>
<p>But Credlin’s main targets were the teal independents – women candidates standing on a platform of climate action, integrity and gender equality against Liberal incumbents in seats such as Goldstein and Kooyong in Melbourne, and Wentworth and North Sydney in Sydney.</p>
<p>Their sheer impertinence made her cross.</p>
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<p>It meant, she said, the “hard heads” at Liberal campaign headquarters were having to spend time and money defending Liberal seats that “by right” they should not have to defend. In other words, the Liberal Party was entitled to occupy these seats without serious challenge.</p>
<p>Then there was Murray, presenting himself as “the last line of defence for common sense”.</p>
<p>In this role he was running a countdown: by the evening of May 2, there were only 19 days left to “save the country from the mad left”.</p>
<p>When a Labor figure, Nicholas Reece, tried to argue the cost of Labor’s election promises was dwarfed by the debt run up by the present government, Murray shouted him down, saying, “I’m not interested.”</p>
<p>Murray also asserted, without a shred of evidence, that Labor and the Greens had struck a power-sharing deal, so in the event of a hung parliament Labor would govern with the Greens’ support. This added up to the fact that “Labor and the Greens are the same thing”.</p>
<p>The lesser lights on Sky, such as Chris Smith, Chris Kenny and others, made their own toxic contributions, using words such as “fraud”, “sewer” and “spewing” in crude attacks on the teal independents.</p>
<p>And so it went for the whole week: propaganda, distortions, crudity and pro-Liberal apologia.</p>
<h2>A fraud on the people</h2>
<p>This abandonment of a fundamental news media obligation to truth-telling is by definition harmful to a democratic society. Not only does it rob the population of a bedrock of reliable news, it debases the entire discourse. It is also a fraud on the people by misrepresenting propaganda as news.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Paul Murray keeps up a relentless barrage of pro-Liberal, anti-Labor and anti-teal propaganda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Bianca de Marchi</span></span>
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<p>The dilemma facing a democracy is that measures needed to counter these harms would violate free-speech principles to a degree that would harm democracy in a different way.</p>
<p>Any abridgement of free speech must be proportional to the harm that is sought to be avoided. How that balance might be struck in a case like this is highly contestable on political as well as ethical grounds.</p>
<p>Yet existing measures are clearly ineffectual. The broadcast industry’s codes of practice for television and radio require news programs to be accurate and fair – but give no guidance on what this consists of. Current affairs programs are exempt even from this requirement.</p>
<p>The broadcast regulator, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, is a “co-regulator” that has shown itself to be utterly captured by the industry it is meant to hold to account.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-finkelstein-media-accountability-has-gone-backwards-159530">10 years after Finkelstein, media accountability has gone backwards</a>
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<p>Newspapers are accountable to the Australian Press Council, but it has proved just as ineffectual as the ACMA. In any case, it is fatally compromised by being reliant on funding from the newspaper companies, among which the largest contributor is News Corporation.</p>
<p>All efforts to establish an effective independent media accountability body have foundered on the rock of implacable opposition from the commercial media organisations.</p>
<p>Yet, even if one were to be established, the dilemma would remain: what standards would strike the right balance, and how would they be enforced during an election campaign in ways that did not unreasonably burden free speech?</p>
<p>In the end, democracies are thrown back on conventions, which provide the boundaries within which politics operates in ways conducive to the public good.</p>
<p>The conventions depend on people in power, including those running media organisations, living up to the responsibilities that their role in a democracy imposes on them.</p>
<p>By convention, those responsibilities include prioritising the public interest over the private interests of media organisations and their owners, and providing news content calculated to inform, not repel, the voting public.</p>
<p>News Corporation fails on both counts.</p>
<p>It prioritises the understood financial and ideological interests of one man, Rupert Murdoch, over the public interest, and its toxic news content is calculated to reinforce the worldview of its target audiences.</p>
<p>If News Corp were merely an online echo chamber, this would be bad enough, but it is not.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rather than servicing the public, News Corp is serving the perceived interests of Rupert Murdoch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AP/Mary Altaffer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ready availability of its newspapers to the population as a whole, and the spread of its Sky after dark content beyond the confines of pay television into regional free-to-air services, make it a far more damaging influence than any online filter bubble.</p>
<p>WIN and Southern Cross Austereo, the companies that carry the Sky content on free-to-air TV into regional Australia, are complicit in inflicting this damage on the Australian polity. They too have abandoned their conventional responsibilities.</p>
<p>In an age where communications businesses are enjoined to “move fast and break things”, breaking these conventions risks breaking democracy itself. Events in the United States since 2016 provide a stark example of what this looks like when it happens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What does a democracy do when a dominant news media organisation goes rogue during an election campaign? In 2022, News Corporation is confronting Australia with this question once again, as it did in 2019…Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1807802022-04-19T20:16:26Z2022-04-19T20:16:26ZHow much do mainstream media matter in an election campaign? (Spoiler: more than you might think)<p>Despite the seismic changes that have convulsed media communications and journalism since the turn of the millennium, the mainstream media remains a formidably relevant force, including at election time.</p>
<p>Data on where people <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/588441/australia-news-sources/">get their news</a> make this clear. In 2021, about 61% of Australians accessed television news in an average week, and 47% used online news platforms. </p>
<p>These are dominated by the established media organisations. The <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/newspaper-readership">top ten digital news titles</a> over the 12 months to December 2021 were all mainstream media.</p>
<p>At the top was news.com.au, followed by the ABC, nine.com.au, The Sydney Morning Herald and 7News. All except the Daily Mail (which lost ground heavily) showed year-on-year growth. </p>
<p>While just 20% of people used print-based media, reflecting the decline of newspapers since the digital revolution really got going in 2006, the data from Roy Morgan Research indicate the slide might be slowing, at least in some markets.</p>
<p>The data are preliminary, but they show a quite remarkable 10.4% growth in The Australian’s print audience, growth of 8.2% in the Daily Telegraph’s and 3.1% in The Sydney Morning Herald’s.</p>
<p>There was growth too in the print audiences of the Courier-Mail in Brisbane (2.3%), the West Australian (5.5%) and the Adelaide Advertiser (0.4%).</p>
<p>Notably, however, the print audiences of the two main Melbourne papers, The Age and the Herald Sun, continued to decline, The Age’s by 1.3% and the Herald Sun’s by 1.9%.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/outrage-polls-and-bias-2019-federal-election-showed-australian-media-need-better-regulation-117401">Outrage, polls and bias: 2019 federal election showed Australian media need better regulation</a>
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<p>A striking feature of these figures is the growth in audiences of the News Corporation newspapers across the country, except in Melbourne.</p>
<p>This raises interesting questions about the kind of news Australians seem to want.</p>
<p>News Corporation makes no bones about using its news reporting to push its own agendas. Its internal code of conduct <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/editorial-code-of-conduct">states</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Comment, conjecture and opinion are acceptable in reports to provide perspective on an issue, or explain the significance of an issue, or to allow readers to recognise what the publication’s standpoint is on the matter being reported.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So much for impartiality in news reporting and for separating news from opinion – principles that are explicitly required by the codes of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, by the editorial policies of the ABC, and by The Guardian, whose magisterial former owner-editor C. P. Scott’s enduring dictum was, “Comment is free but facts are sacred”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458507/original/file-20220419-12683-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Australians have long cited accuracy and impartiality as the attributes they value most in the media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dean Lewins</span></span>
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<p>For decades, surveys have shown Australian media consumers prize impartiality in news reporting very highly, rating it second only to accuracy as the attribute they value most in news content.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-01/News%20in%20Australia_Impartiality%20and%20commercial%20influence_Review%20of%20literature%20and%20research.pdf">report for the Australian Communications and Media Authority</a> in 2020 cited a Morgan survey from 2018 showing the attributes people considered most important when deciding which news media to trust. The top two were accuracy in reporting (93%) and impartiality (90%). </p>
<p>So is this changing?</p>
<p>Is it possible people’s extensive exposure to social media and their use of it as a source of news is altering their taste in news and their assessment of which attributes matter?</p>
<p>After all, at 52%, social media is now the second most accessed source of news for Australians, not far behind the 61% for television.</p>
<p>Or could it be that in an age of intense political polarisation, people prefer news that promotes the perspectives of their tribe at the expense of impartiality?</p>
<p>Social media news content, much of which comes nowhere near meeting journalistic standards of impartiality, unquestionably provides this, creating the well-established phenomena of filter bubbles and echo chambers.</p>
<p>At the same time, the feedstock for social media news content is to a significant extent drawn from the mainstream media. This is especially so in an election campaign, where the media “pack” travelling with each of the main parties’ leaders is comprised of mainstream media - it is they who are given the accreditation and direct access to the leaders.</p>
<p>Social media takes this raw material and gives it various treatments – memes, altered contexts and distortions of multiple kinds – to entertain, enrage or mobilise.</p>
<p>In this way, mainstream news influences what goes on in social media, adding to mainstream media’s reach and relevance yet along the way commonly losing the attributes of accuracy and impartiality that people say they value.</p>
<p>Contradictions abound.</p>
<p>People say they base their trust in media on whether the reporting is accurate and impartial. Trust in mainstream media <a href="https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2021-03/2021%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer.pdf">remains higher</a> than trust in social media as a source of news, yet social media has grown in importance as a source of news while mainstream media, especially newspapers, has been declining.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-vomit-principle-the-dead-bat-the-freeze-how-political-spin-doctors-tactics-aim-to-shape-the-news-106453">The vomit principle, the dead bat, the freeze: how political spin doctors' tactics aim to shape the news</a>
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<p>It would be a heavy irony indeed if a recovery in the audience reach of mainstream media was driven by their aping social media, abandoning the impartiality that people say is a cornerstone of their trust.</p>
<p>Not just an irony, but a disaster for democracy.</p>
<p>For one thing, democracy depends on voters having a bedrock of reliable, accurate and impartial information on which to base political, social and economic choices. A focus on gaffes and political theatre, of the kind we have seen in this campaign so far, does not deliver that.</p>
<p>For another, highly partisan news media help drive the polarisation that is undermining the democratic consensus, the consequences of which were shown by the assault on the Capitol in Washington on January 6 2021.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458509/original/file-20220419-146310-4bhig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Highly partisan media damage democracy, the apotheosis of which was seen in the US Capitol riots of January 6 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AP/John Minchillo</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet the audience growth of the News Corp newspapers, as indicated in the Morgan data, shows that abandoning impartiality in news reporting might be a successful corporate business strategy.</p>
<p>It might also be a successful corporate political strategy as its mastheads barrack hard for a return of the Morrison government.</p>
<p>Mainstream media is certainly not dead as a force in elections and the form its journalism is taking, with its impact on Australia’s democratic processes, are large and important questions for the country’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data show many mainstream print media outlets are growing their readership - but it would be worrying if this was because they are aping what happens on social media.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1784022022-03-09T19:03:40Z2022-03-09T19:03:40ZCanada eyes Australia’s media code to pay for news but wants more ‘transparency’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450819/original/file-20220308-13-1uw21t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Google and Meta have reportedly paid more than <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/big-tech-news-bargaining-code-a-success-not-to-be-repeated-accc-boss-20220225-p59zs9">A$200 million</a> to Australian news outlets since the Morrison government introduced the groundbreaking News Media Bargaining Code a year ago. Yet Canada boasts that its own version of the code will do better.</p>
<p>Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/canada-online-news-act-google-meta-facebook/">claims</a> the online news bill he intends to introduce in the Ottawa parliament within months will also force Google and Meta to pay media outlets for third-party news content on their sites. But he argues it will be a “more transparent” version of the Australian code.</p>
<p>His key criticism of the Australian version was that it handed power to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg through “designation”, rather than to an independent regulator. This, he says, will force big technology companies to negotiate deals with media outlets: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In our case, it’s not going to be the minister that will designate. […] there are going to be criteria set by the regulator that will clearly identify who are in an imbalanced situation and require them to sit down with news organisations and get into a deal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australia’s code – which uses competition rather than the European model of copyright law to compel Google and Meta to pay for news – has attracted <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/07/01/denmarks-media-companies-form-copyright-collective-to-force-google-facebook-to-pay-more-sending-them-traffic/">international attention</a>. In the past fortnight, Canadian and US journalists have visited our shores to <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/australia-pressured-google-and-facebook-to-pay-for-journalism-is-america-next.php">report on it</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-news-media-bargaining-code-fit-for-purpose-172224">Is the news media bargaining code fit for purpose?</a>
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<p>Since the code was introduced, Frydenberg has resisted using this designation power, so only voluntary deals have been done between the technology giants and news companies. This has created clear winners and losers.</p>
<p>The winners generally have been legacy and larger media outlets such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Nine Entertainment, the ABC, The Guardian and networks of regional newspapers such as Australian Community Media. The ACCC <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code/appendix">estimates</a> Google has secured 20 media deals (including with The Conversation), while Meta has made 14 deals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450820/original/file-20220308-17665-v6h697.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">So far, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has resisted using his designation powers, leaving media outlets to broker deals for themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Media outlets left without Meta deals include public interest journalism publications such as The Conversation and SBS. There has also been little provided for smaller media start-ups in need of funds to help diversify Australia’s highly concentrated news landscape under the code. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-checking-can-actually-harm-trust-in-media-new-research-176032">Fact-checking can actually harm trust in media: new research</a>
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<p>Excluding these outlets runs counter to the Australian government’s <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr6652_ems_2fe103c0-0f60-480b-b878-1c8e96cf51d2%22">aim</a> to address “bargaining power imbalances between the digital platforms and Australian news media”. </p>
<p>This failure to get some deals done led the outgoing chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/26/reining-in-the-digital-giants-rod-sims-on-the-trials-and-triumphs-of-a-decade-as-head-of-the-consumer-watchdog">Rod Sims</a> – a chief architect of the code – to complain it was “inexplicable” these outlets were excluded.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://newsinasia.jninstitute.org/chapter/the-grand-bargain-australias-news-media-bargaining-code/">criticisms</a> of the code have been that commercial in-confidence arrangements mean no one knows exactly how much money has flowed to media companies ($200 million is the ACCC’s estimate) and that there is actually no legal requirement for this money to be spent on journalism.</p>
<p>The Canadian minister acknowledges that media companies have legitimate commercial sensitivities, but criticises the lack of transparency in the Australian code. On this issue he has been <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/canada-online-news-act-google-meta-facebook/">explicit</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the things we want to do differently from Australia is to be more transparent. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fact these criticisms come from the Canadian government is notable. The Trudeau administration has been a vocal supporter of the Australian reform process, along with many other <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018822197/new-collective-bid-to-make-tech-titans-pay-for-nz-news">countries</a>. </p>
<p>Rodriguez’s comments suggest that, while other countries are keen to adopt the reform, most will work to improve on the deal that emerged from the series of high-stakes negotiations in early 2021, which prompted Facebook to briefly <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-has-pulled-the-trigger-on-news-content-and-possibly-shot-itself-in-the-foot-155547">pull</a> news off its platform. </p>
<p>Australia might even consider thinking about adopting some of these international modifications. Frydenberg marked the one-year anniversary of the Australian code last week by announcing a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018822197/new-collective-bid-to-make-tech-titans-pay-for-nz-news">review</a> of its performance, to report by September 2022.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-has-pulled-the-trigger-on-news-content-and-possibly-shot-itself-in-the-foot-155547">Facebook has pulled the trigger on news content — and possibly shot itself in the foot</a>
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<p>The review is a chance for industry stakeholders, policymakers and researchers to assess the impact of the code in its first year of operation. Of course, many participants who secured deals will be pleased. However, the review must consider outstanding issues such as greater transparency, rigorous criteria around designation, and expenditure.</p>
<p>As the code continues to operate, we must also consider the long-term impacts of platform payments. A yearly injection of $200 million into the Australian media market is not transformative, but it is enough to make an impact. Finding out how that money has been spent is now a critical task and more answers are needed. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>To what extent can we credit the code for the recent upsurge in recruitment in some of our larger media companies’ newsrooms? </p></li>
<li><p>What are the experiences of the smaller media outlets that have struggled to even get a reply from Google and Meta? </p></li>
<li><p>Is the code doing enough to assist regional and remote towns that no longer have access to local news? </p></li>
<li><p>And what impact, if any, do other funding schemes such as the Facebook Australian News Fund that Meta has established with the <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/the-walkley-foundation-and-meta-reveal-54-recipients-in-15m-funding-programs-first-round/">Walkley Foundation</a> have on public interest journalism? </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Local and regional journalism that covers council meetings, courts and times of crises such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/03/nsw-flood-affected-towns-turn-to-facebook-and-whatsapp-after-local-news-sources-disappear">flood and bushfire emergencies</a> are fundamental to Australian democracy and our well-being. This is where the disruption in the news media has had a significant impact in the past two decades. <a href="https://piji.com.au/research-and-inquiries/our-research/anmp/">Research</a> shows parts of Australia have become “news deserts”, with no local media coverage.</p>
<p>While the review of the code is welcome, ongoing research is vital to help reveal whether it has contributed positively to the renewal of Australian journalism, or simply stabilised established players.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Meta for research. She is also a member of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative's academic research advisory group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd is a member of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative's academic research advisory group.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Meese receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Meta. He has also made single and co-authored submissions to the ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johan Lidberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code has garnered global interest – but the Canadians want a model with more transparency.Andrea Carson, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneJames Meese, Research Fellow, Technology, Communication and Policy Lab, RMIT UniversityJohan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.