All information comes to an individual from eight main sources: family & friendship groups or teachers; professionals personally consulted on specific issues; government advertising, television news & public affairs programs; radio news & commentary; print newspapers; digital news websites; social media platforms & Internet search engines.
Every source relays this information through a filter - either of personal experience or level of understanding, commercial interests of proprietors, editorial guidelines or content space constraints, potential legal consequences, the interests of a lobby group and sometimes of political allegiances or government policy aims.
Increasingly in the straightened economic times of the last four years, mainstream media appeared to heavily rely on government & industry media releases (often accompanied by digital-ready posed images) as a 'no cost' news item, which is published verbatim without source attribution. While salient points uncovered during exchanges with journalists during interviews and press conferences don't always escape the red pencil of an editor.
The political climate has in recent years also become less tolerant of investigative journalism, with threats of legal action, police raids on journalists' work places or homes becoming an issue to be considered and their social media presence often being constantly monitored. A number of bloggers, vloggers, tweeters and even chatroom posters have also been subjected to similar treatment. All of which appears to be aimed at silencing unwelcome critique of or comment on governments of the day and their cabinet ministers or on specific industries. In my opinion a chilling effect now exists.
So let's take a brief look at the Australian media landscape in 2021......
Australian Government, Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA),
Media Interests Snapshot, 26 July 2021:
ABC News, 14 April 2021, excerpt:
What
does Rupert Murdoch own?
Mr
Murdoch's portfolio of Australian news media brands stretches from
print, radio and pay television to online news, including:
- Print
and Online: roughly 100 physical and digital newspaper mastheads in
Australia (at the start of 2021), along with the news website
news.com.au.
- Television:
24-hour news service Sky News Australia.
- Radio:
a minority shareholding in Here, There & Everywhere, formerly APN
News & Media.
- These
investments fall under the banner of News Corp Australia, whose
ultimate owner is the US-based News Corporation, of which Mr Murdoch
is executive chairman.
- The
Murdoch Family Trust controls around 40 per cent of the parent
company's voting shares (and a smaller proportion of the total shares
on issue).
....On social media, however, Sky has an outsized audience.
In the second half of 2020, its Facebook posts were shared more often than any of the 65 accounts analysed by Fact Check, while news.com.au placed third, behind Daily Mail.
On YouTube, its subscriber base far exceeds that of Channel 7 and Channel 9 and by March 2021 had surpassed ABC News, while its videos receive millions more views per month.
The Australian Press Council has not published an annual report since 2018-19. In that financial year it received 758
in-scope and 183 out-of-scope complaints from 2,004 complainants,
compared to the previous period’s 554 in-scope complaints and 158
out-of scope complaints from 959 complainants.
That
2018-19 total of 758 in-scope complaints was a sharp increase on the
preceding four financial years.
According to that annual report an est.
621 of
the 758 complaints considered by the Press Council to fall within its
remit were
partially or fully upheld and 18 underwent
formal adjudication.
The Australian Press Council Inc. which is funded by the Australian media industry has no legislated ability to impose penalties for serious breaches of journalism or community standards on any of its 22 media organisation & independent journalist members.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 2021, excerpt:
New figures from industry group ThinkTV, audited by KPMG, report that industry-wide TV revenue – which includes metropolitan broadcasters, regional broadcasters and pay TV company Foxtel – grew 12 per cent in the 2021 financial year to $3.9 billion.
Metropolitan television revenue, a key figure and the biggest earner for Seven, Nine and Ten, grew 11.5 per cent to $2.6 billion. The return to growth comes after revenue fell drastically across the television industry in the 2020 financial year as advertisers slashed spending in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while the 2021 industry figures represent a rebound, they are still below the levels achieved in 2019.
Seven’s revenue figures were impacted by the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. However, the network is betting that record-breaking ratings for that event will translate into higher viewership for programs such as The Voice (which it took from Nine last year) and Big Brother. It is also expected to generate a large amount of revenue in the new financial year from the most recent event, as well as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Television advertising is still the biggest driver of revenue for Seven, which also operates a production business and the West Australian Newspapers publishing operation. The revenue share figures imply Seven made about $917 million from television advertising last year. Nine made about $1 billion while Network Ten pulled in approximately $671 million, boosted by growth in market share in the second half.
Nine, which will report its financial results on August 25, makes most of its money from television advertising but also owns radio, publishing and real-estate assets, and subscription streaming service Stan. Its revenue was boosted in the last financial year by programs including Married at First Sight and Legomasters and key sporting events such as the State of Origin. Ten, known for programs such as Australian Survivor and The Bachelor, made all of its money last year from advertising.
Advertising on online services, such as 7Plus, 9Now, 10Play and Kayo Sports, increased substantially in the same period, up 63.4 per cent to $278.2 million, according to ThinkTV. The growth in revenue from digital services is considered critical by media investors and executives as audiences migrate to consuming video online. Seven, which runs 7Plus, is expected to announce it made about $93 million from its online streaming service last financial year, compared to about $118 million for Nine’s platform, 9Now. Network Ten’s online service, 10Play, made about $40 million, according to industry sources who spoke anonymously......
Seven said in June it expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be between $250 million and $255 million for the full-year ending June 30.
Australian Government, ACMA, News in Australia: diversity and localism - News measurement framework, December 2020, excerpt:
News
on social media is unlike other mediums. Designed to keep users
engaged and on the platform, embedded algorithms on these sites rank
and select news content for users based on their social circles,
interests, likes and dislikes. While this arguably has positive
benefits in exposing users to a greater number and variety of news
sources, it also
raises concerns that passive users of these platforms could become
caught in socalled ‘filter bubbles’ or ’echo chambers’ of
like-minded people with a similar set of viewpoints or opinions,
despite having access to a wider range of news content.
Another
concern about the consumption of news on digital platforms relates to
the rise of ‘clickbait’ journalism and deluge of easily sharable
sensationalised or ‘fake news’ stories. These are stories
designed to elicit an emotional response and be accepted without
critical examination. This has led to declining levels of trust in
news content posted
on digital platforms and higher levels of news avoidance. These
behaviours highlight some of the contradictions and complexities of
examining media diversity in the digital age and the need to better
understand news consumption behaviours, including the influence of
social media and news aggregators.
The
majority of print newspapers, their associated websites and a good
number of their journalist have a presence across the main social media
platforms accessible in Australia.
APO:
Analysis & Policy Observatory on
the subject of
University
of Canberra
News
and Media Research Centre’s
Digital
news report: Australia 2021,
23
June
2021:
The
global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for credible and
fast news. In the early days, news consumption increased as the
public tried to make sense of the rapidly evolving crisis. Despite
the surge in demand, news organisations experienced a substantial hit
to revenues, which led to the closure or suspension of many local
newspapers across Australia. The pandemic has accelerated the
industry’s decades-long struggle to replace falling advertising
income.
The
global data show there is no consistent pattern in COVID-19’s
impact on news consumers. In Australia, 57% say their lives have been
impacted by the pandemic, the lowest out of the 46 countries
surveyed.
However,
this year’s report reveals the rapid increase in news consumption
by Australians at the start of the pandemic has not been maintained.
The proportion of people paying for it has not increased, and
interest in news has declined since 2020.
The
report also finds that Australians have become more trusting of news
in general but concern about misinformation remains high. However,
many Australians lack adequate levels of media literacy to identify
it and are unaware of the financial difficulty facing the news
industry.
Key
findings:
Trust
in news increased globally over the past 12 months. In Australia,
trust in news has risen (+5) to 43%, close to the global average
(44%).
Australians’
interest in news dropped during the pandemic in line with other
countries. Interest in the news has been consistently declining
among Australian audiences.
General
concern about false and misleading information online in Australia
is high (64%), and much higher than the global average (56%).
Women,
younger generations and those with low income are less likely to see
themselves or their views as being fairly or sufficiently reflected
in the news.
The
majority of Australians (66%) are either unaware that commercial
news organisations are less profitable than they were 10 years ago,
or they don’t know about the current financial state of the news
media.
Full
report can be downloaded at:
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-06/apo-nid312650_0.pdf
This
report
is part of a long running international survey coordinated by the
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, an international
research centre in the comparative study of journalism based at the
University of Oxford. The Digital News Report delivers comparative
data on media usage in 46 countries and across 6 continents.
The
News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra is the
Australian partner institute and author of the Digital News Report:
Australia. This is the seventh annual Digital News Report: Australia.
Cite
the report as: Park, S., Fisher, C., McGuinness, K., Lee, J.Y. &
McCallum, K. (2021). Digital News Report: Australia 2021. Canberra:
News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra.
