Concentration of Media Ownership in Australia - Essay Example

concentration of media ownership in Australia guarantees media bias: A DISCUSSION [name of the author] [Department name and section number of course] [Name of the supervisor and date] introduction Concentration of media ownership or media consolidation, very clearly refers to the media outlets in majority. These are all those specified outlets that are owned by some highly specified corporations and conglomerates. In this paper I have discussed the relevance of the individual media industries that are also known widely as 'Media Institution'. In such cases the matter of media ownership as has been discussed over here refers to Australia of it respective media industry. In the paper the matter of discussion is also the importance of a low number of media conglomerates and the various relevant biases that Australia withstand. Media consolidation in Australia The concept that has been carried in Australia regarding media ownership came into the activation air in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. It was the wide ranged initiation and contribution made by ACMA, that is to say the Australian Communications and Media Authority. As it comes to the legal proceedings, Ann Heinrichs (2005, p.102) finds that, Australia has been much privileged with a high concentration of media ownership than any other country in the world. As fort the functionality of each capital city in case of ownership of national and the newspapers, the whole idea gets dominated by two corporations in Australia. These are the powerful corporations called the Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and John Fairfax Holdings. The dominance gets continued by the participation of West Australian Newspapers and the Harris Group work that come in association with these two corporations together to create Australian Associated Press. The contribution as forwarded by this combination, i.e., Australian Associated Press is responsible to distribute all sorts of news that happens in the country. It got the ownership over all these news and as such sells it to all reliable outlets. Among all these outlets the most active source is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. As stated by Bernard Goldberg (2003, p.38)., in his Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, the dominance of Australian Associated Press is so strong that all other privately owned media outlets are into the tug for the Pop culture news restricted within their own territory Even the Rural Press Limited is under the dominance of John Fairfax Holdings. Formed in 1996, the DMG Radio Australia has got the control over the commercial radio networks of Australia. The Howard Government, however pays less importance to the rules governing foreign ownership of Australian media and as such continues with the monopoly. In 2004, Reporters Without Borders, made an estimations that was rated by the limited diversity in media ownership of all the countries of the world have been done. Here Australia is in 41st position among all the countries in concern to Press Freedom (2004). It was really a matter of concern where the freedom of media gets so constrained by some dominance. media bias The dominance of the very few authoritative concerns has made Australian media kind of handicapped regarding its freedom. It is of great controversy that the media of Australia is in urgent need of reform and the monopoly has to be broken thereby. As forwarded by Mark Liberman, (2005-12-22) in ‘Linguistics, politics, mathematics. Language Log’; the reformation is the most important thing that the media in Australia demands to the point of impossibility though the matter is of great discussion yet there is no rigid step taken for the same. The continuous concentration over the monopolistic dominance of the press and mass media has led to a state of bias and manipulative demonstrations. The media in Australia is highly suffering from poor journalistic standards. There are many aspects that need strict reformation to build a self aware and more active participation of public associations. It is in high demand of concern and attention. The contribution regarding this biased state has been well demonstrated by the Brian White in 1975. According to Brian White "Australia possesses what is probably the worst mass communications media of any developed, democratic nation. There is neither one television program nor one daily newspaper which caters for a radical audience. With barely an exception, the media are innately conservative, and aimed towards the lowest common denominator-the biggest audience they can reach. Even supporters of the right wing of the Labor Party would be hard put to name a daily paper which, in its editorial content, and sometimes in content too, was consistent, let alone 'fair'."( Australian Media: in urgent need of reform, n.d.) The responsibility of this bias as stated by Dale Jacquette (2006, p. 85) is of course on those who are related to the process and are the media consumers.. The consumers in Australia, as discovered by J. Eldridge (2000, p.121) are not showing enough concern about this bias and as such are not in a state of showing the capability of factoring in bias for any kid of diversification. A particular point of view needs a well aware controversial consideration between the public concerns this is what lacks in Australian media search. The declaration of the publication should be made and as such there will be the scope for a wide ranges elaboration of the same. Sources of media bias The varied sources that had corrupted the freedom of media in Australia are (Richard Alan Nelson, 2003, p.144) all related to the mass participation. The foremost cause is of not having well structured concern about displaying the news as it is. The next source is the framing devices of the news by means of manipulating the fact and highlighting the selfish concern. As for these types of distortion, the relevancies as get stated by Herman, E Chomsky, N. Manufacturing Consent in ‘The Political Economy of the Mass Media’; the manipulations that are the cause for ideological and economic conditions that persists in making of news. The political influence too is of great importance. As described by Eric Alterman, in ‘What Liberal Media? - The Truth about Bias and the News’ (2004, p.56); the next source is of the control and dominance as made by the government and business interests for the demonstration of their wide ranged publications. In most cases the reporters collect and publish the news under hidden agenda. In Australia this is very common and there is no botheration for such declarations of the sources. Another thing that is making media act bias in Australia is the acceptance of faulty premise by the journalists. As pointed out by the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Liberman, Mark (2005-12-23), there is a common usage as used by the journalists in Australia. This is the use of “we” that refers directly to the activities led by the government. Heather Cox Richardson (2001, p.126), in his ‘The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North’, demonstrates that the absolute dominance of politics over the media creates and generates in a huge amount of many diversified acts of monopoly in the system. A regular absence of historical context and contemporary comparisons is very obvious sources in making the media go bias. The provisions for the declarations of the follow up assessment are also missing in the journalistic arena of Australia. The awareness as has to be led by the citizens that are also highly avoided. A critical perspective on the media for the participation of effective public policy process is the main root to safeguard these biased notions. These are all of less concern and thus the freedom of press suffers. There are many instances that make the media of Australia get concern about the bias that it prevails. One such instance came up in 1996, when the Victorian election got revealed in ABC television in The Nightly News Nightmare: Television Coverage of Presidential Elections, 1980-2004. The newspaper "Age" had initiated with the election outcome and thereby made room for the attempt to obtain that outcome through publication that has occupied the section related to the election coverage. As a result of this biased publication, the voter’s objective for the election coverage gets well manipulated. CONCLUSION In today’s’ scenario the independence over the freedom of media is very important as such there has to been well structured format in the country in case of distribution of news. The monopolistic dominance needs to be checked and as such there should be enough space restricted for manipulation. Media in Australia is suffering a lot from the dominance led by the political parties, especially the one in power, and also has been following manipulation of news in the due course for the business communities. The case as has been dealt here is in accordance to the sources that are into the act of manipulating the bias of media in Australia. Sources Alterman, Eric. (2004) What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News. Basic Books. Ann Heinrichs, 2005, The Printing Press (Inventions That Shaped the World), Franklin Watts Dale Jacquette, (2006), Journalistic Ethics: Moral Responsibility in the Media, Prentice Hall, Eldridge, J. (2000), "The Contribution of the Glasgow Media Group to the Study of Television and Print Journalism." Journalism Studies, 1 (1) Goldberg, Bernard. (2003) Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. Harper Collins Publishers. Goldberg, Bernard. (2004) Arrogance: Rescuing America From the Media Elite. Warner Books. Heather Cox Richardson, 2001, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901, Harvard University Press Herman, E Chomsky, N. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Pantheon Books. Liberman, Mark (2005-12-22). Linguistics, politics, mathematics. Language Log, 2006 Media Bias, the paper is now published on the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Liberman, Mark (2005-12-23). Multiplying ideologies considered harmful. Language Log. Richard Alan Nelson's (2003), Tools for Analyzing Media Bias, Glasgow University Media Group Electronic sources Australian Media: in urgent need of reform, Media reform-ideas for a better Australian Media, n.d.,http://members.pcug.org.au/~terryg/media1.htm [retrieved on 03.05.08] Reporters Without Borders (2004), Mass Communication, n.d., [retrieved on 03.05.08] http://www.onlineaustralia.org/communication.html[retrieved on 03.05.08] BIBLIOGRAPHY Kuypers, Jim A.. Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues. Greenwood Press. Newton, K. (1989). "Media bias." In Goodin, R Reeve, A. Liberal Neutrality. Routledge. Gutmann, Stephanie. Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. Encounter Books. Read More