Australia has an unparalleled concentration
of media ownership. When you look at the print media in this country it stands
out internationally due to the overwhelming hold that three owners have. News
Corp Australia, Fairfax Media and APN News hold somewhere in the region of 98%
of the sector. When you put this figure up against the likes of the UK and USA,
62% and 26% respectively, its clear that Australia’s media concentration stacks
up poorly against other democratic nations. By world standards Australia’s
print media is largely monopolistic.
So why exactly is this bad? To put it
simply it limits the number of views, voices and opinions that are readily made
available to the Australian public. This apparent lack of diversity grants
companies like News Corp and Fairfax a tremendous amount of power and sway in
regards to print media.
We only have to look back at the 2013
federal elections to find an example of the negative impacts concentrated media
ownership has on Australia as a democracy. Companies of course have a vested
interest in the outcome of elections. During the 2013 elections News Corp used
it vast market control to sway the Australian public, printing bias’ headlines
such as ‘Australia Needs Tony’ and ‘Kick This Mob (Labor) Out’. As a result of
the lack of diversity in Australian Media the public is largely unprotected from
individuals and companies that use the media in such a way.
Herein lies the problem and as a result of
the strangle hold these companies have over Australian media a solution needs to
be found to better protect the public. Senior Lecturer Tim Dwyer at University of
Sydney comments on this media monopoly and suggests that it requires a
regulatory fix. Check out his views over here. There is no quick fix to the problem at hand but it is becoming more apparent that one needs to be found.
It's true this lack of diversity in Australian news media could be seen as a problem in regards to the number of viewpoints presented. but do you believe this could be solved through a regulatory fix? We need to consider the current economic climate of the news industry, so with increasing workloads and falling profits for newsrooms, particularly local ones, do you think there is space for new players to enter the industry at this time?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Patrick. I do believe that the best solution to Australia's news media monopoly is to put in place regulations that moderate and hopefully effectively solve the issue. You raise good points about the current economic climate of our news industry and it is because of this that a regulatory fix is the necessary solution. Due to the reasons you listed and a number of others I do not believe there is room for any other major players to enter the industry at this time. It would be very difficult for anyone to do so in the current climate in any case.
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