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News extra – 2006

Survey of Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) members conducted for Crikey!

(From Roy Morgan research)

The Federal Government’s media reform package has failed to attract support among the vast majority of Australian journalists, with 82% believing the changes to the media laws will have a negative impact on the integrity of reporting and 85% saying the reforms will reduce diversity

An overwhelming majority of journalists (87%) oppose the plan to drop cross-media restrictions and 74% oppose the plan to relax foreign ownership restrictions. In addition, 70% of journalists oppose maintaining the current limit of three free-to-air commercial TV networks in capital cities.

Political and Commercial Interests
Of journalists surveyed, more than half (53%) claim they are unable to be critical of the media organisation they work for. In addition, 38% of journalists say they have been instructed to comply with the commercial position of the company for which they work and 32% say they feel obliged to take into account the political views of their proprietor when writing stories — 32% of those who have ever worked in print; 34% in TV; 34% in radio.

Influence of the Media
Of journalists surveyed 63% believe Australian media companies/owners have “too much influence” in deciding how Australians vote and 71% say media companies/owners have “too much influence” in determining the political agenda.

The above are the main findings of a special Crikey survey of 374 Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) members conducted by Roy Morgan Research.

The survey was conducted online during August 3-7, 2006 and covered journalists from all media outlets including SBS, ABC, Fairfax, News Limited, ACP, APN, Rural Press and all the major TV and radio networks.

Roy Morgan Qualitative Analysis:
Many journalists who disagreed with the plans to abolish cross-media ownership restrictions did so because it would lead to reduced competition within the industry, which would in turn lead to a decrease in diversity of opinion:

“Because media power needs to be dispersed to ensure various opinions are made public”

“It's a disaster for independent thought; it concentrates too much power in too few hands”

“Too few owners means more aggregation. Fewer newsrooms, fewer jobs, shortened career paths, less diversity of opinion”

“It will end up being one big owner with more than 90% of the market, along with fragmented smaller ones that will become weaker as time goes on”

Those who disagreed with the proposal to drop the present restrictions on foreign ownership of TV stations did so generally because they thought Australian owners care more about the standard of news, and foreign owners would be in it for the cash:

“Australian broadcasting should not be just about business and profit - there are public interest issues at stake”

“Prefer to have a boss who understands the culture of the country we work in”

“We are already subjected to too much cultural imperialism”

“Should be Australian owned. We don’t want a homogenised (or worse still - Americanised) global media system”

A clear majority of respondents are of the opinion that media companies and moguls (i.e. Packer, Murdoch, Fairfax…) wield too much power in the political arena:

“Kerry Packer gets a state funeral. Politicians accept hospitality from the Packers - stay on his boat and houses. And now channel nine is being protected by no other TV licence being offered”

“Packer and Murdoch have open access to PM etc; the way PM et al kowtow to Alan Jones and others is not only nauseating but downright immoral”

“The media should be the Politicians watch dog ... not its lap dog. Political decisions are often made in this country in favour of Big Business, which draws votes rather than what’s in the countries best interest”

“Murdoch and Fairfax have commercial reasons for wanting the Howard Government returned and the NSW Government removed. Their efforts to achieve these ends are laughably obvious, yet most people naively imagine that what they're reading in the major newspapers”

“I currently work for a politician in a city with one newspaper, Murdoch-owned. So many issues do not get attention because they do not fit with the agenda of the newspaper's owner/editor”

“Murdoch papers are flagrantly biased and provide a very large stable of right wing columnists”

“It's a bit too obvious for my liking which way Rupert Murdoch votes, and the degree to which his views filter through News Ltd”

“The Australian's political conservative political bias has been particularly noticeable in the past 12 months”

“Editorials tell stupid people how to vote”

“How many Prime Ministers have been elected when the manistream press is running against them? Not many!”

“People make up their own minds, given their own situation in life and what the Government can do for them, for example interest rates”

“The media’s left wing bias does not worry me, because there are always ways to get the real news, like the internet for example”

“I have never worked in a newsroom and been told to cover a story in a particular way”

Links: Media Alliance; Roy Morgan; Crikey!

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