WHO CONTROLS AUSTRALIAN MEDIA
"Who controls the media you use to access your news?"
"Can we trust these blokes?"
"Does it matter?"
"Was the moon landing EVEN REAL?"
"AM i FAKE NEWS?!"
There are a few ways I can address this weeks blog post. I believe the best way to tackle this topic is to take a personal approach. Mixed with some facts and maybe some GIFs to make it aesthetically pleasing. But basically it'll my own experience with news outlets, and what I choose to believe are credible and reliable outlets for me to invest my trust.
KEEP IN MIND I HAVE HELLA BAD TRUST ISSUES
When growing up I was never allowed to watch commercial television; and if ever on occasion I was, it would never be news that I would watch. Due to these circumstances, I was a child of the beloved 'Aunty' aka The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC for short). My dad in particular would make a habit of sitting down at 7pm to immerse himself on the happenings of the world after a long day of hard work. This soon became a family tradition, we would all sit together and discuss different reports, what they meant, the meaning behind different political legislation being passed or why certain dictatorships or conflicts were taking place around the world.
For this reason, a majority of my childhood was filtered through the ABC (viewed as left wing by many, and neutral by others) but also through my parents, both intelligent educated pragmatic people, who did indeed trust news outlets such as the ABC, however always questioned what they were being told.
This brings us to the point of who exactly owns the ABC. It is classified as a Government Body, as it is taxpayer funded. (IBIS World, 2017) Under the ABC Charter found in section 6 of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983, the Corporation is required to provide innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard as part of the Australian broadcasting system consisting of national, commercial and community sectors and to transmit news, current affairs and entertainment programs outside Australia. (Dr Rhonda Jolly, 2006)
Yet how we access the news in this digital age is now coming a fundamental part of how we shape our opinions. As a population we are coming more aware that their are a multitude of sources out there when it comes to opinion pieces and political information. The graphs below show a shift in attitude, but more importantly show that online media is becoming a go-to source for younger generations, with traditional media falling out of use.
Matt Liddy, 2015
It's clear that our ideologies and where we choose to place our trust is slowly changing as the internet becomes more predominant within our everyday lives. It does indeed take away the aspect of "ownership" to the point where we can look past traditional resources to form our own beliefs on certain occurrences in the world. But at the end of the day, I still have trust issues. Rupert Murdock mightn't be sublimely telling me to vote for Trump. But people lie and manipulate. Every source or outlet has a type of pre composed biased.
Take everything with a grain of salt my fellow bloggers.
Resources:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-16/australians-digital-news-trust/6548232
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/who-owns-the-news/3061842#transcript