Arguments in Favor of Changing the Australian Flag

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The article by Sarrah le Marquand, ‘Apathy wins flag debate’ appears in the tabloid of The Advertiser (February 2, 2013), and online at ‘The Punch: Australia’s best conversation’, under a different title, ‘Flagging This Change is not unAustralian’. This political opinion is to remove the Union Jack from the Australian flag. This is an important topic, as National flag’s construct symbolic meaning, identity and “pride” of country (Fozdar, Spittles & Harlety, 2014, p. 2). As a political writer, Sarrah le Marquand's career has been in the entertainment industry, soap operas, for The Daily Telegraph, for film and as an editor for columnist features’ (News Limited, 2014).

Both the tabloid and online version reach a wide range of audiences’. Study by Richardson and Stanyer (2011 p. 1000); found that readers’ are more likely to leave comments, on online articles’. By creating a direct dialogue and relationship with her audience, for example in her fourth paragraph, ‘those who are lobbying to change the Australian flag are disgraceful’ and ‘Our diggers died under our flag’, by referencing isolated individual opinions, le Marquand reference of online comments, decreases the validity of a “political” article. As a political writer, le Marquand must appeal to the triad of pathos, logos and ethos. Using a combination of these devices, she would successfully change the audience's opinion to remove the union jack from the Australian flag (Mshvenieradze, 2013, p. 1939).

Le Marquand opens her discussion with an unsubstantiated generalisation, ‘FOR a country obsessed with home improvement’, implying that all Australian people are interested in renovating their homes. This overgeneralization excludes people who rent their homes, live in hou...

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...p. 1939 - 1945.

National Museum of Australia, Southern Cross, A Shining light of the southern skies'

Viewed 17 April 2014,

www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/symbols_of_australia/southern_cross

News Limited, Sarah Le Marquand Biography: The Punch: Australia’s Best

Conversation, Viewed 17 April 2014,

http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/sarrah-le-marquand/

Povinelli, A E 1998, ‘A State of Shame: Australian Multiculturalism and the crisis of

Indigenous Citizenship’, Critical Inquiry, vol. 24, (month page)

Richardson JE & Stanyer J, 2011, ’Reader opinion in the digital age: Tabloid and

broadsheet newspaper websites and the exercise of political voice’, Journalism,

vol. 12, no. 8 August, p. 983 - 1003.

Watson, F, Southen Cross: Indigenous stories of Southern Cross, viewed 08 May 2014,

http://www.abc.net.au/science/starhunt/tour/virtual/southern-cross/

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