With an understanding of the theoretical links between economic structures, relations of production, and political systems that protect economic structures in society this case study examines media as a contributor to democracy in Australia as well as a business with economic objectives. This section will provide a short explanation of Fairfax media history and position in 2012 prior to explaining Gina Rinehart’s role in the company. The print sector in Australia has historically exhibited relatively high levels of concentration, dominated by News Corp Australia, Fairfax and APN. The Australian print news media have experienced a long-term trend of a decrease in titles and owners. According to Geoffrey Craig, ‘in 1923 there were as many as …show more content…
In this regard, it is notable that News Corp Australia and Fairfax titles are, on average, read each week by around ‘60 per cent and 36 per cent respectively of the newspaper reading public in Australia’ (McKnight 2012). Fairfax publishes some of the country’s most influential newspapers, including The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and The Age.
Newspapers in Australia have never been sustainable in their own right. Once newspapers were two businesses, the sale of news and the sale of advertising (Simons 2011). However, in the modern media environment classified ads no longer come hot off the press on a Saturday morning combined with the daily news. Classified ads are now online, available anytime, and the companies selling the advertising often have nothing to do with news reporting. Media organisations therefore are suffering from variations of the collapse of the pre Internet business model but, because of its dependence on classifieds, Fairfax has had a faster decline than most other Australian newspapers (Simons 2011). Advertising online is cheap, and in the web-based world Fairfax does not have a monopoly or a premium position to gain from Internet based news delivery. The mistakes made in the transition to a digital business and the failure to diversify brought Fairfax to its knees,
Evaluate the extent to which there is a democratic deficit in the UK (30) The UK political system is one that has lasted for many hundreds of years. Though it has remained reasonably stable throughout this time, there have been many problems with UK politics. A democratic deficit is defined as any situation in which there is believed to be a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision-making process. Many would argue that the UK suffers from a democratic deficit.
Australia is a monarchy of the United Kingdom. It always has been, and yet this does not seem to have significantly and adversely affected our development and growth towards our country. Thus, there seems no legitimate purpose to change this; since a republican Australia displays a lack of conclusive benefits towards our economy and ‘way of life.’ An Australian republic would cost billions to undertake and is simply unnecessary as there are more important issues facing Australia; and if the Australian citizens are not calling for a referendum, then any serious discussions from politicians or other related public figures are irrelevant and meaningless.
In Jonathan Choi’s article “In a Defense of Newspapers” Choi attempts to persuade his audience that newspapers need to be valued and protected as important news sources. Choi uses various rhetorical devices to increase the persuasiveness of his argument. Choi uses evidence in the form of data and examples, a humorous and entertaining tone, and ethos to convince his readers that newspapers need to be protected.
Supporting such concept, the article “Australian Government Media Strategies,” written by Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani and Irene Limberis Twombly, analyzes how Australian government uses media
When discussing the media, we must search back to its primal state the News Paper. For it was the News paper and its writers that forged ahead and allowed freedoms for today’s journalism on all fronts, from the Twitter accounts to the daily gazettes all must mark a single event in the evolution of media in respects to politics and all things shaping. Moving on in media history, we began to see a rapid expansion around 1990. With more than 50% of all American homes having cable TV access, newspapers in every city and town with major newspaper centers reaching far more than ever before. Then the introduction of the Internet; nothing would ever be the same.
When we hear of the word democracy we think of a system of government where the people are in control or have most of the power. Most system of government tend to use the democratic way of leadership today around the world because of how popular it became in America. There are many influences that lead to this change in democracy that helps to shape it in the way it is used today. many social movements and interest groups has influenced and impacted a positive change in this new and reformed way of leadership. I will further elaborate and discuss what has led to this new democracy in the U.S.
Without change, there will be no way of telling if anything works. For years upon end, Australia has kept its monarchy system, and as a nation, it’s time to begin our own story. Although we may be becoming a republic and severing a few ties, that doesn’t mean we have to sever all of them entirely. Besides, wouldn’t an Australian work better as a representative for state rather than an English person? With the current rules, there is a lot of discrimination within the royal family. A republic doesn’t stand for a family. It stands for a nation.
"There is a reason for the country to embrace mandatory voting, and it may be the most compelling: democracy cannot be strong if citizenship is weak," _William A. Galtson_. Mandatory voting, or compulsory voting, is a law wherein citizens are required to vote, or suffer the consequence. Australia has had compulsory voting since putting it into effect in 1924. "The turnout of Australian elections has never fallen below 90 percent since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1924," _Australian Electoral Commission_. Achieving over 90 percent of the citizens voting for nearly a century shows that mandatory voting is working in regard to getting people to vote. Governments should have mandatory voting because the people will educate themselves
A memorable expression said by President Abraham Lincoln reads, “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Democracy, is a derived from the Greek term "demos" which means people. It is a successful, system of government that vests power to the public or majority. Adopted by the United States in 1776, a democratic government has six basic characteristics: (i) established/elected sovereignty (where power and civic responsibility are exercised either directly by the public or their freely agreed elected representative(s)), (ii) majority rule(vs minority), (iii) (protects one’s own and reside with) human rights, (iv) regular free and fair elections to citizens (upon a certain age), (v) responsibility of
One of the fundamental roles of the media in a liberal democracy is to critically scrutinise governmental affairs: that is to act as a watchdog of government to ensure that the government can be held accountable by the public. However, the systematic deregulation of media systems worldwide is diminishing the ability of citizens to meaningfully participate in policymaking process governing the media (McChesney, 2003, p. 126). The relaxation of ownership rules and control, has resulted in a move away from diversity of production to a situation where media ownership is becoming increasing concentrated by just a few predominantly western global conglomerates (M...
Liberalism and democracy are closely tied together in international politics. They have a central bond which brings out the notion of democratic peace. Today much of Latin America and the European Union practices democracy. The chances of these nations getting into an armed conflict are very scarce in today’s standards. Liberalism promotes the idea of human security and equality and democracy reinforces that idea into the political framework of governing bodies and their higher authorities. Liberalism leads to democracy which promotes democratic peace preventing conflict between nations. This article will look at how liberalism leads to democratic peace through the process of creating democracy.
Robins, Wayne. “Newspapers Get Real.” Editor and Publisher 16 July 2001: 16. 4 Oct. 2001 .
However, Nieman Journalism Lab proves that 96% of newsreading is done in print editions (Journalism.about.com, 2014). According to The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) which was released in 2014, newspaper circulation has increas...
...Newspapers are not just information, but reliable, source worthy information. They have allowed us to speak our minds opening over the years, and without showing interest to keep our newspapers alive, we will soon lose them altogether.
In a study conducted by State of the Media, it claims that one of the main problems in the newspaper industry is the rapidly declining advertising revenues. As seen in the below dataset, as print advertising revenues have fallen by 58%, online revenues have grown by 117% in the past decade. It can also been seen that when the world faced a global recession in 2009, the revenue from ads plunged dramatically and in turn has only accelerated print journalism’s woes.