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Polarised response: media inquiry
head Ray Finkelstein QC. Photo: Dean Lewins/ AAP Image
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IN THIS turbulent period for the
Australian news media, many important issues are at stake – and none more so
than the independence and future financial viability of journalism. But this
vital debate has recently been reduced to an acrimonious fight about the Finkelstein inquiry’s proposal for a News Media
Council. Faced with the possibility of an external body holding them to
account, some media outlets have sought to pit journalists against academics who have
expressed a view about the plan (and vice versa). This is a red herring that
emphasises the personal and obscures the institutional problems and broader
social and technological developments that are contributing to the industry’s
problems.
The Australian has been at
the forefront of debate. It employs some excellent journalists, publishes some
insightful writing and has a very welcome commitment to national affairs, but
it can also be so strident, defensive and bullying (and not just on this issue)
that it is increasingly difficult to take seriously. Some of the paper’s
journalists and commentators – and also some journalists at the Age, the
Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald and the
tabloids – have taken up arms against Finkelstein’s proposal. Much of the
hyperbole about “censorship,” “repression” and “state control” would be funny
if it wasn’t such a poignant reminder that journalists are, all too often,
their own worst enemies.
While they are romanticised as
independent, truth-seeking crusaders who “hold power to account,” journalists
in major news organisations actually work in a setting that is highly
controlled, routinised and hierarchical. Compared to members of many other
professions, they have very limited autonomy over their work. Perhaps partly as
a result, history shows that journalists sometimes pick the wrong side of
battles, mistaking their owner’s (or outlet’s) interests for their own. This
can be embarrassingly evident – when a journalist repeatedly quotes his or her
own boss as the major source for a story, for instance, leaving the strong
impression that the journalist is being used as a mouthpiece for the editor’s
or owner’s interests.
During the debate about the
professionalisation of journalism in the 1970s and 1980s, for example, a range
of possibilities for increasing the status and quality of the profession were
canvassed. Among the most radical proposals was a call for licensing of
journalists; at the other end of the spectrum were calls for journalists to
engage in critical self-scrutiny of their profession, have strong, enforceable
codes of ethics, and undertake external training or gain certain obligatory
qualifications to practise journalism. Journalists were generally aghast even
at the milder options and, in the end, they won that battle. But what this
ultimately meant – that journalism remained largely a craft learnt inside media
organisations and requiring no specific external training – was that
journalists had no particular set of skills or knowledge that belonged to them
as part of their profession. They could easily be replaced by someone brought
in and trained on the job, and they were highly reliant on socialisation within
news organisations for their training (which worked against that cherished
journalistic principle of independence). Anyone could call themselves “a
journalist” – and, with the digital age, they increasingly did; as a result,
there is declining meaning attached to, or respect for, the status of
journalists in news organisations.
Then, in the 1990s, media
organisations, including journalists, resisted digitisation and online content.
The attitude was almost one of “let’s ignore it and see if it goes away,” with
the consequence that many organisations missed the early opportunities that the
new technology offered and have since paid the price in declining audiences and
revenues.
Now, in the debate over the
Finkelstein recommendations, some journalists are fighting hard against any
external oversight and thereby helping to marginalise themselves yet again. As
the battles for press freedom going back to the seventeenth century show, there
are good reasons for suspicion of regulation. But a knee jerk “no” to any form
of external oversight of journalists’ work is counterproductive. If there was
clear adherence to journalistic standards (even self-imposed standards), good internal
processes of oversight, and appropriate scrutiny and openness, then no external
oversight would be needed.
Some international newspapers have
their own ombudsman or “readers’ advocate” or “public editor” who corrects
errors, explains reporting, offers a right of reply and acts on behalf of
readers and the public. These have been in place in some newspapers in other
countries for over forty years. Where are the Australian equivalents? There’s
just one, appointed by the Sydney Morning Herald in
2011. If Australian news organisations applied their own standards of conduct
and performance consistently and adequately, external scrutiny wouldn’t be
proposed or needed. Because they don’t, their credibility and reputations are
suffering and they will struggle in the future (indeed they already are
struggling) to retain increasingly educated readers who have high expectations
and a much better awareness of how news media operate.
With all this in mind, let’s look at
the myths and faulty logic being promoted by some news media organisations in
the current debate.
Myth 1: Critical scrutiny is good,
but only if journalists do it
Journalists are told they must
always critically interrogate what they see and what they are told. They need
to be independent and to be able to criticise and expose where necessary. But
when academics or others apply this approach to analysing the media and the
work of journalists, this becomes a problem for some news organisations: no
longer are these values in the public interest, or necessary, or deserving of
praise (see myths 2 and 3).
Myth 2: You need to work in
journalism to understand how journalism works
This is a facile point as well as a
myth. Being an outsider often aids understanding rather than hindering it – a
point exemplified by the fact that many journalists have never worked in
government or the public service but feel well-qualified (and so they should)
to investigate these institutions and criticise their processes. Indeed, many
journalists perpetually place themselves as critical outsiders – outside
politics, government and business, outside power – in order to perform their
work. That is the whole basis of critical detachment and the principles of
neutrality and objectivity that have underpinned journalism for decades.
Myth 3: Even if you have worked in
journalism in the past, you are still wrong
In the current debate, some of those
who have supported greater scrutiny of media in Australia are former
journalists with years, or even decades, of experience working in news
organisations. But if their positions contradict the interests of powerful
media organisations, they will still be attacked – albeit on other grounds
(usually ideological; see myth 6).
Myth 4: Journalists work in
journalism organisations
This myth is implicit in the debate,
suggesting that journalists are only ever people who work in major news organisations
and others are… well, “others.” Never stated overtly, this myth helps explain a
tone that suggests the views of “former” journalists should be discredited.
Never mind that the increasingly fluid boundaries of “journalism” see many
academics contributing regularly to the news media and many private individuals
writing what is, to all intents and purposes, excellent journalism.
Myth 5: Power is on the outside of
media not on the inside
This is the biggest myth of all. “We
scrutinise power,” journalists proclaim, but there is a strange failure to
recognise that the media (as a collective) are just as influential (and
arguably, much more so) than the hundreds of individual politicians sitting in
parliaments across Australia. While there is a long history of journalists
scrutinising politicians, who watches the watchers? (Apart from ABC1’s Media
Watch, there are few regular, public outlets for media scrutiny in
Australia.) The stories news outlets run and how they shape perceptions, the
campaigns their outlets promote, the backroom wining and dining and wheeling
and dealing that editors and owners engage in with politicians and corporate
chiefs are all extraordinarily powerful factors in modern Australian life. So
let’s all say this together: “The media is an extremely powerful institution –
especially those major organisations that control up to three quarters of
newspaper circulation and/or multiple cross-media interests. The media require
scrutiny as well as exercising it.” When you work in a major news organisation,
you are not outside power, you are sitting right in it.
Myth 6: Because there is no evidence
of phone hacking here, there are no problems
Unless someone steps forward with
new evidence, it seems that illegal phone tapping or hacking has not been
practised by news media in Australia. But this doesn’t mean there are no
problems. Last week, the Australian Financial Review reported on a
four-year investigation which found that a “dirty tricks” unit inside News
Corporation had promoted piracy in order to damage pay TV competitors (an
allegation that News has strenuously denied). But the problems are broader than
any anti-competitive behaviour. What the UK inquiry and other outlets
(especially the Guardian) have revealed is the extent to which some
individuals in politics, the government, the police and the media have been
acting in close quarters and harbouring cosy networks of vested interests. In
Australia, it is the close relationship between the political class and media
outlets and owners that is the issue. We know it is the issue because of the
fragments of evidence unearthed by people who’ve been brave or foolhardy
enough, or retired long enough, to tell us about how the relationship really
works. This is a more systemic issue and it isn’t as headline-worthy or
sensational as the use of illegal methods of uncovering information, but its
corrupting influence on political decision-making is no less important and it
needs examining. So who is brave enough to investigate and report on it?
Myth 7: Media ownership – “nothing
to see here”
The large media companies don’t like
to talk about ownership and it is a taboo subject among their journalists as
well (as some have revealed in anonymous surveys in the past). One of the
problems with the reporting of the Finkelstein report is that the
recommendations about regulation have overshadowed the biggest problem in the
Australian market – the concentration of media ownership. Anyone who does talk
about this is branded a left-winger (see myth 8).
Myth 8: All academics are against us
and all academics who are against us are left-wing
As with some conservative
politicians, some editors and commentators seem to believe that all of their
critics are left-wing and that’s the source of their critiques. As an argument,
it’s as shallow as it is convenient. Despite the perception being fostered in
some outlets, far more unites academics and journalists than divides them. Most
journalists understand why so many Australian academics who value journalism
have concerns about the Australian media (for others, I’ll give a hint: it’s
not because they are all left-wing), and they understand why so many of their
former colleagues who go into academia and then have the freedom to speak out
also express concerns (another hint: it’s nothing to do with Stockholm
Syndrome). Many journalists voice those same concerns in private and
anonymously; they just can’t do so in the outlets they work for (which puts the
lie to those outlets posturing about the importance of “free speech”).
Myth 9: All academics who are
interested in journalism teach journalism
Despite the reporting, not all of
the lecturers involved in these debates are journalism lecturers. This error
has been a launching pad for the argument that these media/journalism academics
are corrupting the minds of future journalists by teaching them negative things
about the media. (Here I’d note that if aspiring journalists can’t take some
negativity, they are not going to last very long in journalism!) But the
reality is that not all of those taking part in the debate are journalism
lecturers, and the distinction is important. Across Australia, many academics
are encouraging their students to study the media or journalism as part of
their study of politics, sociology, philosophy, law, history, English,
languages, criminology, education, science, medicine and other disciplines. And
they are not the only ones. Popular culture is increasingly rich with critical,
probing, sometimes cynical analysis of the news media. Think back even as far
as ABC TV’s Frontline (1994–97). The media-analysis cat is well and
truly out of the bag and yet somehow society still marches on despite the
“negativity.”
Myth 10: Academics are experts but
only when they say what we want to hear
Many media outlets are keen to have
academics in their pages lending credibility and authority to analysis, but
some want academics only to talk about topics that are not related to the
outlet’s direct commercial interests. If they do otherwise, they are no longer
welcome. Ultimately, media academics are the red herring in a strategy to shift
the terms of debate and attack the attackers – to make it personal, make it
uncomfortable and stifle debate.
Myth 11: Media accountability and
media futures are separate
I’ll conclude by noting the myth
that media accountability and media futures are somehow separate. The future of
the news media in Australia is about much more than the Finkelstein report and
its recommendations. In an era of immense change, some outlets are clinging to tired
formulas. Some just don’t get it, or they will take time to get it.
Notably, of the academics who
publicly supported the idea of a media inquiry and commended aspects of its
report, most offered fairly cautious support about the report’s findings and
many asked pertinent questions about implementation and how oversight should
work. The Australian’s overblown attack in response reminded me of
another of its extraordinary retaliations – against political blogs in 2007.
When some bloggers dared to criticise the Australian and its political
editor for their creative interpretation of opinion poll results, the Australian
vehemently decried such blogs as parasitic and a “waste of time.” But, three
years later, the Australian hired one of those bloggers – Peter Brent,
editor of Mumble – and now promotes his analysis of opinion polls on its
website.
Even old dogs can learn new tricks
in a new media world. And they do better when they try to learn and adapt
rather than relying on bullying, intimidation and self-interest expressed as
freedom of the press.
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Sally Young is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her latest book is How Australia Decides: Election Reporting and the Media (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
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Sally Young is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her latest book is How Australia Decides: Election Reporting and the Media (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
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