THE STATE OF POLITICAL JOURNALISM IN AUSTRALIA by Euden Tshomo Social Research PG, 9111 Stephen Owen
THE STATE OF POLITICAL JOURNALISM IN AUSTRALIA
by Euden Tshomo
Social Research PG, 9111
Stephen Owen
University Of Canberra
8/03/2019
The State of Australian Political Journalism
Journalism in Australia entails a robust industry that has a broad history. There is not much to indicate a decline in the political reporting quality of Australia’s journalists. There is, however, much concern lately over the extensive management by politicians of Australian media.
Research Problem
Apparently, Australian politicians employ various strategies in a bid to control information flow. These include, yet not constricted to the briefings, the agendas, the spray, the spin, the drip, the freeze, the wedge and the leak. As these titles indicate, the Australian politicians’ strategies revolve around several approaches that include pandering, intimidating, cajoling, and even more, the isolation of journalists.
The strategies of media management entail passing out the message while pursuing ways to discredit any different opinions. Whereas this is clearly understood by Australian political journalists, they are however justly distrustful of the backbench Members of Parliament and the ministers who are keen on influencing the time journalists can make contact and the terms involved thereof.
Key Theories Addressing a Similar Research Problem
The hegemony theory by Gramsci has had long-term influence on journalism’s political communication theories. According to Briziarelli and Guillem (2016, p. 9) one major idea in this discourse contends that the role of the media overseer almost always translates to the operational dependence of political reporters on the high and mighty in authority and power for information sources, which largely means that these politicians and not the journalists are primarily responsible for defining the news. Whereas political journalists play a critical role in relaying political substance, their role is however secondary with no privileged access to accredited sources.
The economic theory in addressing political journalism states that the goals of political journalists are rooted to maximizing profits while minimizing costs, which means minimum energy is expended, limiting negative feedback and gratifying not only themselves but their bosses as well. This propels them to engage in tactics that differ in relation to an issue’s consensus support. This theory is tried by another theory, the indexing theory by Lance Bennett, which suggests that political journalists lean towards the government in order to receive political information (Lance, 2015, p 2). Consequently the voices of publishers, reporters, and mass media professionals are indexed in mainstream government debates. This means that political viewpoints that largely emanate from outside government are most likely minimized or ignored.
Preliminary Research Questions
How have politicians in Australia influenced the political journalism situation in the country and what is the government doing about it?
In the event that the government could also be a partaker in influencing the state of Australian political journalism, what other critical measures can journalists take in order to have their autonomy when making political reports?
Intended Research Method
The intended research method will be of a qualitative nature and despite there being several qualitative research methods such as Ethnography, narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory and case studies, this research shall solely concentrate on qualitative ethnography.
With ethnographic qualitative research that is perhaps the most applicable and familiar form of qualitative research, the researchers shall directly engage with the environment of the target participants in order to comprehend the themes, motivations, challenges, cultures and goals that emerge. Given its origin from cultural anthropology, the researchers shall engross themselves with the participants rather than depend on surveys and interviews. As such, their experience will be first hand experiences with the partakers.
Data Collection Plan
Since the majority of political journalists are mostly in the field conducting their interviews, the researchers shall meet them in their line of work and try to make the best of this opportunity in retrieving the necessary information from the political journalists. In the event that the field agents may ostensibly be too busy for a one-on-one chat, then the researchers shall target their superiors who in most cases generally leave the office for the field but do not partake in information gathering. The likelihood, therefore, that they might be free to share firsthand information with the researchers is undoubtedly high.
Equally, in the event that the superiors might be reluctant to share information with the researchers, the ethnographic qualitative research method stipulates that the researchers may as well undertake the ‘Follow me Home’ mode of research where the partaker is literally observed and followed to their workplaces or homes. In this research, however, the participants are more likely to be followed to their workplaces presenting a more polished mode of research. The study participants targeted in this regard shall include freshly employed political journalists and those that can be considered settled in the profession.
References List
Briziarelli, M. and Guillem, S.M., 2016. Reviving Gramsci: Crisis, communication, and change . Routledge.
Lance Bennett, W., 2015. Indexing Theory. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication , pp.1-5.
