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The Media - The good, the bad, and the ugly.

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sevenpointdropgoal

Larry Dwyer (12)
I am interested in canvasing everyone about where you all get your news (and opinion/analysis), and your general thoughts about the news media.

Do you like television news? What shows? Radio news? Are you an internet newspaper reader, or do you still like the hard copy? Which papers do you prefer? Do you like to get your world news somewhere other than where you get your local news? Do you have a favorite place for cultural news? Do you have any news sources that you avoid? Do you think media quality is improving, or getting worse?

(I've got no specific reason for asking, I just thought it'd be interesting to discuss)
 

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Online - SMH,The Australian and recently the Financial Review (Uni)
TV/Radio - ABC for both. SBS isn't terrible.

I tend to avoid the major commercial channels in terms TV news and the Daily Telegraph. Try to avoid the local rag as well.

As for media quality. I'd say its pretty dire at the moment as a whole. More often than not everyrthing is speculative rubbish that has me questioning on what planet could it be even considered as news.
 

bryce

Darby Loudon (17)
I'm an expat, so I read/watch a fair bit of news, as I'm always keen to keep up with what's going on at home.

Australian news-
SMH online, I don't mind their political coverage, or at least a few of their writers. Ross Gittins especially. Although I think it is slipping a bit, you're more likely to see celebrity stories or other mindless crap on their website.

As for the general media situation, I'd say that Australian newspapers are generally pretty dismal. I think this is because we have, I think, the least diverse media on earth in terms of ownership. In capital cities you find a news ltd tabloid and a news ltd national daily, The Australian, with the exception of Sydney and Melbourne, who are the same but have a fairfax broadsheet each, and Perth that has a news ltd tabloid plus the West Australian. Overwhelmingly concentrated media ownership, I don't think any country in the western world has anything like it.

Obviously don't watch Aussie tv, although having been home last year, during the federal election, I was pretty dismayed at how dumbed down everything was. I remember landing in Sydney and seeing sunrise or the today show on one of the tvs at the airport. Embarrassing. Even sixty minutes, (is that still on?) which used to be the standard bearer of a serious current affairs show on commercial television, seem to have morphed into a slightly upmarket version of A Current Affair. The ABC and SBS are much better. I can watch their news and get actual news, rather than celebrity drivel or stories about people's pet dogs being rescued. And ABC and SBS both have great documentaries.

British news:
I am somehow proud that while Australian newspapers, and the media in general, are very ordinary, at least we have nothing as bad as The Sun. I don't own a TV so I generally just read the BBC website, which I suppose is okay for keeping up with things.

I actually spend much of the year in Germany, and the media here I think is of a high standard, comparatively. Sure, it has its newspaper equivalent of The Sun, and its TV equivalent of Today Tonight, but I find the newspapers and TV here to be of much higher quality. The debate you see on TV is often informed, rational and intelligent, and the news has coverage which is much more balanced and critical than much of the English speaking media.

Overall though, definitely plenty of bad and ugly in the media.
 

Ruggo

Mark Ella (57)
The ABC is where I get all my news from. I get it from a few different mediums though.

Local content is what I appreciate the most about the ABC. In the period it when I drive to work of a morning, they have a brief interview with the police watch commander on duty and the senior forcaster from the BOM which is nothing but informative.

I hate news papers and commercial TV news. Without the adds alone the ABC fits more news into it's broadcasts.
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
Don't have a TV or radio in the house.

Listen to ABC Classic FM in the car, so there's news on the hour there.

Have bookmarked Google News and the Guardian and read for about 15 minutes in the morning while the coffee is taking hold.

If there is a certain issue I want to follow up (I think the last was the Gaza flotilla) I'll read everything - NYTimes, WPost, Oz, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, etc - in order to figure out how the issue is playing in the global media.

The only sport news I read is on here.
 

DPK

Peter Sullivan (51)
Go! News Bursts. Just the most comprehensive, flawless, unopinionated news coverage in the country. And straight to the point, too, they only have about 4 stories usually.
 

Elfster

Dave Cowper (27)
I find that the "main stream media" is still trying to counter the internet and also declining revenue. Over the last decade or so the Australian media has diminished and I think the reasons have been due to a lack of funds (or the struggle to make the organisation profitable) and the general take-over of various organisations of journalists who think that they are stars or are the news: they love the fact that the can have an opinion about anything and write about anything.

Also I think the media is reflecting a general malaise of Australian society that has creeped in from the early 90's or even late 80's. A celebration of mediacrity with a certain small minded meaness and self-centred attitude. Views are expressed as dictums with little respect for diversity, tolerance or understanding. This is seen in the papers where we seem to have a battle between News and Fairfax. Fairfax sees itself as a defender of Australia against Murdoch and its general views reflect that. News does have the issue of being seen as right wing and beholden to the views and aims of its chairman.

However in terms of the media and news, I always see that the first aim is to report the facts...get the information out there in a precise, accurate and informative way. And also report the news that is relevant to your readers, location or community. In this case resources do and can make a difference. I buy the Sydney Morning Herald, but in terms of direct news coverage, "paper of record" stuff the Australian is a far better newspaper. THe Herald has declined in terms of coverage and general journalistic quality. I get the idea their are far more columnists and opinion writers in that paper than what there are news covering journalists. And also far more than there are sub-editors. The SMH's coverage of local Sydney news is a shadow on what it used to be. And occassionally you get the idea that that paper thinks Sydney is only in the Eastern Suburbs.

Though the Australian is not bad the Daily Telegraph is appalling...it is barely a news paper and some of the journalists come across as barely literate. Sadly, though, the SMH online is getting close to the Daily Telegraph with its coverage of celebrities, the NRL and other shallow "opium of the masses". The SMH has tried to compete and keep its circulation up, but has moved away from its traditional base and has been consequently diminished. I have stopped reading the AFR a long time ago...there are far better business coverage elsewhere (Bloomberg, Thonson etc) written by people who know what they are on about and who actually don't dislike business and captitalism as some of the writers in the AFR.

As far as television in Sydney, the commercial channels just show who unnervingly prescient the writers of "Frontline" where all those years ago. And is it only me that gets pissed off when "news" shows/ organisations push in-house celebrities or causes (Earth Hour, Dancing with Stars, Danny Weidler with yet another tattooed Easts league player having some earth shattering experience like discovering they actually did pass a year 10 subject...).

What saddens me about the commercial television news media is that for well over a decade years ago the Sunday program on channel 9 was excellent. And channel 9's late news was good as well..well written and a concise, wide-ranging and accurate encapsulation of day's events. They can do it if they want to, but I fear that there is not necessarily the money in it for them.


As far as the ABC, even with some of its excesses re-politics and so on, I think it still does a good job. I am a great fan of ABC local radio.

However the main stream media in Australia does seem to be trying to come to terms with the new digital world. There is plenty of stuff out there. In fact I have found some of the political discourse on this site more enlightening than on the SMH or the Australian... Perhaps the role of the media has changed in Australia and with the internet the whole process has become far more accessible.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Get most of my news online, SMH is generally my first port of call because it is the most user-friendly website I find, not to mention generally being balanced and informative. Also glance at the Australian from time to time.

IN terms of TV, I am a big fan of a couple of shows on Channel 10- Negus at 6:30 and the 7pm project. They aren't SBS or ABC news (which often bore me to tears), but they offer a good concise look at the news stories of the day. Also a big fan of the Paul Murray hour on Sky News.
 

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Mostly SMH online, with a bit of ABC and The Australian thrown in. For economic matters I read the somewhat edgy MacroBusiness blog. It is not everyone's thing and must be taken with a grain of salt.

On TV, meh. Don't get news much on TV, but tend to catch The Daily Show and Colbert Report when I can (which, these days, is not too often anymore). If I desperately need some news on TV I'll flip to the awful Sky news channel if required (the Sky Business channel is completely awful, BTW, with morons like Switzer on it). Oh, and does Fox Sports News count?

On radio, in the mornings I listen to ABC News Radio when driving to work. Very dry source of news, which is great. Afternoons / drive home I'll either have it on ABC News Radio again, or more often, on FM music - JJJ or MMM (which has no real news).
 

Gooch

Fred Wood (13)
I have found myself listening to ABC news radio lately. Will read the Australian online if I want to read a "newspaper" and try to catch ABC news on TV.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
We get the OZ, Fin Review and the West in the office each day and I read chunks of all three. I get a lot of my news and information from aggregators like Google, but increasingly I turn to a bunch of blogging sites for info on specific things, like Catallaxy and Chris Joye for financial/economic news (I ignore some of the opinion and go to the sources they cite). I don't watch a lot of TV, because I find the breadth and depth of coverage much better online. I listen to the ABC in the car on the way to work in the mornings to get the latest.
 

ChargerWA

Mark Loane (55)
JJJ news bulletins, and that is it. I cut the free to air aerial down a year back, so no commercial TV for me.


I like the guy who came out in the news after copping a grilling from Journalists yesterday and said he would prefer his kids grew up to be hitmen and prostitutes before they became journalists.
 

Cutter

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
No television or radio in the house (ala Scarfie). SMH for headlines, Ross Gittins and Peter Hartcher. I sometimes read some of their other columnists as well. Crikey for odds and ends. www.aldaily.com for essays and long running topical issues, reason.com, the Monthly, www.dailyreckoning.com.au, www.ted.com and others.

If I'm buying a paper I buy the Guardian or, less often, the Independent or the Telegraph.
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
No television or radio in the house (ala Scarfie). .

What the fuck is it with you media hermits? With all that time I fully expect you've learned Swahili and restructured quantum theory

How do you watch rugby?

Do people think you're freaks?
 

Scotty

David Codey (61)
Online

The Australian, SMH, Business Spectator, Climate Spectator

TV

7:30 report a few times a week.

Saw some of Negus for the first time the other day - the bit where he pointed out that Gillard doesn't know how to pronounce 'hyperbole'!

Radio

If I want some news I will flick to the ABC from JJJ
 

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
Gagger - how do I watch rugby? I'm not allowed to talk about that.

And Cutter - good reminder about aldaily. Great balance of (intelligent) opinion.
 
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