Thinking about the puppeteers of news corporations is terrifying to me; to think that news is no longer just the facts but has been tainted with opinion and propaganda that is weaved so seamlessly (or, in fox news’s case, not so seamlessly) into the common news story. But I suppose that makes you wonder whether the news has ever been the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or whether we’ve all been fooled all along.

I can’t say in the past that I’ve ever been an avid news reader or consumer; of course in passing I would see the dramatic headline that would line the lips of many for a day or two before being archived to nothing but a distant memory.

However, I can’t deny that I’ve been keeping on top of the ever-changing pandemic that is currently cursing our existence. COVID-19 and its impact must be the biggest global news scoop in a long time. It is only more recently that I’ve started to pay attention to the links I was clicking on, who is feeding me these crucial titbits on how to prevent contracting the illness, the clusters in my area or whether I’ll still have my job when I wake up tomorrow. I found myself relying mostly on the ABC and The Guardian website for my daily injection of stress fuel.

However, on a regular day when the world hasn’t decided to collapse, I would rely mainly on Facebook and other social medias to keep me updated on the news that I was most interested in, considering each site is listening to everything we’re all saying, I would hope that it would be able to figure out the kind of news stories I’d be interested in.

With the age of the internet now truly among us, anyone can be an author, a journalist or even a scientist whether in truth or smoke and mirrors. Of course, the internet is a completely different argument all together but at the same time this sentiment of deciding what really is true is identical.

In my opinion, this shouldn’t even have to be a thought and that media companies should be held responsible for spewing misinformation; however, biases are what build up these differing companies. If these biases didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be a need for multiple news providing platforms.

It’s hard to blame the companies themselves as most are receiving minimal assistance from the more recent governing figures.

“…two consecutive coalition government have cut $101 million dollars per year in ABC funding since 2014. In the last 2018-19 federal budget a further $84 million was cut… the total ABC funding has been lowered by $254 million since 2014 – a 25 per cent cut of the total ABC budget.” (Lidberg, 2019 p16)

If the leadership of Australia doesn’t care about providing Australians with sustainable news sources that provide accurate information to its residence, then no wonder wealthy figures are snapping up the media real estate and gaslighting what is being said.

These wealthy figures do nothing for the actual news itself besides manipulating it for their own personal gain or to reflect their construed views of reported topics. The news should not reflect just ones’ person’s interpretation, but a range of the community to provide an accurate representation of its impacts.

To think that something so important is being toyed with for monetary gain is overall ridiculous and none the less eye opening to the true colours of society and the kinds of people that walk among us. I’ll be doing my own research from now on.

~Bree

Reference List

Lidberg, J. 2019, ‘The distortion of the Australian public sphere: media ownership concentration in Australia’, AQ, Australian quarterly, vol. 90, no. 1.