Media ownership in Australia

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Australian media ownership is one of the most concentrated in the world. The last review of media ownership in Australia (1999) found that of 12 capital city and daily papers, seven are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and three by John Fairfax Holdings. The West Australian and the Canberra Times are the only independently owned dailies.

Contents

[edit] The Impact of Ownership on the Dissemination of Information

The major commercial media organizations in Australia have vested interests in several commercial entities. This can have an impact on the content presented and the information audiences receive.

[edit] Examples

Publishing & Broadcasting Limited has diverse interests including the Nine Network (television), The Bulletin & Women’s Weekly (magazines), Crown Casino, Nokia & Ticketek. This could result the cross promotion of vested interests.

News Corporation has interests in the film, magazine, publishing, sports & television industries. These include the following:

This can impact on the way information is presented in that News Corporation can also feature/advertise their other products & services. For example, News Corporation newspapers can ‘promote’ the NRL in the sports section.

Southern Cross Broadcasting owns a large number of major television stations across Australia. This could affect the subject matter of the advertisements presented during television broadcasts. For example, television talk shows may discuss Southern Cross programs much more frequently than those produced by other companies. Similarly, advertisements aired during Southern Cross television shows will relate to other Southern Cross Broadcasting television stations, sponsors and affiliates.

Network Ten’s television talk programs Rove Live and Good Morning Australia have the opportunity to promote other programs broadcast by the network. This is done by interviewing the celebrities associated with these programs.

Another effect of major companies owning more than one form of media in Australia with a wide audience is that the companies may put bias and censorship in their various media forms, therefore controlling what information is released to their Australian audiences. For example, one company may release the same information to their television network and newspaper, leaving out some information that may be relevant to the Australian public. (by SLR)

A good way to ensure that this does not happen is for Australia to have a wide range of companies covering the media ownership, and not a select few. Unfortunately, there aren't that many laws protecting the coverage of media ownership in Australia; however, the ones that are in force do not always come into place. (by SLR)

[edit] Laws

Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over three decades. The major effect of the laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region, to encourage diversity in the ownership of the most influential forms of the commercial media: the daily press and free-to-air television and radio. There are many companies that run media business such as News Ltd. This company owns many franchise such as the NRL, magizines, Foxtel digital and many more. On 14 March 2005, the Australian Government announced proposals to amend the current media ownership laws.

[edit] Television

Australian television broadcasting is dominated by free-to-air services including ABC TV, Seven Network, Nine Network, Network Ten, SBS TV and their affiliates, as well as subscription television providers Foxtel, Austar and SelecTV.

Ownership of these stations and affiliates is mostly shared between PBL Media, Seven Media Group, CanWest Global, WIN Corporation, Macquarie Media Group and Prime Television Limited. ABC Television and SBS Television are government owned stations.

There is little in the way of competition in the Television market, there are a few smaller subscription television providers, such as Neighbourhood Cable and TransACT, but they are limited both in channel availability and subscribers, and there are community television stations in most capital cities.

[edit] Internet

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (October 2007)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links