When News Becomes The News
The Australian media landscape is tightly controlled and notoriously incestuous, leading to a sharp decline in the quality of our news and how it is presented.
Australian news media continues to slide down the ranks of the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), falling from 26 in 2020 to number 39 in 2024 out of 180 countries. This is due to factors like media censorship, intimidation of journalists (toothless whistleblower laws) and close ties between media and politicians eroding editorial independence and reporting autonomy.
This is conjunction with the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reporting Australia “has slipped into distrust territory … giving rise to a widespread sense of grievance”. Our trust in institutions such as government and particularly the media to serve in the best interest of the Australian public is at a critical low.
And it is little wonder why, considering the current state of television news in Australia.
Instead of hard-hitting, investigative reporting from news professionals, we are inundated with banal talking heads conducting scripted interviews in an overfriendly, overly personal way, interviewing their subjects as ‘mates’ with little to no regard for journalistic purpose or integrity.
Take Karl Stefanovic, for example – everybody’s mate and the party boy of Australian news – and his infuriating catch cry of “let’s catch up for a beer next time you’re in town”, both unprofessional and unnecessary. Karl’s been on both sides of the news cycle, his on- and off-air antics often gaining traction for their questionable entertainment value in the tabloids.
Karl’s former ‘Today’ co-presenter Lisa Wilkinson has also courted plenty of controversy for her unprofessional behaviour and disregard of journalistic boundaries. After co-hosting ‘Today’ on the Nine Network with Karl for ten years, Wilkinson resigned in 2017 over a heated pay dispute and was immediately drafted by rival Network 10 as a panellist on ‘The Project’.
In 2022, Wilkinson took it upon herself to utilise her acceptance speech at the 62nd Annual Logies Awards as a platform to comment sub judice on the proceedings of the Higgins-Lehrmann trial. Despite public criticism and condemnation from the legal community, Wilkinson was unapologetic and unremorseful, epitomizing the egregious hubris that permeates our news media industry.
Did someone say nepotism? In Australian media, you can almost guarantee it.
The best way to get a gig in this tight-knit conclave is to be connected by blood. It’s a family business, like the Mafia. For every Karl Stefanovic, there is his brother Peter.
Incidentally, Wilkinson and her husband, journalist/author/banal talking head Peter FitzSimons, faced down accusations of nepotism when their daughter Billi was appointed editor of The Daily Aus in 2022 prior to her 25th birthday.
It was a proud family moment that caused a huge uproar as netizens and media commentators engaged in fiery debates about favouritism and whether Billi procured the job through merit of her work or virtue of her parentage.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg of when news becomes the news. Karl and Lisa are only two among the seemingly endless barrage of Australian news identities that fill our screens, occupying a disproportionate amount of airtime, and space on our social feeds.
Hard news and investigative reporting in the Australian mainstream media have been summarily infiltrated by soft news, advertorials and human-interest stories. Our trusted journalists and newsreaders have been ousted by legacy hires and paid-off mouthpieces espousing biased personal and political agendas.
So how did it get this way? Investigating the origins of Australian media’s insidious nature is akin to wading through a murky swamp mired by corporate greed, corruption and dubious business ethics.
The Australian mainstream media news agenda is set and maintained by a handful of very rich and powerful players with vested interests in prioritizing profit over quality of journalism.
Media ownership in Australia has been historically dominated by the feuding Packer and Murdoch dynasties. The majority of print news outlets are owned by Nine Entertainment and News Corp Australia. Nine Entertainment is the successor to Publishing and Broadcast Limited (PBL) established by the Packers. News Corp Australia is owned by Rupert Murdoch and a subsidiary of the American News Corporation conglomerate.
For TV news, there are three major commercial networks – Seven Network, Nine Network and Network 10, plus government subsidized public broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as well as Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and Imparja for local and foreign news.
The Seven Network is owned by Seven West Media Limited, Australia’s largest diversified media business. The Nine Network belongs to Nine Entertainment, which merged with Fairfax Media in 2018. Network 10 is a wholly owned subsidiary of mass media behemoth Paramount Global’s UK & Australia division. The ABC is funded through grants from the Federal Government i.e. the taxpayers and administered by a board that is chosen by the Government.
Therefore, Australian print and broadcast journalists exist and operate in a confined field. It’s a small pond filled with big fish, all angling for dominance and mass exposure. There is no shortage of volatile egos and everyone knows everyone.
They are all tied together in a fragile ecosystem through an intricate web of corporate-political manoeuvrings, backroom deals and handshake agreements. In this environment, a journalist’s job becomes dependent on their ability to toe the line dictated by their corporate superiors.
The decline of Australian news media is further reflected in our negligent approach to funding and educating incoming generations of journalists and media professionals.
The past two decades have seen a marked reduction in funding and support for news outlets, resulting in widespread redundancies in the sector. COVID was another nail in the coffin for independent media that was already struggling. The opportunity for journalism graduates to work in a newsroom have greatly diminished.
Yet, despite limited potential in the field for work placement, universities around the country continue to flood the job market every year with overqualified, inexperienced graduates that will never even see one of their articles published, let alone work in an active newsroom.
Where employment opportunities for journalists have contracted, the public relations sector has expanded. When you enter a journalism degree, there are essentially two pathways offered: traditional news journalism and public relations. More journalism graduates go into PR than a newsroom, employed in the thousands by government departments, independent agencies and private businesses alike to manage the public affairs and images of these enterprises.
Furthermore, rising university fees have created a class problem in Australian news media, contributing to a widening gap in socio-economic representation in our media industry. [add hyperlink] This has resulted in a proliferation of on-screen identities from predominantly middle and upper class upbringing that are severely out of touch with the concerns of everyday working Australians.
It used to be that journalists didn’t need a university qualification; they learnt the craft through on-the-job training, in the field as a cub reporter. Australia’s first journalism doctorate was only awarded in 1984. But journalism has been gentrified and monetised for corporate gain, inherently limiting the voices and faces that receive precious airtime to a rare and privileged few.
The role of journalism in a free society.
Beholden as it is to political and international corporate interests, Australian news continues its inevitable deep dive into cultural irrelevance. Misinformation is rife within the mainstream media and rarely does the unmitigated truth factor into which stories are worthy of a headline.
Granted, there are those that still pursue the noble art of objective reporting, but it’s a dying breed in Australia. A large proportion of journalism graduates are more educated in maintaining their social media presence than crafting a well-researched yarn, which makes for good ratings, but not necessarily good journalism.
Unfiltered information is a rare commodity in the post-truth era. It has become exceedingly rare to have a news story presented without some sort of oversight from commercial and/or political interests. Journalism students are idealistically taught to be ‘agents of democracy’
As a Federal election looms, viewers i.e. voters are bombarded with political messaging across all media platforms. Combined with Australia’s sliding rank on the WPFI, plummeting trust and the incestuous nature of our media landscape, it will be interesting to observe what role news outlets will play in the outcome of the election and how voters across various demographics respond to the coverage.
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