Monday, October 16, 2006
The Horse has Bolted
AT last, the die is cast.
After a decade of debate, lost opportunity and a last-minute intervention by Peter Costello, Australia's restrictive media laws are about to be reformed.
The final outcome of tense negotiations between Communications Minister Helen Coonan and the Nationals is a mish-mash - the kind of result typically delivered by politicians horse-trading over their obsessions, rather than being driven by good public policy.
Yet good policy is the reason put forward to explain the Treasurer's action yesterday after he managed to impose an ownership limit of two out of three media in a single market.
Before the 1987 "queens of screen" legislation designed by then treasurer Paul Keating, media companies could (and did) own newspapers, radio stations and a television station in one market.
Keating's law limited ownership to a single medium. John Howard's Government twice attempted to overturn this rule. It failed in 1998 and again in 2001. Coonan's original package provided for the abolition of the restrictions, subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The Nationals, fearful of a single-owner takeover of regional media, pushed hard for a limit of two out of three.
They also demanded a legislated minimum amount of 4 1/2 hours of local programming and 12 1/2 minutes of local news services on rural radio stations each day.
After a decade of debate, lost opportunity and a last-minute intervention by Peter Costello, Australia's restrictive media laws are about to be reformed.
The final outcome of tense negotiations between Communications Minister Helen Coonan and the Nationals is a mish-mash - the kind of result typically delivered by politicians horse-trading over their obsessions, rather than being driven by good public policy.
Yet good policy is the reason put forward to explain the Treasurer's action yesterday after he managed to impose an ownership limit of two out of three media in a single market.
Before the 1987 "queens of screen" legislation designed by then treasurer Paul Keating, media companies could (and did) own newspapers, radio stations and a television station in one market.
Keating's law limited ownership to a single medium. John Howard's Government twice attempted to overturn this rule. It failed in 1998 and again in 2001. Coonan's original package provided for the abolition of the restrictions, subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The Nationals, fearful of a single-owner takeover of regional media, pushed hard for a limit of two out of three.
They also demanded a legislated minimum amount of 4 1/2 hours of local programming and 12 1/2 minutes of local news services on rural radio stations each day.
Media Exercise 4: Media Reform in Australia
Group 2:
Amber Ramirez
Mandy Crawford
Audrey Marshall
Stephanie Zoch
Task:
Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade, with debate on the desirability of reform continuing unabated. This debate was fuelled by the impact of new media technologies, a number of inquiries proposing regulatory changes, and the self-interest of those media organisations that report the controversy.
The Australian Government has long indicated that it believed the rules to be anachronistic, and its policy for the 2001 election contained a commitment to amend cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions. The major effect of the 1996 laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region. The purpose of the legislation was 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. The justification for the rules is that the effective functioning of a democracy requires a diverse ownership of the daily mass media to ensure that public life be reported in a fair and open manner.
Current Australian media reforms, passed in October 2006, are designed to free up media ownership by scrapping foreign ownership limist and cross-media which ban a company form owning television, radio and newspapers in same area.
Your task is to critical assess these changes through the questions posed below, which will act to guide your examination:
Australian Government, “Meeting the digital challenge: Reforming Australia’s media in the digital age”. Discussion paper on media reform options.http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/37572/Media_consultation_paper_Final_.pdf
Morgan, F. (2005). “Up, up & away in my beautiful balloon: Some questions of media policy”. http://arts.anu.edu.au/democraticaudit/papers/200509_morgan_media_own.pdf
http://au.biz.yahoo.com/061012/19/xdwg.html
Deadline for final submissions: Thursday, November 2, 5pm.
Amber Ramirez
Mandy Crawford
Audrey Marshall
Stephanie Zoch
Task:
Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade, with debate on the desirability of reform continuing unabated. This debate was fuelled by the impact of new media technologies, a number of inquiries proposing regulatory changes, and the self-interest of those media organisations that report the controversy.
The Australian Government has long indicated that it believed the rules to be anachronistic, and its policy for the 2001 election contained a commitment to amend cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions. The major effect of the 1996 laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region. The purpose of the legislation was 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. The justification for the rules is that the effective functioning of a democracy requires a diverse ownership of the daily mass media to ensure that public life be reported in a fair and open manner.
Current Australian media reforms, passed in October 2006, are designed to free up media ownership by scrapping foreign ownership limist and cross-media which ban a company form owning television, radio and newspapers in same area.
Your task is to critical assess these changes through the questions posed below, which will act to guide your examination:
- What were the key reasons for cross-media ownership rules in the Australian context?
- What are the new media ownership rules designed to achieve in relation to criticisms of the previous legislation?
- What current criticisms have been leveled at the new cross-media ownership rules in relation to diversity of ownership compared to diversity of opinion through media reporting in fair and open manner?
- What implications could these negative aspects have on the media's roles and responsibilities in effective functioning of democracy in the Australian?
The following online resources will help you become oriented to Australian media reforms and associated issues.
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/SP/media_regulations.htm
http://www.australiancollaboration.com.au/democracy/currentthreats/medialaw.htmlAustralian Government, “Meeting the digital challenge: Reforming Australia’s media in the digital age”. Discussion paper on media reform options.http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/37572/Media_consultation_paper_Final_.pdf
Morgan, F. (2005). “Up, up & away in my beautiful balloon: Some questions of media policy”. http://arts.anu.edu.au/democraticaudit/papers/200509_morgan_media_own.pdf
http://au.biz.yahoo.com/061012/19/xdwg.html
Deadline for final submissions: Thursday, November 2, 5pm.
Media Reform in Australia: Big Challenges Ahead
IT is not hard to imagine the main features of the Australian media scene in five years.
The big challenge for the Nine, Seven and Ten networks, Telstra, Fairfax, News Corporation and the many smaller Australian media players is to match their short-term actions to adapt to the new media laws with the long-term shape of the industry.
Whether you like them or not, Helen Coonan's laws give all media companies a chance to adjust their position to the big changes ahead.
Perhaps the biggest fundamental change is that a large chunk of the 2011-12 audience will rely on their broadband connection for television, the phone and the computer; the three effectively merge.
Although they have been given protection under the act, this basic change will create an avalanche of internet-based competitors for free-to-air TV companies and many new avenues for advertisers.
It will mean the only newspapers that survive will be those with clearly defined readership markets because classified advertising will be dominated by the internet and many brand advertising campaigns will reduce their newspaper and TV exposure.
And so newspapers that rely on classifieds will need to sell the virtues of their editorial product and develop new sources of income unless they have a big share of the internet classified cake. This change will foster greater local material in many newspapers and material that caters for special markets. Customised information vehicles will boom.
But those newspapers that do adapt will prosper because their main audience, the baby boomers and older people, have large amounts of disposable cash.
The big challenge for the Nine, Seven and Ten networks, Telstra, Fairfax, News Corporation and the many smaller Australian media players is to match their short-term actions to adapt to the new media laws with the long-term shape of the industry.
Whether you like them or not, Helen Coonan's laws give all media companies a chance to adjust their position to the big changes ahead.
Perhaps the biggest fundamental change is that a large chunk of the 2011-12 audience will rely on their broadband connection for television, the phone and the computer; the three effectively merge.
Although they have been given protection under the act, this basic change will create an avalanche of internet-based competitors for free-to-air TV companies and many new avenues for advertisers.
It will mean the only newspapers that survive will be those with clearly defined readership markets because classified advertising will be dominated by the internet and many brand advertising campaigns will reduce their newspaper and TV exposure.
And so newspapers that rely on classifieds will need to sell the virtues of their editorial product and develop new sources of income unless they have a big share of the internet classified cake. This change will foster greater local material in many newspapers and material that caters for special markets. Customised information vehicles will boom.
But those newspapers that do adapt will prosper because their main audience, the baby boomers and older people, have large amounts of disposable cash.
Media giants hit record highs
PUBLISHING and Broadcasting (PBL) shares joined News Corporation shares in hitting record highs today after the company said it was "constantly reviewing" all of its businesses and options amid speculation about the future of its core media assets.
Other media companies including news giant News Corporation (nws.ASX:Quote,News), publisher of NEWS.com.au, have also hit a record high with new media laws expected to loosen ownership restrictions allowing big media companies to gobble up smaller players.
Rumours surrounding PBL (pbl.ASX:Quote,News) include speculation that the company may sell the Nine Network, ACP Magazines and ninemsn to a private equity group, with speculation focused on US-based Newbridge Capital.
There has also been speculation that PBL may look at putting its media interests into a new listed media group.
Investment bank UBS is believed to be advising PBL on potential transactions in the sector, according to a report in today's Sydney Morning Herald.
Other media companies including news giant News Corporation (nws.ASX:Quote,News), publisher of NEWS.com.au, have also hit a record high with new media laws expected to loosen ownership restrictions allowing big media companies to gobble up smaller players.
Rumours surrounding PBL (pbl.ASX:Quote,News) include speculation that the company may sell the Nine Network, ACP Magazines and ninemsn to a private equity group, with speculation focused on US-based Newbridge Capital.
There has also been speculation that PBL may look at putting its media interests into a new listed media group.
Investment bank UBS is believed to be advising PBL on potential transactions in the sector, according to a report in today's Sydney Morning Herald.
"Real Beauty"
This is an interesting video from Dove about the "beautiful" people we see on the billboards and in magazines, and the process they go through to look like that.
