It’s common knowledge in Australia that one of the reasons Tony Abbot’s political campaign was so effective was because of the media. The powerful headlines such as “IT’S A RUDDY MESS” influenced much of Australia, and gave Tony Abbot and the Liberal party an almost too easy victory. And there’s two people to thank for that.

The more obvious person, Rupert Murdoch. Having an impressive resume including being the CEO of News Corporation, an Executive Chairman at News Corp, and more recently, the CEO of 21st Century Fox. He owns almost TOO many media outlets including ‘The Australian’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘Courier-Mail’, ‘The Herald Sun’ and FOX to name a few, all of which adds to 17.3 million newspapers in Australia a week. That’s a ridiculous amount of influence he has.

The second person responsible, is Col Allan, the editor-in-chief of the ‘New York Post’. This man, who arrived in Australia just a week before the date for the federal election was announced, is responsible for all the blatant headlines towards Kevin Rudd.

“His most famous expertise is bare-knuckled political combat and character assassination. His most famous talent is for the brazen front-page banner headline.” (Robert Manne 2013)

But why does it matter who controls the media? Well, you’re living it. Because of the media, Tony Abbot is in office, and arguably destroying Australia’s international reputation with his poor public speaking skills, and lack of general knowledge. The public are bombarded by personal opinions as headlines, and are given a one-sided story depending on the CEO’s political opinion. And it’s because of this, Politics and the campaigns are almost no longer about the policies, but about the punchline in articles.

“…The public are fed rehearsed lines, and know it. Debate is reduced to moronic slogans. Tough decisions are dodged and deferred. Marketing techniques not only sell policies, but craft them.” (The Age, 2011)

NPR recently made a hilarious, and very informative april fools joke on their website. The concept was simple, the title read “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?”, but in the body of the text, all it said was, “We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’ ” (NPR 2014). There were glorious amounts of people sharing and commenting on the post pretending to have read ‘the article’ and commenting on it. This highlights how effective a media headline can be, and the influence it can have on so many people, especially those that don’t even read the contents.

I think it’s very important who ‘owns’ the media, and Rupert Murdoch has made it painfully obvious how much it’s capable of. So for god sakes, tighten the media laws! I’ll leave you with a funny video by ‘friendlyjordies‘, highlighting the 2013 political campaign, and how Murdoch has misrepresented, or painfully missed, some of the Labours policies.

References:

1. Manne Robert 2013, Why Rupert Murdoch Can’t Be Stopped, The Monthly, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/november/1383224400/robert-manne/why-rupert-murdoch-can-t-be-stopped >

2. Flew Terry 2013, FactCheck: does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in Australia?, The Conversation, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-murdoch-own-70-of-newspapers-in-australia-16812 >

3. Hyland & Gordon, T&J 2011, ‘Dumb and dumber: why Australian politics is broken’, The Age, 20 February, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://www.theage.com.au/national/dumb-and-dumber-why-australian-politics-is-broken-20110219-1b0fu.html&gt;

4. Marinconz, 2014, A Reminder That Not Everyone Reads Before Commenting, Kotaku, Weblog, 3rd April, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://kotaku.com/a-reminder-that-not-everyone-reads-before-commenting-1557812641 >