How Australia Decides: Election Reporting and the Media
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/24/2011
EAN 9780521147071, ISBN10: 0521147077
Paperback, 346 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
In recent years, the Australian media have come under fire for their reporting of politics and election campaigns. Political reporting is said to be too influenced by commercial concerns, too obsessed with gossip and scandal, and too focused on trivia and 'sound bites' at the expense of serious issues. There are accusations of bias, sensationalism, 'lazy' journalism and 'horse-race' reporting that is obsessed with opinion polls. How Australia Decides is the first book to put these allegations to the test. Based on a four-year empirical study, Sally Young reports the results of the only systematic, historical and in-depth analysis of Australian election reporting. This groundbreaking book shows how election reporting has changed over time, and how political news audiences, news production and shifts in political campaigning are influencing media content – with profound implications for Australian democracy.
Preface
1. Election reporting in the 2000s
Part I. Political News Audiences and Outlets
2. The political news audience
3. The elite public sphere
4. The popular public sphere
5. Elections and audiences
Part II. Where Does Election News Come From and What is it About?
6. Creating election news
journalists
7. The stars of the show
politicians and campaigning
8. Who controls the news agenda? 9. 'From the campaign trail'
the framing of election news
Part III. Elections in Mediated Times
10. News, political reporting and the Internet
11. Bias
12. News, the public and democracy.