An Australian e-Opinion Website Worth a Visit
It’s interesting to see how other countries are reacting to the same media issues which we are reacting to here in the USA.
I received a Google “news alert” today about the Australian reaction to the Rupert Murdoch speech, which addresses the mainstream media’s reaction to the digital revolution. It directed me to On Line Opinions, which defines itself as an area for deliberative democracy. It covers many of the issues that are being worked out here in the states.
Here is part of the Murdoch reaction entry from Hugh Brown, who lectures in journalism at the University of Queensland:
…we now see one of the largest and most aggressive competitors in the media world moving into an area that previously, by his own admission, Murdoch thought would just limp along. That makes anyone who raises an alternative voice fearful of being either bought out by a larger player (as Crikey! has recently been) or starved of the revenues needed to continue. Many newspapers have suffered at least one of those fates at Murdochs hands.
But its also exciting because it raises the prospect of very significant capital being thrown at developing the most effective and efficient means of new media publishing – and we all can learn from what emerges. If Murdoch has demonstrated anything over the years, its an ability to run very tight and well-directed organisations…
Many academics have argued that Murdochs efforts to refine and continue Lord Northcliffes tabloid doctrine and daily hate as devices to raise circulations are, at least in part, responsible for the long-term decline. The thesis goes that the dumbing-down of newspapers, and public communication in general, has made them less relevant to readers and more frequently an object of derision, leading to short-term occasional gains overridden by long-term decline. Murdoch appears to acknowledge this idea in his speech when he refers to the newspaper industry as remarkably, unaccountably complacent.
