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Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
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Vote 99% Greens
May 19, 2013, 7:04:14 PM5/19/13
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Dear Peeps: I was right, you knew I was right and you know I am right
#auspol pic.twitter.com/zsrkETMuQa
https://twitter.com/Thefinnigans/status/314566031777624064/photo/1
Oz polls show nothing can save this miserable govt. Election can not come
soon enough. People decided and tuned out months ago.
https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/statuses/336243564654768129
19 May 2013, 9.18pm BST
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while
reporters lean left
While reporters' political biases are always hotly debated, other biases
remain - including too few voices from diverse backgrounds. AAP/Alan Porritt
Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst
those who wield the real power in the country's newsrooms, the Coalition
holds a winning lead.
But while the media's political leanings will no doubt be debated in the
lead-up to September's federal election, our study has also found other
largely unscrutinised biases remain - particularly whose views
disproportionately shape the news.
Conducted between May 2012 and March this year, the University of the
Sunshine Coast's representative survey of 605 journalists around Australia
found that more than half (51.0%) describe themselves as holding
left-of-centre political views, compared with only 12.9% who consider
themselves right-of-centre.
It is the first study of its kind in more than 20 years to involve such a
large number of journalists, and follows on from the work of John Henningham
in the early 1990s.
Our survey was conducted by telephone with carefully selected journalists
from newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, online news sites
and news agency AAP, as a sample of the 8000 to 10,000 journalists in
Australia today.
When asked about their voting intentions, less than two-thirds of the
journalists we surveyed revealed their voting intention. Of those 372
people, 43.0% said they would give their first preference vote to Labor;
30.2% would vote for the Coalition; and 19.4% said they would choose the
Greens - about twice the Australian average.
Media bosses more in sync with voters
Yet, among those who arguably matter most - the journalists in senior
editorial ranks who have the most power to decide news agendas - a
dramatically different picture emerged.
Among the 83 senior editors who took part in the survey, the Coalition was
the party of choice on 43.2%, followed by Labor (34.1%) and the Greens
(11.4%).
This suggests that Australia's media bosses are more in line with the
broader electorate, at least according to recent Newspoll results.
It is important to note that there is little research showing that
journalists' personal political biases affect their work.
When asked in this survey about a range of influences on their work, many
journalists said their superiors have a much stronger influence than their
personal values and beliefs.
Aunty leans to the Greens
An interesting finding emerged when we compare journalists from the three
biggest news organisations in the country - News Limited, Fairfax Media and
the ABC.
The national broadcaster has repeatedly been attacked for having a seemingly
leftist bias, while others have accused News Limited - and particularly its
flagship newspaper The Australian - of being overly conservative in its
political views.
At first glance, the findings do not support this assumption, with no
significant differences in the way journalists from the ABC and News rate
their political views on a scale of 0 (left) to 10 (right).
However, 41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention
said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7%
for the Coalition.
In contrast, 46.5% of 86 News Limited journalists who answered this question
said they would vote for Labor, 26.7% for the Coalition, and only 19.8% for
the Greens. As well as The Australian, the News stable includes some of the
country's best-selling tabloids such as the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph,
Courier-Mail, Northern Territory News and the Adelaide Advertiser, and some
suburban newspapers.
Among the 86 Fairfax Media journalists who responded, Labor was by far the
most popular party at 54.7% support, followed by the Coalition and the
Greens, both on 19.8%. The Fairfax journalists came from outlets including
the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, a range of regional
and suburban newspapers, and metropolitan radio stations.
If we disregard the 42.8% of journalists who are undecided, refused to
answer or would vote for a party or candidate other than the major three,
this is a statistically significant result.
It means that even though only a smaller number of journalists answered the
voting intentions, which does increase the margin of error, it is still
reasonable to conclude that there is a marked difference between the voting
intentions of journalists at the three major media organisations.
Australian stories that go untold
Where in the country journalists work also seems to make a major difference.
Journalists at metropolitan news media are significantly more left-wing in
their political views. Labor would receive 52.6% of the metropolitan
journalist vote, while in regional areas, 44.4% would vote for the
Coalition.
Our study also found that while journalists recognise their own political
biases, they may be less aware of their cultural bias.
An overwhelming majority of journalists in this country still come from a
white, Anglo-Saxon background, with minorities very few and far between in
mainstream journalism.
Three out of four journalists give their ethnicity as at least partly
Anglo-Saxon. Only 4.7% said they have an Asian or Middle Eastern background,
which is around half of what it should be to reflect the make-up of the
Australian population.
Journalists identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
representing just 1.8% of Australian journalists - again, disproportionately
lower than the 2.5% of Australians with an Indigenous background.
This is further evidence to support the argument that Australian
journalists'
worldviews and cultural backgrounds are still not representative of the
general population.
And it is an aspect that many argue is reflected in Australian media
reporting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, as well as in
stories related to race and ethnicity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This research has been accepted for publication in the June edition of
the Australian Journalism Review. The margin of error for the entire study
sample is 4%. Sub-samples of journalists' responses to some questions - such
as voting intentions - are likely to have a higher margin error, however,
appropriate statistical methods were used in testing for differences between
sub-samples to take account of the smaller sample sizes. The survey response
rate was 89.5%.
http://theconversation.com/whose-views-skew-the-news-media-chiefs-ready-to-vote-out-labor-while-reporters-lean-left-13995
#auspol pic.twitter.com/zsrkETMuQa
https://twitter.com/Thefinnigans/status/314566031777624064/photo/1
Oz polls show nothing can save this miserable govt. Election can not come
soon enough. People decided and tuned out months ago.
https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/statuses/336243564654768129
19 May 2013, 9.18pm BST
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while
reporters lean left
While reporters' political biases are always hotly debated, other biases
remain - including too few voices from diverse backgrounds. AAP/Alan Porritt
Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst
those who wield the real power in the country's newsrooms, the Coalition
holds a winning lead.
But while the media's political leanings will no doubt be debated in the
lead-up to September's federal election, our study has also found other
largely unscrutinised biases remain - particularly whose views
disproportionately shape the news.
Conducted between May 2012 and March this year, the University of the
Sunshine Coast's representative survey of 605 journalists around Australia
found that more than half (51.0%) describe themselves as holding
left-of-centre political views, compared with only 12.9% who consider
themselves right-of-centre.
It is the first study of its kind in more than 20 years to involve such a
large number of journalists, and follows on from the work of John Henningham
in the early 1990s.
Our survey was conducted by telephone with carefully selected journalists
from newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, online news sites
and news agency AAP, as a sample of the 8000 to 10,000 journalists in
Australia today.
When asked about their voting intentions, less than two-thirds of the
journalists we surveyed revealed their voting intention. Of those 372
people, 43.0% said they would give their first preference vote to Labor;
30.2% would vote for the Coalition; and 19.4% said they would choose the
Greens - about twice the Australian average.
Media bosses more in sync with voters
Yet, among those who arguably matter most - the journalists in senior
editorial ranks who have the most power to decide news agendas - a
dramatically different picture emerged.
Among the 83 senior editors who took part in the survey, the Coalition was
the party of choice on 43.2%, followed by Labor (34.1%) and the Greens
(11.4%).
This suggests that Australia's media bosses are more in line with the
broader electorate, at least according to recent Newspoll results.
It is important to note that there is little research showing that
journalists' personal political biases affect their work.
When asked in this survey about a range of influences on their work, many
journalists said their superiors have a much stronger influence than their
personal values and beliefs.
Aunty leans to the Greens
An interesting finding emerged when we compare journalists from the three
biggest news organisations in the country - News Limited, Fairfax Media and
the ABC.
The national broadcaster has repeatedly been attacked for having a seemingly
leftist bias, while others have accused News Limited - and particularly its
flagship newspaper The Australian - of being overly conservative in its
political views.
At first glance, the findings do not support this assumption, with no
significant differences in the way journalists from the ABC and News rate
their political views on a scale of 0 (left) to 10 (right).
However, 41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention
said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7%
for the Coalition.
In contrast, 46.5% of 86 News Limited journalists who answered this question
said they would vote for Labor, 26.7% for the Coalition, and only 19.8% for
the Greens. As well as The Australian, the News stable includes some of the
country's best-selling tabloids such as the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph,
Courier-Mail, Northern Territory News and the Adelaide Advertiser, and some
suburban newspapers.
Among the 86 Fairfax Media journalists who responded, Labor was by far the
most popular party at 54.7% support, followed by the Coalition and the
Greens, both on 19.8%. The Fairfax journalists came from outlets including
the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, a range of regional
and suburban newspapers, and metropolitan radio stations.
If we disregard the 42.8% of journalists who are undecided, refused to
answer or would vote for a party or candidate other than the major three,
this is a statistically significant result.
It means that even though only a smaller number of journalists answered the
voting intentions, which does increase the margin of error, it is still
reasonable to conclude that there is a marked difference between the voting
intentions of journalists at the three major media organisations.
Australian stories that go untold
Where in the country journalists work also seems to make a major difference.
Journalists at metropolitan news media are significantly more left-wing in
their political views. Labor would receive 52.6% of the metropolitan
journalist vote, while in regional areas, 44.4% would vote for the
Coalition.
Our study also found that while journalists recognise their own political
biases, they may be less aware of their cultural bias.
An overwhelming majority of journalists in this country still come from a
white, Anglo-Saxon background, with minorities very few and far between in
mainstream journalism.
Three out of four journalists give their ethnicity as at least partly
Anglo-Saxon. Only 4.7% said they have an Asian or Middle Eastern background,
which is around half of what it should be to reflect the make-up of the
Australian population.
Journalists identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
representing just 1.8% of Australian journalists - again, disproportionately
lower than the 2.5% of Australians with an Indigenous background.
This is further evidence to support the argument that Australian
journalists'
worldviews and cultural backgrounds are still not representative of the
general population.
And it is an aspect that many argue is reflected in Australian media
reporting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, as well as in
stories related to race and ethnicity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This research has been accepted for publication in the June edition of
the Australian Journalism Review. The margin of error for the entire study
sample is 4%. Sub-samples of journalists' responses to some questions - such
as voting intentions - are likely to have a higher margin error, however,
appropriate statistical methods were used in testing for differences between
sub-samples to take account of the smaller sample sizes. The survey response
rate was 89.5%.
http://theconversation.com/whose-views-skew-the-news-media-chiefs-ready-to-vote-out-labor-while-reporters-lean-left-13995
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