Every type of media, whether it be legacy or social, is owned by someone. A lot of people wouldn’t have a clue who owns The Sydney Morning Herald, or Twitter; and while most of you could name Zuckerberg as the owner of Facebook, you probably couldn’t care less if it was him or crazy Joe from the local 7eleven that owned it.
But should you care?
The people who own the media have a say in what its audience sees, hears and reads. When big media owners like Rupert Murdoch, Gina Rinehart, Kerry Stokes and James Packer own large percentages of legacy media their ideologies and views are being put out for large sums of people to see and potentially be influenced by their bias. An example of political bias in mainstream media is Rupert Murdoch’s articles opposing Julia Gillard in 2011. According to The Conversation, Murdoch met Abbot and took a liking to him, thereafter his newspapers campaigned strongly against Gillard, especially on the issues of asylum seekers and climate change (The Conversation, August 7, 2013).
In an interview with the Financial Review Julia Gillard expressed concern on media ownership, especially the power that Rupert Murdoch holds with such strong legacy media platforms, saying: “In many parts of Australia the readily available newspaper for people is a Murdoch paper… so that does matter that there are questions of quality and questions of bias that intersect with our politics.” (The Financial Review, John Kehoe, Oct 28 2014).
On one hand media ownership does matter in terms of what ideologies and opinions are being presented to the public. On the other hand, however, we have access to other means of research and ways of creating our own opinions. There is endless information and forums online designed to inform people and help us create our own opinions. I think as an audience it is up to us to decide what we let influence our opinions and beliefs, but when most the information that is being presented to us is based on one persons view then things can become skewed.
Hazy Dais 
Hi Daisy, I think this post puts forth a really informative and insightful view of the one of the biggest issues in our media today. The context and information you have gathered about Rupert Murdoch using his media ownership for political persuasion is solid and adequately supports your point of view whilst solidifying potential concerns of readers who might not have known much about just how much power certain individuals have in controlling our mainstream media.
I think you have hit the nail on the head in saying that we, as consumers of news in our everyday lives, have a certain responsibility in making our own judgements on what is happening in our world, although difficult due to the strong presence of biased reporting. Good job!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Hi Daisy!!! Great observation about Political Bias and Media Ownership, I completely agree with your example of political bias in mainstream media is Rupert Murdoch’s articles opposing Julia Gillard.
And also when you said It is up to us to decide what we let influence our opinions and beliefs. Reading your post, has really enhanced my knowledge on Media Ownership and Political Bias.
Great job 🙂
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Thanks Siobhan! 🙂
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Hey Daisy,
Nice blog, its a real shame when we have to read news based on who Murdoch like and dislikes! Unfortunately this type of basis reporting has become all to common. It’s even more of a shame that there is still a whole generation of people who watch the evening news, plus read the morning paper, and except that what they are watching is fair and true. Lets hope that the current Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Media Reform) Bill 2016 is passed so we can all see some local content from independent providers of material, rather than just the big wigs.
I agree with your comments regarding the endless information available to us on-line, and that we have to choice to decide what we let influence our opinions and beliefs. But I also think that it can be quite difficult to find content that you want to read as there is so much of it, and it can be so different. I guess it’s a case of finding who you like and trust, then taking it from there.
Nice work:)
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Hi Michelle!
It’s so true that there’s a whole generation that still trust and rely on legacy media, and I think that because this generation is likely to be the older population, they’re also the ones that are generally more politically involved, which is quite scary to think that the influence of that group is coming from sources that are so heavily biased!
I agree that it’s difficult to find reliable information online and that because of that we need to find sources we like and trust.
Thanks for your comment! 🙂
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Firstly, well done on this engaging and informative blog post. i made a lot of the same points in my blog post regarding this topic. The information you have presented provides a clear message as to why political bias and media ownership plays a crucial role in todays society, Your point relating to Rupid Murdoch is a perfect example of the extent to which the media impacts society on what it sees, hears and reads. This example allowed me to convey a deeper understanding as to why we as individuals should care about this particular topic and the significant impact major media owners can have on the public. The use of hyperlinks throughout this post would provide even further information regarding this debated topic.
Good job on this post. The article linked below is another prime example of a major political influence that relates solely to the significance of media ownership. http://robertreich.org/post/153748549760
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Hey Daisy,
Your post on media ownership is clear and insightful. I like how you not only explained the consequences of concentrated media ownership, but included Julia Gillard’s statement on the issue, allowing people to understand the effects on Australian politics. You’re ending statement about how “things can become skewed”, sums up well that as much as we may try to gather information from other sources, much of what we see from legacy media can still skew our view. You also used great image examples from newspaper front pages that clearly show bias.
This blog post was great to read, well done!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Cool post Daisy! To start, I thought that contrasting Julia Gillard and Rupert Murdoch’s critiques of each other was a great way to demonstrate conflict as an issue in regards to media ownership.
I found your point about whether or not control of the media was as problem to us interesting as well. I think it’s easy to look at the topic from a dystopian standpoint, and say that bias and ideology stemming from a lack of diversity in media ownership comes at our detriment. You however engaged with a second opinion: that online ‘forums’ are tools allowing us to facilitate our own learning, and thus be informed on a topic (political topics in particular). I really like that about this post and I completely agree with you. That being said, I think a lot of the resources available to us are “skewed” to a degree; a lot of the time, what we perceive to be ‘true’ comes down to our ability to disseminate a story from the ideology with which it’s been framed.
Again, great post.
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Hey Daisy,
I completely agree that it depends on an individual and how they use their media and what their form of media is used for and that who owns the media can be important and is something that is not really cared by individuals and even myself before the class my first question who cares who owns the media? However, when learnt in debt it is understandable that the people who own the media can shape and create a perception in the general public. They also shape the perception of the general public and make them think in a specific way. I enjoyed reading your blog and I like that you have included examples. Do keep the blogs coming
Thanks for sharing
Ash
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