As soon as I wake up I check Instagram like it’s my Daily Telegraph, then I check out what nonsense is on Facebook, then I proceed to Twitter then Tumblr if I have time. Mind you, at this point I’m still in bed. Then when I am eating breakfast I can guarantee you I am watching either the Today Show on the Nine Network or Family Guy on Foxtel. On my way to Uni I am also chopping and changing between Triple J, Nova and Today FM. I guess you could say I’m run by the media, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Kerry Packer, Mark Zuckerberg, The ABC, Austereo and the Nine Entertainment Company to be exact (Goncalves 2013). Woah, thats quite a lot.
I may be run by the media, in fact the majority of the world is run by media but that doesn’t mean we have to believe what we are “fed”. A few months ago Tony Abott appeared on 2GB with Ray Hadley claiming that the public believe the ABC is biased and un-Australian (Alexander 2014). This interview then led to a front page story in The Daily Telegraph causing controversy amongst some. The story sounded as though they were trying to justify Abotts statement about the ABC and attempted to make an apology (Blair & Auerbach 2014). As we know, “The Tele” a.k.a Mr Murdoch has been a supporter of the Liberals for some time showing bias in their headlines towards Liberal e.g. leading up to the election, headlines were in Abotts favour. Little to the audiences knowledge, just recently a poll had been taken on Australia’s most trusted media and detailed that it was in fact ABC that was the most trusted. News Corp contributes to Newspoll so Abott shouldn’t worry about this poll being biased.
I think this one example of media bias explains that no matter who controls the media, you have to broaden your sources of information. If we were only given one side of a story from all media corporations, Australia would be a very one sided country. I think that it’s great to have multiple media companies all with different opinions as they give the public a variety of information for them to make up our own minds. The first step though is broadening our media horizons.
Sources:
Goncalves, R 2013, Factbox: Who Owns What in the Australian Media, SBS, viewed on 27th March 2014, http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2012/06/22/factbox-who-owns-what-australian-media
Blair & Auerbach, T & T 2014, THE ABC OF TREACHERY, The Daily Telegraph, 30 January, p.1
Alexander, C 2014, Get Fact: Is Tony Abott right about the ABC?, Crikey, viewed on 27th March 2014, http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/01/30/get-fact-is-tony-abbott-right-about-the-abc/
Oh Madeline 
This is brilliant! I love how open you are about your media usage, you’ve described the mornings of me and most of the people I know. Thought-provoking post, I wonder if the knowledge of bias media is making people look deeper into news stories or if we are just starting to pay less attention? Any idea if the controversy made the Daily Telegraph any less trusted by readers?
I enjoyed how you personalised the blog post in the beginning mentioning triple j and driving to Uni… I do this too!! Also I agree with your end statement in that everyone should be able to have an opinion in the media. Do you think the Australian government should keep in place the current media ownership laws?