Australian flag, Parliament House, Canberra. Credit: Aenneken/ flickr
This is an open discussion thread. Alex doesn’t present any “solutions” or “outcomes” but leaves the question open to (good clean) debate using his thoughts below as a catalyst or just a plain-old target. Please join in the debate (see poll on sidebar) and give us your angle.
It has been my growing belief that Australians, courtesy of mainstream media, are becoming more insular as a nation. It strikes me as strange that there has been a major shift from European news and current affairs (with the exception of ABC and SBS) to a more US news and current affairs format.
As a colony of the United Kingdom we relied heavily on the news coming from the “mother land”, but we were also kept informed of the global British empire. Australians also relished news and current affairs (at the time 6 month old news was still recent news) from the United States and Latin America but it wasn’t of any major concern compared to British news.
This shift from Britain to the US is particularly evident in the style in which the news and current affairs are prepared and delivered. It also is telling of why some believe Australia to now be a colony of the US. However that discussion is for another time, but a side note I couldn’t help making.
Recent events in our immediate global neighbourhood were poorly reported and barely rated mentions in our media outlets, despite the magnitude of the devastation and mortality rates. It wasn’t until Australians, or people thought to be Australians were believed to be involved, that the tragic events unfolding in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and the Pacific Islands were taken seriously by the mainstream media.
This is evident too in coverage of political affairs and sports; even the weather in North America is reported well before that of Europe. Little has been reported of the Brown Labour government’s political woes or position on climate change, nor has there been much mention of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s strife in Italy. Of course these kinds of things aren’t about Australia, or Australians and therefore doesn’t apparently impact Australia.
Unfortunately I believe that this has resulted in a significant narrowing of political discourse. My favourite example of this is the climate change debate and the ability of the Coalition to repeat often that “we should only do something when others [nations] are doing something”.
The fact is that other countries are doing something. Europe and some Asian countries are embracing renewable energy without resorting to commissioning new nuclear power stations. Some African, South American and Canadian communities are taking up more renewable energy options while providing new jobs and securing existing jobs in those communities. Remarkably the growth of these industries in other countries is a result of Australian (and others) scientists’ expertise in renewable energy. If we speak of consistency for all things Australia one could reasonably expect to see this covered in the mainstream media everyday.
Sadly it seems to me that Australians have only an interest in global events and tragedies when Australians are directly involved. And consequently narrowed political discourse.
Please discuss and debate.
Note: There’ll be a follow up special one hour live blog hosted at Alex’s blog and here at theangle.org on Thursday 2.00 pm to 3.00 pm. with Alex “in the chair”. During the live discussion, Alex will expand on the points and arguments raised in this post, while picking up on some of the comments, debates and emails received in the last 48 hours and during the live blog. Set an automatic reminder here.
Alex Schlotzer is a straight talker when it comes to politics and loves to vent his spleen. He is actively involved in Australian and international politics with a keen understanding of the dynamics of the political machine. Alex has a prolific online presence and has been a cyber activist for over 15 years. He can also be found at his blog and his exciting online project Australian Politics TV.
Hey, i feel you visited my website so here i am!.I am trying to find ways to add things to my blog!Is it ok if i use some of the things i saw here?!
I was living in the UK during the Greece Olympics, I was never suprised that as an Australian I had to follow my Countries progress on the Internet, so what who cares, but what suprised me after I got home was, During the following olympics I was reading letters in the letters pages in local papers, particuarly from Brits boasting about the amazing coverage they would have had, had they been whatching from Britain, what a suprise.
I don't recall ever a television station anything like SBS there and another thing the number of Art house Cinemas wiling to show Foreign films in London is miniscule compared to Sydney or Melbourne, Honestly I felt a world away from the Pacific region and could only reflect on the biased subjective reporting regarding events in Australia, to sumit up I question the populist notion of Australia as an insular nation.
That is good for them. Even if they are a colony of the United Kingdom, they should still have their own identity.
I certainly agree with you. Its getting more insular, and I hope that this is for better.
Nothing new, just more of the same. Australia has always been insular and with a fair bit of small-minded racism.
The media lust does what sells or what they think reflects the mainstream. We have a lot to fix since the hoWARd years are not over yet…
Hi Rich,
I just saw that there is a live blog and I’ll be there.
Jane
Hi Jane,
Thanks for your comment. Feel free to join us at 2.00pm on Thursday 15th on our live debate on the topic. We’ll be glad to hear your views.
Rich Bowden
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dom Storey and Lorcan Whitmore. Lorcan Whitmore said: RT @tunaranch: Is Australia becoming increasingly insular? http://bit.ly/UGpd8 [...]
What a load of rubbish. Australia isn’t insular at all and in fact Australians are always helping people in other countries like Bali. And I just want to point out that the internet means greater access to more information so how is it possible Australia is becoming so insular?
Hi Alex,
This is an excellent article and is a topic that I feel very strongly about and have often talked about. In recent classes at uni, I have raised the point you make – “Sadly it seems to me that Australians have only an interest in global events and tragedies when Australians are directly involved.” However, even aspiring journalists seem to think there is no need for more world news in our mainstream media. I understand the need to localise news by mentioning the “Aussie angle” of the story but not every world event has to be related to Australia for it to be important enough to be mentioned in the mainstram news. I do believe the mainstream media is encouraging Australians to become more insular and ignorant of world issues.
Hey Alex,
Excellent points raised. I agree we seem to be getting more insular and yes, it can be related to the skewed view of the world presented to us by the mainstream media.
Looking forward to the live blog on Thursaday at 2.00.
Rich