[LINK] Students not pro-NBN??

[Frank O'Connor]

Traditional journalism and the print media are almost uniformly 
disapproving of the NBN.

I suspect this is because it's not in their interests, they think it 
makes an existing threat worse, and that a heck of a lot of self 
interest is involved.

The biased headlines and 'flawed' polls (15-17 year olds for God's 
sake!) which by their numbers tend to support the NBN (in this one 
50% approve unreservedly, the other 50% approve conditionally) seem 
to appear across the board.

Pretty well every poll I've seen conducted supports the NBN ... even 
amongst age groups (like mine) that I'd consider would have little or 
no interest in it.

I'm not gonna even talk about the framing and construction of some of 
the commissioned polls - which borders on scandalous ("When did you 
stop beating your wife? a. In the last 12 months. b. In the last 6 
months. c. In the last month. d. Never.") ... but the fact remains 
that the public seem to be pretty supportive of the NBN.

The Fairfax and News Ltd media seem united in their opposition to 
faster broadband, and I wonder when they'll realise that they are out 
of step with current public opinion, and trying to stop a horse that 
has long since bolted. I mean, for their purposes it matters little 
whether their clientele are getting 2 Mbs or 100 Mbs. (Hell, even at 
56Kbs on the old dial up it was apparent that the print media 
business model needed some changing.) Video and sound media channels 
will be more threatened by the higher bandwidths of the NBN, but they 
seem to be looking at the opportunities rather than the threats ... 
well, with the exception of the music and film industries.

Nowadays I buy newspaper and magazine editions that add value to my 
life ... with dedicate entertainment/TV fixtures, with dedicated IT 
supplements, with DVD and other freebies. I can get real news from 
thousands of sources (with the same intrusive advertising and 
promotions embedded) ... so my loyalty to any one media source or 
publication is non-existent.

And I've given up on any impartiality in the Australian news media 
regarding the Internet ... they are simply not capable of it.

				Regards,