[LINK] Open publishing strike - editorial board resigns

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Wed Apr 3 09:47:57 AEDT 2013


At 09:27 AM 3/04/2013, Tom Worthington wrote:
>For each news topic, there are
>usually dozens, some times thousands, of news stories listed about the
>same event, all presenting the same news, many using exactly the same
>words. This is more to do with commercial pressures to minimize costs,
>than a plot to control what we think.

I used to think there was a 'news fairy', otherwise how did the three 
TV news desks all have the same stories every night instead of their 
own unique selection?

Part of the reason, me thinks, is the increased employment of 'media 
liaison officers' in govt offices who spruik things. Then there are 
the ubiquitous press releases that are just published with little 
engagement of the brains of journalists or editors. Finally, for many 
stories that result in the 'thousands' about the same event, the 
stingers put their stuff on the wires and outlets just read or 
reprint them. So the aggregators are just as valid for getting the 
story as from the 'middle-republishers'.

But you can't ignore the media concentration factors, either. If you 
saw Micallef's Mad As Hell take on that, it was hilarious. He had a 
montage of about 6 or 7 people (think Brady Bunch screens) from each 
of the Murdoch main papers in the cap cities answering his questions 
exactly the same, while the questions were about their similar 
reporting which the speakers were denying in the same language. It 
was a clever demonstration of what is happening. Fairfax is about as 
bad nowadays, repeating stories in the Age as if they are from 
Victoria and they are really Sydney stories, identifying places I've 
never heard of because they aren't here in this state.

What the news aggregators and Internet have provided is direct access 
to the AP wire for at least national and international news reports 
without some of the local editorial spin and opinion at least.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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