Q. The Government is planning to propose new rules about how we regulate the ownership of media in Australia (that is, print, TV, radio and online media).  Which of the following statements is closer to your view on media ownership?

The largest portion of respondents believe that the ‘Government should take greater steps to limit ownership that big media companies currently have over mainstream media’ (34%), followed by those respondents that believe that the ‘present regulations, which prevent companies owning print, TV and radio in the same market, are about right’ (29%).

Only 11% of respondents favour ‘removing restrictions on ownership and let[ting] market forces determine who owns print, TV, radio and online media’.

Greens voters are the most likely to favour greater regulation of ownership (63%), followed by Labor voters (46%).

Coalition voters are the most likely to favour the status quo (37%).

It’s only in the strange world we live in, where the “free market” isn’t roundly derided as a failure, that a speech by a media executive calling for the world to “reject the idea that money is the only effective measure of all things” makes you sit up and take notice. Particularly when that executive’s last name is Murdoch. Not Rupert. Elisabeth.

Last night, Elisabeth gave the MacTaggart address at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. I can’t say what this means long term, whether the 44-year old executive who runs News Corp’s Shine Television used the speech to embark on a long campaign that takes on the very world view espoused by the Rupe and Elisabeth’s younger brother James, both of whom have been at the center of the hacking scandals, not to mention paragons of the global media industry.

But, she did make a splash, per the Sydney Morning Herald:

In marked contrast to the dry economic rhetoric preferred by both her father and brother, she said that people needed to “reject the idea that money is the only effective measure of all things or that the free market is the only sorting mechanism” and said that “the absence of purpose” could be “one of the most dangerous own goals for capitalism and for freedom”.

And:

But she repeatedly gestured towards liberal values with references to progressive political figures, including “one of my heroes” Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela whom she watched walk from prison “through my tears”.

I can’t help but note the vast difference between the views of Elisabeth, at least as stated in this one speech, versus those of Gina Reinhart. While Elisabeth seems to want to open up new voices and encourage democracy, Gina is trying to sell off one-third of her stake in Fairfax—a move which has further depressed the stock— because she was unsuccessful, so far, at using her wealth to muzzle people.

— Jonathan Tasini
@jonathantasini

An overabundance of free online content means we value it less than ever before, polling shows.

The ructions within newspaper empires Fairfax and News Limited centre on our move to online media. But while the opinion makers have written acres on the subject, it seems the general public is less concerned. Essential Media polling shows that only 25 per cent of us are concerned about the potential death of newspapers.

And our online reading habits show why. Sixty per cent of the population do not take in any daily news. Peter Lewis and the 3Q panel discuss this celebration of ignorance and its future implications.

Read more on the polling here.

Q. Australia’s major newspaper publishers – News and Fairfax – recently announced substantial job cuts, including many journalists. How concerned are you that Australian newspapers are losing so many professional journalists?

20% were very concerned and 28% somewhat concerned about job cuts to newspaper journalists.

68% of daily readers of newspapers were very/somewhat concerned.

Those most concerned were aged 55+ (53%) and respondents from Victoria (59%).

Stuart Washington says technology is transforming journalism but just how our future media will look is still unknown.

The massive cuts to Fairfax and News Limited is part of the worldwide trend pitting newspapers against online media.

But what will bloggers and twitterers “link” to if traditional media is decimated? Who will fund investigative journalism? And will opinion be reduced to the “comments” section of blogs where extreme views and abuse proliferate?

International digital businesses like Google, Apple and Facebook are radically changing (and profiting) from the new media landscape yet pay minimal tax rates. Google paid just $74,000 in taxes in Australia last year despite $1 billion in revenue, while traditional media companies are struggling to stay afloat as their advertising clients drift to the cheaper and trackable world of online.

Fairfax journalist Stuart Washington tells 3Q his concerns about the brave new digital world.

Q. Gina Rinehart (mining company owner and Australia’s wealthiest person) has recently bought a major stake in Fairfax newspapers (publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age). Do you think this will make Fairfax newspapers reporting of politics and business more balanced and independent, less balanced and independent or will It make no difference?

44% think that Gina Rinehart’s purchase of a major stake in Fairfax will make no difference to the balance and independence of the newspapers. 31% think this will make the newspapers less balanced and independent and only 7% think the newspapers will become more balanced and independent.

Greens voters (62%) and respondents aged under 35 (37%) were most likely to think the newspapers will become less balanced and independent and Liberal/National voters least likely (22%).

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