Are newspapers dying?

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.

Bias in Media Reporting

Q. Overall, do you think media reporting is biased in favour or against the following groups?

Net score = bias in favour minus bias against.

Overall, respondents think that media reporting is biased in favour of business groups and biased against unions, the Labor Party and religious groups. They were evenly divided over whether media reporting is biased for or against the Liberal Party, large corporations, and environment groups.

Among Labor voters, 50% think the media are biased against the Labor Party and 43% think they are biased in favour of the Liberal Party.

Among Coalition voters, 34% think the media are biased against the Liberal Party and 29% think they are biased in favour of the Labor Party.

57% of Greens voters think the media are biased against the Greens.