EMC, ER, Essential Media, Esssential Report, government in the media, media, News, Perceptions of Media, politics in the media, Polling, polls, the media
Q. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
| Total agree | Total disagree | Strongly agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly disagree | Don’t know | |
| The media usually reports the news accurately | 35% | 54% | 2% | 33% | 41% | 13% | 12% |
| The media usually reports all sides of a story | 21% | 69% | 1% | 20% | 46% | 23% | 10% |
| The media is too critical of government and politicians in Australia | 29% | 57% | 4% | 25% | 46% | 11% | 14% |
| These days I rely more on the internet than newspapers and TV for my news and information about politics. | 44% | 46% | 12% | 32% | 37% | 9% | 10% |
| I trust the media more than I trust politicians | 37% | 43% | 4% | 33% | 33% | 10% | 20% |
| I trust politicians more than I trust the media | 16% | 65% | 1% | 15% | 44% | 21% | 18% |
| The media does a good job of scrutinizing politics and holding politicians accountable | 45% | 43% | 3% | 42% | 31% | 12% | 12% |
| Overall, the media are politically biased in favour of the Liberal Party | 19% | 55% | 4% | 15% | 44% | 11% | 26% |
| Overall, the media are politically biased in favour of the Labor Party | 23% | 50% | 5% | 18% | 41% | 9% | 25% |
| The media are too focused on personalities and not enough on policies | 70% | 18% | 21% | 49% | 15% | 3% | 12% |
| There is too much coverage of politics in the media | 34% | 52% | 7% | 27% | 45% | 7% | 14% |
| The media does a good job of helping people to understand political and social issues | 40% | 48% | 2% | 38% | 36% | 12% | 12% |
| I follow the news closely every day | 57% | 38% | 10% | 47% | 32% | 6% | 6% |
The majority of respondents disagree that the media usually reports all sides of a story (69%) and that the media reports the news accurately (54%).
However, they tend to trust the media a little more than they trust politicians – 37% agree they trust the media more and 16% agree they trust politicians more.
The results also indicate that respondents want more rather than less coverage of politics – only 34% agree that there is too much coverage of politics and 57% disagree that the media is too critical of government and politicians.
Respondents were divided over whether the media does a good job of scrutinizing politics and holding politicians accountable (45% agree/43% disagree) and tended to disagree that the media does a good job of helping people to understand political and social issues (40% agree/48% disagree).
70% agree that the media are too focused on personalities and not enough on policies.
A minority of respondents think the media are biased – 23% think they are biased in favour of the Labor Party and 19% in favour of the Liberal Party.
Election, election reporting, media rating, politics in the media
Q. Overall, how would you rate the media (newspapers, TV, radio, internet) for their reporting of Federal politics – thinking about their coverage both before and after the election?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens
|
|
| Total good | 32% | 35% | 37% | 20% |
| Total poor | 23% | 23% | 18% | 37% |
| Very good | 7% | 8% | 7% | 2% |
| Good | 25% | 27% | 30% | 18% |
| Average | 40% | 37% | 43% | 37% |
| Poor | 9% | 7% | 9% | 13% |
| Very poor | 14% | 16% | 9% | 24% |
| Don’t know | 6% | 5% | 2% | 6% |
32% think media reporting of Federal politics has been good, 23% poor and 40% average. Greens voters are most likely to think it has been poor (37%).
Q. Overall, do you think media reporting – both before and after the election – favoured the Labor Party, favoured the Liberal and National parties or gave fair coverage of all parties?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens
|
|
| Favoured the Labor Party | 23% | 12% | 39% | 9% |
| Favoured the Liberal and National parties | 17% | 27% | 8% | 29% |
| Gave fair coverage of all parties | 44% | 49% | 42% | 43% |
| Don’t know | 17% | 11% | 12% | 18% |
23% think media reporting favoured the Labor Party and 17% think it favoured the Liberal and National parties – while 44% think it gave fair coverage to all parties. 39% of Coalition voters thought the media favoured the Labor Party – compared to 27% of Labor voters thinking it favoured the Coalition.