New Comm Tech Essay - Final Copy - Assessment 2

There is no question that the development of new technology throughout the the 2oth century, and the early stages of the 21st, have significantly impacted on every facet of life in western societies. Aside from the obvious impacts at a day to day level, the development of new communications has had a considerable effect on the changing methods that media outlets use to broadcast and narrowcast news and current affairs to the public. The abolishment of Australia's cross media ownership laws are providing increasing opportunities for media moguls with monopolistic agendas to dominate not only existing mediums, but to gain a stranglehold on new and increasingly popular communication technologies. Blogging and Internet news sites, once forums for unbiased ( or at least honest) opinion, are now becoming the domain of the the very companies that dominate traditional sources of broadcast media. This trend is compromising the single most important function that media has in a democracy, to offer objective and unbiased facts to the public so that informed and educated decisions can be made. New Internet based technologies play an important role in this problem, however, they can also play a fundamental role in the solution.

Traditional sources of broadcast mediums in Australia - television, radio and print, have long been the exclusive domain of a small number of companies (Keating,P http://www.smh.com.au/ 2005) . Cross Media laws, created in the 1980's by the then communications minister Micheal Duffy (Birtles,B http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ 2005), restricted the number of media outlets one organisation could own in any major Australian city. The over-riding argument in favour of the abolishment of the laws rested on the idea that traditional news sources no longer carry the same influence; this reduced influence was credited, in part, to the increased public reliance on Internet news sites. However, according to Trish Bolton "online hit rates for News Ltd, Fairfax and ninemsn far outnumber online alternatives"( Bolton,T http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ 2005) suggesting that while new technologies like Internet news sites are indeed increasing in popularity, consumers are accessing news sites provided by the same companies that dominate traditional media. This danger was articulated by opposition Communication spokesman Stephen Conroy who “warns that the new laws will see more power in the hands of existing media bosses” (http://proquest.umi.com). This trend undermines the most significant argument that led to the scrapping of the laws - that the development of new, independently run Internet news sources was providing a wealth of diversity to the public.(Birtles,B http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ 2005).

This raises a new point of discussion concerning Internet based news sites. In the early days of widespread Internet use, Blogging was the domain of pioneering 'citizen journalists' before it became a medium commonly used by large media corporations (Lasica, J.D http://www.jdlasica.com/ 2003). It can be strongly argued that mainstream media moguls arrived on the Internet news scene relatively late, it would seem however that that hasn’t reduced their ability to have a significant impact in a short period of time. Communication and new media (2007) makes the point that, in the past, the development of new technology has led to the death of older ones.( Hirst,M and Harrison,J 2007 p.360). This would seem at a glance to be the basis for a compelling argument in favour of the media law change. After all, if the increased popularity of Internet news sites is going to cause the inevitable near death of print, television and radio, it surely matters not at all that multiple media outlets in the same city are owned by one company. Such a simplistic argument is sadly flawed to its core. Reid Goldsborough acknowledges that old and new media are in fact co-existing (Goldsborough,R http://www.infotoday.com/ 2005) and it is likely they will continue to do so for some time . It is difficult to specify a time at which the influence of traditional media will have diminished to the point where the abolishment of the cross media laws can be justified, but we can be certain that point has not yet arrived.

Even when the cross media laws were in place, diversity in the Australian media was lacking ( http://www.australianpolitics.com/). Their abolishment has had two important effects. The traditional news outlets are now available to whoever has the money, coupled with the intent, to furthur monopolise them. But perhaps more importantly, there is nothing to prevent the media moguls unobstructed expansion into the world of cyperspace. Robert McChesney has written extensively regarding the dangers posed to a democratic society when the statement “the Internet will set us free” is liberally used (McChesney,R 1999 p.119). He suggests that relying on the Internet to forever be a forum of free expression is dangerous, because “every major new electronic media technology this century . . . has spawned similar utopian notions” (McChesney,R 1999 p.119). These hopes for a utopian future have clearly not eventuated. It is undoubtedly difficult to pass legislation controlling the content of news on a forum of free speech and ideas such as the Internet. If there is a successful movement to limit the online expression and influence of companies such as Fairfax, News Limited and PBL, how long would it be before we saw the same level of censorship applied to everyday 'bloggers', those courageous citizen journalists keeping at least some online content original and honest!

Parts of the above comments have attacked Internet news sites and blogs as being little more than contributors to the problem of increasing media monopolisation. Whilst it is true that the Internet has opened up an arena for media moguls to expand into, the capacity that the Internet possesses to be an agent for free expression cannot be ignored. After all, when a consumer logs onto the net to receive news, they always have a choice as to where they will go to access it. Just because the current trend is towards sites run by Fairfax, ninemsn etc, there is no reason that, as a result of widespread community activism, we couldn't begin to see online news sites with a diversity of opinion receiving the most hits from online news seekers. With a little effort and righteous anger from the Internet using public, the Internet need not follow the traditional media down the path of corporate control and monopolisation. Part of the problem's cause can easily become it's solution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) 'New Communication Technology' http://www.australianpolitics.com/issues/media-ownership/1999ownership.shtml (accessed 7th May 2007)

2) Hirst, Martin and Harrison, John (2007) Communication and new media, from broadcast to narrowcast Oxford New York

3) 'New Communication Technology' http://www.freepress.net/content/about (accessed 5th May 2007)

4) Goldsborough, Reid (2005) New versus old media text http://www.infotoday.com/linkup/lud101505-goldsborough.shtml (accessed 7th May 2007)

5) Lasica, J.D (2003) Blogs and journalism need each other text http://www.jdlasica.com/articles/nieman.html (accessed 7th May 2007)

6) Birtles, Bill (2005) Cross media laws - new media not quite there yet text http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3994 (accessed 7th May 2007)

7) 'New Communication Technology' http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1148527111&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientld=13713&RQT=309&Vname=PQD (accessed 9th May 2007)

8) McChesney, Robert (1999) Rich media, poor democracy - communication politics in dubious times University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago

9) Keating, Paul (2005) A crude end to cross-media laws signals a dangerous power trip text
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/a-crude-end-to-crossmedia-laws-signals-a-dangerous-power-trip/2005/09/28/1127804547001.html (accessed 7th May 2007)

10) McChesney, Robert and Newman, Russell and Scott, Ben (ed) (2005) The future of media - resistance and reform in the 21st century Seven Stories Press New York, London, Toronto, Melbourne