MEDIA & MEDIA RELATIONS

Australians Believe Media is Biased

published 2004

Australians increasingly regard the media as being biased - and many question the credibility of our top journalists, commentators and media personalities.

These are key findings in a survey that has implications for PR people who rely on the credibility of the media to deliver information to target audiences.

Two Morgan Polls released in September 2004 reveal that the majority (66%) of Australians believe that Australian newspapers do not accurately and fairly report the news.

Only 25% of Australians said newspapers in Australia accurately and fairly reported the news, with 9% undecided.

They showed that 86% of Australians believe that newspaper journalists are often biased, 75% of Australians hold the same view on Talk-back radio announcers whilst 73% also thought this about TV reporters and journalists.

However when pressed most respondents appear to find it difficult to identify individuals with this ‘bias’ or identify what kind of bias they believe it to be.

The polls did not attract much attention in our daily media when they were released - partially because an election campaign was underway, and perhaps because of the subject matter.

Newspaper journalists were considered by 63% of Australians to often get facts wrong, while more than half of Australians said Talk-back radio announcers (55%) and TV reporters and journalists (54%) often get facts wrong.

Newspapers were rated more inaccurate and unfair in news reporting than both Magazines (56%) and TV Stations (52.5%). Radio was perceived as a more reliable source of news, with people divided on the medium’s accuracy and fairness in news reporting (38.5% yes, 37.5% no, 24% undecided).

Melbourne’s Herald Sun (11%) was the most often mentioned Newspaper as not fairly or accurately reporting the news, followed closely by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph (9%).

The Australian was slightly better regarded, with 6% saying it did not report fairly or accurately - on a similar par with Sydney Morning Herald (6%), Brisbane’s Courier Mail (5%) and The Age (4.5%).

The Australian Financial Review was the least mentioned national Newspaper, with only 1% of Australians saying it was not accurate or fair in reporting the news. Sixteen per cent of Australians said all Newspapers did not accurately or fairly report the news

‘Women’s’ magazines were mentioned most often as the Magazines most “inaccurate” and “unfair” in reporting news. Woman’s Day (11.5%) topped the list, followed by Woman’s Weekly (9.5%) and New Idea (8.5%).

The trend was similar with TV stations, with more Australians regarding commercial TV Stations (16.5%) as not accurately and fairly reporting the news, followed by the ABC (6.5%) and SBS (2.5%).

Specifically, Channel 9 was mentioned by more than one-in-five (21.5%) respondents, followed by Channel 7 (20.5%) and Channel 10 (17.5%).

Talk-back ‘giants’ John Laws and Alan Jones topped the list of those media personalities believed to be biased, mentioned by 28.5% (37% in NSW) and 26% (41.5% in NSW) of Australians respectively. Many felt these two were excessively right-wing leaning.

A host of other journalists and personalities were singled out - including Derryn Hinch, Neil Mitchell, Stan Zemanek, Piers Akerman, Andrew Bolt, Ray Martin, Richard Carlton, Mike Munro and Kerry O’Brien - but generally they were mentioned by fewer than 5 percent of respondents.

Australians’ regard for the honesty and ethics of Talk-back radio announcers, TV reporters and Newspaper journalists has dropped since December 2003.

Talk-back radio announcers (18%, down 3% since December 2003) scored the highest rating for honesty and ethics out of the three media professions surveyed, followed closely by TV reporters or journalists (16%, down 1%).

Newspaper journalists (10%, down 2%) were the lowest of the three media professions surveyed.

Note: The author of this article is a Sydney based senior independent corporate PR consultant who works exclusively with PR Managers helping them with management of the PR Department or their relationship with their PR agency. In addition he provides specialist corporate PR and communications advice where issues or change are impacting on an organisation. He also blogs regularly on PR and communications topics similar to those in this article.