Welcome to the 2020 edition of GMJ/AU in an issue dedicated to the work of our postgraduate students ably guest-edited by Myra Gurney and Roger Dawkins. This follows a tradition of GMJ/AU’s commitment to the provision of publishing opportunities for postgraduate students who have presently previously to the annual postgraduate HDR conference in 2019: Interventions and Intersections: Making Research Count. This is a compelling group of papers that span a range of topics that characterise academic research in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts.

We include an additional article by John Budarick from the University of Adelaide and thank him for submitting his research on ethnic media and migrant settlement to our journal.

My thanks go out to Myra and Roger for their stellar leadership in editing this issue, to webmaster Roman Goik and to all others who have contributed to the success of this issue in the rather uncertain atmosphere of our lives and livelihoods during the pandemic of 2020.

Hart Cohen
Western Sydney University

Roger Dawkins
Western Sydney University

Myra Gurney
Western Sydney University

We are pleased to offer this issue of Global Media Journal – Australian Edition which includes contributions from Western Sydney University’s School of Humanities and Communication Arts (SHCA) postgraduate student cohort. These articles were first presented as conference papers at the School’s 2019 postgraduate student conference: Interventions and Intersections: Making Research Count. This is an annual conference, and in 2019 it celebrated its eleventh birthday. The aim of the Interventions and Intersections conference is to bring together postgraduate students and staff from across humanities and communication arts to strengthen the research community through interdisciplinary collaboration. The quality and range of research is evidenced by the papers that we are publishing here, and continues the long tradition of research excellence in our School. The conference theme, ‘Making Academic Research Count’, addresses ongoing discussion in higher education about ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’. In 2018, the first ever ...more

Scope

The Australian edition of Global Media Journal invites the submission of essays and research reports that focus on any aspects in the field of Communication, Media and Journalism. We are particularly interested in articles that explore some of the following themes:

• Media and Democracy
• Children and Media
• Grassroots and alternative media
• Media Law and Ethics
• Civic Journalism
• Peace Communication
• Ethnicity and the media
• Political economy of communication
• Film and Media
• Media Audiences
• Media Policies
• Media, Citizenship and Democracy
• Communication and Cultures in Conflict
• Theories of Communication
• Media and Globalisation

Australian Media Monitor

COVID-19, Media Policies and Structural Decline in Australian News Media

Tim Dwyer
University of Sydney

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has been responsible for accelerating structural decline in the production of news media for traditional and new media platforms, which may well have on-going, and unforeseeable impacts. As in many other areas of public policy during COVID-19, neoliberal political strategies by the Morrison Government have prioritised business and economic outcomes over existing key societal objectives embedded in media policies in Australia.

Yet the market failure of advertising supported news media business models, and the rise of social media platforms as key sources of news for many people, are testament to the significant changes underway. At the same time, the place of the public broadcasters the ABC and SBS has become more precarious with ongoing cuts to their budgets, forcing them to lay off employees and cut programs.

During the pandemic there were a succession of business closures in 2020 as a result of falling advertising and revenue. This impacted quite heavily on media businesses in Australia and accelerated structural decline in the newspaper sector.

The advocacy group, ‘Public Interest Journalism Initiative’ (PIJI), has documented 200 news ‘contractions’ in the sector (meaning title, masthead or newsroom closures, the end of a print edition, a move to digital only, or a merger) since January 2019 (PIJI, 2020).
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Disclaimer

The views, opinions or positions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of Global Media Journal - Australian Edition or editorial staff thereof. Global Media Journal - Australian Edition make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.