Running head: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS AND GOVERNEMENT 1
Introduction to Politics and Government
Name
Institution
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 2
Introduction to Politics and Government
The sky news promised the Australian viewers a comprehensive coverage they have ever
witnessed before the 2013 elections and it achieved that in terms of TV. Aside from devoted
breaking news, programmes and news bulleting headlines, the policy announcements, dynamic
media conferences and other key events interrupted programs during broadcasting. Every day
there were so many contents related to the election during the 2013 election. However,
analyzing the stories of primetime TV news, Young (2018) has found that the news story related
to the politics is given an average of two minutes long and during this story, politicians talk only
in 5 second sound bites while the host and the reporter speak for more than a half the time.
Young finds that only 30 seconds are devoted to the average news story related to politics, which
allow politicians to speak their own words. Another example, Scott Marrison delivered a speech
for 32 minutes concerning the federal budget 2017 but on the evening news of that night,
Australian viewers heard only 20 seconds of the speech. From the American research, we find
that Americans’ sound bites have been shrinking over time and becoming less sound bite on their
news compared to Australian. However, this seems that it will happen here as well if we follow
American trends in new production. The aim of this essay is to examine whether the media has
too much power in contemporary Australian politics.
The Media Audience for Current Australian Politics
Considering the contradictions between the increasing choices for political junkies and 5
second sound bites on commercial TV new, it is clear that media has too much power in
Australian politics. There have been claims in Australia that the internet is aiming to
revolutionize democracy and increase political involvement. But it is estimated that less than 10
percent of Australian citizens are interested in politics. Research conducted by Flew et al. (2017)
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 3
shows that as the Australian politics divide people, also the media can divide people with the
political news and information it provides. There are a contemporary host of options available
for Australians who are concerned with politics and political news. Also, there are still
conventional places including public radio, current affair programs, and ABS and ABC news, but
another major option has opened up, which is the internet.
Over the past few years, the variety and the amount of political information have
dramatically increased on the internet. But currently, there is a digital division in Australia in
regards to geographical location, age, income, education, and gender. Recent research shows that
younger people are more likely to use the internet for information and news (Turner, 2018).
Also, males with university degrees are more than double in likelihood of using the internet for
news. However, TV is still the most well-known medium in Australia by far despite the attention
