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GetUp!

Who Controls Our Media? – the new report commissioned by GetUp

AUSTRALIA'S MEDIA IS IN
CRISIS

Research by Benedetta Brevini and Michael Ward reveals:

  1. Our media is more concentrated than ever:

    2. The vast majority of Australia's media power sits with two media corporations - News Corp and Nine Entertainment – giving them excessive political and ideological influence.

  2. Murdoch Press owns 59% of key print markets:

    3. News Corp, which is owned by the Murdoch Press, is the unchallenged dominant player in almost every media market. Their power extends into digital news, radio, and television, adding up to a dangerous amount.

  3. Deregulation of media ownership has been designed to serve major media moguls:

    4. Australia's very last controls on excessive media ownership were removed in 2017 after years of lobbying by powerful media executives.

  4. The recent News Bargaining Code will only make media concentration worse:

    5. The Code was designed to increase the economic power of major corporations like News Corp, leaving smaller media companies struggling to compete.

  5. It's extremely difficult to find out who owns and controls our media:

    6. A systematic lack of transparency plagues our media sector, making critical information about who owns and controls the media extremely difficult to access. This makes it even harder to hold owners of media corporations to account for their actions.

'Who controls our media? The impact of media concentration on our democracy', GetUp. 12 April 2021.

Download the report here or read below.
Without urgent intervention, Australia's media and our democracy may never recover. This report makes clear recommendations for reform, including:

  • Enhancing the legislative scope and authority of the Australian Communications and Media Authority;
  • Overhauling media regulation changes that have effectively entrenched media concentration;
  • Reintroducing caps on media ownership in geographical markets; and
  • Increasing public investment in news journalism.
You can see a detailed list of recommendations on page 8 of the report here.

It's important our representatives push for these changes. Can you demand they do so today?