Newspaper Reporting of Submarine Procurement in Australia
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Power, Politics & Secrecy: Newspaper reporting of submarine procurement in Australia Kieran McGuinness Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication News & Media Research Centre University of Canberra June, 2020 i Abstract Purchasing submarines in Australia has long been a controversial exercise. Naval procurement presents an ideal opportunity for politicians and defence contractors to deliver projects worth billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs. But Defence contracts can be dogged by leaks, power plays and political scandal. The discursive struggle between political and commercial rivals plays out in news media, where journalists publicly tell the story of Australia’s naval procurements. Through the discursive analysis of media texts, this research explores the collision of national security, rising secrecy and commercial interests, and intensifying local politics in a time of transformation for Australian news media industries. This thesis analyses Australian newspaper reporting of the Attack class submarine procurement between September, 2013 and April, 2016. Using an approach informed by Critical Discourse Analysis, it emphasises the role that journalism played in structuring public discussion of this important national security policy. The thesis takes a critical approach as normative scholarship provides a limited framework within which to understand the complexities of news discourses as mutually influential, ideological and socially constitutive. Its primary theoretical framework is informed by Foucault’s theories of power and discourse, and it uses a methodology derived from Fairclough’s articulation of Critical Discourse Analysis. In total, 879 texts from four major Australian newspapers were analysed using a broad qualitative approach to textual analysis, including a subsample of 188 articles analysed using an in-depth CDA approach. The thesis demonstrates that newspaper discourses of the Attack class procurement drew from and were connected to broader discourses of social change in Australian society. News discourses of the Attack class procurement became entangled in ongoing discourses of the Liberal Party of Australia’s leadership crisis, South Australia’s growing unemployment, strategic alliances between Western powers and the emerging ‘China threat’. By privileging the voices of political and industry elites, journalists centred public debate over the ii submarines around political conflict and commercialised discourses. This thesis argues that the politicisation of the Attack class is a response to structural influences within the changing news media environment. Journalism is in crisis, with financial insecurity combining with pressure from a more secretive government and a well-resourced public relations industry. As journalistic practices adapt to meet the changing political and economic landscape, the balance of power between journalists and their sources is shifting. As findings from this study suggest, while journalists still work to provide scrutiny, chase scandals, leak information and hold the powerful to account, there is an emerging vulnerability in the Australian press. The reporting of the Attack class procurement provides a window on how journalistic choices are made and how news is being reshaped by the 21st century Australian political economy. The news media are caught between digital media disruption, a secretive surveillance state, and the power and resources of the global defence industry. But as this thesis argues, the complex interconnected nature of news media discourses in the digital era require a novel approach to understanding media power and influence. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the disruption of power relations in news in this changing media environment. v Acknowledgements This thesis was written on the lands of the Ngunnawal people. I acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these lands and I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and future. Sovereignty has never been ceded. To Kerry McCallum. For your tireless effort in guiding this thesis to completion while balancing many other and more substantial obligations. Thank you for going above and beyond, for the hours spent reviewing drafts after work and on weekends, and for your patience and consideration when things were rough. Thank you for your compassion, and the genuine care and honesty with which you approached your role as primary supervisor. To Caroline Fisher. For being a beacon of courage and determination. Your frank advice is a key reason this thesis made it to the finish line. Thank you for your good humour, for cheering me on and pushing me to change my way of thinking, and for challenging me when I let complacency slip into my work. Thank you for the clarity of your discussions with me and your dedication to reviewing this thesis line by line. To Peter Putnis. For providing sage advice on all occasions. Thank you for inspiring me to study and to improve my academic work when I was an undergraduate. And thank you for continuing to take the time, care and effort to provide mentorship throughout the development of this thesis. Above all, thank you for your honest feedback and for always finding a way to express the heart of the matter. A Dedication To my wife, Jessica. Thank you for your love, patience and encouragement. You are my better half, and you were always there to listen, to cheer me up and to give me a different perspective. It would have been impossible for me to complete this without your support and your incredible patience. Thank you for putting up with me while I spent many long weeks locked away in the study. And thank you for always being there with a smile and a laugh when I needed to change my pace. I could not have done this, nor would I have wanted to do this, without you. vii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... i Certificate of Authorship of Thesis ................................................................................................... iii Retention and Use of Thesis by the University Form ..................................................................... iv University of Canberra Research Repository ..................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. v Chapter 1- Secrets, Power and the Reporting of Submarine Procurement in Australia ............. 1 1.1—Reporting on Defence in a Changing News Environment ................................................. 7 1.2—The Purposes and Aims of this Research............................................................................ 10 1.3—Critical Discourse Analysis as an Approach to Research ................................................. 12 1.4—Sources of Information ......................................................................................................... 14 1.5—Timeline of Key Events ......................................................................................................... 16 1.6—The Outline of the Thesis ..................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2—Literature Review: Power and the Role of the Press in Society ................................ 23 2.1—Journalism’s Perceived Role in Democracy ........................................................................ 25 2.2—The Normative Functions of Journalism ............................................................................ 28 2.3—Outside Influences on Journalism ....................................................................................... 30 2.4—Contemporary Critiques of Journalism .............................................................................. 34 2.5—Power, Journalism and Source Relations ............................................................................ 36 2.5a—Elite Sources ..................................................................................................................... 37 2.5b—Capture ............................................................................................................................. 40 2.5c—Agenda Setting ................................................................................................................. 43 2.5d—Influence of Public Relations on Journalism ............................................................... 45 2.5e—Think Tanks and Lobbying ............................................................................................ 48 2.6—Summary of Literature .......................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3—Background: Defence, Naval Procurement and Reporting on the Military in Australia ............................................................................................................................................... 53 3.1—Background to the Procurement of the Attack Class Submarine .................................... 54 3.2—The National Security Enterprise as a Source of News ..................................................... 57 3.2a—The Ministry as a Source of News ................................................................................. 57 POWER,