THE CONTROL OP THE MASS MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA An Investigatory—Descriptive Study by Frames J.Bonner B.A.(Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements I for the Degree of • O ( tr'o Master of Arts Colircyrcf4, 19 UNIVERSITY OPOP TASMANIA HOBART January 1973 i This thesis contains no r:ia:'i;eriel uhich has been accepted for the aue.rd of any other degree or diplom� in any university, and to the bcsji; of my lmoulcdee a.nd belief, it contains no copy or paraphr�se of material previously published or t-,ri"tten by. another person, except uhen due reference is made in the text of the thesis, CONTERTS Summary • ••0•00•0000•000•00•000•000•0 8 0•0 0 • 0 00•P jjj ••0 Introduction 0000000000000000000 .........p 1. C hapter ls General Theory. ................... 00000 5. 2: Legal Inhibition 000000 20. 3: The Press p 37 4: The Australian Broadcasting Commission p 56 5: The Australian Broadcasting Control Board p 89 6: Commercial Radio p 118 7: Commercial Television......••••••••• 00000 s •p 132 161 8: Southern Tasmanian Case Study 0000000 OOOOO 00P Conclusion......... OOOOO p 205 Bibliogra*ohy0 OOOOOO ........... OOOOOOO ........p 210 SUIKARY Controls over the mass redia are effective insofar as they facilitate the achievement of the goals of the organization and the needi -of t-he people associated with it, They are imposed in fiveareas, the organization, the audience, the sources, the advertisers and the legal. Apart :rem the last mentioned area, most controls are informal- and not even regarded as controls. The most basic organizational control for example is the praise or promotion of workers who produce material conoonant with the style and expectations of their superiors. This produces a body of people, particularly in the higher echelons who do not need to be instructed over frequently as to the nature of . the product preferred by the owners or directors. The legal controls exist primarily in the laws against defamation, obscenity, blasphemy and sedition and in the various provisions regarding contempt of court. The Customs Regulations affect the mass media only in their concerns with imported magazines and imported film for television. T#e Posts and Telegraph Act applies restrictions on material sent through the mail and as most daily newspa7;ers are reg- istered, as periodicals to be sent through the mails they come under additional restrictions here. One of the few legal restraints which exists solely in regard to the mass media is the D notice cysten under which information which could be prejudicial to the defence of Australia is prohibited from being used on or in any mass medium. The press is not controlled to the same extent by Government legislation as are the electronic media and they appear to be more subject to controls by tradition and by a more formal organization structure. In all but one case (Consolidated Press, which recently sold its sole daily paper) the media monopolies are based on newspaper holdings ) for initially the Government favoured the applications for television licences of those with experience in the media field. Both the Government instrumentalities, the A.B.C. and the Aust- ralian Broadcasting Control Board i have been hindered in their operations and development by Government interference in areas which should have been the concern solely of the body itself. Now that most radio and television licences have been allocated, the main concern of the iv Control_Board seems to be with ensuring that programmes do not offend 'good taste' and that a certain amount of good children's, rcligi,ous and educational programmes are broadcast. Commercial radio and tele- vision are- controlled by the Control Board, desire to deice a profit - and the - balief, of varying degrees of intensity, that they are per- forming a community service. A case study of Southern Tasmania examines the day-to-day oper- ations of various media in a restricted area in an attempt to find more about the undocumented controls. Finally it is concluded that the main factor common to all controls over the mass media in Australia is fear, of public relations, of superior's displeasure, of losing .money or office, of offending foreign powers or influential people, and a fear of the effects that the mass media may have. ITITRODUCTIOU Apart from local gossip and rumour, and facts about people and things known to US or received in face-to-face communication, all the information we receive about the world, its peoples and problems, comes to us through various media, and of these the most important are the mass media of newspapers, radio and television. These are essential in the working of a modern democracy for they are the means whereby the electors can become aware of the actions of their representatives, the issues confronting them and the operation of the whole democratic pro- cess. Thus, if the mass media are not working efficiently and effect- ively and the electors are ill-informed or only partially informed, then the democratic process itself is impaired. Of course no paper, let alone radio or television station, not even The New York Times, can print all the news that's fit to print, but the news sections of the media are usually aware of the special nature of the service they pro- vide and attempt to fulfil it as they see fit. Because of their role in the democratic process and because of the importance of the media in the daily lives of so many people, examina- tion of their activities is a valuable, even necessary, practice. Considerable research has been carried out into the effect various media 1'1ate- - on their audiences, but not so much has been done into the effect of various people, laws and organizations on the mass media itself. It is this control over the mass media that will be the concern of this thesis. The word 'control' is not used pejoratively, for some controls are necessary to ensure that the media work effectively and that they do not harm or mis-inform the public. The type of control under examination is both external and internal, imposed by law and imposed by management, formal and in- formal, acknowledged and unwitting, in fact anything which might be likely to affect the content, nature and availability of the media. One major concern is with the extent of Government control by law, regulation, investigatory committees, statutory bodies and by unoff- icial influence. Other controls, such as those exerted by the owners/ directors of the media monopolies, are less open to research and comment on this is sometimes reduced to speculation. With regard to the various official and semi-official bodies ranging from the Australian Broadcasting Control Board to the broadcasting and television federa- tions, both the influence they exert and the influence exerted on them, will be examined. The thesis is primarily descriptive and investigatory. As well as discovering what kind of controls over the mass media exist in Australia, it attempts to find how effective they are, how they developed and if possible, why they exist. Finally, a suggestion is made as to the factor held in common by all the various controls causing both their existence and effectiveness, or otherwise. When the common factor is missing or present in only limited degrees, the effectiveness of the control seems to be lessened. The study begins with an examination of such theory as was avail- able on the control of the mass media and posits general types of con- trol that are likely to be found within the organization, the audience, the sources, the advertisers and in the legal field. This is followed by a chapter on legal controls such as the laws against defamation, obscen- ity, blasphemy and sedition and the censorship provisions insofar as they affect the mass media. The chapter on the Press, which is next, includes an examination of the attitudes of some of the more important of the media owners, of the gatekeeper concept developed by Kurt Lewin and of the Australian Journalists Association. Following this is a chapter on the Australian Broadcasting Commission dealing with its development and relations with the Government. Chapters on commercial radio and commercial television are preceded by a study of the Aust- ralian Broadcasting Control Board, its development and operations. The last chapter is a case study of the various media in Southern Tasmania, an attempt both to see how the controls previously mentioned would apply in practice and to discover how the more informal day-to-day controls, that would not be documented, operated. The thesis ends by exami4ng what appears to be the common thread connecting all oontrols. Although the area under consideration is Australia and at times specifically Southern Tasmania, parallels are sometimes drawn with, and examples and even theories taken from, both the British and American situations. Thus the B.B.C. is mentioned particularly in connection with the A.M., while some of the theories on the operation of news- papers comes from American research. The time actually covered by the thesis extends back to the settlement of Australia, but the main period dealt with is from the Thirties to the present. This is because this period saw the establishment of both the A.B.C. and the Australian Broadcasting Control Board, as well as the major development of comm- ercial radio and television. Because of the constantly chancing situa- tion studied, certain passages of the study have had to be dated, as the information, although accurate as far as could be ascertained at the time, may well have changed since. The case study was a limited one both geographically and in the actual media studied.