FEEDING THE WORLD: AUSTRALIA, LIVE EXPORT AND THE INTERPLAY OF INFLUENCES A thesis submitted by Fiona J Wade For the award of Doctorate of Professional Studies 2019 Abstract When advocates consider how to best encourage governments to change policy in their favour, there is an assumed rhetoric that the media are the mitigating factor required to achieve success, without a semblance of a structured argument or indeed evidence behind such a claim. This is in part due to the difficulty that previous research studies have found in coming to a definitive answer as to who and what affects policy change. This research thesis provides evidence to show how policy can be manipulated by not only the media but by an interplay of advocates, the backbench and journalists to influence the policy decision makers. The focus of this research paper is to answer the fundamental question: who influences federal government policy relevant to the Australian agricultural sector, in particular the live export market, and what are its global implications? Using the case study of the live export industry and events that occurred in 2011 post the Four Corners program, “A Bloody Business”, this paper deconstructs newspaper articles, parliamentary speeches and the interviews of 17 respondents to reach seven findings that provide practical guidance to inform best practice for those involved in a policy change within government. This study is primarily qualitative and applies quantitative content analysis methodology to the research sample. This thesis draws on a theoretical framework that includes agenda-setting, Habermas’ concept of the public sphere, news as a social construction as discussed by Ericson, Baranek and Chan, together with theories related to gatekeeping, priming, framing, news values and bias. The thesis acknowledges past academic scholarship placing the media at the forefront of policy making, while arguing that policy making is determined by an interplay of political, advocate and news influences. ii Thesis certification This thesis is entirely the work of Fiona Jane Wade except where otherwise acknowledged. The work is original and has not previously been submitted for any other award, except where acknowledged. Principal Supervisor: Dr Caryn Coatney Associate Supervisor: Dr Luke van der Laan Student and supervisor signatures of endorsement are held at the University. iii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have come to fruition without the support of several people. I would like to thank the Australian Commonwealth Government fee contribution through the Research Training Program (RTP) Fees Offset scheme. My heartfelt thanks to Dr Caryn Coatney who encouraged me and never stopped believing that I would see this research project through to the end, and to Dr Luke Van der Laan for his assistance. I also want to thank Professor Heather Savigny and the staff at the University of East Anglia, Norfolk, where I spent three months in the very early stages of this project working out exactly what I was doing. I really must acknowledge the many people who agreed to be interviewed throughout the course of this study and who gave up their precious time. The interviews were without doubt a highlight of this experience. Thank you to Kath Potts and Wendy Wade for reading the thesis and to Libby Collett and Lynette Hardman for their professional editing. My deepest appreciation is to my ever-understanding family, who have been there for me the whole time. Without you, I would never have been able to keep going. My love and gratitude always. Fiona Wade December 2019. iv Table of Contents FEEDING THE WORLD: AUSTRALIA, LIVE EXPORT AND THE INTERPLAY OF INFLUENCES .. i Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Thesis certification .............................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iv List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... ix List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................ x Foreword ........................................................................................................................... xii Chapter One: ...................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Feeding the world ........................................................................................................... 4 Government and live export. .......................................................................................... 6 The future of live export. ................................................................................................ 8 The driving force behind policy change. ........................................................................11 The media, policy and interplay of influence. ................................................................13 Outline of the study. ......................................................................................................14 Value of the study .........................................................................................................16 Chapter summary. .........................................................................................................17 Chapter Two: .....................................................................................................................18 Literature review................................................................................................................18 Agenda-setting ..............................................................................................................20 Setting the agenda: priming ..........................................................................................25 Gatekeeping ..................................................................................................................28 Public sphere .................................................................................................................29 News values...................................................................................................................31 Framing .........................................................................................................................33 Power of the image .......................................................................................................35 Objectivity versus bias ...................................................................................................37 Crisis and reputational damage .....................................................................................46 Policy, politics, politicians, advocates and the media. ...................................................49 Limitations of literature .................................................................................................57 Chapter summary ..........................................................................................................58 Chapter Three: ...................................................................................................................59 Methodology .....................................................................................................................59 Theoretical underpinnings .............................................................................................59 v Research design .............................................................................................................62 Mixed methods research and the use of a case study: Live export ................................63 Newspaper articles ........................................................................................................66 Hansard .........................................................................................................................72 Interviews ......................................................................................................................74 Measurement of data ....................................................................................................80 Chapter summary ..........................................................................................................80 Chapter Four: .....................................................................................................................81 Setting the Scene ...............................................................................................................81 The animal welfare movement ......................................................................................84 The law of the trade ......................................................................................................86 Live export on camera ...................................................................................................88 2003 and 2006: What was different? .............................................................................92 Animals Australia, RSPCA, the ABC and that footage ....................................................95