TOPIC 3.4: What is the role of the media (and Social Media) in holding governments to account?

The Fourth Estate

Formal review processes are required to redress wrongs and criminality within the system, but it is also important to have robust debate both within and outside the Parliament, and to have a means to make Parliament aware of community opinion and for parliament to have a means of alerting the community to issues. The media can play this role as discussed in Topic 4 below.

As the ‘Fourth Estate’, the media should play a major role in government accountability. But from a public servant’s perspective, the media can appear to be the enemy as they follow up on aggrieved citizens’ concerns; chase political ‘point scoring’; and fail to explain the whole detailed picture from the public service perspective. But critically, good investigative journalism can “uncover information that matters to the public that would otherwise remain hidden were it not for a journalist’s inquiries… Such revelations can have impacts on society in a number of ways. These include changes to government policies, closure of legislative loopholes, public repercussions such as criminal or civil charges for those who have acted illegally, or removal from public office of those who have breached public trust.” (Carson, 2020)^[1]

Of course, the media has roles beyond the scrutiny and accountability.  These include informing and educating the public about issues and providing a platform for debate.  This rests in part on politicians, government officials and government agencies being available and open with the media (for example in early 2024, the governor of the RBA began holding media conferences after interest rate decisions, to explain and discuss decisions (Taylor, 2024).^[2]) In times of flood, fire, pandemics and other emergencies, the media is an important asset, which government can mobilise to achieve better community outcomes.

Concerns about the media include:

• Media ownership – concentration and influence of key players and companies
• Media concentration – merging of print and electronic
• Embedded media into political institutions e.g. embedded war correspondents or the relationship between the media gallery and politicians
• 24-hour media cycle
• The ‘three second grab’ – focus on drama rather than policy; infotainment rather than news
• Little time to craft a narrative, need for instant analysis
• Use of media ‘advisors’ in government – aim is to professionalise ‘spin’, manage crisis, focus upon ‘political’ benefits
• Willingness to take packaged press releases from politicians
• The declining role and limited resources of public service broadcasting
• Reduced investment in investigative journalism, in terms of time, money and experienced journalists
• The rise of social media
• Use of social media – opinion polling, instant reaction, bypass traditional outlets, crowd funding
• The role and responsibility of social media companies
• Open access and use of online content
• Use of software algorithms in directing and maximising online traffic

List derived from several texts including the required readings below as well as Gibbons (2021)^[3] and Griffiths (2023)^[4].

The Australian government has previously indicated a willingness to investigate legislation covering issues such as the use of news from conventional media, the ‘trolling’ of persons and individual defamation on social media platforms.

The role of the media in publishing accurate, truthful information and its ability to act responsibly to inform public debate and enhance government accountability will continue to be an area of ongoing concern.