Media Analysis: Examining Drug Policy, Power, and Politics

This essay analyzes a media article focusing on how drug dealers in Australia are exploiting legal privileges within injecting rooms due to limitations placed on police authority by the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act. The analysis highlights the media's role in influencing government action by exposing loopholes that endanger public safety. The essay discusses the original intent of injecting rooms, the concerns of local residents, and the perceived inadequacy of government policies. It evaluates the article's effectiveness in raising awareness and prompting action, noting the use of factual evidence and interviews. While praising the article's structured writing and realistic portrayal, the analysis also points out limitations such as the absence of counterarguments and statistical data to strengthen its impact. Overall, the essay underscores the media's crucial role in scrutinizing government policies and advocating for public safety.

Running Head: MEDIA ANALYSIS
MEDIA ANALYSIS
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Author Note:

1MEDIA ANALYSIS
The drug dealers in Australia becomes highly powerful in course of using the injecting
room as the hinterland because of the lack of power of the police within the injecting room. It is
identified as one of the major loopholes in dealing with illicit drugs and endangered the safety of
the local people. As a result of that it becomes an important aspect for the government of
Australia to reconsider its drug enforcement policies and the role of the policing to prohibiting
people from participating in drug abuse. Those aspects were clearly highlighted in the article of
Sakkal (2019) where the media pushed the government to take adequate actions and facilitating
stern guidelines so that this nefarious practice can be stopped. In this regard, the aim of this essay
is to analyse the media article on exploiting the legal privileges by drug dealers and the degree of
importance of the media in influencing the government.
The purpose of using injecting rooms was different from the present case scenario. It was
a benevolent idea to diagnosing the drug addicted patients in a more liberal and flexible manner
by giving them the opportunity to take drugs at a prescribed rat under the observation of the
doctors or experts. As a result of that in most of the developed countries where this kind of
treatment for the drug addicted people is necessary for channelizing the drug abusers to a
constructive manner. As a result of that the Australian government also put a bar on the policing
system under the issue of Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act (sl.nsw.gov.au 2017). As a result of
that it becomes a problem for the police to arrest people within the premises of injecting centre
even with offensive and illegal possession. As a result of that it encourages the drug dealers and
handlers to use the injecting centres as a free location to sell illegal staffs. This free pass is
endangered the local lifestyles as the local residents are claimed that they had seen a number of
drug dealers and handlers all the time in the surrounding areas of the injection facility. I
generates some sort of fear among the local residents and at the same time makes the police to

2MEDIA ANALYSIS
act as just a witness because the government regulations put a ban on their activities within the
facility. This is identified as one of the major threat for the motive of the people using injecting
rooms and at the same time questions the efficacy of the government policies to threaten the life
of the local people because of leveraging so high on the well-being of the drug addicts. It also
makes the police only a silent audience restricted by the red tape of the government. Therefore, it
is essential to ventilate the grievance of the local people and safeguarding their life, the article of
Sakkal (2019) is trying to share the news through the print media.
In this regard, there are certainly a rough decision making by the editor of the newspaper
because this is a sensational news that projected the inadequacy and failure of the government to
prevent potential threat of drug addiction. One of the major problem in the Australian society is
its increasing rate of illegal substance addiction. Therefore, this news articles shares enormous
value in the form of highlighting the loopholes to not only the society but to the government also
so that adequate decision making can be made as soon as possible and restrict the chronic growth
of drug abuse. Blanc et al. (2017) articulated that it is the very nature of news media that
illuminated the readers with rouge political discourses or manifestation which can leave a
detrimental impact on the society. The more the journalist ventilated about the issue the more it
questioned about the government involvement and its stand point. Henceforth, the article shares
a great value to the readers and the society. Moreover, it can be stated that an anti-government
voice would be generated through the article in a positive way. It does not mean that the words
of the article are inciting and controversial. It is not the role of the media to share its own vision
rather the primary task of the news media is to develop the insights of the people thorough
providing authentic information. From that point of view, it can definitely be stated that the

3MEDIA ANALYSIS
article of Geber, Scherer and Hefner (2016) is identifying the factual incident rather than
pointing out any political comment for or against the government.
In course of discussing the event, the writing was very transparent and easy to
understand. It seemed to be a traditional writing method of addressing a newspaper report. The
critical spectacles of the columnist is also commendable in such an extent. For instance, the
article clearly defined its stance against the improper government policy. The first paragraph of
the article clearly reflected that belief. In addition to this, Velugula‐Yellela et al. (2018) argued
that one of the important part of newspaper media article is to resonate the significance of the
news it the first paragraph so that the readers will care to read the full news. This trend has also
been seen in this article where the columnist provides some factual evidences like the volume of
dope that the dealers were carried by exploiting the legal loopholes. Moreover, the limitation of
the police to prevent people from making business with illegal substances like heroin. Therefore,
using the simple language with short sentence structure will help the public to understand the
proposition of the article and react accordingly. Henceforth, it can be stated that for influencing
the understanding of the readers the article has played a significant role. As a result of that it is
also important to identify the type of readers who will be interested in reading the political
columns. According to Huo, Yang and Xiang (2018) people who are highly fond of political
incidents are generally the primary target readers of this article. Apart from that the newspaper
eaters are also identified as the potential readers of this news. Enli (2017) advocated that the
newspaper eaters were generally read out all the news so there was no special column that the
preferred.
Based on the research of Zarza and Tan (2016) it can be stated that a good newspaper
article should have transparent objectives and the use of information logically so that the readers

4MEDIA ANALYSIS
are not only get information about the incident but also get intrigued to go to the bottom of the
incident. In other words, it can be stated that the role of the newspaper report is to create a great
deal of impression on the readers mind that develops an interests to get more about the event.
The political news are always focusing on the same objective of creating a mass awareness
through to the point but interesting news. In this regard, the issue of this article is resembled with
the ethical dilemma of the regulation of the Australian government that in one hand creating a
hinterland for the drug dealers to sell illegal substances openly and on the other hand using
police to control the situation where the police force has restricted activity within the given
territory of injecting centres. As a result of that the threat to the society as well as the belief of
people over police force is under the red flag that was pointed out by this article. From this
understanding, it can be stated that the objective of this newspaper article is clearly projected and
make the readers understand the touch points of the article.
Apart from that there is also a number of important features that this newspaper article is
dealing with while writing about a particular event or incident. Balance between the objective or
the theme of the article and supporting the arguments with the help of relevant and authentic data
or interview make this article a credible source. For instance, the columnist stated that due to
some loopholes within the government’s enactment it becomes impossible for the police to track
down and prohibit the illegal selling of drugs. To be more specific, in the injecting centres as
police has no legal authority to arrest any suspected drug addicts therefore it makes them free to
sell and purchase of drugs inside the injecting centres. Police is just a silent observer and despite
of entitled to maintain and prevent any kind of legal violation becomes de facto observer. This
argument was further supported by an interview with a local officer at Richmond who
corroborated the fact that the legal rights of the drug dealers and addicts in the injecting rooms

5MEDIA ANALYSIS
provided them a free pass to carry significant doses of drugs and intensified the rate of crimes
within the Richmond area. This argument and support statement from the police officer proved
that the columnist intended to set a balance in his arguments and the support statement so that the
readers while reading the news felt the intensity of the situation.
Despite of all the positive efforts of Stroud, Scacco and Curry (2016) it can be stated that
there are few number of mistakes that he had done. First of all, there is no counter argument from
the addicts or government that can provide the readers the view points of the opposite side. It
seems to be a limitation for Sakkal (2019) to mention the alternative version of the story and
leave the entire decision upon the readers to decide what it wrong and what is right. According to
the research of Kuiken et al. (2017) there has to be a great number of alternative aspects that the
columnist should put in order to make the article argumentative to be concluded over the
decision of the readers. Furthermore, there is certainly another important aspect that the
columnist left untouched is some factorial explanation that creates more impact on the readers.
The increase of drug selling rate in that particular region can be an important aspect that would
bring further importance to the argument. The increase of the drug selling rate at Richmond
would prove the fatality of the government policy of keeping the injecting centres unchecked. It
will left enough impression on the readers and the government as well to share valuable concern
for resolving the issue as soon as possible. Gupta and Graubner (2019) opined that it is pertinent
for the newspaper article to generate more interests and concern among the readers so that the
reflection can create pressure on the government. For a political article this strategy had to be
implemented by Jakovljev and Milin (2017) As a result of that the article loose somewhat
credibility and importance. Nevertheless, there are enough discussion that can signify the
weightage of the article.

6MEDIA ANALYSIS
There are several aspects of the article that drives me positively towards a realistic picture
of the situation. For example, the narrative trend of the article is easy to understand and focused
on a structured and disciplined writing. Besides this, the use of interview of the key actors and
the argument of the columnist made it a realistic one due to its strong judgement and deductive
approach through the use of primary or field data. In this context, the most important feature of
the column is that it does not simply narrate the incident rather cared to make a rational argument
with the help of the different interviews from the police or the governing members. In addition to
this, the response of the locals is also boosted up the rationality of the article and made it clear
about the standpoint of the columnist. For me the most important part is the fear of the local
people as they are only relied on the police but police is not in a position to challenge the
activities of the drug dealers. A tension among the authority and the local residents burgeoned
the chaos where there are no strategy that the government is choosing yet for safeguarding the
local residents.
There are three key aspects on which this newspaper article is based on such as the role
of the police in containing the nefarious practice of illegal substances, the efficacy of the
government to safeguard the local community and the monitoring and controlling framework
within the injection centre that can prevent illegal dealings of drugs and illegal substances.
Therefore, it is obvious that the people can interpret the objective of the article from those three
distinct and interlinked factors. As a result of that the expected message will also be differed as
per the interpretation. Henceforth, the understanding of the readers is played a significant role in
order to meet the expected outcome. From that point of view, it can be stated that different
people will understand the importance of the article differently. In respect to this, it can be stated
the local people would consider the safety measures that the government should keep for the

7MEDIA ANALYSIS
local community. Apart from that the general readers would come up with the concern about the
importance of police force in preventing illegal activities like drug selling. Apart from that from
the government’s perspective putting focus on the activities of the injection centre and made the
organisation effective for the proper benefit of the addicted person should be installed so that the
objective of the organisation can be met properly.
In respect to this, there are three relevant question that comes in mind in course of
reading the article. The questions are as follows,
1. What are the legal process for convicting and arresting an addicted person within the injection
centre premises?
2. What are the role of the doctors and nurses in injection centres to monitor the activities of the
addicted people?
3. How far the role of the government can make a better practice for both the addicted patients
and the patients?
The above discussions are rightly pointed out the efficiency of the case study newspaper
article in portraying and identifying the impacts on the readers. Therefore, there are several
measures that this essay is opting in order to analyse the newspaper article properly. Based on
the analysis, it can be seen that there is a partial reference that the column is provided politically
but it has immense impact on the readers. The topic of the article is associated with the reducing
power of the police in injecting rooms makes it a free land for the drug dealers to establish their
business. It is definitely an important aspect for the local community as well as the efficacy of
the government that turned the situation against their benevolent practice. Moreover, this essay
evaluates the professionalism and efficacy of the article by putting a great deal of emphasis on its

8MEDIA ANALYSIS
balanced and objective related to the issue. On the basis of the evaluation it can be derived that
the columnist did a right job by making a good balance with the objective. However, there are
some limitations like highlighting the statistical data about the increase of drug selling in the
region. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that the issue is well addressed in the article and surely
influence the readers positively.

9MEDIA ANALYSIS
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10MEDIA ANALYSIS
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