The State of Australian Political Journalism: Research Proposal Report

This report presents a research proposal on the state of Australian political journalism, focusing on the media's influence and its transformation over recent decades. It explores the concept of structural racism within Australian media and its impact on the political scenario. The literature review highlights the influence of media houses, racism, and government policies. The research questions address the relationship between structural racism and the media, the role of media tools in justice delivery, and the impact on democracy. The methodology involves a quantitative content analysis, focusing on publications from 2010 to 2015, cable news, and journals. The report also includes a bibliography of relevant sources, including academic articles and books. The research aims to analyze the role of media in shaping the Australian political context, addressing issues of Aboriginal people, and assessing the principles of democracy.

Running Head: THE STATE OF AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL JOURNALISM
The State of Australian Political Journalism
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THE STATE OF AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL JOURNALISM
Introduction
The research proposal on Australian political journalism has focused on the different
degrees of the political influence that has seen a drastic change through the last decades in the
political scenario of Australia. The proposal includes the main idea of the media houses that are
functioning in Australia in the form of the quantitative analysis of the content of the journal. The
citations for this proposal has been taken from the various common papers that was read by the
different researchers. The citations have been derived from the most authentic sources from the
article of the media and generic determinism by Kowal and Fredereick that focused on the
relation between media and the generic determinism. The concepts of the international nature of
journalism that exists in Australian was highlighted by the peer reviewed author of the Mc
Callum, Waller and Meadows in his book. Various other concepts of the report were derived
from the authentic and the peer reviewed articles to highlight the political influence of the
journalism in Australia.
Literature Review
Overview
The literature review for the research proposal focuses on the various factors related to
the journalism in Australia like racism that have been the major factor of hindrance in the media
houses of Australia. Kowal and Frederick have stated that the media houses in Australia have
been characterized by the various form of racism. The literature review has also focused on the
various supporting policies of the government of Australia. The literature review has also
focused on the democracy of the nation and the challenges posed by the media houses to the
basic principles of democracy.

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Objectives of the Literature Review
 To highlight the role of the media in shaping the Australian political scenario.
 To evaluate the gaps that the media house has in shaping the political context of Australia
 To evaluate the role of media in the addressing the issues of the aboriginal people
residing in Australia.
 To assess the restriction of democracy principles by the mass media in Australia.
Critical Analysis
The literature review though clearly highlighted the various attributes of the Australian
media houses and how they will influence the political dimensions of Australia. The literature
review cited in the research proposal has however did not mention specifically about the gap that
occurs in the literature in the context of political journalism in Australia. The studies have mostly
focused on the mainstream media and its report on the issues of some of the Aboriginal groups
residing in Australia, however it has failed to mention how the issues can change the shape of the
Australian political context in the recent time .
Research Questions
1. Evaluate the relationship between the structural racism and the media houses in Australia.
What is the role of the media house in promoting the structural racism in Australia?
2. Assess the role of the media tools that will affect the justice delivery mechanism in the
Australian politics scenario.
3. How can the use of the media tools help in dealing the issue of democracy in Australia?
4. Give a detailed analytical review that will highlight the different media statutes of
Australia?

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Methodology and Method
From the above research proposal, the three variables that I have chosen are first, the year
of publication. I have chosen the four years from 2010 -2015 as the publication years since these
are the years that have encoded the maximum number of events that will highlight the relation
between the media houses and the shaping up of the political context prevailing in Australia. The
other reason to mention these five years as the main years of publication is the fact because these
four years have yielded the maximum information in relation to the role of the media houses
operating in Australia.
The second variable that I have selected is the story type of the research proposal.
The variable that I will select is the cable news that is most suitable for the research proposal.
The cable news will include the factual statement in brief on the basis of the individual or the
collective form of research. The cable news is the most important variable as it can yield the
extensive information types based on the relatable event of the role of media houses in
Australia .
The third variable is journal that is used for the research proposal. The journals have
been selected as the final variable for the research proposal as it is the source of the most
extensive information on the media houses that operate in Australia. The journals have also
revealed the various gaps that the Australian media has portrayed in addressing the major issues
of the political dimension in Australia. The journals have also reflected how the role of the racial
structuralism and the other racial tendencies in the restriction of the democracy and the
democratic factors in the context of the political scenario in Australia .

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Bibliography
Alemán, S. M. (2013). Locating Whiteness in Journalism Pedagogy. Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 31(1), 72–88.doi:10.1080/15295036.2013.808355
Bryman, A. (2008). Social research methods (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kowal, E., & Frederic, G. (2012). Race, genetic determinism and the media: An exploratory
study of media coverage of genetics and Indigenous Australians. Genomics, Society and
Policy, 8(2). doi:10.1186/1746-5354-8-2-1
McCallum, K., & Waller, L. (2013). The Intervention of Media Power in Indigenous Policy-
Making. Media International Australia, 149(1), 139–149.
doi:10.1177/1329878x1314900115
McCallum, K., Waller, L., & Meadows, M. (2012). Raising the Volume: Indigenous Voices in
News Media and Policy. Media International Australia, 142(1), 101–
111.doi:10.1177/1329878x1214200112
McCreanor, T., Rankine, J., Barnes, A. M., Borell, B., Nairn, R., & McManus, A. (2014). The
association of crime stories and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand print media. Sites: A
Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 11(1), 121-144. doi:10.11157/sites-
vol11iss1id240
McKay, F. H., Thomas, S. L., & Warwick Blood, R. (2011). “Any one of these boat people could
be a terrorist for all we know!” Media representations and public perceptions of “boat
people” arrivals in Australia. Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 12(5), 607–
626.doi:10.1177/1464884911408219
Mesikämmen, E. (2016). Limited interests, resources, voices: power relations in mainstream
news coverage of Indigenous policy in Australia. Media, Culture & Society, 38(5), 721–
737.doi:10.1177/0163443715620927
Petray, T. L., & Collin, R. (2017). Your Privilege Is Trending: Confronting Whiteness on Social
Media. Social Media + Society, 3(2),
205630511770678.doi:10.1177/2056305117706783
Porter, A. (2015). Riotous or Righteous Behaviour? Representations of Subaltern Resistance in
the Australian Mainstream Media. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 26(3), 289-304,
doi: 10.1080/10345329.2015.12036022

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