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JOURNALISM: CITY AND COUNTRY
Murdoch’s News
Political Bias in The Australian Newspaper’s Coverage of the 2013 Federal Election
Monash University, 2013
2
Monash University
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 6
INTRODUCTION (Research Topic: scope and rationale) .................................................... 6-7
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................................................. 7-9
RESEARCH METHOD AND FIELDWORK PROCEEDINGS .................................................. 9-10
Quantitative content analysis.................................................................................................. 10
Qualitative analysis (Semi-structured interviews) ............................................................. 10-11
Ethical considerations ............................................................................................................. 11
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................... 11
Political bias in election coverage ...................................................................................... 11-12
Political bias by editors ............................................................................................................ 13
Preference for elite sources ...................................................................................................... 14
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 14-15
Future research ......................................................................................................................... 15
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 16-17
APPENDIX 1 (Table 1 and Coding) ................................................................................. 18-21
APPENDIC 2 (Semi-structured interview questions) ....................................................... 22-23
ABSTRACT
3
During the 2013 Australian federal election, there was speculation of a political bias
i Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporatio ewspapers. Murdoch has a perso al
reputation as a conservative, and publically supported the coalition throughout the
ca paig . This article exa i es a weeks worth of fro t page headli es i Murdoch’s
leading national broadsheet, The Australian newspaper, in the week leading up to,
and 2 days after, the 2013 Australian Federal Election. It builds on the study by
Daniel Maguire, published in 2007, which examines Newspaper Coverage of the
2006 Queensland state election. It also builds on David McKnight and Brian
McNair’s ‘The empire goes to war: News Corporation and Iraq’, published in
the 2012, which examines editorial content across News Corp news media in
the six months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. By using in-depth
interviews as well as content analysis and observation, this article attempts to fill
research deficits of these two studies, to either prove or disprove the notion that
Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper showed political bias in the lead up the
2013 federal election.
INTRODUCTION (Research problem and significance)
Australia has the highest concentration of media ownership in the Western
world (Harding-Smith, R, 2011). Of these media owners, Rupert Murdoch’s media
conglomerate News Corporation has the largest influence, selling around 59 per cent
of all daily newspapers nationally (Goldsmith 2013, para 6). This monopoly on
ownership is concerning, as it puts the potential influence of public opinions and
government in very few, powerful hands (Hinders, B 2004, cited in Harding-Smith, R
2001). These powerful conglomerate owners have the ability to form the political
agenda, in particular through broadsheet newspapers, which have greatest deal of
influence on the power elites of our society (Cunningham, S 2000, p22).
The Australian newspaper was launched by Murdoch in 1964 and has a wealthy
and powerful audience (The Australian Media Kit). With a Monday to Friday
4
circulation of only around 164,000 copies, The Australian’s appeal for Murdoch may
not be the revenue it brings in, but its power to influence society’s elite
In the lead up to the 2013 federal election, speculation was cast over Murdoch’s
editorial influence over his News Corporation newspapers. Having a personal
reputation as a conservative, and publically supporting the coalition during the 2013
campaign (Woodhead, B 2013), Murdoch was thought to be harbouring a vendetta
against Kevin Rudd’s Australian Labor Party. On August 3, with an election looming,
The Australian newspaper ran four negative front-page headlines about the Rudd
Government in one day (Sheehan 2013).
In light of this, I have chosen to analyse Murdoch’s most influential national
newspaper, in order to determine whether or not his political views may have affected
coverage of the 2013 federal election. By conducting my research, I hope to either
prove or disprove the notion that Rupert Murdoch used his editorial influence over
The Australian newspaper, to push his own political and personal agenda during the
2013 federal election campaign. Few studies have looked onto the Australian
newspaper in this way, and none have used a combination of both qualitative and
quantitative research methodologies, which I will be using in my research. By
assessing and evaluating journalism practice through the eyes of a journalist, I will be
better able to understand the journalist’s place in society, and the news media
environment of today.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
As part of my research, I have built on two studies that concern both newspaper
election coverage in Australia, and Murdoch’s editorial influence over News
Corporation media. Research deficits were addressed by using mixed methods of both
content analysis and interview in my own research.
The first study is an analysis of the newspaper coverage of the 2006 Queensland
state election by Daniel Maguire, published in the 2007 Australian Journalism Review
(Maguire, M 2007). The other is by David McKnight and Brian McNair titled ‘The
empire goes to war: News Corporation and Iraq’, which addresses Murdoch’s
5
editorial influence in the lead up to the Iraqi invasion in 2003 (McKnight, D &
McNair, B 2012).
Maguire’s study compares election coverage from two News Corp dailies The
Gold Coast Bulletin and The Courier Mail, looking at the way a metropolitan
publication and a regional daily differed in their coverage of the election campaign,
and for political bias in that coverage. Starting from the first full day of campaigning
to Election Day, Maguire uses coding of ‘favourable’, ‘unfavourable’ and ‘neutral’ to
establish whether or not an article showed any party bias. The amount of coverage
given to each political party in both of the dailies was also analysed.
Maguire’s content analysis found that both newspapers gave the Labor
Government more news coverage than other coalition parties. The study also found
election stories in both newspapers to be ‘overwhelmingly neutral in tone’ (Maguire,
D 2007), while editorials were predominantly unfavourable towards the major parties.
The metropolitan Courier Mail had more election news stories and editorial that The
Gold Coast Bulletin – a result that Maguire expected to find.
Like Maguire, my research assesses the newspaper coverage of a political
election, however it focuses on one publication on a federal level. Unlike Maguire,
my study looks for evidence of a political bias in the front-page news headlines over a
seven-day period, instead of a more extensive word-by-word analysis of each article.
The second study that I have chosen to build on, McKnight and McNair’s ‘The
empire goes to war: News Corporation and Iraq’, was published in the Australian
Journalism Review in 2012. The pair examines editorial content across News Corp’s
news media in the six months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. McKnight
and McNair compare published arguments for the invasion across the UK, the US and
Australian press, looking at the degree of editorial conformity (or otherwise), and for
evidence of biased coverage. They tested the notion that Murdoch’s relatively clear
support of an invasion of Iraq was pushed by the news media that he controlled
through his News Corp ownership. I chose to adopt this theme, looking at Murdoch’s
editorial influence on news publications within his conglomerate in my own research.
6
McKnight and McNair found that while editorials in News Corporation
newspapers all reflected Murdoch’s views in strongly supported the war, and that
News Corporation outlets were generally pro-war, there was not a clear uniformity of
opinion throughout the three countries. In regards to Australian press, research
showed that The Australian and the Herald Sun had a roughly equal number of
articles representing those for and against the invasion. However, The Australian’s
op-ed pages published a larger number of pro-war articles than anti-war articles.
Across the three countries, a strong connection was found between the views of
Rupert Murdoch and those broadly expressed by his news media, and that it can be
attributed to his ownership.
I have chosen to build on this study, which suggests that Murdoch’s ownership
over news media could result in biased editorial content that reflects his own political
stance. Unlike McKnight and McNair, I have used interviews with employees at The
Australian newspaper, in order to explore the realities of working within a Murdoch
conglomerate, testing the theory that his employees feel pressure to adhere to a
particular party line to fit with their employers political stance. I conducted my
research on a much smaller scale, only addressing one publication from one country,
but have similarly assessed the connection between Rupert Murdoch’s political views
and the news content produced by News Corp media.
RESEARCH METHOD AND FIELDWORK PROCEEDINGS:
For my research, I have used a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative
analysis in order to fill the research deficits in Maguire and McKnight and McNair’s
studies. By using both content analysis and interviews, I am able to give more depth
to my research and prevent a reliance on one type of analysis at the exclusion of
another.
The use of qualitative methodologies allows social norms and opinions to be
taken into account. However, quantitative analysis alone can be weak, as it may result
in research that is lacking in quantitative evidence (Lutters, G & Ackerman, S 1996).
By combining a content analysis of The Australian Newspapers, and then discussing
7
these findings with the subjects of this analysis, I was able to get the best result for
my research.
Quantitative Content Analysis
To begin my research, I collected seven days worth of The Australian
newspapers, starting from Monday September 2, up to Monday September 9. This
provided me with election coverage material form the week leading up to the election,
held on Saturday September 7, and two days after. As The Australian prints one
weekend addition as opposed to a Saturday and Sunday edition, including the Monday
September 9 newspaper in my analysis allowed me to assess post election coverage as
well.
After my content had been collected, I began subjectively analysing front-page
headlines regarding the election or politics on each day. My content analysis was
arranged in a table, which used detailed coding to determined the genre of the article,
the angle I had perceived it had taken, the number of elite and non-elite sources used
and the position of the author at The Australian.
I was able to use this analysis to discuss the ‘problem of bias’ in a meaningful
way (Kolmer, C 2008, p. 117). My findings also provided a platform for which my
qualitative analysis could be built. While many in the journalistic field object to the
‘bean-counting’ involved in content analysis, claiming it leads to a ‘misunderstanding
of their creative work’, and that the reliability of coding is limited (Kolmer, C 2008,
p. 120), by ‘monitoring the media’ in this way, we can better understand the impact of
media on society (Kolmer, C 2008 p. 117).
Qualitative (Semi-structured Interviews)
To build on my content analysis, I conducted semi-structured interviews with
political reporter Paul Maley and Queensland bureau chief Andrew Fraser from The
Australian Newspaper. Interviews were conducted via email and telephone and gave
depth to my content analysis by offering inside and personal opinion on my findings.
8
I used interviews that were ‘planned and structured’ but which retained the
flexibility to adapt to the individual interview’ (Bowd, K 2004, p. 117-118). This
included a variety of questions concerning the key focus of my study in order to get a
general view on my research topic, as well as presenting some of my findings for
possible explanation.
Ethical Considerations
When interviewing journalists who are ‘accustom to being in control of the
questioning and direction of an interview’ (Bowd, K 2004, p. 118), subjects may be
uncooperative in answering questions, using their experience in the field to either
control the interview or to avoid answering certain questions. Acknowledgement must
be given therefore, that this could have ‘limit the amount of meaningful data’ that
could have been collected (Bowd, K 2004, p. 119). Wanting to impress those in my
desired field may have also resulted in easier questioning of subjects, so as not to
offend potential future employers or co-workers.
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Two main themes arose from my quantitative and qualitative analysis. One of
these themes being Political Bias, with headlines favouring The Liberal Party over
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), and another, the tendency to use significantly
more elite sources than non-elite sources in political pieces.
Political Bias in Election Coverage
Content analysis fount that in the week leading up to the 2013 federal election,
and two days after, the majority of headlines were perceived as having an anti Kevin
Rudd or Labor Party angle (Table 1). Of the 31 articles analysed, 12 showed a
negative angle towards the ALP, with eight of the 31 showing a Positive Angle
towards The Liberal Party. Only two headlines had a positive angle towards the ALP,
and showed a negative angle towards the Liberal Party. Of the 31 headlines, eight
9
were neither biased towards the ALP or The Liberal Party. This could support the
theory that Murdoch’s want for a Liberal Government win in the election, influenced
the way The Australian newspaper covered political news at this time.
These results differ from Maguire’s analysis of the 2006 Queensland state
election, which found no evidence of bias in the newspapers' news stories, with the
tone of the coverage being overwhelmingly neutral. McKnight and McNair also found
that The Australian newspaper had a roughly equal number of articles representing
those for and against the invasion, but that there was ‘generally pro-war’ coverage
across international News Corporation media, which reflected Rupert Murdoch’s
political and personal stance.
While Queensland bureau chief Andrew Fraser says that a perceived bias
could have simply been reflective of a government that was losing popularity in the
lead up to the election, others see it as ‘part of a broad conspiracy’.
‘There gets to be an awful lot of conspiracy theories…that Rupert
Murdoch came to town and told them to take this line and we all
jump into the ditch, but it doesn’t work like that.’
From this analysis, we can determine that there is evidence of biased coverage
of the 2013 federal election by The Australian newspaper, which reflects the political
and personal views of News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch. However, this
perceived bias could have been put down to journalists reflecting the views of a
community that was losing faith in the current government, and not necessarily due to
Rupert Murdoch’s direct influence.
Political Bias by Editors
Majority of headlines of articles written by editors, including political and
national affairs editors, showed either a positive sway towards The Liberal Party, or a
negative sway towards the ALP. Of the 21 headlines analysed, seven showed a
negative angle towards the ALP, seven showed a positive angle towards The Liberal
10
Party, with only one showing a positive angle towards the ALP and one with a
negative angle towards The Liberal Party. Of all of the article headlines written by
editors, five showed no particular political angle. This may show that editors are more
likely to push a political agenda than staff writers, and that there may be more
inclination for them to reflect the political views of their boss Rupert Murdoch.
While political reporter Paul Maley says he has never felt pressure to adhere to
political views of editors of owners, Fraser acknowledges that editors may decide to
cover certain events in a particular way.
‘You will often get in discussions with the editors about looking at it
something in a particular way, but it’s never as crass as support The
Liberal party over The Labor party…you don’t get anything at all like
that.’
From these findings, we can determine that the majority of editorial headlines,
written by the editor at large, political editors and national affairs editors, showed
evidence of a political bias against the ALP and towards The Liberal Party. While
McKnight and McNair did not find political bias in The Australian’s coverage of the
Iraq War, the op-ed pages did publish a larger number of pro-war articles than anti-
war, suggesting as my own analysis did, that editors may be more likely to make
biased decisions in their roles, in order to conform to Rupert Murdoch’s personal and
political views. This may be more subtle however, than making a clear editorial
decision to be biased, or in some cases may not exist at all. Like McKnight and
McNair, Maguire found no evidence of political bias, but did not analyse articles
written by editors separately from other articles.
Preference for Elite Sources
A significant majority of articles analysed used elite sources in positions of
power in society, over non-elite sources with no links to positions of power. Of the
131 sources used throughout the week’s worth of election coverage, only 15 of these
were from non-elite individuals. While Fraser does not feel this is a cause for alarm,
11
he admits to being more inclined not to send reporters to too many public events or
press conferences, as he is ‘a great believer in talking to as many people as possible’,
saying it is ‘a lot better way to go’. Political journalist Paul Maley however, says a
reliance on elite sources neither surprises, nor troubles him.
‘If by elite sources we mean government departments, ministers,
police spokesman etc. their over-representation makes sense. They
are legitimate sources of information. Also people in positions of
power are more likely to make decisions or take actions that impact
on our lives. For that reason I suspect they are more likely to feature
prominently in media coverage.’
Neither Maguire nor McKnight and McNair analysed the number of elite and
non-elite sources used, which is a deficit in both of their studies. A preference for elite
sources over non-elite sources may result in news that is lacking in public perspective,
pushing the views of the power elites in society and forming the political agenda
(Cunningham, S 2000).
This data would suggest that The Australian newspaper has a clear preference
for using elite sources when covering political issues. For some working in the news
industry however, this reliance on elite sources is not an area for concern, as they are
thought to be a more legitimate and authoritative source.
CONCLUSION
Quantitative content analysis of political themed headlines in Rupert
Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper during the 2013 federal election show a
political bias against the ALP. Qualitative analysis in the form of interviews however,
suggests that there is no direct pressure on News Corporation employees to adhere to
any particular political views. Data also shows that editors are more likely than staff
writers to show political bias in their reporting, which reflects the views of their
conglomerate owner. Journalists and editors overall have a strong tendency to use
12
elite sources over those who are non-elite, but some do not see this as concerning, as
they see elite sources as more legitimate sources of information.
Future Research
While qualitative analysis in the form if interviews shows that employees are
not pressured directly by Rupert Murdoch to push his political view, further research
into a more subtle or subconscious tendency to adhere to this view may be an area for
future research. With more time and resources, an analysis of entire editorial content,
as opposed to looking solely at front-page headlines, could give more thorough
results. Future research may benefit from interviewing an editor or political editor as
well as a staff writer or political reporter, to gain more insight into the topic.
REFERENCES
13
Bowd, Kathryn 2004, ‘Interviewing the Interviewer’, Australian Journalism
Review, Vol. 26, pp. 115-123
Cunningham, S 2000, ‘Whither Media Influence’, Media International
Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol. 95, pp. 19-26.
Goldsmith, B 2013, ‘Fact Check: does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in
Australia?’, The Conversation, 8 August,
https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-murdoch-own-70-of-newspapers-
in-australia-16812
Harding-Smith, R (United Nations Development Programme) 2011, ‘Media
Ownership and Regulation in Australia’, viewed October 29, 2013,
http://cpd.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/2011/11/Centre_for_Policy_Development_Issue_Brief.pdf
Kolmer, C 2008, Global Journalism Research, Blackwell Publishing, pp. 117-
128
Lutters, G & Ackerman, S 1996, ‘An Introduction to the Chicago School of
Sociology’, Interval Research Proprietary, pp. 1-12.
Maguire, D. 2007, ‘ Newspaper coverage of the 2006 Queensland state
election’: Australian Journalism Review, vol. 23. No. 2, p. 109-122.
McKnight, D and McNair, B. 2012, ‘The empire goes to war: News
Corperation and Iraq’: The Australian Journalism Review, vol.34, no.2 p. 7-
17.
Sheehan, P 2013, ‘Murdoch sends trusted generalCol-Pot to bring down Rudd
over NBN’, The Age, 4 August, viewed 4 August 2013,
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/murdoch-sends-trusted-general-col-pot-
to-bring-down-rudd-over-nbn-20130803-2r6fk.html
14
The Australian media kit, News Corporation,
http://www.newscorpaustralia.com/brand/australian
Woodhead, B 2013, Rupert Murdoch tweets Rudd ‘convincing nobody’, The
Financial Review, 20 August, viewed 23 August 2013,
http://www.afr.com/p/national/rupert_murdoch_tweets_rudd_convincing_JPty
Mlum4L2GtG9hIYzrfM
APPENDIX 1: Qualitative Content Analysis
Table 1: Analysis of The Australian Newspaper front-page headlines
15
Day (Front
page) Genre Angle Elite Sources
Non elite
Sources
Story
type Author
2-Sep O NA 3 0 SF SW Sid
Maher
2 Sept P
NAALP
0 0 N E Dennis
Shanahan PAL
2 Sept O NAALP 3 0 E E Paul Kelly
2 Sept O NAALP 3 0 SF BC Jamie
Walker
3-Sep P NAALP 1 0 SF E Dennis
Shanahan
3-Sep O NA 2 2 SF
E Bernard
Lane & SW
Sid Maher
3-Sep NBN PAL 2 2 SF SW Peter
Griffith
3-Sep R PAALP 3 3 SF
SW Paul
Maley &
Lauren
Wilson
4-Sep O NA 8 0 F
E Ewin
Hannan &
John
Ferguson
4-Sep CC PAALP 11 0 F E David
Crowe & SW
16
Joe Kelly
4-Sep O NA 6 0 F
SW Jared
Owens & F
Ean Higgins
4-Sep CC NAALP 3 0 O E Dennis
Shanahan
5-Sep P NAALP 7 0 F F Troy
Bramston
5-Sep B PAL 6 0 F E David
Crowe
5-Sep O PAL 3 0 E
E Paul Kelly
& Dennis
Shanahan
5-Sep O PAL 4 1 F
E John
Ferguson &
SW Brad
Norington
6-Sep B NA 7 0 F E David
Crowe
6-Sep NBN NAALP 1 1 SF SW Mitchell
Bingemann
6-Sep O NAALP 2 0 F E David
Crowe
6-Sep P NAALP 6 1 F
SW Sid
Maher & E
Dennis
Shanahan
17
6-Sep O NAL 3 0 N
E & BC
Patricia
Karvelas
7-Sep
(Election
Day)
O NAALP 3 0 F
SW Brad
Norington &
F Troy
Bramston
7-Sep
(Election
Day)
P PAL 0 0 SF E Dennis
Shanahan
7-Sep
(Election
Day)
P NA 5 1 SF F Troy
Bramston
7-Sep
(Election
Day)
O NA 2 0 E
E Dennis
Shanahan &
E Paul Kelly
7-Sep
(Election
Day)
B NA 1 0 E
E Dennis
Shanahan & E
Paul Kelly
9-Sep O PAL 4 0 F
E David
Cowe & SW
Sid Maher
9-Sep
O PAL 7 0 F
E Dennis
Shanahan & E
Paul Kelly
9-Sep O NAALP 8
F
F Troy
Bramston
9-Sep O NAALP 1 0 E E Paul Kelly
18
Coding:
Genre: climate change-CC; refugees- R; budget- B; National Broadband Network-NBN; Polls-P;
Other-O
Angle: Positive angle ALP- PAALP; Positive angle Liberal PAL; Negative Angle ALP- NAALP; Negative
Angle Liberal- NAL; Neutral Angle-NA.
Sources: Elite sources- ES ; Non-elite Sources- NES ; Elite & Non elite Sources- ENES
Story type: News- N (100-500 words); Sub-Feature –SB (500-800words; Feature- F (1000 or
more); Opinion- O; Editorial- E.
Author: Editor (Incl. Deputy, Political, National Affairs)- E; Staff writer- SW; Freelancer- F; Bureau
Chief- BC: Deputy Editor- DE
Elite sources: Individuals or organisations who are in positions of power in society
Non- elite sources: Individuals who, when cited in the news, are not linked to positions of power.
19
APPENDIX 2: List of semi-structured interviewees questions for:
Andrew Fraser – Queensland Bureau Chief, The Australian Newspaper
Paul Maley – Political Reporter, The Australian Newspaper
1. Tell me about your background. How did you get to the position at The
Australian? How long have you been there for?
2. Have you always wanted to work in political reporting?
3. What is your role at The Australian?
4. What are the values of The Australian? What does the publication aim to do?
5. Would you say that objective and unbiased reporting is something that The
Australian values and strives to uphold?
6. A content analysis of The Australian newspaper’s coverage of this year’s
federal election shows that of 31 article headlines, 12 could be perceived as
having a negative angle towards the Rudd/Labor government, while only one
showed a negative sway towards the Liberal Party. What reasoning could be
given for this?
7. Could it simply be reflective of a government that was losing popularity in the
lead up to the election?
8. Do newspapers have a role to play in campaigning against those things that are
of concern to the public, as well as informing the people?
9. The Finkelstein Inquiry last year stated that ‘there is nothing wrong with
newspapers having an opinion and advocating a position, even mounting a
campaign. Those are the natural and generally expected functions of
newspapers’. To what extent to you agree or disagree with this statement?
20
10. Have you ever felt a pressure to adhere to the political views of media owners
when working for a large media conglomerate?
11. Analysis also showed that elite sources, those in positions of power, were used
more than seven times more than non-elite sources.
12. Have you ever had your work edited in a way that you felt showed a political
bias?
13. Do you think that public journalism should strive to be more representative of
ordinary members of the public, or is this not a cause for concern?
14. Anything you would like to add?