International Media

Soon after the spring semester ended in May, I traveled to Australia with fellow communication and journalism college students from across the country as part of ISLP. The purpose of the week and a half trip was to gain an inside look at the operation of Australian media in Melbourne and Sydney as well as similarities and differences to American media.

Australia's population is approximately 21 million (2007 estimate). There are 52 daily English newspapers, two national papers (The Australian - which is published by News Corp. Limited and Rupert Murdoch - and The Age), 13 metropolitan dailies and 36 regional dailies. This is a stark contrast relative to the U.S. in both population (305 million Americans) and number of papers. In the U.S. there are more than 1,400 dailies and almost 50 papers with more than 250,000 circulation.

One of the most interesting aspects about Australian media is its reliance on American news and media. A majority of magazines share American titles such as Cosmo. Also, many of their television shows are ones found here in the U.S. except on a severe time delay. While I was there, they were advertising the final season of "That 70's Show" on one of their eight TV stations. The last season aired two years ago here in the States.

I was surprised at how interested many Aussies are regarding the U.S. Presidential Election. The Australian has an entire online section devoted to the race. We spent a day/night hanging out and talking with journalism students from RMIT University (as well as an UI alumna who is a lecturer at RMIT) and they are fascinated to see how the race turns out, especially since Americans are not required to vote whereas it is the law in Australia when you become of age.

Now after my mini background information on Australian media, there are fascinating components when it comes to editing. Unlike the U.S. where the AP Style Book is like a bible for journalists and editors, Australian media has a different situation when it comes to editing and style rules. Unlike the Associated Press which reigns supreme as far as editing standards go in the U.S., Australia has two main companies: The News Corporation Limited and Fairfax Media.

And with two large companies comes two different "style books." When listening to a lecture by Michael Johnson of Fairfax Media, he explained that, depending on which company owned a newspaper, that would be the adopted style book. This could be a very difficult adjustment to make if a journalist were to switch between companies. Grammar wise, all spellings are that of their British counterpart i.e. "ou" for "o" or using "s" instead of "z". (Favour/specialising)

One organization we were privileged to get a behind-the-scenes look was our visit to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) which is the equivalent to Britain's BBC. We were told that many Australians never get to see the areas that we were fortunate to observe from the television newsroom to the costume prop room which held artifacts from famous skits. (Our Australian program guide was in awe.)

It was at ABC where Tim Palmer, Executive Producer of Media Watch, gave one of the most interesting presentations of the trip. Media Watch is an Australian media analysis and comment forum. Their goal in the 15-minute show is to expose the media by turning the spotlight onto the people who "make the news" as well as people who attempt to manipulate the media such as those in PR, spin-doctors or lobbyists. Here is a clip of Palmer discussing a plagiarized story and another about the war in Iraq and how everything is supposedly going well according to U.S./Aussie papers.

I found this program to be very interesting, and while even Media Watch may be wrong at times, the media is aware that they are being watched.

I also had the opportunity to get an up close look inside the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground which was built in 1853 and is considered by many as one of the great stadiums in the world. International cricket and the Australian Football League (AFL) play in the stadium.
In 1956, it was the main venue for the Olympic Games and seats 100,000 people.

As a big sports fan, or as they call it in the Land Down Under "sport", it was an insightful experience as senior sports writer Rod Nicholson of the Sunday Herald-Sun, who covers golf, cricket and racing, spoke to a group of us about sports in Australia. As a woman attempting to cover sports in the "man's world", I asked him if women were in the minority in sports journalism.

His answer surprised me. He said women account for about 40% of sports journalists and that three of the five top AFL writers are women. (By the way, the average starting salary for a journalist in Australia is about $70,000.)

Fun Fact: The way papers earn money in the newspaper industry in Australia is completely opposite from the U.S. Almost 75-80% of their revenue comes from papers sold by vendors or machines on the street. Very few people own newspaper subscriptions. The entire Herald-Sun paper (over 80 pages) is all printed in color.

Also, while the industry here in the U.S. is decreasing, Australian media is continuing to expand with more jobs becoming available every year. I would probably highly consider attempting to find a job there, however, it probably wouldn't be in sports.

If you think sports are an obsession in the U.S., it felt like there was 10 times the coverage while I was in Australia. On a morning news segment, they spent literally 15 minutes either recapping games or talking about sports in general. I honestly don't think I would like sports as much as I do if I lived there. A huge sports storyline that was taking place while I was in Australia was the possible comeback of cricket legend Shane Warne and the link to that story can be found here. It was on the front page of the entire paper. It was an interesting read, especially because I enjoyed reading the quotes (despite the fact that I do not understand or like the sport of cricket). You can easily see differences between the forms of English.

This foreign experience was eye-opening and one that I will never forget. Not only did I learn about journalism on the international level, but I met people that I hope I continue to stay in touch with for years to come.

By the way, according to the locals, Foster's is definitely not Australian for beer, regardless of how many times those ads say so, and a kangaroo burger does not taste like chicken.