Australian media is centrist, corporate and blind to the bigger picture

Australians are taught through media and politics that mediocrity is all they can hope for, Amy Remeikis writes

In order to be good at reporting on politics, a journalist needs two main skills.

One, the ability to notice incremental changes. The tick-tock of policy, vibes and language changes that point the direction a government or issue is headed in. That requires zooming in, concentrating on the minutiae, making mountains out of the molehills.

The other is to see the bigger picture. Zooming out to see what all those small changes are pointing towards on the whole. Applying context, referring to history – seeing not just the molehills but the whole landscape, including the possible different paths.

In Australian political journalism, the first is where the rewards are. That’s the breaking news, the drops and the splashes. That’s where most of the focus is. It’s what drives media and the politicians they cover.

The second skill is the more valuable one – for journalists and their audiences. Tick-tocks have their place, but they are just a piece of the puzzle. Journalism is supposed to help people interpret their world, to provide the necessary information – and crucially, put that information into context – so people can then make the decisions which help govern their lives.

But at some point, around the same time mainstream media became as centrist and corporate as the politics it covers, the bigger picture was mostly lost. Certainly de-valued. Now there is noise, with no clarity. Political journalism mostly operates from a position of assumed knowledge with an undercurrent of condescension. All of what we are talking about is just so complicated we just don’t have the time to explain it to you, let alone explain why you should care.

Better you just understand we think this is important and let that be enough. Sssshhhh – you don’t know enough to ask questions. That’s our job. Just trust us that we think this is the most important thing happening in Australia at the moment and let that be enough.

And then we wonder why trust in media is falling – while those who have already lost trust wonder how their governments are able to ignore so many issues important to them, and the world.

So much of our media is not fit for purpose. Journalists rarely get taught how to be fierce and fearless anymore – instead they learn how to survive in media.

Which more often than not means sticking to the centre and agreed ‘sensible’ positions. You can be ‘left’ and ‘progressive’ if you advocate for climate change action – even while advocating for market-led ‘solutions’ like offsets. Covering Israel’s war (slaughter) on Palestine and the Middle East is now OK, as long as you continue to centre Israel. Following and kowtowing to the United States is obviously in our national interest (have we considered giving them another Pine Gap? Pre-committing to as many wars as they want? Making Australia the 51st state?), while China must be treated with derision and scorn because, well, they have a different system of government to us! The only acceptable form of protest is to not protest, but if you must, make it a nicely worded email, as long as no one is made to feel uncomfortable in any way.

Oh but farmers dumping manure on the steps of a parliament aren’t protesters – they are farmers! And climate change deniers blocking highways and roads in their utes and trucks aren’t protesters – they are convoys. Minority governments are CHAOS and CONFUSION (except if you are in New South Wales where you barely even notice it, or the ACT, where it is business as usual, or Tasmania, where even after four state elections in seven years, people keep voting for it) so don’t even think about adding in some checks and balances to your democracy.

Tax reform is bad if it means corporations and the wealthy have to pay more (or even just their fair share) but necessary if it’s lower and middle earners, who can’t expect a free ride. Governments can’t be expected to actually DO anything to improve people’s lives with their power – that would be hubris. No, no, no – but we should listen to the Coalition, even though they have been comprehensively rejected not once, but twice by the electorate, and now have their lowest representation (percentage wise) in the lower house in modern political history (and I predict will lose even more seats at the next election).

But hey – don’t worry, a leader with the support of less than half her party room, who needed intervention to save her preselection not once, but twice, is totally the person to turn it all around, not just in the parliament, but also the branches and the state and national executives, because she’s a woman, AND she used to be punk.

Australians are taught through their media and their politics that they can never, ever hope for more and should be grateful for the little they have.

We are told we shouldn’t look at our history, or even what is possible to learn from it, because things should stay exactly as they are, because that is what is sensible and anyone arguing for more is a radical, and therefore deserving of sneer.

What we in the media class largely haven’t noticed, and what Labor seems happy to wilfully ignore, is that people who don’t feel heard won’t just keep accepting same-same just because it’s what is being offered. They’ll choose disruption just to break the cycle. And that can be positive, as with what we saw in the New York Democratic mayoral primaries, but it can also be a Donald Trump. To think that Labor’s thumping majority translates to a thumping endorsement of Labor’s meagre election offerings not only misinterprets the election, but the Australian electorate.

Those still focused on politics as usual are blind to the bigger picture. Staring at all those pebbles means you don’t see the cliff’s edge until it’s too late.