School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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End date: 2018 × Start date: 2018 × Subject: policy ×

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    Narratives of choice: the policy visions shaping the Victorian State Disability Plan 2002-12
    Tang, Leah ( 2018)
    This study examines Australian disability policy debates between 1999 and 2002, as the Victorian State Disability Plan 2002-12 (VSDP) was developed. This was a fascinating moment in social policy reform in Victoria and Australia, when broader trends reshaping disability policy were reflected in Victorian disability planning: shifts from differentiated ‘intellectual disability’ services to universal disability services on the basis of need; from ‘disability services’ to a focus on disability rights; and from operational departmental planning to whole-of-government strategy. The thesis investigates the multi-vocal nature of the conversation within and beyond the formal VSDP policy development process using corpus-based discourse analysis and narrative analysis. The policy corpus comprises over 400 documents produced by a wide range of bureaucrats, policy planners, service provider organisations, support professionals, advocacy organisations, peak bodies, media reports and other policy actors. Six distinct narratives of ‘choice’ are identified within the corpus, each imagining a different central vision. The first focuses on safeguarding the right to choice, even for the most vulnerable. The second demands choice for people with disabilities, in spite of societal barriers. The third proposes re-orienting the system, because existing, one-size-fits-all arrangements cannot provide choice. The fourth narrative asserts that, in the real lived experiences of families, carers, and support professionals, providing meaningful choice is complex. The final two narratives frame choice as a battle in the face of personal tragedy, and alternatively as a neoliberal illusion that has lead society away from social justice. The thesis finds that choice has been an influential if mutable concept in the recent history of disability policy. Taken alongside their location in the policy conversation, these narratives represent a discursive contest over the concept of ‘choice’, but also a range of visions of disability policy itself – who it is for, what it should do, and what reforming it means. This discussion raises questions about what matters more – discursive power or structural, material power, highlighting the at-once influential and ephemeral nature of discourse on policy.
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    Policy news in the digital age: an examination of Australian election reporting
    Gibbons, Andrew John William ( 2018)
    This thesis examines news coverage of policy issues in Australian federal election campaigns from 2001 to 2013. Focusing on three policy domains (health, education and taxation), it evaluates news coverage primarily through a quantitative content analysis of four key elements: media attention to policy issues, the amount of policy information provided, the sources quoted, and the frames and narratives adopted in these reports. In doing so, this study examines 1270 newspaper articles, 128 television news stories and 86 online news reports. Additionally, it analyses how media coverage intersects with political communication through a quantitative content analysis and qualitative language analysis of 10 campaign launch speeches. This study provides an original contribution by bridging a major gap in the Australian scholarship. It investigates news coverage of policy issues and campaign launch speeches over a period of immense technological, political and economic change in Australian political communication. Australia’s traditional print and broadcast media organisations are facing significant threats to their businesses models in the twenty-first century. A clear tension exists for Australia’s news organisations as they attempt to balance their commercial challenges with their democratic obligations to inform the public sphere. To examine this empirical problem, this thesis addressed the following question: What, if anything, has happened to traditional news media reporting of policy issues during Australian federal elections in the twenty-first century (2001-2013)? This study finds an overall decline in the quality of policy reporting provided by the press during election campaigns in the twenty-first century. The evidence suggests that policy reporting provided in later election cycles was limited in its capacity to facilitate a contest of diverse ideas and inform voters about policy matters. News coverage in later campaigns contained less policy information, adopted more game and strategic frames, and quoted fewer sources than earlier election cycles. However, this decline in the quality of policy reporting cannot be blamed entirely on Australian journalists. This study concludes that a combination of factors including financial pressures experienced by media outlets and changes in political campaigning adversely impacted on policy reporting in the 2000s.