School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemPolicy news in the digital age: an examination of Australian election reporting( 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.
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ItemRepresentations of gender in the Indonesian media: a case study of the coverage of Megawati Sukarnoputri's presidential campaigns in 1999, 2004 and 2009 elections( 2015)This thesis examines the representation of gender in the Indonesian media with a case study of Megawati Sukarnoputri’s presidential candidacies. The objective of this study is to demonstrate how media representations of a female presidential candidate were shaped by different contextual variables, in particular different newspapers’ policies, different electoral systems, and different political positions. It analyses the coverage of Megawati’s presidential bids in three different national newspapers namely Kompas, Jawa Pos and Republika, in the 1999, 2004 and 2009 elections. Applying the critical discourse analysis developed by Norman Fairclough and Teuw Van Dijk, this study examines the coverage of Megawati’s presidential bids in the three newspapers and its link to sets of social, cultural and religious values as well as the newspapers’ political and economic interests. Drawing on extensive analyses of news articles selected from the three national newspapers and in-depth interviews with the chief editors, political reporters, women’s activists and Megawati’s campaign team, this thesis argues that the continuous pattern of stereotypical narratives of femininity when reporting on female political leadership was evident in the three post-Suharto elections. It also argues that femininity attracted more media attention than that of the masculinity in the political arena because Megawati as a female presidential candidate was considered as a novelty. This thesis concludes that the political euphoria and the liberalisation of press in post-authoritarian Indonesia opened up new opportunities for the Indonesian media to discuss women’s political participation. Furthermore, the thesis suggests that the Indonesian media freely exacerbated the polemics about Megawati’s presidential bids in the three elections, resulting in heightened gendered reporting and that the media tended to treat gender and politics as saleable news commodities. The thesis concludes that the newly found media freedom brought novel forms of stereotyping that might influence people’s perception about female political leadership.
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ItemLate night comedy and political communication: comparing the Australian and US election campaigns of 2004( 2014)This PhD investigates why conservative incumbents in Australia (Prime Minister John Howard) and the US (President George W Bush) did not appear on late night comedy programs as part of their 2004 re-election campaigns – despite repeated invitations and appearances by their opponents. Some researchers herald the political rise of late night comedy as an opportunity for democracy – and situate the 2004 US election as an example – but do not recognise that conservatively aligned incumbents stayed out of the genre during this period. By investigating the way that conservative incumbent campaigns managed this form of media during the 2004 elections, this PhD examines the interaction between political strategists and a specific form of media at a key point in time. Appearances by successive incumbents in the period since these elections show that 2004 was a foundational point for the political use of late night comedy. An examination of the reasons behind conservative incumbent absences from this genre during 2004 can help build our understanding of professional political communication in two democracies – one where the political use of late night comedy is advanced (the US) and another where the political use of late night comedy is, at best, sporadic (Australia). Though the Iraq War featured differently in each campaign, the 2004 elections offered both Australian and US citizens an opportunity to change course on the Iraq War by voting for a change of government. These elections presented pivotal democratic events; elections alongside one of the biggest decisions a democratic leader can make – sending troops to war. In order to better understand why conservative incumbent campaigns declined invitations to appear on an emerging political genre, this research employed a mixed methodology as the basis for a comparison between two case studies. The researcher undertook interviews with key strategists in both campaigns to gather insights into media management strategies at the time. These research findings are cross-referenced with publicly available polling data, autobiographies, campaign accounts and a content analysis of key late night comedy episodes. This research finds that – though there are key differences between the Australian and US political, media and war contexts – both conservative incumbent campaigns made the same decision to stay out of late night comedy, for similar reasons. Both campaigns believed an appearance would conflict with their media management strategies for the 2004 elections, which sought to control the message on sensitive issues and leverage incumbency, strength of leadership on Iraq and conservative notions of the status of the office. Both campaigns viewed an out-of-character appearance on a late night comedy program as more of a risk than benefit, and so both leaders confined their election narrative of national security (in Australia) and terrorism and Iraq (in the US) to conduits they were experienced at controlling. The uncontrolled and spontaneous nature of the late night comedy genre that some researchers believe empowers its contribution to political participation is the very reason that conservative incumbent campaigns rejected successive invitations to appear. Conservative incumbent campaigns in the US and Australia both applied the same rationale to decline invitations to appear on late night comedy – even though each operated in different political, media and war-time environments. The evolving political use of this genre, particularly the appearances of incumbents since the 2004 election campaigns, highlights its ongoing relevance to political communication. By considering the 2004 campaigns, this study investigates whether war, incumbency and conservatism were factors that kept Howard and Bush out of late night comedy. It does so by looking at the last time a conservative incumbent successfully campaigned for re-election in these countries, and at a foundational point for the political use of late night comedy.
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ItemVoting in Australian State and Federal elections 1937-1961( 1966)The main aim of this work has been to compare voting in elections for the lower Houses of the State and Federal Parliaments and to illustrate the complications of federalism. In so doing, I have also been concerned to examine the effects of different electoral systems at the two levels of government, (particularly the different methods of weighting used in the various states) and to look at the working of those distinctively Australian features – compulsory and preferential voting. Though the title of the thesis is limited to the period 1937 to 1961 this has not been strictly adhered to. It has been found convenient to extend comparisons by including the state elections in Western Australia of 1936 and in New South Wales of 1962. There are great problems in the handling and comparison of electoral statistics : Uncontested seats, changes due to redistributions of electoral boundaries and the identification of party affiliations of candidates are among the most obvious. On many occasions, and particularly in attempts to assess the under- or over-representation of parties, I have used adjusted election figures including allowances for uncontested seats and seats not contested by two major parties. Any such adjustments are necessarily arbitrary, but I have endeavoured to make clear when adjusted figures were being used and , where necessary, to indicate the limited nature of the material available. For some state elections the figures are far more “usable” than for others so I have done what seemed possible in the light of the material. This has made for a good deal of unevenness. No attempt has been made to treat each state uniformly. Though Victoria and New South Wales have been studied in most detail, even here different aspects have been stressed. Dissident party groups and candidates have been more fully treated in New South Wales. In Victoria the longer periods between redistributions and the recent “tow-for-one” system of electoral boundaries has made a more detailed comparison of voting at state and federal elections possible. The study has been limited to elections for the Commonwealth Parliament and the lower Houses of the State Parliaments. Since the interest has largely centred on the working of single-member electorate systems there has been no detailed discussion of the methods used to elect The Tasmanian House of Assembly or the Commonwealth Senate, though some analysis of voting for both these bodies has been included. (From Introduction).