A day in the life

Media and Politics - What are the Problems?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:16:00 +1030

This is part two in a series of posts looking at some of the problems facing politics and the media in Australia. The first post is here.

Fundamentally, I see the relationship between politicians, the media and the public has become a complete mess. Anabelle Crabb, in a speech to the Sydney Institute in October gave an excellent dissection of the relationship between the media and politicians that highlights many of the issues I go through below.

Media and the Internet - It’s a new era

The rise of freely available information on the Internet is seriously challenging the traditional business models of mainstream media (MSM). In order to sell advertising space, MSM is resorting to sensationalist headlines to grab readers attention. This ensures the facts run secondary to the latest political rhetoric.

As a result, MSM’s appetite for ten second sound bites (or 140 character tweets) has led to a dumbing down of political discourse.

I’m generalising here, there are a number of quality journalists doing excellent in depth analysis of important issues, however they tend to get lost in the noise of “a headline a minute” main stream media. It’s these headlines that tend to shape public opinion and in a seemingly never ending feedback loop, dictate the actions of politicians.

As a result of this broken and fragmented stream of news, the general public has a tendency to fall into two camps. Those with no expertise / knowledge of a given topic see the headlines and fall back to their traditional party lines. Those with a genuine interest in the topic of the day become disenfranchised with politicians and the media for the gross over simplification, apparent lack of understanding of the topic and the constant misinformation portrayed as fact.

Another concern is the vested interests that control much of the MSM media. Murdoch controls much of the Australian media landscape and we are now seeing a potential shift in media ownership with Gina Rinehart taking a stakes in Channel 10 and Fairfax - not to mention the Lord Monckton debacle. Accordingly, we need to be exploring as many new approaches to media generation and consumption to withstand these vested interests controlling public information and debate.

Political Decision Making - It’s Broken

Governments have to make decisions. This involves developing policy and enacting it into law. One would hope that the policies being developed are based on sound research and logical decision making while considering the community’s interests and morals.

Unfortunately the evidence at the moment is to the contrary. Politics appears to be a classical example of the horse leading the cart. In this case, opinion polls leading government policy and any rational thought appears to be discarded as irrelevant.

Where are the experts?

Politicians need to have a close relationship with academics, industry and other experts within their field to make informed decisions. A recent post on The Conversation discussed the struggles of academics and politicians to work together on common goals and highlights the disconnect between what politicians want and what academics want to research.

Without a tight relationship between both parties, how can politicians be adequately informed when making important decisions? Then again, even when there is research conducted that aligns with the governments priorities, they are not necessarily implemented.

The Henry Tax Review made 138 recommendations, while the government only considered a tiny fraction of this number. One of these, the MRRT, turned into a public slanging match between the resources industry and government while egged on by the media (and their advertising sales teams). This resulted in rhetoric and misinformation becoming accepted as fact and a vastly watered down policy. We have seen similar situations with the debate on climate change and asylum seekers, among others.

With so much time and effort put towards this research and so little of it to become public policy, cheapens the research and must surely leave those involved, very disenfranchised with the whole process.

Why are governments making poor decisions?

It could be reasonably argued that our current politicians lack any strength of conviction to develop and enact sensible, well thought out policy and defend it publicly. This is part of the problem, but I also think our political system is flawed and the political process hasn’t caught up with the pros and cons of the information age.

I’m not going to challenge the backbone of Rudd / Gillard / Abbot / Turnbull or outline my issues with our political system (however this excellent piece on The Conversation - resonates well with me). Instead I am focusing on how the interaction between politicians, the media and the public has changed with the advent of the Internet.

There appears to be a line of thought that in the information age, anything more complicated than a ten second sound bite or tweet won’t resonate with the public. Accordingly, politicians struggle to explain complex policy and the rationale behind it — so they don’t bother developing the policy in the first place.

In the fast pace of modern news headlines it is increasingly difficult for politicians to engage the public in a rational, well thought out argument for any length of time. Headlines tend to lurch around in a “he-said, she-said” circle, resulting in the public receiving a small fragment of the actual discussion. This discourse is made even more difficult by the lack of accountability to ensure politicians adhere to facts and maintain a rational argument.

In my next post I will discuss how the public conversation on important issues is highly fragmented and finish with a final post on a new collaborative website proposal that would aim to tackle some of these problems.

Politics is Broken - Lets Fix It

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:09:00 +1030

In Australia (and much of the western world), the political system is broken. There appears to be a large disconnect between what a rational, intelligent and socially responsible individual would do and the policies coming out of our current political system.

I want to enlist your help to fix this problem.

I believe there are numerous contributing factors to this problem with three main actors; Politicians, the Media and the Public.

Politicians are making poor decisions and demonstrate little vision and lack intelligent debate. There is a focus on placating small minorities and providing short term solutions at the expense of the bigger picture. We have also seen a significant rise in rhetoric overriding facts.

Media outlets are increasingly focusing on sensationalist headlines to get page views, often at the expense of the truth. (As an aside, I think this is partly brought about by the Internet destroying the media company margins, leaving less money for genuine journalism) As a result, we often end up with politicians drawn into a death spiral of “he said” “she said” news headlines and ten second sound bites that have little resemblance to the discussion that needs to take place. The media does little to hold politicians accountable when they provide “mis/dis/information” which the public then accepts as fact.

This has an impact on the general public, with a growing divide between those who consume mainstream media, taking it at face value and those who investigate the issues for themselves. At risk of over generalisation, mainstream media consumers tend to fall back to party lines, whereas those who pro-actively investigate issues tend to become disenfranchised with all sides of politics and the system in general. I believe this is the primary reason for the high level of dissatisfaction with current politicians.

Over a series of posts I want to explore these problems in further detail and outline a technology platform that may help bridge some of the identified gaps. I don’t have all the answers, but I have got a number of ideas and the technical resources to build a platform.

If this topic is something that interests you, please comment on the posts, subscribe to my RSS or twitter feed and share them with others. At the very least, I would like to start a public discussion on this issue as we are currently going backwards as a country.

At this stage I’m not wanting to discuss the individual issues or problems with individual politicians. Rather, the focus is understanding what has gone wrong and provide tools at our disposal to make better use of the Internet to enhance the political process.

What do you think is wrong with politics in Australia?

Note: Part 2 of this series of posts is here

"First, we need a forum where citizens with diverse beliefs and values can deliberate on climate..."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:10:11 +1030

“First, we need a forum where citizens with diverse beliefs and values can deliberate on climate change in a supportive environment. Deliberative democracy is a new type of democracy that puts citizens at the centre of decision-making. All around the world, experiments with new democratic processes are giving ordinary citizens a stronger voice in policy decisions.”

- The Conversation - Yes, this exactly what we need.

Let's close the gap between academics and policy makers: Peter Shergold on changing the system

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:48:38 +1030

Let's close the gap between academics and policy makers: Peter Shergold on changing the system:

Interesting discussion on the disconnect between academics and policy makers. Personally I believe the other missing element is the public, especially in the current environment where politics is largely poll driven.

Are Bank Profits in Australia Unreasonable?

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:06:07 +1030

Here’s a comment I just posted on the Greens Facebook page as I don’t agree with their populist approach to bashing the banks.

Some key points to consider about the so called “unreasonable profits” being made by the large banks.

If banks are making exorbitant profits go to a credit union. Can’t get a better rate at a credit union? Then the problem is getting access to cheaper money, not bank profits.
8.5m Australians have superannuation, pretty much all of those will have shares in Australian banks, so any profits are being distributed to Australians to some degree.
More Australians have high interest deposit accounts than mortgages, so higher interest rates help more Australians and also help promote a better savings culture - something Australia is severely lacking.
Banks return on equity (standardised measure of profit) is around 12% — certainly not exorbitant and around the minimum of what an investor would expect as a reasonable return for their investment.
Some people say “Australia should have a bank run by the govt.” — we did, it is now Commonwealth Bank. It was privatised and now we have a very competitive banking sector based on the 4 pillars bank policy and various credit unions / building societies.
Some people say “Bank profits have risen by exorbitant amounts!”. Actually, they have risen because the banks took such a big hit with the GFC so are being compared to abnormally low profits. The most recent profits are more in line with historical norms.
Unlike the United States, the Australian government didn’t have to bail out 100 banks that failed, rather we have a strong banking and regulatory system that stood up to the GFC test. One critical component of that is ensuring that the banks make a profit and do so in a sustainable manner.

Unfortunately most Australians (and it seems politicians too) aren’t very financially literate and don’t understand the relationship between interest rates, the RBA, the govt. and banks.

Australian Election = FAIL

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:57:05 +0930

We need someone to move this country forward. Sadly, neither Julia or Tony have the policies to do this or a capable of doing so. This is not entirely their fault, both leaders are products of the Australian political system, which I believe is fundamentally flawed and will require serious changes before we see genuine policies that move this country forward.

There are two serious failing with our democratic system which is holding this country back:

Our next government will be decided on a limited few “swinging” seats
Lobby groups have too much influence on policy and keeping the status quo

The key seats of Bennelong, Eden-Monaro, McEwen etc. will decide this election, regardless of which party gets the majority of votes across the country. As a result, the votes of some Australians count for a lot more than the votes of others.

This has a direct impact on policy as shown with the “Illegal Boat People” debate. Take the seat of Bowman as an example which is held by the LNP by 0.01%, where the residents believe that “Illegal Boat People” is a real issue. (BTW: It’s not an issue, because 96% of asylum seekers arrive by plane, not boat and only 10-15% of boat asylum seekers are found to be non-genuine)

Lobby groups are the other key issue impacting progression in this country and come in many forms. From religious lobby groups to large industry bodies that have large financial interests to influence government policy.

These groups exist to protect their constituents and interests, which is clearly at odds with government which exists to act in the best interests of every citizen, not those of a select few. These groups are almost always opposed to change as it will have an impact on their influence or the financial interests of their members.

So, assume we had a proper system of government that was influenced only by facts and logic, rather than a few swinging seats, lobby groups and 10 second news bites, what would I like to see on the agenda?

Genuine tax reform. The Henry Review made 138 recommendations, the government only took up 10
A new approach to the war on drugs. Despite billions spent on policing drugs, there is no noticeable decline in drug usage or in drug related violence
Equal rights for same sex relationships
A halt to government support for polluting industries with the savings placed into incentives for new renewable technologies
Investigation of innovation in the political system to leverage new technology for enhancing the democratic process
Equal investment in the education of the next generation, regardless of class
A sensible debate on a sustainable Australia - for both the environment and economy
A sensible debate on population and immigration
A massive overhaul of government processes designed to optimise for efficiency rather than expenditure

Hanging up on broadband not way to go | NBN

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:06:13 +0930

Hanging up on broadband not way to go | NBN:

A vote for the coalition is a vote for irrelevance in our modern economy.

Never underestimate the power of your actions

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:28:04 +0930

Never underestimate the power of your actions

The Old Spice Man Responds To The Internet

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:07:29 +0930

The Old Spice Man Responds To The Internet:

THIS is how online marketing should be done. Old Spice FTW.

The Egg

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:50:32 +0930

The Egg:

Read the whole thing - well worth it

Our little Luca

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:19:04 +0930

Our little Luca

Rio Tinto reaches benchmark iron ore deal

Fri, 21 May 2010 13:09:38 +0930

Rio Tinto reaches benchmark iron ore deal:

Rio easily covers the resources “Super Tax” and then some.

The Tea Party Jacobins

Sun, 09 May 2010 20:49:25 +0930

The Tea Party Jacobins :

Fantastic analysis of American politics and the Tea Party movement.

"TONY Abbott has urged primary school students to be sceptical about man-made climate change, saying..."

Sat, 08 May 2010 10:18:46 +0930

“TONY Abbott has urged primary school students to be sceptical about man-made climate change, saying it was warmer during the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus than it is now.”

- Abbott evokes Jesus to teach pupils all about ‘natural’ climate change

God doesn't take kindly to soccer players who dive.

Fri, 07 May 2010 15:56:39 +0930

God doesn't take kindly to soccer players who dive.

"Even though the mainstream press gives me a hard time I hear that I’m still pretty big on..."

Tue, 04 May 2010 12:52:41 +0930

“Even though the mainstream press gives me a hard time I hear that I’m still pretty big on Twitter, Facebook - or, as Sarah Palin calls it, the “socialised media”. Of course, that’s not the only thing that we’ve been accused of socialising this year”

- Obama schmoozes fourth estate with gags and gaffes at White House bash

NVIDIA: Adam & Jamie draw a MONA LISA in 80 milliseconds!

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:02:57 +0930

NVIDIA: Adam & Jamie draw a MONA LISA in 80 milliseconds!

tonight’s sunset from our place

Sat, 01 May 2010 17:50:22 +0930

tonight’s sunset from our place

Race to plug leaking oil well off La. spurs new tactics

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:32:43 +0930

Race to plug leaking oil well off La. spurs new tactics:

FU BHP. The oil is pouring out of the ocean floor which must be the worst case scenario for the environment.

Townsville forced to import sperm from US

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:55:03 +0930

Townsville forced to import sperm from US:

Nooooooooo

A day in the life

Media and Politics - What are the Problems?

Politics is Broken - Lets Fix It

"First, we need a forum where citizens with diverse beliefs and values can deliberate on climate..."

Let's close the gap between academics and policy makers: Peter Shergold on changing the system

Are Bank Profits in Australia Unreasonable?

Australian Election = *FAIL*

Hanging up on broadband not way to go | NBN

Never underestimate the power of your actions

The Old Spice Man Responds To The Internet

The Egg

Our little Luca

Rio Tinto reaches benchmark iron ore deal

The Tea Party Jacobins

"TONY Abbott has urged primary school students to be sceptical about man-made climate change, saying..."

God doesn't take kindly to soccer players who dive.

"Even though the mainstream press gives me a hard time I hear that I’m still pretty big on..."

NVIDIA: Adam & Jamie draw a MONA LISA in 80 milliseconds!

tonight’s sunset from our place

Race to plug leaking oil well off La. spurs new tactics

Townsville forced to import sperm from US

Australian Election = FAIL