War Spin Denies Public Truth

In "Stifling soldiers of Spin", The Age's Tom Hyland explains how closely controlled the coverage of the Wars on Afghanistan and Iraq really are. While the Australian Defence Forces do not allow journalists to be embedded, they allow jounalists to do short term "guided tours" where they are constantly tended to by ADF staff intent on getting their censored stories into the public consciousness. This is lead by the $22 million Public Affairs team that encompasses 200 staff working on what they call "strategic shaping tools", or what Hyland describes as "Spin". Add to this the fact Australia has no correspondants based in Afghanistan and the fact that the media landscape Australia offers so little in the way of diversity and you have a recipe for the failure of truth.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/stifling-soldiers-of-spin-20080719-3hvn.html

Media Concentration and the hopeless state of ACMA

In Taming the Watchdogs of Media Concentration, Sean Condon discusses the further concentration of the Media in Australia, Canada and the U.S. over recent years. Condon shows how these attacks on the media have shown the hopeless state of the media regulation authorities (ACMA- Australian Communication and Media Authority- in Australia). A state of affairs which limits the ability of the public to recieve diversity of opinion.

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/72/Taming_the_Watchdogs_of_Media_Concentration.html

Adbusters is a magazine of cultural dissent that is well known for its ability of popularising the issues of media reform and relating them to a younger audience. Sean Condon is a senior editor at Adbusters.