By Michael Bradley -
Snapshot
- Media ownership in Australia has remained highly concentrated throughout its short history, with News Corp now controlling over 70 per cent of the print and online news market—despite decades of regulatory attempts to promote diversity.
- Regulatory reforms and other legal initiatives have largely failed to meaningfully increase media diversity or reduce political influence, especially as digital platforms disrupt traditional media revenue models and shift public attention.
- The article challenges the idea there is a regulatory solution to media diversity. Moreover, it asks whether it is actually worth legislating for, arguing that media independence—from both government and corporate influence—is the true cornerstone of a healthy democracy.
In 2020, half a million Australians put their names to a petition, calling on the federal government to institute a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire’s influence on Australian politics. The then-Coalition government rejected the petition. Kevin Rudd, who had led the charge, handed over to Malcolm Turnbull and trade unionist Sharan Burrow, to continue the campaign which was again rejected out of hand by the Labor government in 2023. By 2025, Turnbull had admitted defeat and the cause faded away.
A key feature of the extraordinary demand for an inquiry into a single company’s activities was the degree of dominance that News Corp (at the time, News Corporation) was perceived to have in the Australian media landscape. This level of market concentration, it was argued, was necessarily dangerous, and the way Murdoch had wielded this market power proved it. Democracy’s survival depended on diversity.
