38 Art by Anneke TykocinskiLot’s Wife • Edition Four
Lot’s Wife • Edition FourThe Fall of the Fourth EstateWords by Xenia SanutThe Irish statesman Edmund Burke said that “there were Three Estates inParliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estatemore important far than they all”. The role of the press as the Fourth Estate isto hold accountable the other Three Estates – the clergy, the aristocracy and thecommon people – and to voice their concerns. They are one of the pillars thatprotect people’s freedoms; by keeping institutions accountable and uncoveringcorruption, they ensure we participate in fair elections, are protected frompeople and institutions that misuse their power and have our basic humanrights met. The investigation and coverage into the Watergate scandal, the#MeToo movement and the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal demonstratehow journalism keeps those with power and influence in check. As the Media,Entertainment & Arts Alliance puts it, “respect for truth and the public’s rightto information are fundamental principles of journalism”.But when News Corp shuts down over 100 newspapers and cuts at least 500staff from its local news outlets, and the Government doubles the annual costof communication degrees and slashes $85 million from the ABC resulting inthe loss of 250 jobs, one questions whether journalism can support itself in thecurrent media landscape. If journalism – the democracy-protecting journalism– is valued in our society, then why is it becoming harder to see?The digital landscape has evolved and changed radically in the last couple ofdecades and the journalism industry has been facing increasing pressure toadapt. However, their current business model is not allowing them to. The newsindustry traditionally earned a profit from government support, which is thecase for public service broadcasters like the ABC, but due to the recent cuts, ithas been difficult for ABC to continue its programs and pay their journalistswithout that financial support. News organisations also gained revenue fromadvertising, but since news organisations failed to gain the same attention aspopular online platforms, advertisers decided to move away from the newsclassifieds and onto Facebook and Google.The development of these virtual platforms has also altered the way wedistribute news. News organisations used to be responsible for not onlyproducing the news but also supplying it to the public, but now social mediaand search engines have taken on that role. A study by the Reuters Institutereleased this year found that 76 per cent of those surveyed use online sources,including social media, to get their news. This digital development has alsoallowed citizens to become the producers and distributors of their own contentby creating videos, writing blogs, and recording newsworthy events on theirphones to post on social media. News organisations no longer control themedia landscape as they once did; citizens can now partake, starting trends,and posting and sharing millions of digital content. It concentrates the medialandscape so when we open up Instagram or Facebook, there is an endless floodof information such that we do not know how to stop scrolling or who to turnto for accurate information.Due to this information overload and how easy it is to rise to become a contentproducer, many young children are now aspiring to become online gamers orcelebrities in an online environment that competes for people’s attention. Inorder to stay relevant in this entertainment-driven age, many news organisationsare now making their content more emotive, shareable and available to theseplatforms. This includes producing sensational and scandalous stories whichfocus on celebrity gossip and click-bait, and have to be churned out at a fast rateto compete with the millions of other digital content. This results in little to nofinancial gain for the news organisation and causes issues with the audience’strust.To compensate for the loss in revenue, most publications have shifted toreader payment options such as subscriptions, memberships, donations andmicropayments. However, readers need to have trust in the media before theyfeel comfortable investing in news publications. Trust is a key element here,because according to a study by the Queensland University of Technologyand the Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society & Technology, the majorcriticisms people have about Australian news sources are their tendency tosensationalise stories, publish inaccurate information, blur fact and opinion,and lack transparency in their reporting. The study participants believed thatto rebuild that trust, news organisations need to look beyond expandingtheir reach on social media, and instead reform their journalism cultures toachieve greater accountability and transparency. This is not something thatcan be solved by simply re-hiring journalists or increasing funding; mediaorganisations need to self-reflect and change the way they present news,ensuring that they emphasise what traditional news outlets do best – writingstories with accuracy and keeping those in power accountable. A recent Reutersstudy provided further evidence of this, highlighting two instances where therewas a growth of news subscriptions and why. The first occurred when DonaldTrump was elected because many people were looking for publications thatcould hold the President to account. The second was at the beginning of theCOVID-19 pandemic, a time when publications emphasised the value ofhaving trusted and accurate journalism to help navigate through the healthcrisis. These examples show that news organisations are still financially viable,but only if they play to their strengths.However, paywalls are by no means the preferred method of supporting theFourth Estate because it also leaves certain demographics uninformed andgoes against journalism’s function as the people’s informant. Subscriptions canprevent people from accessing critical public health content and disadvantagethose who cannot afford to pay for accurate information, especially during thecurrent health crisis. Some news publications, including The New York Times,have removed their paywalls for the duration of the pandemic to ensure that thepublic had easy access to credible information, but not every publication hasthe financial capacity to make that choice.Local newspapers also form an incredibly important role in holdinggovernments accountable, but the economic impact of COVID-19 hasforced many to close or move online. This disadvantages both the peoplewho rely on local newspapers and those who lack internet access. Moreover,it also disadvantages the accurate, transparent and community-orientedjournalism the public is seeking. It was the Sydney Morning Herald that beganinvestigating former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon and his history ofsexual harassment two years before the High Court announced their findings.It was Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown that helped uncover the truthabout Jeffrey Epstein. For these stories to be uncovered and brought to life, theynot only need financial support by readers and advertisers, but also reforms bylawmakers to ensure that the honest, public interest journalism that citizenswant is what they receive.Indeed, for the media to fulfil its role as the Fourth Estate, it will need laws toprotect the people who wish to speak out against corruption, injustices andhuman rights violations from those who wish to silence them. The journaliststhat published the Afghan Files, a series of stories about Australian soldierscommitting war crimes in Afghanistan, are still under investigation after thepolice raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters last year. Similarly, it was recentlyannounced that Al Jazeera journalists are under investigation by Malaysianpolice after they released a documentary about the treatment of undocumentedworkers during the pandemic. It will always be tricky to decide whether thepublic has the right to know about a story but press freedom and whistleblowerlaws are important if journalism is to provide the stories that make theprofession important in the first place.Saving journalism has no single solution; it instead requires a collective effortfrom all parties involved. Journalists need to value accountability, transparencyand accuracy if they want the public to pay for their reporting. However,journalists can only do some much; at some point, the public needs to bewilling to pay more out of their own pocket for good journalism. We need torecognise that the purpose of the Fourth Estate – to identify and illuminateinjustice – is essential for society to become the fair place we want it to be.We need to invest in it, support it and take our time to listen to the storiesthat journalists share, because it is how you ensure power is not placed into thewrong hands. Ultimately, journalism is only a step to making a just world, forwhile the Fourth Estate is powerful, it still needs the support of the other ThreeEstates to ensure the rights of citizens are met.39