In today’s social media obsessed world, I gain majority of my news sources off facebook, due to the convenience of picking up my phone wherever I go and scrolling through its news feed!
Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook which is now used worldwide to stay connected with friends and family, to keep up to date with what’s going on in the world and follow things that interest you. Facebook has many news companies that post articles on their platform, however we do need to question how legible these sources are, particularly when anyone and everyone can post news on there whether it is reliable or not.
When I type ‘news’ in the search bar of Facebook, the first 4 news companies that show up are 7 news Sydney, SBS news, 9 news and news.com.au. All of these pages have a blue tick symbol next to their name, which means they have received authorisation from Facebook to confirm they are a legitimate media company.
Although these media companies have been authorised with a blue tick, how reliable are they as a source of information? As a question myself, I decided to research further into these 4 news companies and what other news sources they control.
Seven Network- Seven Two and Mate, a third of Sky News, West Australian newspaper, eight WA radio stations, Pacific Magazines, half of online streamer Presto alongside Foxtel.
SBS News- operates 4 channels (SBS, SBS viceland, SBS Food and NITV)
9 News- Channel Nine, NBN, STW, eight commercial television licences, Stan and online magazine Pedestrian TV, A third of Sky News.
News.com.au- owned by News Corp Australia who also own The Australian, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail, Geelong Advertiser, Northern Territory News, The Advertiser, The Cairns Post, Gold Coast Bulletin, The Mercury, Townsville Bulletin, Business Spectator, Eureka Report, Carsguide, CareersOne.
Once I came to understand how much more control each of these companies has on the media distributed, it gave me insight into the issues involved. As many of these companies distribute media on a variety of platforms (television, radio, print) and across multiple states of Australia, this impacts on the diversity of news sources we are receiving if the same company is operating these news sources. For example, news.com.au is owned by news corp, whom also produce many other news sources. The information they provide may be biased towards certain opinions and beliefs, and this power they have influences and challenges our ideologies. If people are receiving news only from only sources owned by this company, this presents the issue of biased information and a lack of diversity in news.
A topic prevalent in the media recently was gay marriage. The way the media represented it caused many people’s ideologies to change and this is due to the way the media can impact you through the beliefs they possess and broadcast to the world through the platforms they operate. If we do not receive a diversity of media, we will begin to notice opinions news companies may have towards certain topics and the effect it has on ideologies.
Georgia Woods 
Georgia,
Your understanding of the dangers of media ownership is clear, and you have successfully conveyed what you have learnt through your post. I like how you included what were the top news sites from Facebook, as that’s where I get a majority of my own information, and despite being aware of the way newsfeeds are curated on the site, I had never stopped to think about the fact that these might be deliberately displayed to me. I feel as though I have gleaned information about the extra dangers of consuming only certain types of media after reading your post.
Great work!
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