G20 Corporate Media Coverage : Melbourne Indymedia

The corporate media coverage of the G20 meeting and protests revealed quite openly the role of the corporate (and State) media in reshaping public perceptions in the service of the powerful. While the reports of confrontations between protestors and police demonstrated a level of journalistic behavior that could barely qualify to the standard of professional, the more important facet was the role played in failing to reveal to the public the operations of power taking place in their own city, operations of power that will ultimately affect their everyday lives.

In terms of the coverage of the protest itself, the trashing of a Police truck served as the central image for the protests, repeated ad nauseam from multiple angles. Little effort was made to contextualize this within a several days of activity by many thousands of people or the reasons that people might in fact be angry with the G20. As if this was not enough to reshape the message in the terms preferred, i.e. that those who protest are a bunch of illogical violent ratbags as opposed to the peaceful reasonable heads of government at the G20 meeting making the world a better place, the corporate media went further to misrepresent the protests. Several examples bear mentioning.

The Age newspaper, in what is a new low, ran the headline ‘G20 protesters throw urine’. The only source for this was the comments of Federal Treasurer Peter Costello. On this basis it can only be assumed that if Costello had said ‘pigs were seen flying over the conference centre’ then The Age would have run that as a headline. No other evidence was given. Interestingly a Police Media spokesperson told Crikey on the day that: “We’re not aware of any specific incidents of urine-throwing.” Obviously a 30 second call at the time could have cast doubt on the report and on the honesty of Peter Costello, but The Age chose not to do so. It could leave us to wonder exactly what level of credibility the rest of their reporting has.

For a humorous take on The Age with background articles see:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/131652.php

While on the issue of The Age coverage, it is worth reading an excellent opinion piece, which Andrew Jaspan refused to publish:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/131622.php

Perhaps more concerning, though less surprising, was the reporting of The Herald Sun newspaper. Most revealing was the reporting of the Police attack at the Melbourne Museum on the Sunday afternoon that reported a ‘small scuffle’ leading to ‘minor injuries’. Unfortunately for the Herald Sun a video exists of the attack showing ten or so Police beating people on the ground with one taken away by ambulance. The full story on this can be read here:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/131532.php

Leaving aside these issues of a lack of professionalism, there is a more pressing issue. What the corporate media fails to reveal to the public about how the G20 influences their lives. One example best illustrates this, the lack of acknowledgement of the ‘neo-liberal agenda’. The neo-liberal ideology is possibly the most influential current political ideology being used to reshape our social and cultural lives. As such, a media that was acting in the interests of the public would not only make people aware of it, but educate them about its meaning, its implications, and most importantly its critiques. While several mildly critical pieces did appear in the opinion pieces of the mainstream press in the preceding weeks no real effort was made to make people aware of the huge body of people throughout the developing (and developed) world who see the neo-liberal model as one enriching the already wealthy, while causing widespread misery for the poor. Nor was any effort made to link current local political debates, such as those on the IR laws, to the bigger picture of the secretive decisions being made behind closed doors at the Hyatt Hotel in the neo-liberal push.

This is the real story, or lack thereof, of the corporate media coverage of the G20 protests. At the end of all the photos, replays of Police vans being trashed and so forth, the vast majority of people will be no more aware of how the decisions of the G20 impact on their everyday lives, or the lives of the many in developing countries. The powerful will be further entrenched and hidden from critiques, and the vast majority will be no more able to democratically influence the decisions made over their everyday lives.

A good primer on neo-liberalism can be found here:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376