Hi On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 10:08 PM, <lev@levlafayette.com> wrote:
There's plenty that can be done. You can legally break up monopolies as anti-competitive behaviour. You can limit cross-media ownership. You can extend defamation legislation so it applies to groups as well as individuals. You can establish minimum standards of qualification for a press license. You can have an public media print newspaper that's an independent statutory authority (e.g., the ABC in print).
I agree. But there is a big fat n greasy unmentioned elephant in all of the change happening at the moment. One that can only be broken by groundswell encouragement of free beer press and gov regulation at this point IMHO would be a result of the big boys playing a slight of hand.: Buying a dead tree newspaper and reading it only gives the incumbents an "idea" as to what individuals read. Registering and paying for ones digital access means that an individuals name and address can be directly matched to what ones reads how often, when and how. Honestly, any form of government media control will only serve as a facade to the truly scary possibilities ahead. ie: There will be a digital source available to those with the where with all that would allow corporates to hone in on an individuals preferences in terms of media consumption. Imagine if that data was matched to your "lame book", "twit", "gag-" and Coles fly buy card.??? This is where our governments need to regulate. The fluff getting around about about a public interest test is a nonsense not worth wasting money on. I don't mind paying for my news....but I WILL NOT use a digital source to get it if I have to pay with my visa. BW