All Together Now defends the notion of a free press. We believe it is vital that journalists have the ability to inform citizens about public affairs without fear or favour. However, we also note that this freedom comes with the responsibility to present information fairly and accurately. All Australians should be equitably represented by the media, regardless of their racial identity. Our research indicates that opinion pieces published on some mainstream newspapers are failing to do this.
The media is often the only exposure audiences have with people of different racial identities. It has the power to inform interactions between everyday people, and to challenge or uphold systems and structures that inhibit or support racial equity. Importantly, research shows that the majority of media consumers expect social commentary (opinion pieces and current affairs) to present the world fairly and accurately, much like news reporting. We know that race is often debated in opinion pieces and social commentary. With this in mind, social commentary plays a crucial role in forming and shaping public perceptions of race. In 2016, we worked with our partners at the University of Technology, Sydney, to develop a media monitoring framework that collects and analyses racialised opinion pieces from the mainstream media.
Since 2017, we have published the results of our monitoring in periodic reports, and worked with communities targeted by racism in the media to address this pressing issue.
We hope that our research will contribute to the push for much needed media reform, and to a more just and equitable Australian society.
What we do
Our media monitoring project takes a three-pronged approach. This includes:
The newspapers and television programs we monitor are:
| Newspapers | TV shows |
| The Age | 60 Minutes (Nine) |
| The Australian | 7:30 (ABC) |
| The Courier Mail | A Current Affair (Nine) |
| The Daily Telegraph | The Feed* (SBS) |
| Herald Sun | The Project (Ten) |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | Sunday Night* (Seven) |
| Channel 7 | Today Tonight* (Seven) |
*Previously monitored.
We also work with the Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) to quantitatively analyse the cultural background of media commentators in order to understand the issue of diversity in media. In 2019, our research showed that racist social commentary (96%) was overwhelmingly authored by people of Anglo-Celtic (72%) and European (24%) backgrounds. Details of this can be found in our 2019 report.
Our Media Monitoring Framework
We assess the content and context of a media piece to determine whether it portrays racialised communities in an inclusive, neutral or negative way. These categories are defined using the Racial Discrimination Act and the UNESCO Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice, in addition to contemporary literature and our previous media monitoring research results. For more information on our framework, visit the methodology section of our 2019 report.
Download Report & Infographics
2020 Report: Social Commentary, Racism and COVID-19
2020 Infographic: A snapshot of our 2020 media monitoring results
2019 Report: Social Commentary and Racism in 2019
2019 Infographic: A snapshot of our 2019 media monitoring results
2017 Report: Who Watches the Media? Race-related Reporting in Australian Mainstream Media
In 2021, we will release the results of our final year of research from our three-year media monitoring project. A snapshot of the previous results till date i.e 2019 & 2020 can be found on this page.
