Guilty until proven innocent, and maybe not even then: Craig Thomson and public perception (Annotated Bibliography)

Mass media is undoubtedly influential in the public’s perception of individuals, in particular of politicians. Media coverage of potential candidates affect voters’ evaluations and public support (Druckman & Parkin, 2005). This Annotated Bibliography will explore current news stories concerning the claims against Federal Member of Parliament Craig Thomson, referring to articles by James Druckman and Michael Parkin, Herald Sun, ABC: The Drum and Dylan Malloch. It aims to illustrate contrasting and collaborative views concerning the supposed misuse by Thomson of a union-issued corporate MasterCard.

Druckman, J. N., & Parkin, M. (2005). The Impact of Media Bias: How Editorial Slant Affects Voters. Journal of Politics, 67, 1030-1049.

The authors, James Druckman and Michael Parkin, are equally credible academics. Druckman is a Political Science Professor at Northwestern University and has been recognized with 12 best paper awards. Parkin is the Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College and his research has appeared in a number of journals including the American Political Science Review and The Journal of Politics. The article focuses on the effect media has on public perception of politicians. Druckman and Parkin (2005) explained that the public often base their opinions of politicians on the amount of news coverage media outlet’s give them and the tone of that coverage. The article defines this quantity and tone of a media outlet’s coverage as “editorial slant” and suggests it is based on the outlet’s editorial position (Druckman & Parkin, 2005). In relation to the claims against Craig Thomson, Druckman and Parkin’s article (2005) give a theory as to why, despite no legal charges being laid, the Australian public has already passed a guilty verdict. The media circus surrounding Thomson has been daily and undoubtedly negative, as illustrated in the articles by Herald Sun and Dylan Malloch below.

Hudson, P. (2012, May). Tearful Craog Thomson tries to create doubt. Herald Sun. Retrieved from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/tearf/story-fnddzlu4-1226362409374/

The author, Phillip Hudson, is a national political editor for the Herald Sun newspaper and has gained his reputation through years of opinion writing. The Herald Sun is a tabloid paper based in Melbourne, Australia and is a subsidiary of News Limited. News Limited, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, is a publically traded company and is dependent on profit as a result. Herald Sun is profit-driven and therefore is more likely to print stories to sell rather than unbiasedly inform. Phillip Hudson insinuated that Craig Thomson’s parliament speech was insubstantial, and described evidence against him as “damning”. Hudson also provided quote rebuttal for Thomson’s claim that union official Marco Bolano set Thomson up. The article title itself “Tearful Craig Thomson tries to create doubt” is a dig at Thomson’s credibility. The article’s webpage even had a public poll asking if they think the MP was set up and did nothing wrong. Ninety percent of voters said No. Phillip Hudson has created an article to coincide with the public’s demands. It will sell and Druckman and Parkin (2005) suggest it will further ingrain the “guilty” verdict against Craig Thomson.

Cassidy, B. (2012, May). The alarm bells ring, but precious few heed them. ABC News: The Drum. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-25/cassidy-alarm-bells-are-ringing/4031494/

Author Barrie Cassidy is one of Australia’s most experienced political journalists and is the presenter of ABC TV’s programs Insiders and Offsiders. His knowledge and experience has gained him credibility in Australian politics and as an influential media veteran. Cassidy’s take on the mass media coverage surrounding Craig Thomson was somewhat different to Hudson’s in that he focused more on the potential harm the negative media has on Thomson as a person more than a politician (Cassidy, 2012). Cassidy (2012) started his campaign to great effect with talking about the media’s responsibility for Victorian Labor MP Greg Wilton who commited suicide, and daughter of former NSW Labor leader Paula Wriedt and her attempter suicide. Cassidy (2012) compared this to the Craig Thomson media circuit and calls for a ceasefire with “judging guilt or innocence of potential criminal charges is not on, not for the media or the politicians”.

Malloch, D. (2012, May). Craig Thomson: please go home. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.dylanmalloch.com/2012/05/craig-thomson-please-go-home.html

Dylan Malloch’s blog, dylanmalloch.com, has some notoriety as Malloch is a known writer for a number of publications including The Punch, ABC Online and The Spectator. Malloch’s opinion on the claims against Craig Thomson are on par with the findings by Druckman and Parkin (2005) in that public perception is reliant on information and tone of events given by the media. Malloch explains that whether or not the courts find Thomson guilty doesn’t matter to the public because they have already made up their minds about him (Malloch, 2012). Malloch coverage of the story is similar to Phillip Hudson’s article (2012) as Malloch, too, sees Thomson as a liar who should resign from office. However, Malloch also considers the mental health of Craig Thomson like Cassidy (2012) did, but puts the responsibility on PM Julia Gillard’s shoulders, claiming that she should prioritise the wellbeing of her MPs over the majority in parliament (Malloch, 2012). The blog post adheres to public opinion that Craig Thomson is guilty of misusing union money. 

Behind the Mask and Inside the Criminal Mind (Factual Storytelling)

I’m a cheerleader, so I must be a slut. I’m an emo, so I must cut my wrists. I’m rich, so I must be conceited. I’m Asian, so I must be smart. Stereotypes are everywhere. It is so easy to assume things about people even knowing so little about them. Someone who is no stranger to stereotypes is Chris, a current resident at Mid North Correctional Centre. He knows the label ‘criminal’ intimately.

“If I could take it all back, I would. But that’s not the world we live in, is it? I made my choices and now I have to live with the consequences. I live with them every single day”

Chris was born to be a star. As a young teenager he was as handsome as he was talented and could charm even the Queen out of her panties. He performed in various school musicals, captained the basketball team, and kept his parents happy with top grades. He was never low on friends, but always found time for his family, especially his little brother and sister. At sixteen, Chris even had his own fan club! It was also at the delicate age of sixteen that things started to go wrong.

Chris’s sister was only eight years old at the time but recalls the look of disappointment on her mums face when her and her brothers walked in from school one day. “She sat at the kitchen table asking how our day was, but you could tell something was off. I racked my brain trying to think if I’d broken something or forgotten to do something. It didn’t take long to realise her attention wasn’t on me but on Chris.” Turns out Chris had stolen over seven hundred dollars cash from his mother’s bank account. And she had found out.

Majorly busted, the iron bars came crashing down around Chris. He was essentially grounded. His parents had lost all trust in him and his brother and sister wouldn’t look at him.

When teenagers find themselves under lock and key with no foreseeable escape, they will either accept their fate meekly or they will rebel fiercely. Chris was in the later category.

“I started sneaking out and hanging with friends that probably weren’t the best sort. … they got me into drinking and weed.”

This carried on for a year or so. The family knew he wasn’t himself but didn’t know the specifics. Not until a Sunday afternoon when Chris’s little sister came home from a sleepover and found the house empty. Empty except for a high and drunk brother lying on the living room couch. He lay starring up at the ceiling with an open bottle. It took a while for him to notice her starring at him. He tried talking to her but she couldn’t understand his slurred words. He tried walking to her and found himself stumbling, spilling his drink all over the white carpet. The girl got scared and ran away to lock herself in her room. He didn’t follow her. Not too long after, their parents came home. By that time Chris was in his room, but the girl couldn’t still told of everything that happened. The confrontation was an explosion. Chris was caught drunk and his parents found worse evidence in his room. Weed wasn’t the only drug he was doing. The confrontation was explosive.

“I can’t remember too much of it. Like I know there was a lot of fighting and I think I might’ve put a hole in the wall, but there’s only one thing I remember perfectively.”

He threatened his mum with a machete knife. She tried to stop him from leaving the house so he pulled a knife on her. No bodily harm was done but the knife was enough for her to step out of the way.

A few weeks later they saw Chris again; this time on the front page of the state newspaper. The heading read, “Where Are The Parents?” and a large photo of Chris and two others doing drugs on the street was directly under it. His face was blurred but his tattoos gave him away. People assumed that because he was on the street, he didn’t have another place to go to. That he had a hard even abusive upbringing.

Since then Chris has done it all. He continued with heavy drug abuse and drinking. His named featured in newspapers frequently and he was in and out of prison for years with charges like theft, assault, drug possession, and other petty crime. His parents bailed him out every time.

“I put them through hell. I would take everything they’d give me while I was in, and last a few weeks back home before I was off doing my own thing.”

He has been serving his current sentence since 2009 for armed robbery and assault against a police officer and isn’t expected to go for parole until 2013 at the earliest.

I asked Chris what he plans to do after he gets released. Will he go back to crime?

“I can’t think too much about the future, you’ve got to take every day as it comes here or you’ll go insane. But I never want to be back in here. I’ve been clean for a long time and I think I’ll be okay. …[I’m] getting too old for this and I want my family back.”

His brother and sister have started building back their relationship with Chris and visit him often with their parents. He calls with news of new songs he learnt on the guitar and receives letters of encouragement weekly.

Chris is not your stereotypical criminal. He is still a very smart, very talented, and very charismatic person. He also has a strong support system on the outside. He has huge potential to change the world for the better. Whether or not he chooses to is the question. Only time will tell.

Week 7: Public Media

"The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens" – Nigel Milan    

After my rant about commercial media, it's nice to sit down and write about something I like and support: public media. Unlike commercial media, public media's main mission is to serve or engage the community. Public media may be used to generate a profit so long as it's ultimate purpose is to serve the public and not to turn a profit. 

Also, an important thing to remember is that public media is in support of public and democratic processes. So even though, in my opinion, it has great news and I'm a supporter of democracy, outside news sources should still be investigated to compare, just incase there is too much governmental influence.

In Australia the major players (but not all) in public media are ABC and SBS. Their four main functions are:

1. Nation building
2. National heritage
3. National identity
4. National conversations

Many people hesitate to engage in public media because they think it's too serious or 'boring'. With such a movement towards news as entertainment (such as The Project), many people see ABC news or SBS news as a yawn in comparison.

I personally don't subscribe to this. It feels good to be able to watch the news and not pick up on story biases and have to listen to personal opinions of the news anchor. That's just me, but I would encourage anyone interested in current affairs to slip some ABC news into their daily news diet. 

Week 6: Commercial Media

"Commercial = corrupt; lack of quality; profit over-rides social responsibility." - John McManus

What is commercial media?
     - Profit-driven media production
     - Not government funded (or license funded)
     - It survives or fails on business success
     - Its business is generating 'audiences'
     - Creates audiences to generate profit though selling advertising to them

The major players in commercial media, as pointed out by Dr Redman, are News Limited, Fairfax Media, WIN Corporation, Seven West Media, Ten, APN News & Media, and Nine entertainment co.

Basically, commercial media is the epitome of everything I despise in journalism. Everything is profit orientated and lacks real substance and style.

"In this regard, one thing stands out above all others - the view that the very nature of the commercial equates to a corruption of the social. In other words, as media becomes more commercial, they do so at the expense of their social function. This is seen as a zero-sum game. Profits come before quality." - Prof. Michael Bromley

I couldn't agree more with this statement. I view Australia as a particularly sheltered country when it comes to world news. All you have to do is look at the Courier Mail. The first page will dedicated to the One Direction fan fair, and you have to look thirty pages in to discover anything about the impending war in Syria (which of course only gets a single paragraph in the whole section). But a war far away that has little to do with Australia won't sell papers, so they slap a giant picture of five teenage heartthrobs on the front page to make sales, and call that "current affairs". It's infuriating.

"The ‘first duty [of the media] is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free, but facts are sacred."                   - C.P. Scott

I truly hope people learn to rely more on good internet news sources than the 7pm project or The Courier Mail. I think it's great to watch and read these things as long as additional news is read and watched to contrast and compare. Dr Redman introduced us to the news site The Global Mail and I've been in love with it ever since. I also like The Age, New York Times, an american YouTube journalists called Phillip Defranco, and the Global News podcast. 

Week 5: Sound & Radio

"Radio is the theatre of the mind."

Steve Austin

This week's lecture was a bit different as it was given to us in an mp3 sound bite (shown above). The lecture comprised of two interviews: one with Richard Fidler, and the other with Steve Austin, both ABC broadcasters. I was already a huge fan of Richard Fidler and Steve Austin had a lot of great info about radio broadcasting too.

For one, radio is massively different to TV... and not just in the obvious way. Radio is more intimate than TV in that people are often multitasking when they're listening, so the radio is more like a little voice in your head than a distant entertaining box. This means the listeners want to feel included in the conversation and being a good broadcaster means that you facilitate this.

Richard Fidler

Steve also spoke about the importance of enunciation and a broad vocabulary. A broadcaster is trying to communicate to the masses so it's important to be able to 'break down the walls' and be understood by the listeners.

Both Richard and Steve talked in depth about giving an interviewee space to talk and being a good listener. I've been interested in radio broadcasting for a long time and I always thought that above everything, silences are to be avoided. But Richard squashed that by saying that silence is powerful. Not the awkward gaps when nothing's going on but during an interview and the person in collecting themselves or something like that, they can really add human experience and emotion to the interview.

I also learnt that the best way to get answers from the person being interviewed is to give them respect. Respect them by being empathetic in the tone of your voice when it's appropriate, give them space to answer and listen more than talk. People don't respond well to probing so it's important not interrogate them or they'll just get defensive.

Another thing to remember when doing radio interviews is watching out for body language. You can learn a lot about how someone acts and take cues for questions from that.

I really enjoyed this lecture and am planning to look deeper into the realm of radio very soon.

Week 4: Picture Stories

"If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips out your heart, that's a good picture." - Eddie Adams

As a dabbler in photography myself, this week's lecture was especially interesting to me.

What makes a good photo?

1. Framing
2. Focus
3. Angle & Point of view
4. Exposure/light
5. Timing (shutter speed)
6. Capturing "the moment"

All the pictures shown in the lecture were amazing and the photoshopped models were a hoot, and I found a few others to add the collection.

And for all those who crave a celebrity body, don't look at jenny craig, tony ferguson, or weight watchers. All you need in photoshop CS5. Take a look...

Hope that boosted your self-esteem as much as it did mine!

Week 3: What is TEXT?

This week we were lucky enough to have established journalist Skye Doherty lecture us on text and how to best use it in the news.

A lot of what she told us I already knew but it's always good to have things reiterated and gone over with a new eye. But one thing I found especially helpful was the inverted pyramid of journalism.

When you think about, it really makes sense. When you pick up a paper, you don't want to read three paragraphs to get the story. You want the short story first and if it's interesting, continue to get the whole back story and details.

I also learnt that when you look at a newspaper page, the eye will naturally start in the top left hand corner  and finish at the bottom right. It has also been proven that it is the headline on the page, not the image, that draw the eye initially. So having a good capturing headline is crucial.

Sky went on to tell us about the difference in paper text to online text. The difference online is hypertext. Links links links everywhere.

One word can lead to a whole new article, which has links to twenty other pages, which link to hundreds of other pages. Everything is interconnected so the user has the power to control what they want to read about. It's interactive and user generated.

You can also find a lot of hypertext on blogs and such that then lead to news articles.


Overall, a very informative lecture! Thank you, Skye Doherty.