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Diagnoses of infectious diseases are being transformed as mass self‐testing using rapid antigen tests (RATs) is increasingly integrated into public health. Widely used during the COVID‐19 pandemic, RATs are claimed to have many advantages over 'gold‐standard' polymerase chain reaction tests, especially their ease of use and production of quick results. Yet, while laboratory studies indicate the value of RATs in detecting the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus antigen, uncertainty surrounds their deployment and ultimate effectiveness in stemming infections. This article applies the analytic lens of biological citizenship (or bio‐citizenship) to explore Australia's experience of implementing a RAT‐based mass self‐testing strategy to manage COVID‐19. Drawing on Annemarie Mol's (1999, The Sociological Review, 47(1), 74–89) concept of ontological politics and analysing government statements, scientific articles and news media reporting published during a critical juncture of the strategy's implementation, we explore the kind of bio‐citizenship implied by this strategy. Our analysis suggests the emergence of what we call liminal bio‐citizenship, whereby citizens are made responsible for self‐managing infection risk without the diagnostic certitude this demands. We discuss how the different realities of mass self‐testing interact to reinforce this liminal citizenship and consider the implications for the sociology of diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I reflect on the experience of the Australian summer bushfires of 2019/2020 and the different ways forms of media reporting amplified its affects. Across broadcast media, local response, social media and personal account, I chart alternate stories during and after the event-as-spectacle. Taking into account the socio-political climate, the climatic atmosphere and the ongoing anxiety after the fires, I consider the use of apocalyptic words alongside the repetitive pairing of affective images to question what these might reveal about ourselves. Through the lens of affect attention is drawn to the many interacting conditions and forces that coalesce and gather as attachments, ideas, or assumptions and how these might influence perceptions of the event and actions in the aftermath of fire threat. Woven into the paper is my personal writing alongside details drawn from select Instagram accounts recording the everyday labours of caring for a place during and after the fires. As a counter-narrative to obliteration and all things lost, these missives disclose a different understanding of the event, long after the news media has moved on. For the authors and followers alike, lessons are revealed through attention to the land and hope in the processes of everyday encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Transvaginal mesh (mesh) surgeries have been used to treat stress urinary incontinence (incontinence) and/or pelvic organ prolapse (prolapse). In Australia, as in many other countries, the harms caused by mesh eventually prompted individual and collective attempts to achieve redress. The rise of mesh surgery as a procedure, the experience of mesh‐affected women and the formal inquiries and legal actions that followed all occurred in social, cultural and discursive contexts. One strategy to understand these contexts is to track how the mesh and key actors in the mesh stories have been portrayed in mass media sources. We conducted a media analysis of the most highly read Australian newspapers and online news media platforms, focusing on how mesh and the interaction of stakeholders in mesh stories were presented to the Australian public. Method: We searched systematically in the top 10 most‐read print and online media outlets in Australia. We included all articles that mentioned mesh, from the date of first use of mesh in Australia to the date of our final search (1996–2021). Result: After early scant media reporting focusing on the benefits of mesh procedures, major Australian medicolegal processes created a hook to shift reporting about mesh. The news media then played a significant role in redressing women's experienced epistemic injustice, including by amplifying previously ignored evidence of harm. This created an opportunity for previously unreported suffering to be revealed to powerful actors, in settings beyond the immediate control and epistemic authority of healthcare stakeholders, validating women's testimony and creating new hermeneutic resources for understanding mesh. Over time, media reports show healthcare stakeholders responding sympathetically to these new understandings in public discourse, contrasting with their statements in earlier media coverage. Conclusion: We argue that mass media reporting, in synergy with medicolegal actions and the Australian Senate Inquiry, appears to have provided women with greater epistemic justice, giving their testimony privileged epistemic status such that it was considered by powerful actors. Although medical reporting is not recognised in the hierarchy of evidence embedded in the medical knowledge system, in this case, media reporting appears to have contributed to shaping medical knowledge in significant ways. Patient or Public Contribution: We used publicly available data, print and online media outlets, for our analysis. Therefore, this manuscript does not contain the direct contribution of patients, service users, caregivers, people with lived experience or members of the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Through the filtering of information, the creation, and reinforcement of stereotypes, media moulds attitudes and set agendas on critical social issues including public policy and disability. Methods: This study explored Australian media representations of the care of people with intellectual disability during a crucial period in disability policy change: the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rollout (2013–2018). Search criteria identified 168 news stories, examined via content analysis and news framing. Results: Four major issues were identified: Roles and responsibilities of government; housing; mistreatment of persons with intellectual disability, and responsibility of care for families. Stories tended to be presented negatively, however, regional and local/community metropolitan stories were more balanced or positive compared with major metropolitan stories. Conclusion: Despite significant disability policy change, media presentations continue to reinforce stereotypes of people with intellectual disability and position the government as one continuing to fall short in critical areas of funding, safety, and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People receiving working-age income support payments are often stigmatised as morally and/or behaviourally deficient. We consider the role of the media, as a potential source of structural stigma, in perpetuating negative characterisations of people in receipt of either the Disability Support Pension (DSP) or unemployment benefits (Newstart) during a major period of welfare reform in Australia. Newspaper articles (N = 8290) that appeared in Australia's five largest newspapers between 2001 and 2016, and referenced either payment were analysed. We found an increased use of fraud language associated with the DSP, which coincides with increased political and policy focus on this payment. We conclude that in a period of increasing political concern with welfare reform, media coverage of welfare recipients is a form of stigma power, acting discursively as symbolic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Worry about climate change may be associated with poorer mental health but also with greater political engagement. We determined trajectories of climate change‐related worry over adolescence and whether these were associated with depression symptoms and greater engagement with news and politics in late adolescence. Methods: At ages 10–11, 12–13, 16–17 and 18–19 years, adolescents participating in the Kindergarten cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children rated their worry about climate change. At age 18–19 years, participants reported on depression symptoms and engagement with news and politics. Latent profile analysis determined trajectories of climate change‐related worry across all time points (N = 2244). Linear regression analyses examined the association between trajectories and outcomes at 18–19 years. Results: Thirteen per cent (n = 290) of adolescents had high persistent worry. The largest proportions had moderate (n = 559, 24.9%) or increasing worry (n = 546, 24.3%), followed by persistent low worry (n = 376, 16.8%), slightly decreasing worry (n = 297, 13.2%) and steeply decreasing worry (n = 176, 7.8%). Adolescents with high persistent worry had higher depression symptoms at age 18–19 years compared to the moderate group, while those with increasing worry did not. The high persistent and increasing worry groups reported greater engagement with news and politics across several measures. Conclusion: This is the first study to track climate‐related worry and outcomes in young people across adolescence. A substantial number of Australian adolescents experience high or increasing worry about climate change, which is associated with greater societal engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) is a neurosurgical intervention to reduce spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. Parents researching SDR for their child may be influenced by framing of SDR in news media articles they read. This study examined framing of SDR in English‐language news media. Methods: Content analysis of English‐language news media articles including the search term 'rhizotomy' in the Factiva database published July 2015 to July 2018 in online or print form in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, United States of America and the United Kingdom. Results: One hundred and eighty‐six articles were identified describing 91 different children (45 male), almost all with cerebral palsy, median age 4 years old. One hundred and twenty‐six articles were written prior to surgery; in many articles, SDR surgery involved travel overseas and/or fundraising. SDR was described universally in positive terms with little discussion of risks. Content of articles variably included the specialized nature of SDR, parental frustration with their local health system and their hope for positive outcomes. There was geographical variation in both numbers of articles and content. Conclusions: SDR is a common focus in cerebral palsy news media articles in some countries. Framing in these articles supports SDR as a beneficial and specialized procedure and may lead families to believe they need to work outside their local health systems. As news media are likely an important influence on families' attitudes to SDR, clinicians should be aware of this influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the use of metaphors to construct Italian migration within the 1920s Australian press. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, the paper investigates the range of metaphors used to frame Italian migration, which were also applied to Asian migration in earlier decades. It finds that such metaphors were a racially coded means for constructing immigrant deviance and threat. It further finds that this threat construction was the means by which immigration restrictions were legitimised and the need to preserve White Australia reiterated. While there was some ambivalence as to the extent of danger posed by Italian immigration, the use of such metaphors to frame discussion illustrates the extent to which debates around Italian immigration were, at heart, anchored in ideas of race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the use of the queue-jumping metaphor within the Australian press at three key points of asylum seeker arrivals. As a diachronic study, it investigates the development of the metaphor and its utilisation. The article finds that while the metaphor developed at the intersection of political and news discourse, its usage was far from straightforward, often acting as a focus for arguments opposing government policies and rhetoric. Yet the success of the metaphor in shaping the narrative around asylum seekers can be understood through its structuring of a deserving/undeserving dichotomy, aligned with quintessential Australian values, which led to both pro- and anti-government positions being articulated through the context of queue-jumping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2020 marked the 95th anniversary of Francesco De Pinedo and Ernesto Campanelli's record-breaking flight of 55,000 km, from Italy to Australia, Japan and back, in a seaplane named Gennariello. Their achievement was lauded worldwide, especially in Australia, where the press reported on it intensively. This paper reconstructs the story of the flight by analysing the Australian press accounts and De Pinedo's diary, to understand how the Australian public perceived the event. It investigates the aviators' arrival in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, where their popularity was greatest and where the local Italian communities enthusiastically welcomed them. The analysis shows that the flight engendered increased public interest and paid dividends in terms of image for the commercial companies involved, while fascism exploited it to display its progress in aviation. The paper concludes by exploring the legacy of the endeavour in modern Italy and Australia, emphasising the differences between the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine how popular media reporting positions dating and hookup app use as a 'social problem' that impacts on health and wellbeing. The paper adopts a mixed-methods media studies approach to create and analyse a dataset of over 6,000 international news articles published within a 12-month period, drawing on thematic content analysis and inductive and deductive techniques. These analyses are framed in relation to online consultations with Australian sexual health professionals and app users. Applying Briggs and Hallin's theory of biocommunicability (2007) – which proposes that contemporary health professionals' scientific framing of public health problems are, in part, shaped by popular media discourses – we identify a significant category of supportive discussions of safer app use within social news and lifestyle reporting. This discursive space features what we have termed 'vernacular pedagogies' of app use, revealing app users' safety strategies, and their experiences of pleasure and playfulness. We argue that an analysis of popular media can provide valuable insights into how everyday experiences of safety, risk and wellbeing are being shaped and contested with dating and hookup app use, and that these insights can be used to develop meaningful health promotion strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the characteristics of suicide news articles in the digital press, their adherence to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, and the effectiveness of interventions. We assessed adherence, avoidability, frequency and typology of suicide news over a six-month period in the four main digital media outlets of the Canary Islands (Spain). A brief training and information package intervention to the Canary Islands media outlets was carried out. We compared the quality of media reporting at both the pre-intervention and post-intervention timepoints, and compared the quality of reporting at the post-intervention timepoint in Victoria (Australia), where media interventions have been well-resourced and running for several years. We evaluated 339 suicide news articles: 38 from the pre-intervention period, 64 from the post-intervention period, and 237 from Victoria. News articles showed a very low degree of adherence to WHO recommendations, especially to those recommendations thought to have a protective effect. Post-intervention news articles showed better adherence than pre-intervention ones, but lower than those of Victoria, where constant interventions have been developed for years. We conclude that adherence to WHO recommendations is low. Simple interventions aimed at media professionals can improve adherence. However, constant and complex interventions seem to be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Positive frames of stories or statements are viewed by readers as persuasion. • People socially expect credible news media stories to be negatively framed. • Vaccine stories framed negatively may be deemed as more credible by readers. • Positively framed vaccination stories could be viewed as advertising or coercion. Vaccination rates are an ongoing global concern. Many developing and developed countries have rates of vaccination below rates required for herd immunity, for differing reasons. One way in which to communicate information about vaccination to the wider public is via the use of the news media. Communication agenda-setting and framing theory generally hold that the news media sets the issues of importance to society and also tells us how we should think about those issues. Emphasis framing theory however, would suggest that positively-framed statements in the media may actually be viewed as persuasive in a coercing way, leading to resistance to the messages. Further, this theory claims that negative news media is viewed as more credible and therefore, more easily accepted. We were interested to explore the framing of news reports about vaccination and the potential effects this framing may have had on the wider public over the years 2016–2017 in both Australia and New Zealand (when changes in vaccination policy and publicity respectively were on the agenda). We undertook a content analysis of 197 articles and emphasis frame, type of message, and other variables recorded. In both Australia and New Zealand, the news media messages were predominately positively framed and yet the vaccination rates of New Zealand particularly (where no policy changes mandating vaccination took place) have been decreasing. We suggest the media emphasis on positive vaccination reporting may be having the opposite effect of engendering resistance to vaccination within those who are vaccine-hesitant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shark attacks have increased globally and are one of the most widely reported human-wildlife conflicts. Reflecting global trends, the number of recorded attacks has increased in Australian waters. Whether positively or negatively affected, stakeholders potentially often pressure authorities to mitigate economic and human risks when developing shark management policies. This article used discourse analysis to review how attitudes toward management approaches were attributed in Australian newspapers to a range of stakeholders. The most frequently attributed stakeholders were journalists and public office holders; victims, commercial operators, and scientists were least attributed. Although most measures were portrayed as supported by a majority of stakeholders, there was apparent misalignment between reported public and policymaker attitudes, especially regarding lethal control. Despite the ramifications (e.g., social, biological) of shark management and policymaking, reporting of science-informed facts and use of scientists to inform debate were low. Opportunities exist for increased engagement among scientists, journalists, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioner-based enquiry (PBE) has been successfully applied as a research methodology to media production projects for undergraduates, honours and doctoral researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia. PBE incorporates reflective practitioner approaches and extends ethnographic methods by offering a methodology that investigates the subjective experiential perspective of the practitioner-as-researcher. A collective review of these research projects illustrates the robustness of this approach by drawing out similar research findings that point convincingly towards creativity being described as a practice, a process and a system that is internalised by a practitioner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price cuts and price wars, a frequent phenomenon in Australia's domestic airline market that have been widely reported in the Australian news media, are documented in this research. This paper examines the determinants of price wars in Australia using monthly data from 72 airline routes for the period from January 2013 to August 2017. Our finding is consistent with the widely held view that an increase in the major airlines' capacity was a main cause of price cuts and price wars. Our research shows that price wars continued after Qantas announced that it would stop adding domestic capacity and give up defending its 65% market share policy in 2015. Indeed, Qantas' 65% market share commitment has led to fierce pricing competition and the occurrence of price wars. Multimarket contact promoted price wars in Australia's domestic airline market. • This paper examines the determinants of airline price wars in Australia using monthly data. • An increase in the major airlines' capacity was a major cause for price cuts and price wars. • Price wars continued after Qantas announced that it would stop adding capacity. • Qantas' 65% market share commitment has led to fierce pricing competition and the occurrence of price wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the International Society of Cardiovascular Ultrasound (ISCU) news. Topics include the World Congress of chocardiography and Allied Techniques organized by the Peruvian Society of Cardiology to be held in Lima, Peru from July 16 to 18, 2020; and the World Congress of Echocardiography and Allied Techniques to be held in Tyumen, Russia from September 26 to 28, 2021.

Social media use has redefined the production, experience and consumption of news media. These changes have made verifying and trusting news content more complicated and this has led to a number of recent flashpoints for claims and counter-claims of 'fake news' at critical moments during elections, natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Concerns regarding the actual and potential social impact of fake news led us to carry out the first nationally representative survey of young Australians' news practices and experiences. Our analysis finds that while social media is one of young people's preferred sources of news, they are not confident about spotting fake news online and many rarely or never check the source of news stories. Our findings raise important questions regarding the need for news media literacy education – both in schools and in the home. Therefore, we consider the historical development of news media literacy education and critique the relevance of dominant frameworks and pedagogies currently in use. We find that news media has become neglected in media literacy education in Australia over the past three decades, and we propose that current media literacy frameworks and pedagogies in use need to be rethought for the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the exploration of interrelationships between human and media mobilities through analysis of qualitative interviews with 18 Southeast Asian transmigrants in Australia. This group demonstrated three main orientations toward the media they habitually engaged. In the memorial-affective orientation, respondents re-engaged media familiar from remembered pre-migration childhood and family contexts. An ambivalent-localizing orientation was taken toward Australian legacy media, some of which respondents found helped them relate to Australian culture while other forms were experienced as xenophobic and alienating. In the cosmopolitan-global orientation, respondents engaged global corporate, largely Anglophone media in ways that reinforced their sense of themselves as mobile and cosmopolitan. Most importantly, in our respondents' experience, these three orientations were often not separable but interwoven into complex admixtures. We explore the implications of this hybrid experience of location through media both for the conceptualization of place in globalization, and for the study of migrant media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has developed into a complex and formidable commercial, sociocultural and political force in Australia, and given its influence, it is a relevant subject for scholars, health practitioners, health communicators, journalists, policy‐makers, and consumers of healthcare products and services. This research will consider a relative newcomer to the claims‐making space about CAM in the Australian health media‐scape; the Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM), an activist group of medical practitioners, researchers, and scientists, founded in late 2011. Using content analysis supported by NVivo, I searched for articles specifically referring to FSM and measured the patterns and frequencies of media frames, intonation and sources that are featured in Australian mainstream news reports between December 2011 and April 2017. The negative headlining and intonation of reports predominated, along with framing CAM as part of a lucrative, undisciplined and unethical industry as well as an illegitimate healthcare approach, more broadly. The findings offer insight into how journalists respond, replicate or reconstruct the framings that are provided by an influential and elite group of medical practitioners and scientists, and readdresses issues surrounding the need for more critical health reporting in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When religion is invoked in Australian sociocultural and political negotiations, religion tends to be politicised predominantly through institutionalised, racialised and gendered perspectives. Further, discussions frequently employed narrow interpretations of religion. This understanding of religion only partially reflects the religious condition in Australia and is not fully representative of it in its substance and nuance, nor breadth and depth. This argument is based on an examination of Australian news media's construction, depiction and representation of discourses on religion in national debates. Using the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's discussion program Q&A as its subject, the study argues for a broader understanding of religion, viewed as a spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several conference including XXVI World Congress of Echocardiography and Allied Techniques (WCEAT) on July 16-18, 2020, in Peru, XXVII WCEAT on April, 2022, in Australia, and XXVIII World Congress of Echocardiography and Cardiac Imaging in 2023 in Bulgaria.

Abstract: Aims: To determine (i) whether the strength of Australian alcohol control policy in three domains (youth access, trading hours and drink driving) changed during the 2000s; and (ii) estimate associations between these policies and adolescent drinking after adjusting for television alcohol advertising exposures, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price changes, exposure to negative articles about alcohol in daily newspapers and adult drinking prevalence. Design: Repeated cross‐sectional surveys conducted triennially from 2002 to 2011. Multi‐level modelling examined the association between alcohol control policies and drinking prevalence after adjusting for covariates. Setting: Four Australian capital cities between 2002 and 2011. Participants: Students aged 12–17 years participating in a triennial national representative school‐based survey (sample size range/survey: 9805–13 119). Measurements: Outcome measures were: past month drinking and risky drinking (5+ drinks on a day) in the past 7 days. Policy strength in each of three domains (youth access, trading hours, drink‐driving) were the key predictor variables. Covariates included: past 3‐month television alcohol and alcohol‐control advertising, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price change, negatively framed newspaper alcohol articles, adult drinking prevalence and student demographic characteristics. Findings: During the study period, the strength of youth access policies increased by 10%, trading hours policies by 14% and drink‐driving policies by 58%. Past‐month and risky drinking prevalence decreased (e.g. past‐month: 2002: 47.4% to 2011: 26.3%). Multivariable analyses that included all policy variables and adjusted for year, student and other covariates showed past‐month drinking to be associated inversely with stronger trading hours policies [odds ratio (OR) = 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.69, 0.94], but not youth access (OR = 0.92 95% CI = 0.81, 1.04) or drink‐driving (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.09). Risky drinking was associated inversely with stronger youth access policies (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.69, 0.98), but not trading hours (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.66, 1.09) or drink‐driving (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.90, 1.14) policies. Conclusions: Population‐directed policies designed to reduce alcohol availability and promotion may reduce adolescents’ alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research has explored the ways the mainstream news media covers Muslims and Islam, but few studies have examined Muslims’ reactions to this reporting. Studies that have investigated this issue have identified that the responses of Muslims to news media coverage tend to be largely negative because of the lack of Muslim news sources, the stereotypical representation of Muslims in news coverage, the portrayal of Muslims as the enemy within, and the conflation of Muslims with terrorism. This paper further explores the attitudes of Muslims to news media coverage of Islam and Muslims by drawing on data from 14 focus groups (N = 104 participants) conducted with Australian Muslims. Similar to previous research, findings reveal that Australian Muslims are highly critical of news media coverage of Islam and Muslims and express concern about the divisiveness that such portrayal can have for Australian society. However, the study participants also had positive comments to make about the news media. Possible solutions to negative news media portrayals of Muslims are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the salience of the “crisis” in boys’ education as it is articulated in Australian print media. We will consider the ways in which this crisis is expressed through a gendered language which simultaneously represents boys as “forgotten” by teaching practices thought to be prioritising girls’ learning, and as an equity (disadvantaged) grouping who require specialised teaching methods different from those currently offered within the Australian school system. Further, we will examine the extent to which feminist-inspired reforms in education are either implicitly or explicitly referenced as an explanation for boys’ apparently poor education attainment, and relatedly consider the work of “experts” supporting claims of a pro-feminine bias that adversely affects boys’ learning outcomes, particularly those experts offering neurological or psychological/cognitive findings which assert a biological basis for gender difference. In this context, we argue that rather than advancing gender equity in schools, popular public discourse, as presented in Australian print media, reinforces and perpetuates notions of gender difference and masculine entitlement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recognising the importance of who gets to speak in constructing knowledges about Indigenous peoples, this article examines power relations regarding mainstream news coverage of the Indigenous policy of Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) in Australia. Integrating content and discourse analysis of newspaper and television stories over a 3-year timeframe with interviews with journalists, this article found media coverage of the NTER, commonly known as the Intervention, followed a pattern of decline, with occasional peaks around events that were newsworthy through the lens of conventional news values. Further, analysis of three key discourse moments found ‘official’ discourses, particularly by the government, overpowered those of Indigenous peoples living under the policy. This article demonstrates how particular journalistic practices – news values, ideas of audiences, and use of sources – together with resource limitations and discursive practices of government provided dominant discursive power on the Intervention to government representatives. The article concludes that daily routines of news media and discursive practices of media savvy social actors perceived as ‘official’ or ‘expert’ by media professionals form a ‘vicious cycle’ of two-way dependence which is hard to break for potential sources with less official status, such as representatives of various Indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intense concern about obesity in the public imagination and in political, academic and media discourses has catalysed advocacy efforts to implement regulatory measures to reduce the occurrence of obesity in Australia and elsewhere. This article explores public attitudes towards the possible implementation of regulations to address obesity by analysing emotions within popular discourses. Drawing on reader comments attached to obesity-relevant news articles published on Australian news and current affairs websites, we examine how popular anxieties about the 'obesity crisis' and vitriol directed at obese individuals circulate alongside understandings of the appropriate role of government to legitimise regulatory reform to address obesity. Employing Ahmed's theorisation of 'affective economies' and broader literature on emotional cultures, we argue that obesity regulations achieve popular support within affective economies oriented to neoliberal and individualist constructions of obesity. These economies preclude constructions of obesity as a structural problem in popular discourse; instead positioning anti-obesity regulations as a government-endorsed vehicle for discrimination directed at obese people. Findings implicate a new set of ethical challenges for those championing regulatory reform for obesity prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background News media frames public perceptions. As such, news media becomes a useful source of analysis to understand the presence (or otherwise) of people with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, within parenting discourses in Australia. Method Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this article examines major Australian newspapers over the period from January 2004 to December 2008, critiquing the construction of parenting and disability. A small number of articles are examined in close depth for tone, polarity syntactic and paradigmatic choice, deconstructing the underlying discourses that shape the article and thereby popular perceptions of parenting and disability. Discussion Discourses of care and child protection are emphasized in news articles about parenting, creating perceptions that negate the role of people with disabilities as parents. Such perceptions result in a systematic symbolic castration of people with intellectual disabilities from the role of parent in Australian society. Conclusion By providing a framework for understanding the public perceptions of parents with disabilities (particularly intellectual disabilities), this paper demonstrates that changes are necessary in Australian media reporting on parents with disabilities to bring such reporting more closely in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The start of the women's press in Britain in 1855 by Emily Faithfull was an important step on the path to emancipation - women had now a voice in the media. Thirty-three years later Louisa Lawson, who has been called the first voice of Australian feminism, published the first number of The Dawn. This was a watershed in that it gave women a voice, marked women's political engagement in the public sphere, and employed women compositors, making available to a broader public issues which were politically relevant. In the first number Lawson asks, "where is the printing-ink champion of mankind's better half? There has hitherto been no trumpet through which the concentrated voices of womankind could publish their grievances and their opinions." This article will look at some of the content in the journal during the seventeen years of its existence, 1888-1905. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2013 Australian federal election campaign has been described as the campaign that “forgot the environment.” We test this claim by comparing the news representation of the environment and environmental movement organizations (EMOs) in Australian federal elections from 1990 to 2013, and consider how coverage of environmental issues and organizations has changed over time. We also analyze the intensity and range of coverage of EMOs and environmental issues during the 2013 election campaign in relation to behind-the-scenes media practices of EMOs, including the circulation of media releases and other campaign material, and levels of activity on social media and organization Web sites. We find that this activity did not translate into high visibility in news media for EMOs. We offer tentative evidence of a link between the dominance of climate change coverage and the poor visibility of EMOs and other environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine how and why the media construct food risks, from the perspective of ‘media actors’ (people involved in different types of media) using data from 30 interviews conducted in 2013 with media actors from Australia and the United Kingdom. In modern society, many risks are invisible and are brought to the attention of the public through representations in the mass media. This is particularly relevant for food safety, where the widening gap between producers and consumers in the developed world has increased the need for consumer trust in the food supply. We show the importance of newsworthiness in construction of media stories about food risk using Beck’s ideas on cosmopolitan risk to interpret the data. We note the ways in which the strategies that media actors use to construct stories about food risk amplify the risk posed potentially creating consumer anxiety about the safety of the food system. It is important for food regulators and public health professionals to be aware of this anxiety when presenting information about a food incident so that they can target their message accordingly to decrease anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims The news media is an important source of information regarding new developments in medicine and public health interventions. Previous research has indicated that in many cases, reporting on new treatments can be inaccurate or sensationalist. This paper presents analysis of Australian print media reporting on two treatment options for heroin dependence (naltrexone and methadone). The aim of this study was to quantitatively compare the volume and content of Australian print media reporting on these two treatments, one of which had a long history of use in Australia, and the other which was comparatively newer. Design and Methods The study constituted a quantitative content analysis of a sample of 859 Australian newspaper articles, published over a 10-year period (1997-2007). Each article paragraph was coded for positive outcomes/benefits of treatment, as well as negative outcomes associated with treatment. Results The analysis revealed that during this period, the Australian print media was significantly more likely to report the potential positive outcomes of naltrexone treatment, compared with the negative outcomes. In contrast, reporting on methadone focused more on the negative outcomes and side effects. Discussion and Conclusions The relative frequency by which the benefits of naltrexone were mentioned in this sample of news content is somewhat at odds with the extant efficacy and effectiveness research evidence. The findings suggest that reporting on these treatments in the Australian print media has not been balanced. This type of reporting has potential implications for public attitudes, as well as policy decisions. [Matthew-Simmons F, Ritter A. 'Miracle cure' or 'liquid handcuffs': Reporting on naltrexone and methadone in the Australian print media. Drug Alcohol Rev 2014;33:506-514] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the Australian news media reporting on offshore surrogacy. They mention that media accounts of Australian citizens who enter into offshore commercial surrogacy arrangements evoke ideas of the agentic reproductive citizen to represent social or medical infertility. They say that media accounts of offshore commercial surrogacy depend on the depiction of women acting as surrogates as equally agentic in their decisions to enter into surrogacy arrangements.

What impact did the emergence of public opinion polls have on politicians and newspaper journalism? Based on interviews in the 1980s with American journalists and congressmen from the 1930s and 1940s, Susan Herbst argued that while “traditional” methods of assessing public opinion remained ubiquitous, attempts to quantify public opinion were also widespread. This paper offers a critique of her methods, questions the notion of a “transition”, and reports a different set of findings. Based on an exhaustive examination of the Australian metropolitan press during the 1951 referendum, it shows the limited impact of polls on political journalism—indeed, on political calculus more generally—and how heavily Australian journalists and politicians relied on “rational” measures of long standing not discussed by Herbst—results of earlier referenda and of previous elections, as well as the betting odds. It also shows the importance of a range of “traditional” sources—the reception accorded party leaders at campaign rallies, politicians and campaign organisers' reports, the extent to which the referendum had divided parties, judgments about the popularity of state governments, and the activities of key interest groups—some of which, again, are not noted by Herbst. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The topics and framing of news stories relevant to skin cancer prevention have shifted over time. This study examined agenda-setting effects of such news stories on public attitudes and beliefs about tanning and skin cancer. Content analysis data on 516 articles published in two major daily newspapers in Melbourne, Australia, from 1994 to 2007 were combined with circulation data to generate indices of potential news exposure. Associations between these indices and cross-sectional telephone survey data from the same period on 6,244 adults’ tanning attitudes and perceived susceptibility to skin cancer were examined using logistic regression models, accounting for the temporal precedence of news content. Pro-sun protection stories on attitudes and behavior were associated with older adults not thinking a tan looks healthy. Pro-sun protection stories on solaria were associated with less preference for a deep tan among young adults who like to suntan. Stories on vitamin D that were unsupportive of or ambiguous about sun protection were associated with a number of pro-tan attitudes among younger adults. Results indicate news coverage during 1994–2007 served an important agenda-setting role in explaining the public's attitudes and beliefs about tanning and skin cancer. Vitamin D stories appeared most influential, particularly among young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1868 Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, was shot in the back by a would-be Irish nationalist agent in Sydney during the first royal tour of Australia. This essay considers how the interruption of Alfred's journey highlighted ongoing tensions in New South Wales's class, ethnic and, in particular, gender relations. It demonstrates how the shooting inspired an efflorescence of Sydney press reflections on colonial manners, and, in particular, colonial womanhood. Ironically, newspaper reports, cartoons and poems in illustrated satirical magazines such as Sydney Punch and Melbourne Punch suggested many similarities between the uneasy status of women in New South Wales and other colonies – and indeed Britain itself. For all their attempts to either celebrate or condemn the particularities of local society in New South Wales, then, commentators frequently described social relations which were familiar to readers across – and even beyond – the British Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the role of the London-based international news agency, Reuters, in transmitting propaganda-inspired news to Australia during the First World War as well as the take-up of such news by the Australian press. It explores how the propaganda function was understood within Reuters and how this function changed during the course of the war. It focuses on Reuters' establishment, in March 1917, of a special British Empire 'supplementary news service designed to unite the Empire behind the war effort. The paper explains Reuters' success in Australia which arose, in large part, from its partnership with the United Cable Service, an Australian agency managed by Keith Murdoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the stated purpose of selected national security laws in Australia and examines cases where the security laws seem to impinge upon the role of the news media and open justice. It argues the actual implications of such laws for the Fourth Estate functions of journalism in a democracy that lacks free expression protections in human rights instruments. It provides some points of differences and similarities of the anti-terror laws between Great Britain and the U.S.

Previous research on the 9th and 10th anniversary coverage of 9/11 has found that sections of the Australian news media have focused less on blame and those responsible for the attacks and focused more on the victims and reconciliation. If the media has “moved on” from 9/11, have audiences followed? In order to answer this question, we conducted a series of focus groups with Muslims and non-Muslims. Our specific research questions concerned our participants' initial reactions to the media coverage of 9/11; whether they perceive a change in this coverage 10 years on; and how the coverage of 9/11 has impacted on their understandings, attitudes and opinions toward Islam and Muslims. Our findings show that while Muslims and non-Muslims have different readings of the media coverage, there are important points of convergence in respect to the process of reconciliation and mutual acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The narrow media framing of indigenous health as an intractable policy problem and a bureaucracy increasingly orientated towards media agendas have contributed to significant changes in the nature and direction of Australian indigenous health policy. The article takes as its case study the decade of conservative leadership of Prime Minister John Howard (1996–2007), that saw indigenous health policy shift from a self-determinist philosophy of community control of primary healthcare, towards neoliberal policies emphasising individual responsibility and the ‘mainstreaming’ of indigenous primary healthcare services. It reports on an intertextual examination of news media reporting and professional talk about the media's role in the development of indigenous health policy between 2002 and 2007. A content and frame analysis found that imagery and stories of remote indigenous communities and a disproportionate emphasis on the frame ofindigenous health crisiscreated the discursive context for the enactment of radical policy solutions to address indigenous health. Interviews with indigenous health policy actors identified that policy practices were entwined with and responsive to news media discourse. This article calls for a greater recognition of the intimacy between media reporting and the development of policy in highly politicised and mediatised fields such as indigenous health. It contends that through an examination of both news media representation and the media practices of policy professionals one can begin to understand the complex relationships between news media and policymaking processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is increasing evidence that the lack of access to information and communication technology (ICT) or the ‘digital divide’ severely limits education, employment and economic prospects. This paper reports on the evaluation of a project that aims to bridge the digital divide. In particular, the case study data has been used to bring to life the impact that access to the internet, often for the first time, can make in people's lives. If you are isolated, suffer poor health or do not speak English then the internet can take on a very different meaning, it becomes an essential tool to your ability to communicate, feel connected and to your health and well-being. What is evident from this snapshot of practice of the Wired Community@Collingwood project is actually how it can improve these outcomes for the current participants. A multi-method approach was implemented in the first year of the evaluation, included the collection of qualitative data. Connecting with participants to engage them to tell their story provided the project with a rich source of information, but it required a time-consuming methodology that respected the barriers which participants faced. However, the narrative that is now a part of this project brought to life the impact of ICT in this community. Being a part of the digital divide in the twentieth century disconnects you from a part of your world that now exists for others. At Collingwood, these participants are making those connections on a daily basis and are excited about the new possibilities of being a part of the available technology. This study evidences the impact of bridging the digital divide in one of the most disadvantaged communities in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Data from a national Australian survey provide little evidence of a significant effect for the taste for soft news on news attachment among the general public as well as the six common sex-by-age targeted market segments of the news industry. This contradicts recent arguments that soft news is necessary to democratic life because, in an age of media proliferation and audience fragmentation, it keeps attention-scarce people with the news. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the representation of Australian industrial disputes in a selection of YouTube films. Workers in the film industry have continued to depict strikes, demonstrations and other actions of trade unions by distributing films through the platform. Several labor unions have YouTube channels to show their activities, speeches, training activities and responses to current events. The importance of the films to the debate about social structures is discussed. The portrayal of labor union members in the films and in mainstream media is also compared.

In 2010 the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court imprisoned Kathleen Worrall for the murder of her sister Susan Worrall. Worrall pleaded guilty to manslaughter ‘by reason of … a mood disorder associated with her non-compliance with medication prescribed for the treatment of her underlying medical condition, namely congenital adrenal hyperplasia’ (R v Worrall [2010] NSWSC 593). Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is one of five significant configurations of the body which come under the broad rubric of ‘intersex’. Intersex is a contemporary term to refer to what is historically known as hermaphroditism. To date no sufficient analysis has been undertaken of the representation of intersex in the media, largely because the term intersex fails to make its mark in the media. To address this imbalance this paper analyses the representation of this case in several of the leading Australian media outlets. What is evidenced is that intersex is often omitted in preference for euphemistic alternatives. Thereby, it is argued that media coverage mirrors the cornerstone of the medicalisation of intersex; that is, the institutionalisation of silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the changing temporal contexts of overseas news in Australia's colonial press. The history of overseas news - its timeliness, periodicity and its forms - is enmeshed in international communication history and, specifically, in the history of Australia's changing time/space relations with the rest of the world as new technologies, particularly the telegraph, became available. From the point of view of editors and publishers, these changing relations presented major challenges of time management. More broadly, these changing relations (often thought of as involving time/space compression) progressively altered the temporality of colonial engagement, both imaginary and real, with the rest of the world as knowledge of the 'new' came to be increasingly shared within common timeframes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have persistently shown deficiencies in medical reporting by the mainstream media. We have been monitoring the accuracy and comprehensiveness of medical news reporting in Australia since mid 2004. This analysis of more than 1200 stories in the Australian media compares different types of media outlets and examines reporting trends over time. Methods and Findings: Between March 2004 and June 2008 1230 news stories were rated on a national medical news monitoring web site, Media Doctor Australia. These covered a variety of health interventions ranging from drugs, diagnostic tests and surgery to dietary and complementary therapies. Each story was independently assessed by two reviewers using ten criteria. Scores were expressed as percentages of total assessable items deemed satisfactory according to a coding guide. Analysis of variance was used to compare mean scores and Fishers exact test to compare proportions. Trends over time were analysed using un-weighted linear regression analysis. Broadsheet newspapers had the highest average satisfactory scores: 58% (95% CI 56-60%), compared with tabloid newspapers and online news outlets, 48% (95% CI 44-52) and 48% (95% CI 46-50) respectively. The lowest scores were assigned to stories broadcast by human interest/current affairs television programmes (average score 33% (95% CI 28-38)). While there was a non- significant increase in average scores for all outlets, a significant improvement was seen in the online news media: a rise of 5.1% (95%CI 1.32, 8.97; P 0.009). Statistically significant improvements were seen in coverage of the potential harms of interventions, the availability of treatment or diagnostic options, and accurate quantification of benefits. Conclusion: Although the overall quality of medical reporting in the general media remains poor, this study showed modest improvements in some areas. However, the most striking finding was the continuing very poor coverage of health news by commercial current affairs television programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]