<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/21/sky-news-australia-is-increasingly-pushing-conspiracy-theories-to-a-global-audience-online>
"As Australians look back on 2020, they will remember the defeat of
Donald Trump, who was never popular in their country. But they may also
reflect on how parts of Australia’s media, including some ostensibly
subject to government regulation, have become effective second fronts in
the Trumpist culture wars.
A key example is Sky News Australia. For years the channel was little
more than an oddity: an artefact of broadcasting regulation, only
watched by momentarily distracted channel-hoppers, travellers beset by
airport delays, and those involved in the dismal craft of professional
politics. Around 2013, while daily programming went on as usual, at
night the channel was given over to a pretty sad bunch of hard-right
ideologues. One program in particular, Outsiders, became a kind of
revolving door for white male reactionaries in the twilight of their
relevance, whom Sky would finally put out to pasture after an unforced
gaffe.
But as Cameron Wilson pointed out in a crucial piece of reporting in
November, since mid-2019 Sky has transformed itself into “one of
Australian media’s digital leaders” by “focusing on producing highly
partisan opinion content targeted at a global audience”, especially
YouTube videos on “topics favoured by America’s rightwing media
ecosystem”. Though its “after dark” opinion presenters – who are
exclusively on the political right – achieve risible ratings for their
cable broadcasts, when repurposed for online consumption, they supply
the bottomless demand for pro-Trump content."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
