Concentration, Diversity and Localism in Australian News Media Markets

In 2020 the Australian Communication and Media Authority released a research paper outlining a new framework for measuring news media diversity in Australia (ACMA, 2020). The paper, titled News in Australia: Diversity and Localism – News measurement framework, draws upon the Napoli (1999) framework for measuring diversity at multiple stages of the media supply chain: source diversity, content diversity and exposure diversity. This new framework offers methodological approaches for measuring news diversity including monitoring the number of sources in news articles and adopting the UK communications regulator Ofcom’s method of recording rates of consumption and ‘multi-sourcing’ (Ofcom, 2015). Simultaneously, the ACMAs paper critiques the suitability of revenue-based methods for measuring source diversity, concentration ratios and Herfindahl-Hirschman indexing, but accepts their usefulness as a multi-factor composite indicator. New thinking like this comes at an important time for Australia’s media landscape. Alongside the technological shifts in media experienced globally, Australia has almost completely removed the main anti-concentration MO laws and its media ownership laws. This has resulted in increased concentration and reduced voice pluralism in news media. Publicly held enquiries have also raised the alarm about the decline of news journalism in Australia. Looking beyond ownership and revenue to questions of localism could transform how media companies are seen to operate within Australia’s media regulatory framework. These new methods will also need to be rigorous and sustainable though. Currently, the ACMA has made no formal commitment to this new framework and has instead published the research for public consultation and review. Our project seeks to consider further the policy implications of this new framework and its methodology