Communicating Difference. Communications & Media Essay

Communicating Difference
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Communicating Difference
Daniel Muller, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, questioned the ethical correctness of the Australian media in observing the journalistic principle of impartiality in covering the issue of climate change CITATION Mul20 \l 1033 (Muller, 2020). The nation is torn between two factions with one calling for proactive measures against climate change while the other denies the influence of the same on the raging forest fires that threaten decimation of the country’s forest cover, both the mainstream and other media platforms have found themselves in the sensitive tussle with some entities upholding the journalistic principle of impartiality and others blocking the publication of the views of those denying the reality of climate change.
This case study breaks down Muller’s disqualification of the perceived ethical conduct of upholding the principle of impartiality in covering the diverse views on climate change. Daniel Muller supports the media blackout imposed by various media entities against the individuals and factions denying the effects of climate change. In developing his article, Media ‘impartiality’ on climate change is ethically misguided and downright dangerous, Muller questions the responsibility of the media in protecting the society from the threat and harm posed by climate change. The author seeks to solve the ethical dilemma facing media fraternities on whether or not to publish the opposing views and ideologies that dispute the reality of climate change and its catastrophic effects. The case study makes use of articles by Thomas, A. (2019), Sonwalkar, P. (2005), McGregor, J. (2017) in the analysis of the main arguments presented by Daniel Muller and identify the social identities determining or dictating the differences in communication across the media platforms. The analysis of Daniel Muller’s article in The Conversation and the outlined articles provide an excellent basis for understanding the manifestation of social identities in media and their influence in creating differences in communication.
One of the primary principles of journalism is to observe impartiality in the presentation of news and other issues affecting individuals, groups, and society as a whole CITATION Mul20 \l 1033 (Muller, 2020). Muller recognizes the journalistic principle and even goes ahead to affirm that the move to block those denying climate change was a “dramatic, even shocking, decision. It seemed to violate journalism’s principle of impartiality,” CITATION Mul20 \l 1033 (Muller, 2020). In essence, both the mainstream and other media platforms have the responsibility of maintaining an unbiased representation of the different sides to a particular issue or event in society. The application of the principle, however, appears to be biased or absent in the depiction of the aboriginals' political ambition in Australia as witnessed by the evaluation of the mainstream media’s coverage of the same CITATION Tho19 \l 1033 (Thomas, 2019). Thomas and his co-authors highlight the findings from a 45-year study and review of mainstream media texts and other scholarly articles on the Aboriginals’ political ambition for self-governance and representation in the national government. Among the findings of the study is the fact that the Aboriginals’ desire to participate in the national political discourse as a self-governing entity has been overshadowed by the biased representation of their political ambitions by mainstream media (Thomas, 2019, p. 232). The mainstream media focuses more on the dominant White supremacists' ideology of nationalism built on the assimilation of the Aboriginals to the former’s way of life (Thomas, 2019, p. 232). By putting more emphasis on the efforts by the Whites to assimilate the Aboriginals the Australian mainstream media ends up ignoring and misunderstanding the latter’s political aspirations. The article raises various questions on the morality of mainstream media in representing the political ideologies of both the conformist and non-conformist factions in society. The underrepresentation of the Aboriginal’s standpoint on national politics by the mainstream media contradicts the principle of impartiality. Media blackout against those who deny the reality of climate change reflects the underrepresentation of the people belonging to such a school of thought. Failure to observe the principle of impartiality in political coverage of the Aboriginals leads to adverse effects of their under-representation in the national government including partial inclusion in development agendas.
Judy McGregor shares the same sentiments of biased representations in the presentation of criminal news and events in Australia and New Zealand. McGregor argues that mainstream media have a tendency of labeling the non-conformist to a popular standpoint on issues such as the coverage of crime as non-progressive entities (McGregor, 2017, p.87). McGregor also recognizes the integral role played by mainstream media in protecting all the different parties involved in a given criminal event such as the investigators, victims, and perpetrators from undue victimization by the public. The author finds congruence with Daniel Muller’s position on the responsibility of the mainstream media to protec...