Gazing into a kaleidoscope of world news: an insight into Australian city editors' views of some developing neighbours

Gazing into a kaleidoscope of world news: an insight into Australian city editors' views of some developing neighbours

This year has unfolded new challenges and global controversies for Australia's major media organisations as foreign correspondents report on fresh political upheavals while battling direct censorship and threats from military regimes and government dictators. This paper will address the following question: Have Australian newspaper journalists created a more positive media portrayal of Asia? The discussion will trace the development of Australian news bureaus in overseas regions—commencing in 1964 when the nation's media executives had opened only one foreign office, based in Washington D.C. - and outline in which countries they are allocating their resources. By the prosperous mid-1990s, due to dramatically rising trade and tourism links along with, to a much lesser extent, the United Nations' calls for a 'new world information order', prominent Australian journalists asserted they were creating a highly complex, engaging portrayal of some Asian nations. Eight Australian press editors, from leading metropolitan dailies, revealed their sometimes diverse visions of their newspapers' international pages during a survey I conducted in 1996. I intend to revisit some of these editors to discover innovative trends in foreign reporting and, with the use of visual charts and news images, to map out the Australian media's shift towards Asia.

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