Is the Australian community served well by its media?

The independent inquiry into the Australian media is looking at a range of issues affecting how the media operates in this country.  Australian Labor politicians' complaints about the Murdoch-owned media are, of course, a constant source of news.  They are, perhaps too, an expression of fears regarding the disproportionate influence of News Limited (owned by Rupert Murdoch) in how news and information are presented to the Australian public via its newspapers and other media holdings.

Whatever your view, we should question the sincerity of the media in presenting information to the public and whether opinions expressed by journalists are an abuse of the power of the press and actually constitute an attack on Australian democracy.

This is a huge subject, and I will only touch on a few aspects of it, but I hope to show that there are clear indications of undue influence by the Australian media on the way we think and how we exercise our democratic rights.  I've addressed this topic in the outline below:

1. A comparison between the media in Australia and overseas
2. Is Australia truly a democracy?  What are the threats to Australia remaining a free, enlightened democracy?
3. The War on Democracy
4. Freedom of the press vs "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
5. Is socialism bad?  Is conservatism good?  What's all the kerfuffle about anyway?

On the whole I think Australia's media is of a better quality than what we've seen first-hand elsewhere but I'm concerned that, unless we keep an eye on our media, Australia could find itself in as bad a situation as what we're seeing elsewhere around the world.