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Victorians go to the polls in a little under two months and between now and then media focus on political news will intensify. The spotlight will be trained on political parties, their policies and commitments and on members of parliament and candidates. The part traditional media plays in reporting political matters will also come under the microscope, along with that of social media.

Given the importance of the decision voters have to make on 29 November, now is an opportune time to reflect on the relationship between the media and MPs, the role the media plays in a democratic society and the responsibilities that are attached to its position.

Our elected representatives and traditional media have a symbiotic relationship in which the role of the "used" and "user" changes. Both sides trade and negotiate the sharing of information with the ultimate aim of controlling the political news agenda.

Because journalists' lifeline is information, politicians can, at times, control that agenda. Tactics at their disposal include deciding when to release information. They also leak stories to favoured journalists and/or brief them about complicated or controversial policies. This is done in the hope of achieving favourable or not so critical coverage. In extreme circumstances politicians can stop the information flow. Former Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen did this to a current affairs program by not allowing any minister to be interviewed. As a result the anchor person could not continue as presenter.

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Despite the dominant influence politicians sometimes exercise in the symbiotic relationship, it is the media that overwhelmingly operates the levers of control. It decides from the multitude of potential stories that arise on a daily basis, which ones will feature. It also determines the tone and content surrounding the reporting of a political event, how long a story will run and its key message.

It is the media that forms and poses the questions. In terms of the electronic media, journalists foreground interviews, can choose to ignore any question a politician asks of them and is able to move the discussion to another topic at a time of their choosing. In terms of the print media and pre-recorded radio and television interviews, the media controls the all-important editing process.

Having the capacity to exercise the control levers does not mean the media is omnipotent; it is not. Also, when some sections of the media appear blatantly biased, it can reverse the intended outcome, with voters turning against the particular news outlet rather than the subject of the biased coverage. But given the privileged role the media occupies in democratic societies, should there be biased coverage in the first place?

There is more than one form of democracy but common to all is freedom of the press. It is unquestionably an essential element of any model. In a democratic context, the media is often referred to as "The Fourth Estate".

Very loosely defined, the "modern" concept of the Fourth Estate relates to the media's watchdog role as one of the key protectors of the public interest. The freedom it is afforded allows the media to scrutinise the actions of the powerful, thereby fostering greater levels of accountability and transparency. Theoretically at least, a free media enables members of society to make informed choices about political matters. The ability to do so assumes, of course, that the media will report all sides of an argument in a fair and balanced manner. To do otherwise is to negate its Fourth Estate role.

Originally posted here:
Can we trust media reporting on politics any more?

This is our Morning Update, rounding up international media and marketing news from while you were sleeping.

AdWeek:Ad of the Day: Dead Mice Act Out Plays in the Strangest Pest-Control Ads Ever

Youll laugh! Youll cry! You may cringe a bit, too.

Barton F. Graf 9000s first campaign for Tomcat mouse-killing bait takes an off-off-off-Broadway approach with the introduction of Dead Mouse Theatre. Essentially, its a pair of hands manipulating a couple of fake mice with Xs for eyes. Add some funny character voices and some atonal singing, and youve got some pretty amusing ads.

Mumbrella Asia:Anti-Occupy Central movement ad calls on police to restore law and order

A movement that has sprung up in Hong Kong to oppose the Occupy Central pro-democracy protests ran a full-page ad in the South China Morning Post today, calling on the police to restore law and order.

The ad, which ran on page 5 inthe Posts business section, salutes the local police force and encourages them to Keep it up!.

Campaign:SSE Maya the Orangutan By Adam & Eve/DDB

SSE has launched its first ad campaign sinceappointing Adam & Eve/DDB last year. The 90-second spot features a CGI orangutan visiting a city and experiencingenergy. It was created by James Gillham and Graham Cappi.The campaign, which aims to highlight how SSE is trying to make a difference and earn peoples trust, willrun across TV, cinema, outdoor, print and online channels.

The Guardian:Spotifys UK revenues rose 42% in 2013 as music service turned a profit

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Morning Update: Dead mice act out plays in strange pest-control ad; Spotify UK revenue rises by 42 per cent

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Theres a potentially deadly disease afoot in America, with no known cure and terrifying consequences for those infected.

Ebola? Well, yes, but another bug has had far more wide-ranging consequences. Since an outbreak began in late summer, the enterovirus has sent thousands of people, primarily children, to hospitals in 43 states and the District. One strain, enterovirus D68, has apparently caused polio-like symptoms in some patients, leaving them unable to move their limbs. Four people who recently died tested positive for the disease, although the link between the virus and the deaths is unclear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

You might not know all that from the news medias reporting over the past few weeks. The enterovirus certainly hasnt been ignored, but its a mere footnote compared with the oceanic volumes devoted to Ebola, a disease that has devastated parts of West Africa but has only one confirmed case diagnosed in the United States. CNN has been especially relentless, chasing down every conceivable Ebola angle and a few inconceivable ones, too. One segment explored the possibility of catching Ebola from a sneeze, a pet or a swimming pool (the expert answers: really rare, no evidence for that and highly unlikely, respectively).

For the most part, the reporting on medical aspects of the disease has been straightforward and responsible, with many stories emphasizing the relatively low risks of infection. A few commentaries, meanwhile, have lapsed into xenophobia about the African sources of the disease. One Fox News pundit, Andrea Tantaros, offered this analysis last week: In these countries they dont believe in traditional medical care. So someone could get off a flight and seek treatment from a witch doctor who practices Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion that includes ritual animal sacrifice.

But even when the reporting is accurate, the sheer tonage of it raises a question about proportion and relative risk: Why is Ebola a media superstar when other diseases say, enterovirus or the common flu have more far-reaching and even deadlier consequences in this country?

The question is a familiar one to people involved in spreading the word about public-health threats. News reporting, they say, typically underplays some risks and overplays others. Mundane behaviors smoking, overeating dont rate sustained media coverage yet are linked to preventable diseases that kill tens of thousands annually. Ordinary viruses, such as the flu, take a huge toll as well but dont rate screaming headlines.

If any or all of these issues received the levels of media coverage and public concern that Ebola was receiving, thousands of annual deaths could be prevented, said Jay Bernhardt, the founding director of the Center for Health Communication at the University of Texas. The volume of Ebola coverage, he said, reminds me a lot of the over-the-top coverage of serial killers or celebrity scandals in that they are far out of proportion with the risk or relevance to the general population.

Social-science research has shown that intensive news reporting on certain diseases can distort public perceptions of their severity and the chances of contracting them. In a 2008 experiment at McMaster University in Ontario that was updated last year, researchers asked undergraduates and medical students their impressions of 10 infectious diseases. Five of the diseases (anthrax, SARS, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and avian flu) had received relatively more news media coverage than a second group of five.

Result: The high-media frequency diseases were rated as more serious than the more obscure diseases by both the undergraduates and the medical students. Both groups overestimated the chances they would get one of the better-reported diseases.

But thats not to say that the media is over-covering a particular threat, said Meredith Young, the lead researcher on the studies, who now works at Montreals McGill University. It really only is in hindsight that we can say whether a potential threat was over- or undercovered in the media and what the real risk was of that particular infectious disease, she wrote in an e-mail. That is, did the threat materialize? Or did the media coverage help to prevent the threat by warning of a potential contagion and mobilizing preventive action?

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Media goes overtime on Ebola coverage, but not necessarily overboard

The NSW Supreme Court has suppressed the identity of a media figure who is the subject of an ICAC investigation. Photo: Andrew Quilty

A mystery media figure and the organisation which employs him have lost a legal battle trying to stop the Independent Commission Against Corruption from gaining access to his work emails and diary.

The identities of the media figure and the company have been suppressed by the NSW Supreme Court but the wording of a recent judgment in the matter suggests the person is a political journalist or commentator.

On June 24 the corruption watchdog issued a summons to the media organisation requesting that it produce "an electronic copy of the contents of the following email account in your possession, custody or control". Any other email account or electronic diary controlled by the journalist was also requested.

The summons also required the journalist to attend a secret hearing at the commission on July 8.

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Failure to produce documents or to answer questions can result in a two-year jail term.

The media organisation retaliated by demanding that the ICAC investigators produce documents to show them the nature of their corruption inquiry.

"We know nothing about this investigation," said Bruce McClintock, SC, for the media company when the matter came before Justice Ian Harrison in August.

Mr McClintock argued that the summons was "illogical" and "irrational" and that its scope was unreasonable. He told the court it was "inconceivable" that each and every email, regardless of subject matter, would be relevant to the commission's inquiries.

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ICAC to access emails of mystery media figure