The Country Press

In November, the Press Council met in Mount Gambier. At a public meeting, it invited discussion of the "Role and Responsibility of Country Newspapers". The audience heard three very different approaches to the subject.

At the Mount Gambier public meeting, country newspapers were discussed from three perspectives: a local government leader, an "ordinary" reader and a former country journalist, editor and executive. Chaired by Dorothy Ross, the Council's Vice Chairman and a foundation public member of the Council, it was the twelfth such seminar held by the Council to give people an opportunity to see the work of the Press Council and to discuss issues related to the press. The Mayor of Mount Gambier, Don McDonnell, opened the seminar, welcoming the Council to Mount Gambier.

Local Government

John Ross (no relation to the evening's Chairman), a farmer from the local area and the President of the South East Local Government Association, started by noting that, as an avid consumer of available newspapers, this is the first time he had been asked to speak on the relevance of country newspapers and their impact within his region.

He suggested that "the role of newspapers is irrevocably bound in conflict. Indeed, conflict is the essential element in creating copy of interest to readers, but it is not this conflict to which I primarily refer."

The conflict to which he referred was how capital and conscience are managed to maximise profit for the proprietors, while producing an ethical publication that "reflects, chronicles and projects community attitudes in a product that is kinder than a mirror image, for a price the subscriber doesn't question".

He noted that different proprietors had different approaches. In the region served by the South East Local Government Association, there are five individual newspaper proprietors who covered local affairs. Ownership has remained in the hands of the individual family companies, giving different perspectives to those available from the metropolitan press and the electronic media.

"Against this competitive backdrop, the first objective for a country newspaper must be relevance. A blunt test of relevance is - would its absence diminish the quality of our lives? From this qualification of relevance the function logically evolves to establish a de facto contract between the newspaper management and the community who are its subscribers."

He gave as an example of the moral responsibility of local newspapers the recent closure of the Tatiara Meat Company in Bordertown. The local paper, the Border Chronicle, published its first ever special edition, complete with editorial. He noted that in the circumstances such a publication demanded great courage of its editor/proprietor. However, a well-balanced coverage was provided. The editorial was thought-provoking without being offensive. The edition carried no advertising and was published as a service. He contrasted this with the Adelaide Advertiser which sent a photographer to illustrate a story researched by phone and written in Adelaide.

The Advertiser photo was "taken on Sunday morning and showed the newsagent standing in the main street at a time when only one or two cars were parked there, with not another person in sight, giving the intended vivid impression of a ghost town. The camera did not lie, but the impression it conveyed distorted the truth by providing a stereotyped version of an event unlikely to be questioned by most readers. The same Adelaide publication carried a picture of a supposedly destitute farming family standing in front of a decrepit hovel that hadn't been lived in for ten years".

Mr Ross contrasted the fair deal he had had from the local media with his experiences with metropolitan media. He gave two examples of contact with city media. A conflict within a local council could easily have been reported in a way that healed, rather than created divisions. An ABC radio personality, interviewing Mr Ross, led the listeners to conclude that council was inept, out of touch with community attitudes to the extent that the Minister should consider sacking them. "I saw that interview as being adversarial but accept that radio patrons want their entertainment at a faster pace." The same interviewer had previously talked to Mr Ross about a Cartoon Gallery being established in Bob Hawke's childhood home. "The interviewer made some assertions that, as Bob Hawke was on the nose politically in Bordertown, there would be little community acceptance and its likely failure could be gleefully expected as a put down for the Prime Minister. The notion offended me and I quickly stressed that the project had bipartisan support, and we would have been churlish to adopt the stereotyped view proffered."

Mr Ross also spoke of some of problems facing the local area if the social and economic health of the region is to be preserved. "I have often spoken of these issues, but sense that there is a prevailing Hanrahan sentiment that fatalistically accepts ruin or, in the best Anzac tradition, we will soldier on: if we are lucky there won't be a bullet for us.

"However if our local press were to devote time and resources to fundamental issues such as these, the acceptance and understanding engendered would promote a culture more receptive to successful resolution."

"I commend our country newspaper proprietors for the role they have played."

A Country School Teacher

Ros Cooper, a school teacher widely experienced in country schools and in isolated outback settings, was quite surprised to find herself on the platform, having no specialist knowledge of the press but hoped to give one person's perspective and some ideas that she had gained from other rural people.

She thought it would be easy to dismiss the importance of the country press because 85% of people live in the cities. "Despite this we all have some experience of the romance of the bush, whether it is through personal experience or through some kind of media." She set her scene with a quote from "Clancy of the Overflow":

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

"All of us have somewhere in our time been struck by that chord of feeling proud about living in this really beautiful and vast land, but I think for many Australians our awe of the bush stops at the physical surroundings. There is a certain amount of respect from urban people about the cocky struggling to survive on the land. Many of us have a respect for our rich indigenous culture. But I question how many urban Australians actually credit country people with a great deal of intelligence."

As a result having been brought up in the suburbs of Adelaide, Ros did not have much experience of country people until she moved to Port Augusta when she became a teacher. Her opinions changed. She was surprised to find a clean, green and very friendly town. She later got a job with the School of the Air as an itinerant teacher and that meant three years travelling in outback South Australia. After that she moved to a small community in northern South Australia, Nepabunna, an Adnya-Mathanha community with about 90 people living in it.

"I did learn a lot about country people. In fact I developed a respect and an understanding of country people and I chose to become a country person myself."

When Ros found that the seminar was on the country press, her heart sank and she thought, "Country newspapers - urrrgh! I thought straight away about the local papers that I read and my first thought was: all they really do is tell us who won the footy, who is getting married and who has died". But then she had a cup of tea and talked to some other people and had second thoughts. People told her, "'Well I always read the births, marriages and deaths - I like to get it because of the footy - I like to see my kid's name in print - I just get it for the TV programs', not many people actually mentioned news I am sorry to say. But one thing that did become clear was that people actually do read the papers and they do read the news part (after they have finished with the footy).

"Country newspapers tell us what is going on in our community. They keep us in touch with the social highlights of our little towns and we look forward to reading them. ... And regardless of the publishers, the format and the quality of each of these papers, they all provided both a social and a hard news function."

Ros had a definite idea of what a country newspaper should be like: "A commercially produced newspaper should be providing the community with up-to-date information on local issues. It should be presenting facts when they are needed and detailed reporting of broader state and federal issues as they relate to country residents. It should provide the community with information about local events and local government issues." But she saw another role as well: to serve to bind and bond the communities. "What I believe is that these communities, whilst isolated from the mainstream of society to a certain extent, have incredible potential and retain the crucial elements of a social fabric that are disappearing in other areas.

"Community newspapers have an important role in informing and educating communities but they also play a vital role in maintaining and encouraging coherence and encouraging positive and sustainable community development. ... Country newspapers have a responsibility to report facts in a value free a way as possible; on contentious issues, to ensure a variety of viewpoints are expressed; and be aware of and reflect the interest of the population of readers."

Ros spoke about the reporting of Aboriginal issues by the Port Augusta paper and how much it had improved in 15 years. While noting that journalists need to report, not interpret, she observed that, even if the journalist maintains a fair perspective, the omission or position of articles, photos and graphics transmits clear but covert messages.

"Our local paper reports on issues of importance to Aboriginal people, and as well as this their photos appear alongside photos of non-Aboriginal people in all of the social, sporting and political articles. ... The opportunities for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children to be exposed to positive images of each other in the local press is to be commended. ... Country newspapers like teachers should be encouraging the values of honesty, tolerance and sustainable community development."

Ros concluded by saying that she now saw them in a different light. "I have come to see that they, along with other institutions like schools and governments and unions and businesses and community organisations, are all playing a crucial role in the maintenance and survival of the Australian rural community."

The Country Journalist

John Parker, who had recently retired as the Managing Director of Rural Press, Australia's largest publisher of regional and country papers, has had a lifetime experience in journalism as a reporter, editor and administrator. Yet, he could say , "This is my first exposure to the Australian Press Council. In my days as a working journalist, and there was a lot of them, I considered the Council almost 'God-like', sitting up there in judgment on all that we did, and I believe most journalists still feel that way.

"I want to commend the Press Council for its initiative in bringing its activities out to the people ... who work in the industry, and to the people who read our newspapers. I am particularly pleased that the Press Council is again out in the country, here at Mount Gambier, where the Border Watch has an enviable record in the industry, and in this community, for very responsible publishing."

He started with what he saw as the prime responsibilities of a country newspaper: to inform, not to preach; to be a place of record; and to be a leader and developer of community pride.

"But I repeat - again and again - that the first responsibility of a country newspaper is faithfully to report the life of the community. Far too often, I'm afraid, some country newspapers fail to adhere to that principle.

"All available editorial resources should be used for reporting: our shire councils; our chamber of commerce meetings; our courts; our sport (in detail); our social life and community life. We need not only to instruct and guide our reporters in this philosophy - we need to encourage them to believe in it."

Mr Parker saw as problems with modern journalism that too many stories are "created" and too much time is spent in news columns interpreting and editorialising. He also thought too much time was spent making papers look pretty. But the way to boost circulation, he said, was to get back to the basics of reporting.

"Our reporters should always remember that just as many people read the details of Sunday's bowls, which reporters hate writing, as those who read the beat up front page story about a single, irate ratepayer."

Quoting John B Fairfax, Chairman of Rural Press to the effect that newspapers should be known for their fairness, objectivity and accuracy, and that papers should seek to be constructive, not destructive, Mr Parker argued that newspapers must never get the reputation of being knockers.

Looking to the future, Mr Parker suggested that as "the country newspaper has a strong and an enviable place in the community it serves, I just can't see how, in the next century, it would ever be replaced."

Although he noted he was "grey-haired" and "probably very old fashioned", he said that he "just cannot see that the electronic newspaper will ever be applicable in country areas, certainly not in the next century. Perhaps in the next two decades, we shall, in general terms, have greater emphasis on the provision of some information by electronic means.

"But I just can't visualise how this electronic means of communication - no matter how sophisticated - could carry the detail, in easy-to-read format, that a good country newspaper now carries."

He quoted George Gilder who writes regularly in Forbes:

The electronic news problem is summed up by the 'two minute rule'; the usual requirement that, short of an earthquake or a war, no story should take more than two minutes to tell. It is an entirely negative rule.

The effect is to frustrate any viewer who has any more than a superficial interest in a news item.

Mr Parker finished with some specific examples of the difficulties of country newspapers:

"Consider the feelings of the reporter who has to report on his best friend's court case, where he or she was convicted of a drink-driving charge and has asked his friend the reporter that the report be left out of the paper ... That request was, of course, refused ... but I've known cases where this has destroyed friendships.

"Consider the proprietor who prints a report of speakers at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, critical of the weekend services given by garages to the district's tourists ... and on the Monday morning all the garages ring up, so incensed that they withdraw their advertising.

"Consider the case where a young reporter goes to a football match and writes his story critical of the captain/coach ... and on the afternoon the paper comes out, he goes down to the hotel for a drink or two and has an unpleasant confrontation with the coach. I can vouch for that example ... I was flattened by a very competent left hook after I was critical of a Rugby League captain in the south west of NSW. ..."

"That's all part of the life of those who are engaged in responsible newspaper publishing."

Questions and Discussion

During a long and thought-provoking question and discussion time, a wide-range of issues was covered. Questions about the coverage of indigenous Australians in country newspapers and what such newspapers could do to attract younger readers were answered in some depth. In response to a question about the depth of knowledge of the Press Council in the bush, John Parker responded: "Within the newspaper industry it has a very good reputation and its role is well-known. I think the community knows there is a watchdog - they are not quite sure what it does, but they read reports in the city papers to say that the Australian Press Council has dealt with a complaint or done something and they know there is a watchdog and I think that's good in itself. The community knows there is a watchdog looking after us to make sure the press does the right thing".

In response to other questions, the speakers discussed how frequently country newspapers should publish editorials, whether there should be an inquiry into the concentration and/or cross ownership of country and rural press, the relationship that public figures had in small communities with their press and the fact that their press are not anonymous pens, and, conversely, whether there is a risk in this very close relationship between a community and its newspaper of an editor becoming too close and finding himself or herself in a position that a dispassionate view of what is going on cannot be published.

John Ross admitted that the actions of local government could lead to frustration on the part of the press. "Quite often when sensitive issues need to be discussed, council then goes in camera, has a discussion and no details of that are provided. There is a decision made and people don't understand the decision-making process. I agree that that's bad. It's unfortunate that it should happen. Confidentiality needs to exist but generally I believe that a proclivity of council's to go in camera, to shield themselves from a decision, usually is a disservice to themselves."

Ros Cooper answered the question, "How far ahead of public opinion can the newspaper be?", by suggesting not very far. "When I refer to newspapers as being leaders perhaps in alternative agricultural procedures and those sorts of things, I would imagine that would be done within the confines of the usual sort of structure, so when we get to talking about the agricultural set-up we don't always just have the local wheat and barley side of things, but you can add a bit more here and there".

The question was also asked as to whether country newspapers should report local courts. John Parker responded, "I have no doubt at all about court reporting. I think it should be done and must be done. It is part of the community life. Other than suicides. It is interesting. I was always taught in my day that you never reported the coroner's inquest into a suicide. It was a very personal affair that caused great distress to the family."

Transcript

The proceedings of the Mount Gambier meeting have been transcribed and the complete record of the meeting will be available for sale from the Council by the end of February. The booklet will cost $4 (including postage with Australia or by surface mail overseas).

Jack R Herman

Return to APC News 1995 Index

[ return to top ]

Documents with the icon require the Acrobat Reader, a Free Utility from Adobe. Click here for more information.