Staying up-to-date

Photographer : J Gregory Barton

Newspapers

There are two main types of newspapers: tabloids and broadsheets. Tabloids tend to be known for sensationalising the news and being less academic than broadsheets. An example of a tabloid in Australia is the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. Examples of broadsheets include The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.

Television

News programmes on Australian television stations vary significantly in their content. The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has a more ‘world’ focused news service, whereas some of the ‘commercial’ stations, such as Channel 10, tend to focus more on ‘local’ news stories. The current affairs programmes on the different stations are also different in nature. For example Lateline—a nightly news analysis programme on the publicly owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)—varies significantly in content and tone to 60 minutes—a current affairs programme which airs weekly on the commercial Nine Network. 60 minutes is known for its more ‘tabloid’ style coverage of current affairs.

Radio

There are a huge number of radio stations in Australia, each of which has different content and audience. However, a few general categories can be used to work out what type of coverage you can expect. Firstly, there is the distinction between FM and AM radio. On FM, you can find stations such as Triple J — the ABC’s youth radio network, which has news coverage designed to appeal and be relevant to its listeners— and also a number of stations more focused on music coverage than news coverage. On the other hand, AM is the home of radio stations which air ‘talkback’ radio, such as 2UE in Melbourne (the home of John Laws) and 2GB in Sydney (the home of Alan Jones). These talkback programmes are known for their colourful hosts and biased news coverage. AM radio also hosts the purely news-dedicated stations of the ABC, such as News Radio which provide in-depth analysis of current affairs.

Podcasting and online news sources

With wider availability of the internet, and ever evolving means of distributing information, news media is no longer limited to print, radio and television. Podcasting is a relatively new form of digital news media and commentary, now being utilised by a number of existing radio stations to transmit new and varied programmes. For example, Triple J, 2GB and 2UE each have podcasts on their web pages. Newspapers, which have traditionally been distributed in print form, are also focussing on their websites as a means of getting news to people, almost instantly. Many sites also have RSS feeds which deliver news alerts to a feedreader on your desktop.