{"id":11575,"date":"2022-04-20T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=11575"},"modified":"2022-07-15T22:37:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T12:37:15","slug":"the-election-is-a-race-its-a-horse-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/20\/the-election-is-a-race-its-a-horse-race\/","title":{"rendered":"The election is a race \u2013 it\u2019s a horse race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Bandt\u2019s <\/span>appearance at the National Press Club<\/span> may well be remembered in Australian political folklore for the response to that \u2018counter-gotcha\u2019 question<\/a> in which he urged a budding journalist to \u201cGoogle it, mate!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In that same moment, however, the Greens leader said something else that was perhaps far more significant and profound. \u201cElections should be about a contest of ideas. Politics should be about reaching for the stars and offering a better society,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bandt is right. In our federal election campaigns, we\u2019re not getting a contest of ideas. And it\u2019s been that way for quite some time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s campaign, we\u2019re not talking about the big ideas and we\u2019re not talking about what we want to change in this country. We\u2019re not talking about what policies are going to be good or bad for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, all we hear via the mainstream media are banal statements from the major parties. All that Prime Minister Morrison and the government can dish up is that Labor can\u2019t be trusted with money and has no experience. The Morrison government, meanwhile, will keep you safe from the Chinese, the Russians and the boat people.<\/span><\/p>\n

All Labor is saying in return is, \u201cWe\u2019ll give you an ICAC and we\u2019ll throw a bit of money at Medicare.\u201d But, otherwise, they\u2019re not promising to change much.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, we\u2019re not getting a discussion about policies and big ideas because Australia\u2019s media is engaged with ‘horse race journalism’. This kind of media reporting during election campaigns focuses on candidates\u2019 mistakes, their strategies and the question: \u2018Who\u2019s winning?\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the opening days of this election campaign, it\u2019s clear that the media\u2019s focus has been on questions such as, \u201cHow can Albanese lose? How can Morrison win?\u201d Pretty soon they will be reporting that \u201cit\u2019s neck and neck down the home straight\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

A great explanation of horse race journalism came from Jay Rosen, Professor of Journalism at New York University, way back in 2010 when he was <\/span>interviewed on the ABC by then <\/span>Lateline<\/span><\/i> host Leigh Sales<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosen: <\/b>Horse race journalism is a reusable model for how to do campaign coverage in which you focus on who\u2019s going to win rather than what the country needs to settle by electing a prime minister. And it\u2019s easy to do because you can kind of re-use it \u2013 sort of like a Christmas tree every year. And it requires almost no knowledge either. It imagines the campaign as a sporting event and everything that happens in the campaign can potentially affect the outcome. So you can look at it as, \u2018So how is it going to affect the horse race?\u2019 And every day you can ask, \u2018Who\u2019s ahead?\u2019 and \u2018What is their strategy?\u2019 And I think this perspective appeals to political reporters because it kind of puts them on the inside, looking at the campaign in a way that operatives do. By the way, I\u2019m told that you actually have a program here on Sunday morning called the <\/span><\/i>Insiders<\/span>. Is that true?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sales: <\/b>We do. We do.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rosen: <\/b>And the \u2018insiders\u2019 are the journalists?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sales:<\/b> That is right.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rosen: <\/b>That\u2019s remarkable.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sales:<\/b> Basically what you\u2019ve described there is basically the day-to-day reporting of modern campaigns. What would be an alternative model?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rosen: <\/b>Well, an alternative model might start with: \u2018What do the people of Australia want this campaign to be about? What are the issues that they want to see the candidates discussing? And then to ask each day, \u2018Well, how did we do in advancing the discussion of the citizens\u2019 agenda today? Was it ignored? Was it addressed? Was it demagogued? Was it slighted?’ If the journalists helped citizens get their agenda addressed during the campaign, they would be performing something that is actually very important \u2013 a role that\u2019s very important for them to do. But instead if they want to simply become chroniclers of the inside game and tell us from the point of view of the professional strategists who\u2019s doing better, well, they’re going to, in a way, join the political class. And that\u2019s the attraction of course.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

So much for Professor Rosen\u2019s alternative model. Based on what we\u2019ve seen from the opening days of this election campaign, it\u2019s clear that many journalists in Australia\u2019s mainstream media, including those at the ABC, are engaged in horse race journalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. The Murdoch and Costello media outlets no longer do proper journalism. They are newsletters and mouthpieces for conservative governments.\u00a0<\/span>Promoting and discussing policy is often against their interests, and the interests of their owners and advertisers. If they occasionally delve into reporting on policy, they will shamelessly distort and mislead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Until recently, it has been the role of the ABC to provide independent analysis of policy issues. However, the ABC\u2019s standards have dropped, and the ABC is now yet another race caller.<\/span><\/p>\n

The public is now in a position of having to seek out and rely on independent media organisations, such as the John Menadue blog, Crikey, Michael West Media, Friendlyjordies and various other bloggers and podcasters. If you want to help democracy and promote the discussion of policy, then you should encourage your friends to have a look at what these small independent groups are doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Far from reaching for the stars, this federal election campaign is not giving us the policy debates that we as a country need. But someone will win the race.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wish to republish this original article, please attribute to <\/strong><\/em>Rationale<\/strong><\/a>. Click here<\/a> to find out more about republishing under Creative Commons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo by <\/i><\/b>Jeff Griffith<\/i><\/b><\/a> on Unsplash.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Bandt\u2019s appearance at the National Press Club may well be remembered in Australian political folklore for the response to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":11576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[342,353],"coauthors":[208],"class_list":["post-11575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-politics","tag-australian-democracy","tag-media"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11575"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11587,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575\/revisions\/11587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11575"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}