Whose views skew the news?


Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.

But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.

Conducted between May 2012 and March this year, the University of the Sunshine Coast’s representative survey of 605 journalists around Australia found that more than half (51.0%) describe themselves as holding left-of-centre political views, compared with only 12.9% who consider themselves right-of-centre.

It is the first study of its kind in more than 20 years to involve such a large number of journalists, and follows on from the work of John Henningham in the early 1990s.

Our survey was conducted by telephone with carefully selected journalists from newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, online news sites and news agency AAP, as a sample of the 8000 to 10,000 journalists in Australia today.

When asked about their voting intentions, less than two-thirds of the journalists we surveyed revealed their voting intention. Of those 372 people, 43.0% said they would give their first preference vote to Labor; 30.2% would vote for the Coalition; and 19.4% said they would choose the Greens – about twice the Australian average.

Media bosses more in sync with voters
Yet, among those who arguably matter most – the journalists in senior editorial ranks who have the most power to decide news agendas – a dramatically different picture emerged.

Among the 83 senior editors who took part in the survey, the Coalition was the party of choice on 43.2%, followed by Labor (34.1%) and the Greens (11.4%).

This suggests that Australia’s media bosses are more in line with the broader electorate, at least according to recent Newspoll results.

It is important to note that there is little research showing that journalists' personal political biases affect their work.

When asked in this survey about a range of influences on their work, many journalists said their superiors have a much stronger influence than their personal values and beliefs.

Aunty leans to the Greens
An interesting finding emerged when we compare journalists from the three biggest news organisations in the country – News Limited, Fairfax Media and the ABC.

The national broadcaster has repeatedly been attacked for having a seemingly leftist bias, while others have accused News Limited – and particularly its flagship newspaper The Australian – of being overly conservative in its political views.

At first glance, the findings do not support this assumption, with no significant differences in the way journalists from the ABC and News rate their political views on a scale of 0 (left) to 10 (right).

However, 41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7% for the Coalition.

In contrast, 46.5% of 86 News Limited journalists who answered this question said they would vote for Labor, 26.7% for the Coalition, and only 19.8% for the Greens. As well as The Australian, the News stable includes some of the country’s best-selling tabloids such as the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail, Northern Territory News and the Adelaide Advertiser, and some suburban newspapers.

Among the 86 Fairfax Media journalists who responded, Labor was by far the most popular party at 54.7% support, followed by the Coalition and the Greens, both on 19.8%. The Fairfax journalists came from outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, a range of regional and suburban newspapers, and metropolitan radio stations.

If we disregard the 42.8% of journalists who are undecided, refused to answer or would vote for a party or candidate other than the major three, this is a statistically significant result.

It means that even though only a smaller number of journalists answered the voting intentions, which does increase the margin of error, it is still reasonable to conclude that there is a marked difference between the voting intentions of journalists at the three major media organisations.

Australian stories that go untold
Where in the country journalists work also seems to make a major difference. Journalists at metropolitan news media are significantly more left-wing in their political views. Labor would receive 52.6% of the metropolitan journalist vote, while in regional areas, 44.4% would vote for the Coalition.

Our study also found that while journalists recognise their own political biases, they may be less aware of their cultural bias.

An overwhelming majority of journalists in this country still come from a white, Anglo-Saxon background, with minorities very few and far between in mainstream journalism.

Three out of four journalists give their ethnicity as at least partly Anglo-Saxon. Only 4.7% said they have an Asian or Middle Eastern background, which is around half of what it should be to reflect the make-up of the Australian population.

Journalists identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders representing just 1.8% of Australian journalists – again, disproportionately lower than the 2.5% of Australians with an Indigenous background.

This is further evidence to support the argument that Austral

i could base a whole political party around some journalists.

for instance, do an interview with david marr, and whatever he says , write a policy statement that is 100 % in the other direction.

Aunty leans to the Greens
An interesting finding emerged when we compare journalists from the three biggest news organisations in the country – News Limited, Fairfax Media and the ABC.

The national broadcaster has repeatedly been attacked for having a seemingly leftist bias, while others have accused News Limited – and particularly its flagship newspaper The Australian – of being overly conservative in its political views.

At first glance, the findings do not support this assumption, with no significant differences in the way journalists from the ABC and News rate their political views on a scale of 0 (left) to 10 (right).

However, 41.2% of the 34 ABC journalists who declared a voting intention said they would vote for the Greens, followed by 32.4% for Labor and 14.7% for the Coalition.


and they claim aunty isnt biased to the left...LOL...they havent watched Media Watch..

as far as I am concerned anyone voting green is more left than labor..

personally I dont think it matters all that much as I find if i really cant stand a journo I just dont read them and I am sure that goes for a lot of people.. you are hardly going to go and buy a publication to read something you hate...I never ever buy the Canberra Times..you would never get a balanced point of view from that rag.everyones a lefty in ACT.

bogarde73 wrote on May 21^st, 2013 at 2:11pm:


RUPERT will buy the ABC   

woody2014 wrote on May 21^st, 2013 at 2:15pm:




you do realize a whole heap of lefties have just fainted dont you??

lefties make me laugh on the one hand they dont believe a word Murdoch media dispenses..yet on the other they reckon he rules the world because he is so powerful...total rubbish

when are  they going to  realize we all have our own minds, I for one would never allow someone to tell me who to vote for I make up my own mind and I like to believe that at least half the bloody population thinks the same..

longweekend58 wrote on May 21^st, 2013 at 10:42am:


because the same article shows that those journo's editors, the ones that decide which stories to run and how they are run, are mostly right wing ...

longweekend58 wrote on May 21^st, 2013 at 10:42am:


It's based on research.  Unlike your usual crap it's supported by a study.  Reporters are left wing.  Editors are right wing.

Journalists should not hold political views or bias.

You tell me Maxine McKew who walks out of an ABC role and into becoming a Labor candidate never held political bias in her role?!