Multi-Media or One Medium – Where is the Fourth Estate Heading?

	In this open forum we are going to discus what future has the Fourth Estate of the press, etc., given that there is both a national trend and a global trend for all types of media to be increasingly concentrated in a few hands. Monopolies themselves are a worry for a variety of reasons. But, in the case of the media, we need to be especially wary given the possible deleterious effects this could have for the future function of democracy both in this country and in the world in general. Without criticism politicians could easily revert to a more traditional use of non-democratic measures, and, without being called to proper account we must seriously consider what future a democracy could have in that type of uncritical environment? 
	Recently, in the Guardian, there was an article titled All the President’s Men. The article was concerned about the author’s perception that a Watergate type of journalistic exposé could no longer be done by the majority of the newspapers in America as there has been a seachange since the presidency of Nixon. For a start many newspapers have been taken over by a small number of companies and the emphasis these days is on profit for which sensationalism without expensive research is now de rigeur. This concentration of the media also crosses over more traditional genres like television, publishing, the Internet, the press, etc. Content is more bland. Less risks are taken and research is poorly conducted. The media has swung to the Republican Right, especially in talk-back radio. Moreover, often what is printed are the press releases fed to the press by the government. Hence the irony of the title – that journalists are now 'all the president’s men'. 
	This same phenomenon of the politicians writing the newspapers for journalists, e.g., is rife in this country as witnessed by the recycled pap published by the press in the time of the last national elections. This is also witnessed in the charade over the Tampa incident and, even more sadly, the lack of accountability that should have been demanded by the media after various government inquiries and reports were conducted!
	This trend in Australia is the same in America and indeed is a global one! It would appear to be one of the adverse side-effects of globalisation? Hence the question posed by the title of this open forum – will the media find such concentration and homogeneity of voice to be, in effect, merely a monotonous medium and not a vibrant multi-media. Should we be pessimistic here? Or can we be optimistic and see in the Internet, e.g., one avenue of communication that can overcome this otherwise disturbing trend for blandness, uniformity of opinion, editorials without proper research, a non-critical dissemination of a dominant partisan voice, etc?
	I have photocopied a recent article in the Le Monde Diplomatique dealing with Europe in the same light titled A Less Free Press by Ignacio Ramonet (Dec. 2002).
	Should we worry about these trends? Will world media become, in effect, one medium? Could the Internet be a saviour in disguise? Could the Internet actually replace traditional media or be absorbed by it? Let us look at these issues and explore what possible things we might be able to do to reverse or overcome these worrying trends?
							           Noël Tointon, Sydney, 6.2.03.