By Frank Noakes
Rupert Murdoch's News Limited (more accurately Limited News) is one of the biggest media empires the world has known. Its Australian chief executive, Ken Cowley, told the parliamentary inquiry into the print media: "We take the view, as simple as it is and as corny as it sounds, that what is good for your country is good for your business and what is good for your business is good for the paper, its readers and our employees."
This is the philosophy of the major privately owned establishment media everywhere, and one with which we at Green Left Weekly strongly disagree. We prefer to use the term establishment media rather than "mainstream". Conferring "mainstream" on the mass media is, we believe, a self-marginalisation by the alternative media, implying our ideas can't be mainstream.
Well, what might be a philosophy for the alternative media?
One thing that the alternative media, including the press, need to come to terms with from the beginning is the question of "bias". We can often be defensive about charges of bias or supposed lack of balance.
George Orwell wrote that anyone who writes anything about current affairs will be biased one way or the other. The way to deal with this is to admit it, he says, because it is almost impossible to cut it out.
British journalist Paul Foot says the credibility test is not the political bias of a story, but in the accuracy and the sweep of the information it conveys.
Although not as comprehensive in its coverage of events as its British counterpart, the Financial Review is the Australian paper with the least distortion of news and the least trivia. This is because it is written for business people. It is generally accurate and contains a broad sweep of information — and it includes bucket loads of bias and opinion.
Truth cares nothing for "balance". Both sides of a story are rarely equal, particularly when reporting on social processes. An environmental protest or an industrial strike will almost always draw the condemnation of the establishment media because such actions run counter to their world view.
So we shouldn't be defensive about our bias — our alternative world view — but admit it. That said, crude propaganda should be avoided; we should not treat our audiences as fools.
A publication that does not have an opinion is pointless. This is especially so for the progressive media, which should be seeking to challenge the ideas of the establishment and their media.
Information is a powerful weapon, and it should be the role of the alternative media to arm the progressive movements.
In addition to presenting news and information that is often unavailable in the establishment media, we should aim to provide a forum for discussion and debate with the aim of clarifying, and where possible overcoming, differences.
But the alternative media shouldn't restrict themselves to simply being the mirror opposite of News Limited.
The alternative media have, or should seek, a wider role. After all, the establishment media seek to maintain the existing power relations in society; the alternative media have to challenge and change those relations. This means networking, bringing people into contact with others, bringing ideas into contact with others with the aim of assisting the progressive movements and parties to challenge the status quo.
Given Australia's relatively isolated position in the world, it is imperative that the alternative media give an extensive coverage of international affairs.
Green Left Weekly took the decision from the beginning to station journalists overseas, to the extent that our limited financial resources would allow. Renfrey Clarke has been in Moscow from the outset, and his work is admired all over the world. We maintained a bureau in Prague for over two years and one in London for more than a year. Now we have Norm Dixon on the spot in Johannesburg, covering the momentous events occurring in South Africa.
In addition to those financed by the paper, Green Left has developed a network of contributors around the world. Building links internationally is important — today's problems and solutions are increasingly of a global nature.
But ultimately, for the alternative press, the measure of success or failure is whether it is being read.
To succeed, the alternative press has to be relevant, attractive and entertaining. Some on the left hold the view that if the a paper isn't wall to wall text and always deadly serious, then it isn't credible; it is somehow opportunistic. Green Left Weekly disagrees with this approach. We also refuse to narrow or restrict our broad concept of what is political.
In attempting to reach beyond the converted and capture a broader audience, Green Left has adopted an easy style that eliminates jargon and tries to explain complex issues simply, but not simplistically.
But there is another side to accessibility. New desk top publishing equipment makes the production of a high quality paper much cheaper. But it doesn't solve the crucial aspect of accessibility — distribution.
Sadly, much of the alternative press has folded, or in other ways retreated, over the last few years. This decline is at least in part a reflection of the general decline in the progressive movements, and with them, distribution networks. But it is important that we don't read into this situation that people aren't willing to embrace new ideas or read an alternative point of view. That is not Green Left Weekly's experience.
The outstanding problem of qualitatively expanding distribution remains to be solved. On this, as on all areas of the life of Green Left Weekly, we welcome your input. After all, Green Left is your paper. [This article is based on a talk presented to the International Green Left conference at Easter.]