Proposed changes to the Australian cross‐media regulation prohibiting common ownership of commercial free‐to‐air television and radio services and daily newspapers in the same market and their likely impact on diversity of opinion are evaluated in this paper. The analysis indicates that the replacement of the cross‐media rules with a minimum number of voices rule will lead to increased concentration of main media and reduced diversity. There is little evidence that the Internet and other new media are significantly displacing traditional media as independent sources of opinion in the domestic market. Also, the proposed number of voices rule is assessed as a largely ineffective and inefficient regulation. Consequently, the paper concludes that while abolition of the cross‐media rules might be an appropriate objective in the longer term, the proposed changes are likely to have undesirable effects on diversity of opinion in the immediate future.

PAGES
301 – 322
DOI
All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Issues
Also in this issue:
-
Ryan Jenkins, David Černý and Tomáš Hříbek (eds) Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: The Trolley Problem and Beyond
-
As open as possible, but as closed as necessary: openness in innovation policy
-
Turning sportswashing against sportswashers: an unconventional perspective
-
State secrets and compromises with capitalism: Lev Theremin and regimes of intellectual property
-
In search of an author