Abstract
During 1999–2000, the Productivity Commission's inquiry into Broadcasting, together with the ABA's ‘cash for comment’ inquiry, painted the old shibboleth of media influence in a new light. Influence has been a central term in government media regulation, but the term has rarely been interrogated from first principles in the policy domain. Assumptions have been made about the greater influence of television compared with radio, in spite of ongoing controversy centring around the cash for comment inquiry that has spotlighted both the power of talkback radio kings and their potential to misuse it. Policy-makers and politicians have also been overly optimistic about the potential of new media forms to ameliorate concentration of influence in the hands of media oligopolies. After examining the complex flows of influence within and between media organisations, this paper lists several recommendations for future directions in research on the subject.
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