News on the radio and TV

Want to feel like you've got away from it all?  Try catching up with the news via the commercial broadcast media.

Australia is, famously, a long way from anywhere else.  One of the attractions of its vast open spaces is the feeling that you've escaped from the trials of everyday life, and the relentless grind of depressing news stories.  When you're out in the bush, famines, war and tsunamis are all thousands of miles away.

But really, why spend all that money and endure such discomfort if you just want to get away from the ceaseless roll call of global catastrophe?  A few days with Australian commercial free to air (FTA) TV or radio will achieve the same thing for a fraction of the effort.

OK, it does contain a good deal of drama - mostly in the form of imported US cop shows, and emotional incontinents blubbering about their life crises on the Oprah Show and its bastard offspring.  Really heavy duty misery, though, is almost entirely absent.  

That's not to say they don't provide news bulletins.  It's just that the news they supply is almost exclusively local, and local news in a prosperous, well-regulated country like Australia tends towards the anodyne.  A ferry could have sunk in the Philippines, killing 600 people, and the chances are you wouldn't hear about it.  And why would you, when there are teenagers being beaten up in suburban fast food outlets and car smashes on the freeway during rush hour?  Global financial meltdown still in the offing?  Have a heartwarming story about the senior citizen who beat off burglars who were trying to make off with his service medals instead.

If you only watch commercial TV, this is probably
where you think news comes from

It's probably those who come from the UK that notice the difference most starkly.  At almost all levels in the British broadcast media the news is reflected through the prism of the BBC - a vast, well-funded organisation dedicated to bringing the big stories from around the world to your sitting room.  Even the commercial FTA media to a certain extent dances to its tune as far as news coverage is concerned.

There are Australian FTA broadcasters which aim to provide the news junkie with more.  The ABC, which is the national state-owned broadcaster, provides serious international news and comment, and has both TV and a radio presence.  It doesn't have the BBC's global reach, but via tie-ins with its British sister and US networks it will bring you the biggest stories from around the world.  Similarly SBS, which has a particular remit to provide the nation's many migrant communities with programming relevant to them, has a more international flavour to its bulletins.

But it's the commercial TV channels - Seven, Nine and Ten - that have by far the biggest audience share.  The commercial radio stations hold the vast majority of the listeners.  Unless their audiences are switching over en masse to take in the better coverage available elsewhere, or getting all their news from the web, it's hard not to conclude that they're happier in blissful ignorance of the wider world.

It has its attractions.  The world's pain is, after all, a terrible thing to have to bear, and when it's all so far away anyhow, why not forget about it all?  For a bit, anyway.