Annotated Bibliography

Cohen, E. L., (2002): Online Journalism as Market-Driven Journalism, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 46 (4), 532-548 Elisia Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Communications at the University of Kentucky, her 2002 piece on the nature of online journalism as a primarily commercial platform stems from an earlier period of personal interest, which deviates from her current focus on health communication and cancer prevention. This article, published during the adolescent stages of online media platforms, explores the tenants of market-driven journalism and how they influence in and are influenced by a online news paradigm. The author engages with this concept by analysing it at the macro (large or company/marketplace scale), meso (medium or newsroom scale) and micro (small or consumer scale). Such a dynamic of analysis allows Cohen a striated development of conclusions; which in turn results in a cohesive picture of the implications of online news in the news-media marketplace. The intertextuality of web platforms encourages producers to promulgate a network of websites and/or features that promote their brand and products associated with it. The final way in which commercial involvement has invaded news website is in the multiplicity of advertising formats. Advertisements come in many forms such as banner ads, pop-ups and advertorial; the sheer variety and ambiguity of these formats further increases the difficulties associated with detecting them as commercials and assessing their ethical legitimacy. Elisia Cohen concludes with the serious concern that economic values are overriding journalistic values in online media. Pearson, N. (2012). Queensland girls can stay until August. Nine News. Retrieved from: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8473170/queensland-girls-can-stay-in-australia-until-august Channel Nine News' coverage of the ongoing custody battle between an Italian father and his Australian-born ex-wife over their four children is a hard news story that centres on the matters of public interest in the case. This divergence from a traditional commercial media focus on the most appealing elements of a story to a more democratic media focus on the significant factors and implications of the case are less a style change and more an adaptation of style to the nature of the story. Nine's serious broadcast of this story is symptomatic of its nature as 'hard-news,' it would not be in the Network's best commercial interests to treat this story with flippancy or populism as the audience with which such a story would resonate with would not respond well to such irreverence. Even in the face of this seriousness, Nine still taps into its traditional base of human interest by hyperlinking a series of photos featuring the supposedly defamed father with his children. This move is emblematic of commercial news sites' intra-promotion of their own

content, differing greatly from a public news platform's use of hyper-linkage to provide the viewer with a more complete picture of the story, as can be seen in the ABC's coverage of the same story. Rawlins, J. (2012). International custody case before the High Court. ABC News. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-25/international-custody-case-before-the-high-court/4032302 The Australian Broadcasting Commission is the largest public media outlet in Australia and as such has a strong tradition of reliability with is reflected in their no-nonsense coverage of the Italian custody battle. Jason Rawlins' detailed and rational depiction of the events of the hearing greatly contributes to the audience's understanding of the implications of the precedential nature of the case and even the particulars of the hearing. The video report, extracted from the '7pm TV News', augments this article by discoursing on the protestations of misrepresentation from the girls' father highlights the ABC's prerogative to act as a watchdog on other media outlets. The father in question complained that the Australian media were running character assassination of him, motivations for such a move by the mainstream media could be a heightening of the emotional dimensions of the case to increase human interest news values for commercial appeal. As it is a public outlet (and therefore not beholden to market values), the ABC can act out purely public interests and that is what it is doing with this coverage, telling a story to further the social understanding and the public good. The father's testimony in this story contrasts with the Nine Network's release of positive photos of him with his children, and is furthered in the related hyperlink provided by the ABC to an earlier story of Rawlins' on the father's mistreatment (Rawlins, 2012). Remeikis, A. (2012). Custody-dispute sisters to remain until August. brisbanetimes.com.au. Retrieved from: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/custodydispute-sisters-to-remain-until-august-

20120525-1z8tu.html The brisbanetimes.com.au is a Fairfax media publication and as such fall under the umbrella of the Packer media empire. Fairfax has been forced in recent history to play second fiddle to the overtly biased and right-wing News Limited, and as such has a developed a semi-objective centrist slant. This media contest has certainly affected Remeikis in her reporting of the custody dispute hearing, which takes a more holistic approach than the previous two video reports on the story. The article in question analyses the context of the trial and discusses all the significant elements of the story: the father's reply to media hostility, the precedential nature of the case and the murky 'natural-justice' issues associated with the children's testimony while at the same time covering the more appeal-oriented dimensions such as the drama of the mother leaving Italy and the children going into hiding. This story article exploits intertextuality far more than previous two in its embedding of a story link into the body of text, which both augments the reader's

understanding of events and promotes the site's commercial interests (re: advertising and 'page hits'). Overall this article manages to connect with the public interest and commercial aspects of this story better than either the ABC video/article report or the Nine News broadcast story.

APA Reference List

Cohen, E. L., (2002): Online Journalism as Market-Driven Journalism, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 46 (4), 532-548 Pearson, N. (2012). Queensland girls can stay until August. Nine News. Retrieved from: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8473170/queensland-girls-can-stay-in-australia-until-august Rawlins, J. (2012). International custody case before the High Court. ABC News. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-25/international-custody-case-before-the-high-court/4032302 Rawlins, J. (2012). Custody battle dad accuses media of untruths. ABC News. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-24/italian-dad-at-centre-of-custody-battle-expressesconcern/4031468 Remeikis, A. (2012). Custody-dispute sisters to remain until August. BrisbaneTimes.com.au. Retrieved from: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/custodydispute-sisters-to-remain-untilaugust-20120525-1z8tu.html