Glossary: News media in Australia

Broadcast type refers to the category of television or radio broadcasting service that the news outlet is broadcast on, including:

• commercial
• public
• community
• subscription.

Refers to the definition in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA). Under Schedule 1, Part 2, the BSA establishes that ‘control’ has a broad meaning that covers formal and informal arrangements. 

Being the publisher of an associated newspaper or the licensee of a commercial broadcasting licence is one way a person or entity can be in a position to exercise control of that newspaper or licence. A person or entity is also considered to be in a position to exercise control of a commercial broadcasting licence, associated newspaper or related company if they: 

• have company interests exceeding 15%.
• have the ability to direct or influence a commercial broadcasting licence, newspaper or related company whether directly or indirectly
• can exercise direction or restraint over any substantial issue affecting the management or affairs of the licensee or company. This includes practical operational influence, controlling programming selection, company operations and board appointments.

 Content that reports, investigates or explains:   

• issues or events that are relevant in engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision-making issues, or
• current issues or events of public significance for Australians at a local, regional or national level.

The meaning of core news is explained on the professional news outlet requirements page.

A name used to publicly identify related core news and other content distributed via one or more news outlets.

Sometimes, a single name is used to identify related core news and other content (for example, media brands The Australian, The Courier Mail and The Sydney Morning Herald). In other instances, several related names are used for this purpose (for example, media brands 9 Adelaide, 9 Perth, 9 Sydney and 9 Melbourne

A group of news outlets, spanning at least 2 media brands, that share at least one owner and/or controller.

Each news outlet that belongs to a network has only been assigned to a single primary network.

For Indicator 3, news outlet refers to how a media brand distributes its core news, including via: 

• a website/app outlet
• a radio outlet
• a newspaper outlet
• an email newsletter outlet
• a TV outlet
• a magazine outlet
• any other outlet.

A separate news outlet distributes some core news that is not distributed by any other news outlets of the same media brand. Where a media brand distributes identical core news via multiple access points, these are classed as one outlet to avoid double-counting. For example, the AM, FM or DAB+ broadcast channel and a website hosting a livestream of a radio station would both be counted as a single radio outlet.

Podcast and social media outlets have been temporarily excluded from our reporting until more comprehensive data is obtained for these outlet types. Online intermediaries, such as news aggregators and social media platforms, are not counted as separate news outlets.

The person or entity legally responsible for ensuring the content of a news outlet complies with the professional standards that outlet is subject to. For most news outlets, this is its publisher or licensee.

All uses of the term owner in our interactive data reports refer to this definition, which is distinct from other definitions (including the definition in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992).  

The state or territory where a news outlet primarily operates. 

News outlets that do not primarily operate in any one state or territory are not assigned a primary state/territory. These outlets typically operate at a national level and are instead assigned the category ‘Australia-wide’.

A news outlet that meets the 5 professional news outlet requirements:

1. it is subject to at least one relevant professional standard
2. it is editorially independent from the subjects of its news coverage
3. it makes its news content publicly available to anyone who wishes to access it
4. it meets both parts of the Australian operation and audience requirement to:
   1. maintain substantial editorial operations in Australia
   2. operate with a material purpose of serving Australian audiences.
5. it distributes core news.

These requirements are explained on the professional news outlet requirements page.

A live audio channel that is broadcast via AM, FM or DAB+ digital radio, or distributed via the internet.

Individual radio news programs are not counted as separate radio outlets to avoid double-counting.

One or more live video channels that are broadcast via free-to-air or subscription TV or distributed via the internet, including via broadcast-video-on-demand (BVOD) and subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) catch-up services.

Individual TV news programs are not counted as separate TV outlets to avoid double-counting.

A set of related digital pages that are accessible via the internet or a mobile app.

Can be either an entire website or app, or part of a website or app. For example, 24 ‘Newslocal’ sections of The Daily Telegraph website are counted as separate website/app outlets to reflect the local news available on these pages.

The Media Diversity Measurement Framework draws on multiple datasets that provide demographic breakdowns by sex and/or gender. In most cases, sex and gender are described using the categories ‘women’ and ‘men’ and/or ‘male’ and ‘female’. This includes data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Find out more about the ABS sex variable.

We acknowledge that this approach reinforces and relies on binary constructions of sex and gender that ignore and may make invisible those whose experience of sex and gender sits outside of these binaries, such as many intersex, transgender and gender-diverse people. 

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations’ definition of ‘Journalists and Other Writers’ was used. Data excludes the subcategories ‘Technical writer’ and ‘Copywriter’. Full definitions are available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A journalist refers to an individual who selected ‘journalist’ as their main job during the week prior to Census night. This may exclude individuals who may undertake journalistic work in a casual, volunteer or secondary part-time capacity, as well as those who did not list journalism as their main job during the reference week. The ABS count may underrepresent the broader population engaged in journalism.

The framework draws on multiple datasets that provide demographic breakdowns by sex and/or gender. In most cases, sex and gender are described using the categories ‘women’ and ‘men’ and/or ‘male’ and ‘female’. This includes data from the ABS. Find out more about the ABS sex variable.

We acknowledge that this approach reinforces and relies on binary constructions of sex and gender that ignore and may make invisible those whose experience of sex and gender sit outside of these binaries, such as many intersex, transgender and gender-diverse people. 

Remoteness classifications are derived from local government areas (LGA) based on the ABS defined categories:

• major cities of Australia
• inner regional Australia
• outer regional Australia
• remote Australia
• very remote Australia.

It is possible for an LGA to have residents in multiple remoteness classifications. In this case, a weighting formula is applied to assign each LGA one remoteness classification.

Find out more about remoteness areas from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Case study remoteness is based on the ABS defined remoteness classifications: 

• major cities of Australia
• inner regional Australia
• outer regional Australia
• remote Australia
• very remote Australia. 

Find out more about remoteness areas from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

News stories produced by a source other than the sampled news outlet.

Syndicated content is categorised into 3 types:

• internal content sourced from another news outlet in the same network
• wire content sourced from a newswire service
• other content, such as creative commons material or content from other news websites.

For Indicators 5 and 6, a news outlet refers to branded news content distributed via a particular platform. This can include:

• a free-to-air TV channel such as the ABC, Network 10 or SBS
• an online radio station such as Triple M (Qld) Triple J or 3AW (Vic)
• a news website/app such as news.com.au, The Guardian Australia or Crikey
• a news podcast such as SBS News Updates, 9 News Podcast or ABC News Daily
• a social media news account, page or group such as ABC News, 7 News or The Australian.

The media delivery mechanism for news content; for example, free-to-air TV, subscription/pay TV<, online news websites/apps and podcasts.

In this report, digital platforms and services that provide access to other news outlets’ content, such as search engines, news aggregators and social media, are referred to as online intermediaries.