Urban Planning presentation. January 27, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Uncategorized.add a comment
What is the Urban Planning beat?
Urban Planning is a broad ranging field when monitoring the news media. There are many aspects of life that could be covered on this beat. The usual topics are:
- Housing
- Development
- Road and traffic
In each case these broad topics are affected by
- Social impact
- Environment
- Health
Other elements including population and population growth, water usage (particularly important in Australia), food production and farming can all be considered in relation to urban planning reportage.
Publications / Media
·        The Sydney Morning Herald
·        The Age
·        The Australian
·        The New York Times
·        The Times
·        The Guardian
General observations
- The Australian media is far more interested in urban planning issues than UK or US media.
- There were only a few instances of urban planning in overseas papers (when considering urban planning in its narrowest definition – i.e. housing development, roads development etc).
- Of those reports only one from the UK dealt with an actual planning issue (Tesco’s avoidance of planning approvals) The others were more broad in their approach to writing – more feature writing than hard news stories.
- Australia, in comparison, covers urban planning almost obsessively – roads development, housing development, zoning approvals, environmental impact statements – all a reported on quite heavily. This could be due to the different audiences.
Story statistics
- Population growth         2
- Farming & production    2
- Planning                       5
- Housing                       5
- Roads & transport         4
- Redfern Waterloo          5
Most urban planning stories in the Australian media were directly related to government intervention or the official decision making process. Most likely because of the government’s role in controlling how urban areas are developed.
- State Government
- Local councils
- Federal
Non-official sources on these issues are few and far between – even well organised community groups have trouble having their voice heard.
In The Social Production of News Hall discusses whose voice is heard in the news media. He describes “primary and secondary definers�. In news production the journalist and editor’s role as gatekeeper is tied into the decision making process regarding primary definers. Those who are sought out as official, authoritative voices are primary definers. All other sources must respond to the issue in the terms already defined by those who go before. In urban planning reporting the fact that so much newsmaking is based on what information the government has released Hall’s is a particularly important argument.
“The media define for the majority of the population what significant events are taking place, but also, they offer powerful interpretations of how to understand these events. Implicit in those interpretations are orientations towards the events and the people or groups involved in them�
Hall, S. et al 1978: Policing the Crisis, London Macmillan, c.3, ‘The Social Production of News’, pp53-77
- The RWA project
- Roads & transport crisis
Two subjects caught my eye, RWA and recently the roads. They are slightly different treatments – the RWA is the media responding to government press releases and initiatives. Dealing with PR, investigating what the government really means and following the events.
Case Study – Redfern Waterloo
Background information
- In 2004 the Carr government announced a planned redevelopment of Redfern and surrounding suburbs as part of a massive urban renewal project.
- The project was to be funded by the sale of public housing including the twin towers in Redfern, and land seized compulsorily
- Land to be seized included The Block and commercial zones in inner South Sydney.
- To facilitate the seizures the Minister for Redfern Waterloo, Frank Sartor, was granted special powers to override heritage and native title laws as well as overriding local council planning and zoning laws.
Initial reports were slanted in the governments favour; headlines included
How Redfern will be reborn
Fixing the Block
How they will breath life into Redfern
Better urban planning can bring the community together
But later reports were not as positive and concentrated on the “draconian� measures the Carr Government and Frank Sartor undertook and ensure the project; headlines included
Developer’s charter betrays the spirit of old Redfern
Redfern Rage
Anger at secret plan to bulldoze Redfern tower
These headlines indicate the news media’s decisions about how to cover the story. Because official bodies are usually the ones being covered, the nature of the stories is often investigative and tied to the press’ role as watchdog and protector of the public’s right to know. Individual rights to property as well as local representation are being overruled – hence the demand for information.
With the transition from supporting the government to opposing (in some sense) the Redfern planning issues the NSW media demonstrated Cottle’s ‘consensus and descensus’ argument of media control. Initially supportive of the government’s plans, when cracks began to show, the media went in for the kill.
“The news media will tend to support government policy and access voices that give vent to this support; in times of elite descensus however, the news media will also take their cue from this and be prepared to access a wider range of voices�.
Cottle, Simon. 2000, Rethinking news access, Journalism Studies, 1 (3), pp 427-448
However the SMH reports don’t make real demands for change of government policy when reporting on this story. Public opinion could be the answer – Redfern is seen as run-down and filled with crime. Also indigenous issues are considered – it doesn’t have anything to do with us, it’s not our problem.
The reporting seems more traditionally ‘objective’ – stating the facts, finding opposing views, presenting the stories to the public to decide. The spirit of the reporting is ‘keeping the government in check – and therefore acting as watchdog for the public.
This story is an interesting one because the Iemma government, like Carr’s before it, is selling it as a desperately needed redevelopment of and urban area. The media are alternatively pushing the story either as an Indigenous Issue (thanks to the possibility of The Block being compulsorily seized, or a ‘draconian’ government story or a Frank Sartor story (someone the NSW press seems to love to hate).
Government in-fighting, leaked reports, secret agreements are all run of the mill in urban affairs reporting.
Community groups who can’t get a word in – REDWatch – reported once in SMH and once in Green Left Weekly. These groups are not primary definers, in Hall’s definition, so cannot get real access to the media in order to have their voices heard.
Case Study SMH report on roads and traffic
Â
“What is at stake in news production is the meaning attributed to events, processes, or states of affairs. As much as the news itself is light reading, listening and viewing, the process of assigning meaning is not a light matter. It is crucial to the constitution of political culture.�
Ericson, R. et al 1989: Negotiating control c. 7 ‘Negotiating Control, pp 377-398.
Since 2004 the SMH has taken on the public voice in relation to particular issues – environment and urban planning being high on the agenda. Ericson’s argument on who produces the stories and their meanings is important in the discussion of how news is disseminated – much like Hall’s arguments on sourcing.
In January 2006 the SMH developed a series of reports regarding Sydney’s worsening “transport crisis�. In this series the paper has taken up the public voice, and is calling out for change as the guardian of the public interest. It presents what ‘needs to be done’, is vocal about what the government needs to do and includes more editorialising.
Here then, there is a distinction between the role of objectivity and the growing role of transparency in journalism. While the Redfern Waterloo reports could (initially at least) be described as objective reporting the transport series could be described as ‘transparent’. The division between objectivity and reactive journalism (i.e. reporting on events as they happen) and transparency (in this case manufacturing news as the voice of the people) is quite distinct.
Two weeks ago the SMH started a push for policy change regarding roads, traffic and the environment. Beginning with a released report by the Total Environment Centre about the necessity of upgrading the cities roads and public transport system – and how the government was getting it all wrong.
They have followed that up this week with a number of special reports – “commissioned by the Herald�. These stories and editorials specifically push for change of policy from the government.
The language is emotive and charged – here the papers are targeting the audience by framing the story as a health issue. In using this language the paper is framing the issue in a significant way – placing the issue within a sphere of interaction with the audience.
A city going nowhere fast
- “hidden social costs�
- “Poor transport planning�
- “dysfunctional transport network�
- “transport crisis�
- “surrender economic growth�
One moment of madness, but a lifetime of regret
- “speeding through Sydney streets�
- “Sydney household wear the bulk of the cost�
Driven round the bend: tales of a life on the road
- “if she were not wasting her life behind the wheel of her car�
- “Mr Burrows dreads Epping Road�
Heavy road congestion is killing us, study finds
- “Road transport is costing Sydney 1.4 billion a year�
- “environmental and health damage�
- “prematurely killing�
- “TOMORROW The solution to Sydney’s transport crisis�
Entman describes the framing as the use of culturally recognisable, emotive words to set meaning. The SMH is definitely framing this issue as a social problem, with health and environmental impacts. In doing so they are hoping to force the government to respond in kind.
“Framing: selecting and highlighting some facets of events or issues and making connections a month them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation, and / or solution.�
“Those frames that employ more culturally resonant terms have the greatest potential for influence. They use words and images highly salient to the culture, which is to say noticeable, understandable, memorable and emotionally charged�.
- Entman Robert M. 2004 “Projecting Power in the news� Ch 1 Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago.
The SMH’s use of expert reports – “commissioned by the Herald� is an attempt to force the hand of the government and perpetuates the notion that primary definers (Hall) are allowed to speak. By calling in the experts, the government would then have to respond with their own.
If spin corrupted authentic political discourse, the journalism of political process betrayed normative ideals of the fourth estate in liberal democracy, colluding with the spin doctors and media minders in a cosy insiders’ conspiracy against public understanding�.
- McNair, Brian “PR Must Die: spin, anti-spin and relations in the UK, 1997-2004, Journalism Studies, Volume 5, Number 3, 2004 pp 325-338
Finally, both these case studies warrant discussion based on who is putting the issues in the news, who decides what information, what language, which source, which opposing voice gets into the news. It’s a fact of life that spin is in the news, and that very adept spin doctors (often ex-journalists) are campaigning for their story of the week.
Annotated Bibliography
- Hall, S. et al, 1978: Policing the crisis, London Macmillan, c.3, ‘The Social Production of News’, pp 53-77
Hall’s interpretation of the role of the media in presenting information to the public and performing as interpretation of events is vital to interpreting what stories are selected and disseminated. I think that Hall’s interpretation of sources as primary or secondary definers can shed light on why the media chooses particular sources for comment, whose voice is heard in the media and who is locked out of the news and the pubic relations cycle.
- Ericson, R. et al 1989: Negotiating control c. 7 ‘Negotiating Control, pp 377-398.
Similar to Hall’s discussion of sourcing, Ericson’s text is vital to the discussion of agenda setting and critical consumption of news. Ericson’s discussion of control of information could be helpful in the discussion of news production series of decisions and assumptions made by journalist and audience.
The journalist’s role in decision making is paramount in Entman’s article on framing issues within specific sphere of discussion based on use of language. Journalists have the ability to frame issues by using the language of the primary sources or re-defining the issue by rephrasing and essentially reframing the discussion.
- McNair, Brian “PR Must Die: spin, anti-spin and relations in the UK, 1997-2004, Journalism Studies, Volume 5, Number 3, 2004 pp 325-338
Any discussion of modern media production has to consider the role of public relations and spin doctoring particularly in relation to reporting big business and government. Has media credibility and public trust in journalists as a source of information been corrupted by the necessity of producing news everyday. I think McNair’s arguments also link with discussions about the manufacturing of news by the media in order to make money. This should be tie in with both the SMH case studies.
- Cottle Simon 2000, Rethinking news access, Journalism studies, 1 (3) pp 427-448
Cottle’s discussion of who has access to the news media is particularly important in light of the case studies I’ve chosen for this subject. As urban planning issues are handled by government and big business, they are often discussed in a vacuum of grass roots or community involvement – why is this, when urban planning issues have such a direct impact on the general community, be it housing of health issues.
Essay Question
“Frames that employ more culturally resonant terms have the greatest potential for influence. They use words and images highly salient to the culture, which is to say noticeable, understandable, memorable and emotionally charged�.
Entman Robert M. 2004 “Projecting Power in the news� Ch 1 Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy.
Discuss Entman’s arguments about framing with regard to the Australian news media’s role in news production and dissemination paying particular attention to the role of journalists and public relations professionals in setting the news agenda for the public.
January 17, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in International, Uncategorized.add a comment
Super chain Tescos has gotten into hot water in the UK by building stores without planning permission or building stores outside of the permissions provided. This story from the Guardian outlines the chain’s alleged disregard for the authorities and it’s attempts to force out all competition and gain a monopoly in specific areas.
The list of allegations is long – opposing approvals for rival stores, building without permission, building stores 20% larger than allowed in it’s approval. The report was damning in it’s finding.
“With one supermarket company effectively bulldozing its way through the local planning system and increasingly dominating the food retail market, can it be said to be protecting ’sustainable and inclusive’ development?”
Â
Clear skies or more hot air? January 11, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Clover Moore, Environment, Roads, Sydney, Uncategorized.add a comment
Controversial data from the Total Environment Centre has invigorated the Sydney Morning Heralds reports this week that the public transport system needs to be upgraded. This report, published in the SMH this morning, continues the story from previous reports on Monday and Tuesday
Sydney City Council, led by Lord Mayor Clover Moore, continue to campaign for light rail infrastructure to be continued into the city proper. The light rail line currently runs from Lillyfield in Sydney’s Inner West into Central and Pyrmont.
The City of Sydney believes that light rail is the best way to tackle the city’s congestion problems. Demand for travel within the city centre is expected to rise by 32 per cent over the next 15 years.
Developing a light rail network could cut the number of buses a day in the city by more than a third by 2021, a report presented to the council last year says.
Today’s report combines details from the two reports earlier this week with responses from green groups, the State Transit Authoity and the NSW Governement. I found this report to be more confrontational than the previous stories. The two elements, pro and con, are definitely presented as being at odds with each other. Although I noted that there were more ‘pro’ voices that ‘con’.
While the objectivity of the reports is carefully balanced, the governement are represented but without attributed quotes, this is in stark contrast to the green groups, the Council and the TEC who are quoted extensively.
January 9, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Clover Moore, Roads, Sydney.add a comment
The Sydney Morning Herald has run two stories in as many days covering the public transport needs of Australia’s biggest city.
The first story from Monday’s online edition reports that the light rail war is starting up again. Morris Iemma’s NSW Government aren’t willing to put money down to extend the light rail, while Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore is ready to start campaigning for the trams.
Today’s story is a re-branding of Monday’s piece, though with a different spin – this time reporting the number of busses required to cater to the increasing public transport demands into the next few decades. Today’s report breathlessly reminds readers that SMH ‘broke’ the story in Monday’s paper.
The report, revealed by the Herald yesterday, concluded that a two-way tram line along George Street or Castlereagh Street was feasible. Under the plan, the trams would run between Central and Circular Quay every 2½ minutes from 6am to midnight, with the journey taking less than 15 minutes.
January 8, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Roads.add a comment
The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting story on a recent government funded report outlining simple maintainence measure to decrease the number of road accidents and fatalities.
Interestingly, this story features sources outside the government, or any other body that could be considered to have authority over the roads. However, community groups such as the Australian Automobile Association, the NRMA and an academic are featured as valid sources in response to the release of the report.
Please note January 8, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Uncategorized.add a comment
I seem to be having trouble posting comments on other blogs for some reason, there are afew I’ve posted that have disappeared and the net won’t let me try them again. Could just be an short-term problem with my connection.
I’ll make an attempt from my work connection this week.
EDIT: The problem is with Blogger sites, I can’t comment despite having a Blogger log in. Sorry Bloggers!
January 6, 2006
Posted by tachikoma in Clover Moore, International, Sydney, housing.add a comment
Firstly, apologies for the delay in the latest update – Christmas and New Year seem a quiet time of year for planning and development reporting, and things were starting to look a little dire. However, to move onto my research for this week…
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported this morning that there is a battle brewing over plans to expand Kingsford Smith airport into a shopping and cinema complex. The proposal is intended to open up the South Sydney area.
The Macquarie Bank-owned Sydney Airport Corporation is proposing a 60,000-square-metre retail and commercial complex, including clothing, food, homewares and speciality shops, a supermarket, a 1500-seat cinema or office space, and parking for about 3000 cars.
The NSW Minister for Roads, Joe Tripodi, says NSW taxpayers will have to pay $2.7 billion to upgrade roads around the airport because the complex will create so much additional traffic.
Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore is involved as is Marrickville Council, but I think for different reasons. Sydney news media have reported consistently on Moore’s ‘anti-development’ stance and although not referenced directly in this report, Nixon does make reference to Moore’s concerns that the normal planning process will not apply to the Sydney Airport development.
Cr Moore has also called on the federal Minister for Transport, Warren Truss – who is responsible for the airport and any development within its grounds – to ensure the project conforms to NSW state and local planning rules.
“The process [of approval] does not include the usual accountable processes that council employs in assessing and approving development,” she said in a recent mayoral minute.
On the other hand, the Marrickville Council comment refers to concerns for local businesses who will have to compete with the new improved airport facilities.
The reporter has made obvious attempts to remain impartial and provide a balanced report as per the journalistic norm (see Shudson’s discussion on the role of journalists and their normative role). There are two distinct ’sides’ to the story, and it has been developed as a ‘conflict’ with one side pro-development and the other anti-development. There is balance in the comments as well, two could be considered pro and the other two anti-development.
Another aspect of this story that was clear to me was the reporter’s use of ‘authorised’ sources. All of the noted sources are commenting from a place of power, be it local council (although Moore’s position as Lord Mayor of Sydney gives her more supposed authority than the Marrickville Mayor), Minister for Roads, even the un-named ‘airport spokesman’ comments on the issue from the position of an ‘approved’ source. These people have the power and so they are the ones who are considered competent to comment and respond.
This strikes me as more a conversation between those in power, reporting on the negotiation, rather than a discussion between the community and its representatives. It would be interesteing to see if later reports include the communities voice.
Onto subjects further afield and abroad – I was researching reports overseas while desperately waiting for something to happen in Australia. The following issues are a little broader than urban planning, but I think they are connected.
First cab off the rank is this report from The Times regarding Japan’s dwindling birth rate and the plans (or not) to boost the population. What’s immediately apparent reading through this report are the differences in reporting method compared to the SMH article.
I think alot of the differences are based on the fact that this is foreign news (from the perspective of The Times as well as for Australians). Because this article can be classed as ‘foreign news’ the journalistic norm has been suspended as per Nossek’s description of domestic versus foreign reporting. This article has been expanded from ‘this happened and this happened’ to ‘this happened and this is why’. Although I don’t think that kind of reporting is wrong or imbalanced I do think that had this been a UK issue The Times would have reported it more ’straight down the line’.
The only source noted is the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and I think his comment is used as the hook for a news item that turns quietly into a short feature, in which the reporter has a bit more room in how they report the news.
Secondly, comes this story from the New York Times (and has anyone else noticed how long the US media make their headlines? They spell everything out for you!). The once run-down and poverty stricken region of Hartford is making a comeback, luring new residents young and old and urban developments.
“To me,” said Ms. Stephenson, who grew up on Cape Cod, “this is the perfect-size city. With my friends at the Cape, I’m like, ‘Come to Hartford. I swear, it’s fun.’ “
The arrival of young professionals, empty-nesters and retirees is critical to the plan to build a stable residential neighborhood downtown. Told of Ms. Stephenson and her enthusiasm, Michael Kintner, the project coordinator for the Hartford Image Project, a marketing group formed four years ago to fight negative perceptions of the city, said, “I may have to hire her.”
Having just looked at the Times Online story about Japan, moving onto this article really homes in on Nossek’s discussion about ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ framing. Here is a domestic article from the NY Times, about a local NY State issue – and the sourcing and attribution is all in line with ‘objective’ journalistic practises. This disparity is something we see in Australian media as well, I think.
“Better rebuilding in Aceh” December 29, 2005
Posted by tachikoma in International.1 comment so far
Sheri Fink has written an interesting piece on the redevelopment of Aceh for the Washington Post, one year after the tsunami that devastated the Indonesian province. Although this item is certainly an editorial and not a ‘hard news’ article it brought to mind some of the arguments used by Nossek in how foreign and local news are disseminated.
Fink’s language is emotive and volatile in parts, even going so far as to describe acts as immoral, but this reminded me of Nossek’s description of the different ‘frames’ worn by journalists and editors when deciding how or if to report foreign news.
The Washington Post has set this story most definitely as a foreign news piece – it even has the distinct elements of conflict that Nossek used in evaluating the four news stories in the dissertation. The conflict in Aceh and the massive rebuilding effort that is ongoing in Aceh is (to use Nossek’s terminology) ‘theirs’, yet the story is made more local (in an American sense) by the discussion of United States aid money and how it is being spent (or not).
But leaders of aid agencies say they are unsure whether they may use tsunami recovery donations to implement programs in areas that are primarily affected by the conflict. Even the U.S. Agency for International Development is constrained by a restrictive interpretation of how the $656 million Congress designated for tsunami-hit countries in the 2005 budget supplemental can be spent.
There are few sources mentioned here (unsurprising for an editorial), but there is mention outside factors such as the World Bank, which seems to make the story more ‘open’ rather than closed as in Nossek’s definitions.
Fink is quite forthright in her ideas regarding this venture, and how the money should be spent. There is also a lot of information regarding the rebuilding progress despite the lack of sources. Does her transparency make up for the lack of balance? Does neutrality count for anything when the issue is a humanitarian? Are there situations where journalists can put aside their professional attitudes and just say “this is how is should be”?
Sartor strikes again December 28, 2005
Posted by tachikoma in Redfern-Waterloo, Sydney, housing.add a comment
It seems that the NSW Government’s plans to redevelope the Redfern Waterloo area have been causing controversy almost continuously since the plan was announced in 2005.
This report from the Sydney Morning Herald in April 2005 outlines the RWA’s difficulty in procuring a substantial loan as the project is defined by the government as “a non-budget dependent agency”. Go find your own cash, in other words. I assume this attitude is merely a reflection of what the Carr Government had in mind for the area – by implementing development, and luring businesses and more home owners into the area the locals could essentially find their own cash and the inner south west would no longer be a benefits sink hole.
Its original budget required it to “generate significant revenue” in its first two years, by selling or developing the police station at Redfern and railway land at Eveleigh. It does not now expect to raise significant amounts for up to four years, blaming problems with public consultation, “highly contaminated” sites and “significant” heritage issues.
More recently the RWA continues to release obtuse media grabs about how the area will be reinvigorated. This pdf of a November 05 media release lists a number of ways the RWA intends to lift the area out of welfare dependency. Is it all hogwash? You be the judge.
Mr Sartor said the Employment and Enterprise Plan drafted by the Redfern Waterloo Authority proposes a range of strategies to promote much needed job-growth.
“This plan aimes to create 18,000 new jobs to tackle the area’s high unemployment and welfare dependency” Mr Sartor said.
“Under this approach wealth creation will be the main antidote to welfare dependency”
Well, knock me over with a feather! To think that creating wealth within the population could eliminate poverty and dependence! Why hasn’t anyone thought of it before? Interestingly Mr Sartor doesn’t deign to mention that some of those pesky “heritage issues” are linked to those annoying welfare dependent people. The RWA wants The Block razed, the occupants shifted and the land sold. You know, knocking down their houses and dispersing the welfare dependent population into other areas will certainly make the numbers look better – on paper at least.
Golfclap for you and yours Sartor.
Â
Goodnight and good luck December 22, 2005
Posted by tachikoma in Uncategorized.add a comment
This is slightly off topic, but I wanted to make a quick note about Goodnight and Good Luck. This is an excellent film about the nature and role of journalism, and the ethics of news reporting versus editorialising. It’s also extremely current and topical despite being set in the 1950s.
