The realm of the gods
Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Carfax Publishing
Faculty
Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences
School
School of Communications and Multimedia / Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts,Technology, Education and Communications
RAS ID
615
Abstract
This summer, perhaps more than usual, Australians have been looking out to sea. Initially, their gaze was directed towards the Tampa, becalmed in an international incident; then, in fear of sharks, either recalling last year’s death on Cottesloe Beach in Perth, or this summer in South Australia; and finally, toward images of children cast adrift on the ocean. Those images surfaced on 8 October, buoyed the federal election until 10 November, when it was all too late, only to reappear again in February as a limpet attached to Prime Minister John Howard’s senior political advisers, his depart-ment and senior officers in the military. They all looked, were confused by what they saw, and only told what John Howard, Philip Ruddock and Peter Reith wanted to see, until it was too late. The veracity of those images and what they might show has lured the Australian news media to re-look, again when it is all too late. Howard’s, Ruddock’s and Reith’s defence is that they never looked themselves.
DOI
10.1080/10304310220138723
Comments
Ballantine, K., & Leslie, N. (2002). The realm of the Gods. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 16(2), 141-142. Available here