Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
The relationship between media and democracy has become increasingly fractured in Australia. Foundational democratic ideals, once mutually reinforcing, such as freedom of information, transparency and accountability, pluralism and diversity of opinion, and public trust are showing signs of strain. Under mounting pressure from media commercialisation, information pollution, populism and polarisation, democracy faces what André Bächtiger and John Dryzek (2024) describe as ‘diabolical times.’ They argue that the current crisis of democracy is, at its core, a crisis of public communication.
Keywords
artificial intelligence, deliberative democracy, fake news, fragmentation, high-choice media environment, hyper-partisanship, mediatisation, mis- and disinformation, news avoidance, participatory culture, polarisation, political podcasts, political trust, public interest journalism, regulation, social media, Canberra bubble, Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery, hybrid-media system, public sphere
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
2026
Publication Title
Australian Politics and Policy
Publisher
Sydney University Press
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
88760
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Fitzpatrick, C., & Sengul, K. (2026). Media and democracy. In D. Perche, N. Barry, N. Bromfield, A. Fenna, E. Foley, Z. Ghazarian, & P. Hayman (Eds.), Australian politics and policy (pp. 201-229). Sydney University Press. https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/aust-politics-policy/