ABSTRACT

For news media on the earth's driest continent, changes in the health and politics of Australia's largest river system, the Murray-Darling, have been a major national focus for decades. In recent times, climate crisis, drought and policy failure have combined to threaten its future, putting the issue under intense public scrutiny. This article offers a critical discourse analysis of specialist rural radio coverage of the issue in 2018–19. It identifies the discourses that the Country Hour program presents and considers the voices and viewpoints that are absent. Two critical discourse moments are analyzed: an ecological disaster in which more than one million fish died, and #watergate – a pre-election scandal over commercial water rights. We map the strategies and roles of Country Hour journalists and other social actors in legitimating the “productive use” of the river system above all else, politicizing the issue and shifting responsibility for the river's wellbeing.

摘要

对于地球上最干旱的大陆的新闻媒体而言，几十年来，澳大利亚最大的河流系统-默里·达令河（Murray-Darling）的健康和政治变化一直是全国关注的重点。近年来，气候危机，干旱和政策失灵共同威胁到其未来，使这一问题受到了公众的严格审查。本文提供了对2018-19年度农村专业广播电台对该问题的报道的批判性话语分析。它确定了“国家时间”计划所呈现的话语，并考虑了缺少的声音和观点。分析了两个关键的话语时刻：一场生态灾难，这场灾难中有超过100万条鱼死亡，以及#watergate –选举前关于商业水权的丑闻。我们绘制了“国家时间”的策略和作用 记者和其他社会行为者，首先将河流系统的“生产性使用”合法化，将这一问题政治化，并将对河流福祉的责任转移到其他地方。