Abstract Educational issues are a regular feature in mainstream media, and the ways in which particular issues are represented can influence public perceptions of the various discipline areas and, in turn, policy decisions that affect them. While the research literature includes media coverage analyses of a wide range of educational disciplines and sectors, missing is an understanding of the media representations of language education in the tertiary setting, despite languages being seen as a key pathway to generalised national multilingualism, social harmony, and economic prosperity. The authors address this gap using Australia as a case study, a country that has seen considerable policy and media attention to language education in general over many years. A content analysis of print newspaper coverage from 2007–2016 was conducted, revealing that the coverage of the discipline area at the tertiary level is extremely limited, is generally superficial in depth, narrow in scope, and negative in tone. This representation perpetuates the already precarious position of language education in Australian universities, and there is little support for a more positive and visible public agenda.

中文翻译：

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代表澳大利亚大学的语言教育：新闻报道分析（2007–2016）

摘要教育问题是主流媒体的常规特征，特定问题的表达方式会影响公众对各个学科领域的看法，进而影响到影响他们的政策决定。尽管研究文献包括对广泛的教育学科和领域的媒体报道分析，但尽管语言被视为通向普遍的民族多语言，社会和谐，和经济繁荣。作者以澳大利亚为例研究了这一差距，该国多年来在政策和媒体上普遍关注语言教育。对2007-2016年印刷报纸的报道进行了内容分析，这表明，大专学科领域的覆盖面非常有限，通常在深度上是肤浅的，范围狭窄，基调是负面的。这种代表使澳大利亚大学语言教育本来就一直处于不稳定状态，几乎没有人支持更加积极和可见的公共议程。