NBN enjoys massive public support despite “overwhelmingly negative” print coverage

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news A new comprehensive study of public attitudes towards Labor’s National Broadband Network project has found the initiative still enjoys very high levels of widespread public support from ordinary Australians, despite what the study described as an “overwhelmingly negative” approach to the project by print media such as newspapers.

The study, entitled Framing the NBN: Public perceptions and media representations, was published this month by the University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES). It is available online in PDF format.

The study is composed of several different parts. Firstly, the researchers involved conducted a national online survey of some 2,180 Australians undertaken in March 2013. Secondly, they conducted twenty five interviews with various household types to gain a deeper qualitative understanding of the how NBN was understood by Australians. And lastly, it conducted a large sampling of mainstream press coverage in two Australian newspapers — The Australian and The Age. Some 1,060 articles were examined which were published from 1 July 2008 to 1 July 2013.

With respect to the media survey, the study found that in the first two years of the sample, the NBN was predominantly discussed in terms of whether it should exist or not. Debates then shifted to the technical configuration of the project, and then more recently, onto delays with the rollout.

However, across both newspapers, there were “comparatively few articles focusing on the positive aspects and possible larger societal benefits of the network (10 articles or 0.94 percent of coverage), or on the applications that may be supported by the NBN (including health, arts, education) (12 articles, or 1.13 percent)”.

“Given the transformative potential of high speed broadband for so many aspects of Australian life, it is remarkable that across the coverage of the NBN in The Australian and The Age newspapers, there are so few articles focusing on the likely applications of the NBN, the implications of these applications for various economic sectors and social groups, and so little debate and discussion of possible economic, societal and cultural benefits of the network,” the study’s authors wrote.

In addition, in general, print media representations of the NBN project were generally negative.

“The NBN has attracted considerable media coverage over the last 5 years, and whilst the research findings do not reveal any particular agenda being pursued, they do show that the sentiment in the print media representations of the NBN was overwhelmingly negative,” the study noted.

In contrast, ordinary Australians were very positive in their attitudes towards the NBN, according to the study.

When asked ‘Do you have a positive or negative opinion of the National Broadband Network in general?’ respondents expressed an overwhelmingly positive opinion. 26.1 percent responded with “very positive”, 38.2 percent responded with “positive”, 14.8 percent responded with “neutral”, and only 12.6 percent and 8.3 percent responded with “negative” or “very negative”, respectively.

In addition to asking about overall or general views of the NBN, the study also asked survey respondents whether they though the NBN would be of benefit to them personally, asking ‘Do you expect that the NBN will have benefits for you?’ 58 percent thought the NBN would be personally beneficial (providing ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ responses), whilst 26% thought it wouldn’t be, and 15% were neutral.

In addition, the study found there were no real demographic differences between Australians who supported the NBN and those who didn’t.

“Surprisingly there was no statistically significant variation in responses amongst the various demographics,” the study wrote. “For example, separating postcode into urban and rural was expected to produce some difference in attitude to the NBN, but there was no real variation in the respective frequency distributions on that variable, nor on all the other demographic variables.”

The analysis also considered whether political affiliation would produce any difference in attitudes to the NBN, by asking ‘Which party did you vote for in the 2010 election?’ Respondents who voted for the Liberal and/or National Parties at the 2010 election had a more negative opinion of the NBN than Australian Labor Party (ALP) voters, with ALP voters twice as likely as Liberal voters to hold very positive opinions on the NBN.

However, NBN support amongst Liberal voters was still very strong, with 48 percent of that voting base supporting the project.

parties

A number of other surveys conducted over the past 2-3 years have consistently shown strong support for the NBN project amongst Australians, and even Coalition voters.

opinion/analysis
Surprise, surprise! Most Australians continue to support Labor’s NBN vision, despite the fact that Australia’s mainstream media has been staunchly against the project almost from day one. How can these newspapers and the journalists who work for them claim to be serving the Australian public when they consistently advocate against the public’s interest? I don’t quite understand. But then, that in itself may be part of why I work for an independent online media outlet and not a giant newspaper (any more).

Image credit: NBN Co

36 COMMENTS

  1. That graph is absolutely terrible. Hard to discern the relativity of opinions among party supporters. I think IBES folks need to study a bit of infoviz!

    • I find it very good actually.

      It is cumulative, and I find it very easy to see who feels what.

      It is very hard to see who is ONLY middle-grounding it, but easy to see the differences between parties (on a pro / neg scale)

      Tip: Location of the “grey” box is the divider. relative height of the grey box shows you where the divide within a party is with the project. – which is not to imply you couldn’t figure that out, but I actually find it very useful ;)

  2. The Australian public strongly supports the NBN, NBN support is lower among Coalition voters (but even they largely support it), and the media has it in for the NBN. Anyone could have told you that. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have further evidence to support those things we already knew. So good work by the IBES.

    I found this to be the more interesting statistic:

    However, across both newspapers, there were “comparatively few articles focusing on the positive aspects and possible larger societal benefits of the network (10 articles or 0.94 percent of coverage), or on the applications that may be supported by the NBN (including health, arts, education) (12 articles, or 1.13 percent)”.

    “Given the transformative potential of high speed broadband for so many aspects of Australian life, it is remarkable that across the coverage of the NBN in The Australian and The Age newspapers, there are so few articles focusing on the likely applications of the NBN, the implications of these applications for various economic sectors and social groups, and so little debate and discussion of possible economic, societal and cultural benefits of the network,” the study’s authors wrote.

    It’s unsurprising that it’s low (because of media/editorial bias/agenda/whatever) but fairly surprising just how low. Only 22 articles in a sample of 1,060. There’s a strong parallel here with what iiNet was saying:

    “Successive governments have struggled to communicate concrete reasons for an investment in NBN. Debate has continued to focus on download speeds for domestic entertainment,” wrote the ISP. “No ‘National Objectives’ are presented as the drivers for the construction of the NBN, as they might be for any other infrastructure project. The strategic review continues the failure to address any of these missing components. The cost benefit analysis has no specific benefits to analyse, only costs.”

    “The Australian public, and it seems the Parliament, appears to be unsure why the NBN is being built and so discussions are still mired in the operational issues of costs, timetables and technology, rather than national benefits. iiNet believes there are very clear National Objectives that ought to be the focus of national debate and agreement, as they are in other, neighboring economies.”

    “These National Objectives or goals should include a focus on: National productivity, job creation, export opportunities, regional development, industry development, improved competition and improved social outcomes. iiNet does not believe that downloading songs faster or being able to connect multiple televisions should be the drivers of national infrastructure projects.”

    Cue the Coalition supporter: “but we can’t afford it with massive levels of debt courtesy of the Labour goverment!!!1”

    • It’s important to remember that the News Media are hardly disinterested parties in all this.
      They are still overwhelmed trying to find a balance between pay-wall and print, and I imagine that they don’t see better internet as a good thing for themselves…

      • I don’t understand that view myself. Surely a better internet is equipped to offer better value to the subscriber through video and higher quality imagery?

        • They need to settle on a viable model first, the paywall is still basically a trail kind of thing at the moment I think. And I was reading an article today where companies looking to run adverts see online clicks as not being as good value as newspapers, as the papers get 20-30 minutes a day viewing, while online has a lot lower “eyeball time” (I guess people just click on the link to go look watch the cat move and then move on :o)

  3. Hardly surprising. The news Ltd. Brigade are blatantly biased, yet never attract criticism from peers like they do to the ABC.
    The media are a strong political force, irrespective of who’s in govt. Much too powerful here in Australia. They virtually run the country. They don’t want the nbn and are determined to scythe it.

    • If you just want to bash on the papers that’s understandable but at least pretend to read the article.

      It states that despite the coverage people have formed their own opinions which technically invalidates our claim that the media “virtually run the country”.

      • I think the mass media has a very powerful influence on our perceptions towards personalities (politicians, celebrities, sportspeople, businesspeople, etc.), but not policies.

        Simple evidence for this are the number of people who said “I liked the Labor party’s policies, but I couldn’t stand Gillard and Rudd.” I wonder where they got these perceptions from… Hmmm….

        That’s why politics (not just in Australia) is such a contest of personality. Only a truly detestable policy like WorkChoices could swing the election so far in the opposite direction; although personality (and media complicity) in 2007 helped with Rudd’s win too, so was it the policies or the personalities, really?

        In 2013, people saw the “disciplined” Coalition of Tony Abbott as the lesser evil compared to the “rabble” that was Rudd’s Labor Party. Today they realise their mistake and regret their choice.

        But really, should we blame it on the media’s perhaps irresponsible exercise of their influence, or should we blame it on a public so easily influenced by them? That’s the question you have to ask.

      • Change the comment to “The media virtually runs the Liberal Party” and it’d be a lot more accurate.

      • Great point, but it goes further than that.

        1. Opinion heavily favours the FTTH NBN, papers oppose it. Conclusion: People aren’t getting their opinions from the papers, at least IRT the NBN.

        2. Opinion heavily favours the FTTH NBN, the Libs oppose it. Libs got voted in. Conclusion: Either the Libs other policies are more important to the voter than the NBN, or the ALP caused so my angst with it’s internal squabbles that it was more important to vote them out than to keep them for the NBN. (I favour the latter)

        The conclusion I draw from the above is that the broad support re: FTTP NBN represents that voters like the idea, but do not prioritise it, and that if the media does have influence, it’s over issues like asylum seekers.

        FTTP didn’t keep the ALP in office at the last election, and as part of a suite of policies for the previous election, it returned the ALP as a minority gov… All in all, for a wildly popular policy, it hasn’t resulted in mass outcry either, now that the LNP has decided to play “Will it blend” with it…

        Popularity is worthless without leverage to affect change.

        • ” Opinion heavily favours the FTTH NBN, papers oppose it. Conclusion: People aren’t getting their opinions from the papers, at least IRT the NBN.”

          Conversely, the papers aren’t getting their ‘opinions’ from the people. Which explains nicely why the ‘dead tree’ press is dying.

  4. reality we need broadband today not tomorrow, sadly whilst we have idiots in power nothing will be done, sadly we’ll need another election to fix anything Malcolm screws up in the meantime…

  5. “opinion/analysis
    Surprise, surprise! Most Australians continue to support Labor’s NBN vision, despite the fact that Australia’s mainstream media has been staunchly against the project almost from day one.”

    This supposes that mainstream media represents the thoughts of Australians. As near as I can tell, they follow the dictates of their owners. The press is polarised politically, and it is not very pretty, and not indicative of real Australians.

    I am interested in technology, and see the internet as far more than a way to watch porn.

    Every mainstream discussion of what the NBN could do seemed to find an online gamer as the typical internet user. The social, industrial, journalistic, medical and career opportunities provided by fast, affordable internet are extraordinary.

    I appear to have lost the hope of the NBN in the two weeks after the last election, My area went from eight months of “under construction” to “no plans”.

    Malcom Turnbull the “Man who practically invented the Internet in Australia” has taken my hopes of affordable high-speed internet away from me, and I will NEVER forgive that…

  6. “How can these newspapers and the journalists who work for them claim to be serving the Australian public when they consistently advocate against the public’s interest? I don’t quite understand”.

    It could be because the rise of the internet is correlated with the demise of print news organizations. Many have gone by the wayside, many are struggling to keep afloat, while some are prospering (but not without massive workforce reductions). So, an even better internet experience is not something these organizations would naturally cheer for.

    “But then, that in itself may be part of why I work for an independent online media outlet”.

    Which the internet has enabled you to do.

  7. Of course traditional media outlets run negative campaigns, particularly News Limited, whose newspapers are behind paywalls consequently have no readership online, with a fast declining print market (all Australian News Ltd papers are now loss making and are subsidised by News) and a Foxtel network that will face huge competition from the NBN. People discover they can just buy the programming they want from studios marketing directly. Sporting groups like AFL and NRL desert Foxtel and setup their own broadcast studios.
    Print media is largely dead and Murdoch soon will be. Within 5 years News LTD will be gone, the owners of this business without Murdoch at the helm will can the newspapers quickly.
    Foxtel is 200 channels with nothing to watch.
    In the end the NBN will win and the political parties that opposed it gone for a long time like the Liberals when they opposed Medibank (another well liked Labor programme), the Liberals were not re elected for 11 years.
    Political revenge runs deep for the coalition, in NSW the current Liberal party is got it’s heart set on removing Labor built Darling Harbour with it’s own version. It’s a kind of mental illness, no real thought just revenge.

    • “Of course traditional media outlets run negative campaigns, particularly News Limited”

      What is surprising is not the self interested negative coverage by News Limited, but the almost equally negative coverage by Fairfax.

      It was almost as if Fairfax were playing a game of catch-up with News memes without any regard to accuracy or responsibility.

      As far as I could see the only remotely fair and realistic commentary on the NBN came from the ABC. Even then, it was almost entirely the solo effort of Nick Ross.

      “In the end the NBN will win”

      Not if Abbott and Turnbull have anything to with it.

      It’s becoming more obvious with every passing day that their plan is to both hobble and delay the NBN enough to enable private players to gazump NBNCo in building the fibre network of the future.

  8. Great timing of this report’s release for Q&A tonight. Actually, wonder if Media Watch will grab it.

  9. I’m sorry – I can’t get past this:

    ‘University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES)’ – ??

    I can understand what the ‘Ponds Institute for younger looking skin’ agenda is and what they are about – but IBES??

    • Presumably they research broadband internet and its applications – and its potential applications, and how broadband access and the applications enabled by them will impact and benefit society. They also develop and research these applications that will make a beneficial impact on society.

      Or, from http://www.broadband.unimelb.edu.au/about/index.html

      About IBES

      Mission

      To align research and industry interests to drive innovation in broadband applications to deliver seamless experiences for the benefit of society.

      Founded in 2009, IBES conducts interdisciplinary research into high-speed broadband technologies, applications and services across four research themes: business and government, culture and community, education and learning, and health and ageing. Our aim is to become a leader in the development of broadband services and innovation for the benefit of Australian society. Integral to our success is fostering research collaborations across the University, other research institutes and industry.

  10. Why do the current news and media corporations hate broadband, because it means a massive amount of competition, even web news sites like the Delimeter well end up with equal access to every household as compared to massive corporations.
    What is that liar Turnbull doing, simply delaying broaband all togethor to keep News Corporation in the greed for as long as possible, straight up in your face corruption. What will the LNP do with broadband, drop in a poison pill to cripple it for generations to come.

  11. The coalitions nbn is good! Because in 30 years time, something new and better will be out! :)

    • Something “new and better” is already out mate, Malcolms CBN would have been “new and better” 10-15 years ago….

      • I’d argue “new, better, and cheaper in the long run”.

        Anyway – I’m not entirely sure the comment by “BOB” isn’t a Poe…

    • “Because in 30 years time, something new and better will be out! :)”
      Not likely. You can’t do better than the speed of light. Signal encoding techniques will improve, but that’s what happens at the endpoints of the fiber cables and can be easily upgraded as required once the FTTP infrastructure is in place.

      • Actually you can do better. The one thing in this world ive seen as happening at speeds faster than light is Liberal politicians back-flipping on their promises.

        That’s what the next NBN should be upgraded too when fiber runs its course. The LBFN: Liberal backflip network.

      • You are right in the point that having the fibre allows the upgrades to be simple and having fibre enables us to upgrade at minimal cost for many years to come, decades after copper’s fastest speeds look like dialup. But please lose the “speed of light” BS. The distances the fibre is used for GPON, the speed is pretty much dwarfed by the rest of the transit networks speed, so it doesn’t really matter. AND currently the light in fibre is slower than the signal in copper. Light in fibre travels at about 2/3rd the speed of light where as the signal in copper about 98% the speed of light. There is new fibre in the labs that bounces the light down a hollow in the middle of the glass fibre that is nearly the speed of light, but really using it for the few km to the home won’t make a milliseconds difference.
        BUT please stop with the speed of light crap.

        • “Light in fibre travels at about 2/3rd the speed of light where as the signal in copper about 98% the speed of light.”

          How do you explain the latency different between them then? Digital to analogue conversion for the copper? (serious question, I don’t actually know).

          • The ‘speed of light” that is being referred to loosely in these posts should more correctly be called “the speed of light in a vacuum”. In transparent materials other than a vacuum the light will travel more slowly. The speed in glass will vary according to the composition of the glass, but 2/3 of the speed in a vacuum would be pretty typical. The ratio speed of light in a vacuum/speed of light in the transparent material is called the “refractive index” of the material. You may remember it from your high school physics, where knowing the refractive index will enable you to predict how much a beam of light will bend as it passes into a piece of glass.

            In copper on the other hand, the data is carried not by light but by electrical impulses that travel at close to the speed of light.

  12. This is difference between a dream and reality.

    The NBN dream is awesome. But reality has turned it into a Nightmare. You can report on the Nightmare but we all still see the dream right now.

  13. It had already been decided that Turnbull wasn’t answering any questions on the NBN on Q & A.
    None were asked.
    A lone question re ending new satellite customers was asked, (Labor bought new satellites awaiting launch, the Liberals opposed them) Malcolm Turnbull blames Labor’s generous data allowances and low costs for the lack of satellite coverage.
    The costs aren’t low and the data allowances miserable compared to city users of broadband.
    Miserable Q & A not worth watching that crap program, a communications minister answering questions on espionage, SPC, Toyota and stop the boats, absurd.

  14. Thank heavens they took that survey back then because if they took it now no one would know what NBN they are taking about, at least the original NBN1 made sense but NBN2 is out there with the cuckcoos.

    Malcolm Turnball and his Never Never Network. (NNN)

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