Media Examples

Australia Social Media Ban - (Agency and Control and Media Regulation)

Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024.

Mandatory minimum age of 16 for accounts on certain social media platforms - took effect December 2025.

• Platforms are legally required to enforce age-verification systems or face fines of up to $49.5 million AUD.

Trump vs. TikTok (18-21/1/25) - (Agency and Control)

• Trump threatening the Chinese social media platform TikTok (ByteDance), insisting to sell the company to US based company.

• (18/1) Statement from TikTok about potential shutdown.

• (19/1)Biden declined to enforce the ban on his last day in office. 

• (20/1) First day of office Trump instituted a 75-day period of the ban. 

• 70 million US TikTok users

• The app was brought back after a 24hr black out.

• Threats to make ByteDance sell the company to a US company DID. NOT. WORK.

• TikTok abided by the law that was passed by the Government (outage)
  
  

Traffic Accident Commission (TAC) - Health Campaigns (Nature and extent of media effects)

TAC started in 1987 - worked to deliver public education campaigns to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on roads.

Use call to actions through emotive and graphic imagery.

• First advertisement - Take a break, fatigue kills (1987)

• Most recent - E-Scooter Emergencies (2026)

Respect, Stop it at the Start Gov Health Campaigns (Nature and extent of media effects)

Prevalent statistics driving campaigns: 1 in 5 women have experience sexual violence since the age of 15.

1. Phase 1: Stop it at the start (2016)

2. Phase 5: The Hidden Truths of Disrespect (17/6/24)

Phase 5 - Published video, Comments have been turned off, removed from many sights, did not effectively hit the mark.

Aus Violence Against Women - Samantha Murphy (AGENDA SETTING)

Samantha Murphy (51) did not return from her Sunday morning run (3/2/24) Her disappearance escalated to a suspected murder case.

• 12th woman to be killed in 2024

• Coverage searches in bushland. Identity withheld, due to a suppression order. 

• March 2024 police arrested age 22 Patrick Stephenson with murder. Body still has not been located.

• Stephenson: son of former AFL player Orren Stephenson (Geelong + Richmond player 2012 - 2014).

• Headlines focusing on the killer as the everyday person, monster hiding in the shadows.

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• Two weeks later (18/2/24) another woman was killed in Ballarat. Rebecca Young (42), allegedly killed by a murder suicide of her partner.

Charli XCX and Kamala Harris (2024) - (TWO STEP FLOW)

• brat - 6th album by Charli xcx released on the 7th of June in 2024.

• Involved celebrity collabs, and identifiable marketing (green colour) - became a movement of people reaching for the aesthetic.

• Kamala Harris (vice president of US 2021 - 2024, first female!)

• Biden - 82% of voters below age 30 thought he was too old to be an effective president – more than any other age group.

• 21 July, 2024 - Kamala announced as new Democratic presidential candidate

  22 July, 2024

  Charli xcx posts on X: ‘kamala IS brat’ Roughly 54 million views and 42.7K reposts

• 23rd July - Kamala’s HQ X page - adopted ‘brat’ font + colours and share meme videos of Kamala to their profile

• 24th July - U.S. voter registration for younger audiences increase with 83% of these new voters aged 18–34

Kamala Harris as an Opinion Leader

-In direct response to the organic content of ‘Kamala is brat’, Donald Trump (18/8/24) shared AI generated images of Truth Social suggesting Taylor Swift’s endorsement. 

Olivia Rodrigo Stans - (PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS)

• Olivia Rodrigo announced the title of her upcoming album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (2/4/26)

• Singles ‘Drop Dead’ (17/4/26) and ‘The Cure’ (22/5/26) released in the lead up to the album.

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• @katherinejaayne posted to X 21/4/26

• A letter to Olivia, From all Livies - worried about how her music wasn’t unique anymore, concerns about her pursuit of further fame. 3.1 M views on the same day

All Eyes on Rafah - (PARTICIPATORY CULTURE)

Live Streaming Platforms - (Media Regulation)

• Kick (2022) - become popular among the streaming community

• Favourable revenue splits on subscription earnings (95/5) compared to Twitch 50/50, and has lenient moderation and content rules/restrictions.

• Content: controversial streamers, celebrities, manosphere, gambling, sexually explicit content, extremist ideologies and politics.

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• Braden Eric Peters, 20. Popularised "looksmaxxing" content (self improvement for incel community) = extreme measures to enhance looks

• Multiple surgeries (Rhinoplasty, Otoplasty), Hormones, Bone smashin. Drug use + overdose LIVE ON STREAM live stream (14/4/26)

• Places his appearance above all - terrible influence on viewers, especially young boys festers manoshphere.

Media Regulation - AUSTRALIAN CONTEXT Christchurch Terrorist Attacks

• The Christchurch mosque shootings  - 2 consecutive terrorist attacks at mosques in Christchurch New Zealand. The gunman live-streamed the first attack on Facebook Live.

• The attacks killed 51 people, 50 injured.  A 28-year-old Australian man, (white-supremacist) as arrested and charged with murder.

• Gunman is allegedly the author of a 74-page manifesto - emailed it to 30 recipients, and twitter. Shared anti-immigrant sentiments.

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• Facebook removed 1.5 million copies of the mosque attack video. Spread rapidly on YouTube and Twitter, and was shared in private messaging apps

• Facebook Responds: Recognised need to develop further technology to stop spread of such content - partnered with he _{^{University of Maryland, Cornell University and The University of California}} to research new techniques to detect such footage.

ACMA - Kayo Breach (GOVERNMENT REGULATION)

(25/6/24): Kayo breaches gambling advertising rules 

• Gambling ads must not be shown during live sport events between 5am and 8.30pm

• ACMA’s investigations identified 16 Kayo gambling adv provided outside the allowed times across a total of 267 live sport events. 

Advocates call for change surrounding Gambling, Alcohol and Sport and it’s harm on the community - Trang Chawla.

Ad Standards - Ultra tunes Australia - (SELF REGULATION)

Ultra Tune Australia 2020 campaign featuring Pamela Anderson and Warwick Capper. Case Number: 0051/20

• Number of complaints: 315

• Complaints involving - exploitation and degregation of women, sexuality/nudity, discrimination.

• Result: Finding that the advertisement did not breach the Code on other grounds, the Panel dismissed the complaints

(PROTECTING CULTURAL IDENTITY)

• National Cultural Policy: Revive is a 5-year plan to revive the arts in Aus.

• The policy recognises that Australian audiences are increasingly consuming content through streaming services and online platforms, creating challenges for the visibility of local stories and perspectives. 

Charlie Kirk Assassination - GLOBILISATION!

Production: Multiple mediums of recording

Distribution: Globally shared, initially not able to be removed

Consumption: Social media, news headlines

Reception: People sharing footage, editing it, making memes, giving their own input.

• Crowd of 3,000 at Utah Valley university

• Charlie Kirk - 31, assassinated by Tyler Robinson (22)

• Hundreds of videos circulated - WIRED reported one TikTok video had surpassed 17 million views shortly after the event

• Participatory culture - Ordinary users were recording, reposting, commenting on and modifying footage, becoming active participants in the news cycle.

• Parasocial - Pre-existing connections with media personality

• Globalisation - Footage appearing across TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook - global, media produced, distributed and consumed across national boarders.

Ethical and Legal Issues

Australian Classification Board (ACB)

Work as a classification and censorship body formed by the Australian Government. Classifies films, video games etc. since 1995. 

Loot Boxes: consumable virtual item, which can be redeemed it receive a randomised item, feature, ‘loot’.

• Form of monetisation in game play, real money for the ‘in-world’ currency

• (22/9/24) ACB imposed new classification for video games that have:

  • In-game purchases with an element of chance, such as paid loot boxes, are classified as M and not recommended for children under 15 years of age

  • Simulated gaming, such as casino-style games, are legally restricted to adults and classified as R 18+.