Holding the Blue Line in Australia

This book examines the portrayal of contemporary policing in New South Wales, Australia by mainstream media and how its sourcing of social media influences public opinion. The observable and measurable consequences of this intermingling of news content with viewpoints is that mainstream media, in tandem with social media, influence political leaders to respond and pivot readily towards platformed views with either quick reactions through policymaking and new or revised legislation; or arbitrarily, letting matters slide. The phenomenon is analysed through specific case studies in the book and the complications for police media and crisis management are identified. This extensive research has relevance for policing globally because mainstream media relies heavily on social media content that is instantaneous, global, curated and reliant on marketable and readily understood narratives. The book analyses the selective process by which actors in mainstream media construct news relying on prior framing, narratives and perpetuating the received opinion of social media, as if it represents general belief. Media framing disrupts and interrupts public understandings of the role of policing and perpetuates misunderstanding in the public arena of the institutional values and legislated responsibilities of a police force. In addition, strategies employed by social media activists to frame and re-contextualise crisis events impact on police law enforcement operations and can hamper police capacity to respond to protect public safety.

Dr Virginia Small is currently Lecturer in the School of Policing Studies in Goulburn. In her doctoral degree she analysed international drug trafficking and terrorism with a focus on how media depictions frame and shape public perceptions and responses. She has lectured diverse student cohorts in media studies, business, communications and marketing. Prior to her academic career, she was a finance journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald and at Australian Associated Press. She was an economics journalist and broadcaster at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for over 18 years and produced and presented a popular business program on ABC Radio National. She has recently published an academic book analysing the role and future path of the ABC, Strangling Aunty: Perilous Times for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2021) based on in depth interviews and extensive research and has also published an academic journal article on international food security and the Australian beef industry.