Religion in the Australian Media

Questions of media control and quality have become urgent in this country. Financial deregulation and the spectacle of continually changing ownership of the media in stock market adventures have highlighted problems of editorial integrity and the threatened and actual loss of potentially high quality publications and programming possibilities.Against this background, we have witnessed constraints on public funding for ABC radio and television, the near demise of SBS and increasing pressure for commercial sponsorship to top-up declining public budgets.Central to all the debates are aspects of the media's relation to Australian culture, its ability to shape opinion and direct or suppress discussion on crucial cultural issues. The place of religion in our culture is one such issue, and is closely connected with matters of gender, race and ethnicity, dominant mythologies and the vexed question of 'Australian identity'.Contributors to this issue of the REVIEW have been asked to reflect on specific aspects of these complexities. Although much energy has been expended on ensuring a wide range of topics, attitudes and styles - personal, speculative, political/analytical - it is clear that a future issue of the REVIEW could take up this theme again to highlight further points of debate and focus on other major topics. Readers are asked to notice the new section, COMMENTARIES, and contribute to the development of this and other themes