17/12/05

Morph blog seems to have lost the past week or so’s worth of posts, so here’s the post I was referring to…

Reasons for the Cronulla Beach riots on the weekend have fuelled pages of editorial in Australian and increasingly international newspapers, the blogosphere too. The causes are plentiful, but, increasingly, the media’s role in inflaming the situation, and the role of technology, are under the spotlight.

In brief, the story goes something like this. Two lifesavers were bashed by a group of Middle Eastern appearance. The following week, text messages zapped from phone to phone around the city, urging “Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge. This Sunday every Aussie in the shire get down to North Cronulla to support the leb and wog bashing day.”

The beach exploded on the weekend with more than 5000 arriving from all over Sydney, shouting slogans and intimidating anyone of non-Anglo appearance. Individuals of Middle Eastern appearance, many having grown up in the area and/or Australian born, were chased, bashed and told ‘we grew here, you flew here’, a claim unsurprisingly laughed down by aboriginal leaders.

However, the day was no laughing matter. It was a violent, ugly tear in the picture of a happy go lucky beach loving Australia. Neo-nazis, bikers and surfers joined with teenagers, young families and locals to celebrate the day with balloons, booze and bottle throwing. It’s not the first riot, recent riots have occurred in Macquarie Fields and Redfern, but it’s at the beach, in the centre of middle class, white enclave Cronulla.

The unrest is spreading, with bashings reported up and down the coast, and even interstate.

The Federal Government’s use/inflammation of racial unrest in recent elections and latent prejudices undoubtedly contributed to the increased tensions, other factors suggested include nationalist/localist fervour, alcohol and even bad surf, but some critics have now focussed on the role of media and technology.

And although new school technology, such as internet forums/message-boards (Real Surf, inthemix) and mobile phone text messages carried the call to arms immediately, it reached a far larger audience through traditional media outlets.

Talkback shock-jock Alan Jones boasted, “I’m the person that’s led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla, now it’s gathered to this,” following a week of his inflammatory show on radio station 2GB.

The build-up was covered elsewhere in differing degrees, but no better or worse than would be anticipated from individual media. The ensuing riots and continuing tensions have been reported in excruciating detail, but again, the public wouldn’t stand for less, given the gravity of the situation. The question remains, how important is the media’s role in publicising and disseminating this kind of information? And how do you weigh that against the necessity of reportage?

18/12/05

the post is back up at morph

01/06/07

am writing an essay about this. would appreciate any references anyone knows of?

06/06/07

what kind of references emily?