It’s Show Time in Melbourne! But agriculture desperately needs more nuanced media coverage

Kirsten Diprose on why farming and rural life doesn’t often make the mainstream news and how we can change that…

It’s coming up to the Melbourne Royal Show in Victoria, and don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic day out. But I’m acutely aware that it’s often the only interaction city people get with country Australia. And the picture it paints, just isn’t right.

I should know. I helped paint the picture for years. Before marrying a farmer 10 years ago, I was a city girl and news reporter in Melbourne. And in my young TV news reporter days, I was sent to the Melbourne Show for 3 years in a row, to capture the fun and folksy country show delights and deliver it to viewers in a neatly cut, one minute and thirty second package.

Naturally the Show story was not the hard hitting journalistic stuff I was hoping to cover, but it was bloody hard work. In a few hours you needed to capture a sense of the entire show, which meant walking the length of the grounds with camera gear, while timing the highlights to a precision schedule to capture the show jumping, then get to the motocross in time, find whatever celebrity was around and interview them, while ticking off your show “bingo” checklist: kids with showbags, a prize sheep, the petting zoo, exhausted parents… and of course, the lovely ladies of the CWA serving up scones in the tearoom.

This was country Australia friends, and after 3 years of the show, I was an expert at it. Or so I thought. Really, I had no idea about rural Australia. As a city person, the Sydney Royal Easter Show of my childhood and my annual Melbourne Show report, were the full extent of my knowledge. 

Why the media doesn’t cover agriculture

I don’t know what I thought country people did. Quilted on the weekends? Went in sheep competitions and baked a lot of scones, I suppose. The truth is, I didn’t think much about rural Australia. And that’s true of the Australian media in general. There are studies of Australian and US media coverage of agriculture, which show farming and rural life just doesn’t make the news very often. When it does, it’s often a cute feature story (think the biggest pumpkin … or a line dancing competition for octogenarians). If it’s not the fun, folksy story, then it's tragedy and crisis, that will make the media tune in (briefly).

For instance, studies on agricultural safety in the U.S. have found farm accidents were covered more than any other type of story with tragedies being the ‘primary motivation for most stories’. Meanwhile, the media coverage of the drought in 2018 in Australia, while serious, has been criticised for being sensationalised by some parts of the media who portrayed farmers as victims and overplayed the number of farmers experiencing hardship.

An article by senior ABARES economists argues this narrative is an unfair reflection of the majority of farmers who manage drought and climate change without assistance. I’ll always remember reading the words of a NSW farmer in an ABC story, who said ‘all you seem to see is busted cockies with starving animals. I don't know if that is a great reflection of what is happening out there’.

What should be covered by mainstream media

So yes, agriculture can be hard… and it can be fun and silly too. But it’s so much more than that. Farm production is worth $82 billion dollars a year and contributes three percent to the total gross domestic product. Sure, it’s not up there with our mining or service sectors - but it’s a decent contributor to our national wealth. But more importantly, it’s the money that directly bolsters our rural and regional towns. 

The stories that don’t get covered by the mainstream media in Australia, include the significant technological advances that have been a key driver in the increased productivity we’ve seen over the past 20 years, especially in cropping. Meanwhile, agtech, while still in its infancy, has the potential to become a billion dollar industry, if we make the right moves today. There are other important stories to be told around adaptation to climate change - both the challenges and the opportunities, particularly around soil carbon and ways to value natural capital to improve overall land management.

Then, there are the people. This is where I find the most joy and intrigue. I’ve interviewed countless women on my podcast, Ducks on the Pond, who have achieved amazing business and community success (often while caring for family and enduring unexpected hardships). One of my tag lines for the podcast is: ‘it’s not about scones.’ It’s a nod to my former self… who chased the annual scone baking image at the Melbourne Royal Show. And an acknowledgement that for many, that image still exists about country Australia and its people.

Shaping our rural narrative

So how do we change it? Well, we can support rural and regional media outlets. They know their communities and most do a very good job (with little resources) of reflecting the complexity, challenges and opportunities of rural life. I’m also a big believer in podcasting. There are some fantastic ag and rural podcasts out there, including Motherland, Farms Advice, Humans of Agriculture, AgWatchers and Agtech… So What? I regularly listen to them all. They are all different, but each of them in  their own way shows aspects of agriculture and rural life that doesn’t often make the media - whether that’s in depth business analysis or social commentary. These are the podcasts I turn to provide me with the information and entertainment I am after as a rural person, involved in farming, technology and rural communities.

It’s the reason I want to see more podcasts like this. There are so many rural podcasting niches that are yet to be uncovered. The ironic thing about the podcast niche, is that while these stories wouldn’t be covered in the mainstream media initially - once they are covered by even a relatively small podcast, these stories can then influence the mainstream media agenda.  This is because someone with farming or rural knowledge has unpacked the issue first. This is generally hard for mainstream media outlets to do, because most outlets are based in the city and these days, not many city people have agricultural knowledge. Despite agriculture’s economic contribution, when it comes to the national conversation, agriculture is niche.

But rather than lament this, let’s play to our strengths. If you have agricultural or rural knowledge, congratulations! You’ve got an edge. Now help decipher and deliver the stories of the people and places that make up rural Australia. Find the real, rural show-stoppers.

Kirsten Diprose is the founder of the Rural Podcasting Co, which helps individuals and businesses tell their own stories through podcasting. Her podcast is called Ducks on the Pond. Kirsten is also studying a PhD in podcasting and local news sustainability. She lives on a farm in south-west Victoria with her husband and two children. She still loves an agricultural show and a scone.

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