Atendiendo a la manifestación de la voluntad en el acto

The role of the media in shaping public attitudes towards a policy issue, such as gambling, is significant. Mass media outlets, like newspapers, have the capacity to shape what information the public receives, as well as how this information is framed (Callaghan and Schnell, 2001; Terkildsen and Schnell, 1997). Callaghan and Schnell's work (2001) reflects the complex and symbiotic relationship between news media, political actors and interest groups in the context of a heated public policy debate in the United States. Rather than the public policy process involving just an interaction between politicians and the people, the media 'emerge as...active shapers of policy messages' (Callaghan and Schnell, 2001, p. 184). As such, when analysing the political debate around gambling in Australia over the course of this thesis, the media's presentation and framing of the issue cannot be ignored.

Callaghan and Schnell (2001) argue that political elites need the media in order to garner public support for their policies, and that the media needs political elites to add interest to stories and drive up audience share:

Just as policy actors need the media to put forth their message to the public, so too do the media need political elites to serve as spokespersons, fill news holes, provide drama, and add issue balance (Callaghan and Schnell, 2001, p. 187).

It is this complex interplay of policy, politics, media and audience interest that drives the framing of particular stories and issues around particular themes or touchstones. However, as Callaghan and Schnell (2001) identify, this dynamic

interplay can be manipulated to obscure a more complex reality, limiting public debate and understanding of a complex issue:

When complex policy issues are reduced to a single issue frame, regardless of the complexity of the issue, the public is shortchanged, policy solutions are ignored, and a window of opportunity is closed. (Callaghan and Schnell, 2001, p. 203).

As such, it is significant to look at what is in frame and out of frame in political debates in the media, in this case, in media depictions of gambling.

Miller et al [2014) also identify the importance of Australian media discourse during the time of the 43rd Parliament from a public health perspective, with a focus on analysing how reportage of problem gambling frames the causes of the gambling problem and ways that people may want to seek help. On the basis of their content analysis Miller et al (2014) emphasise the importance of identifying:

...the ways in which public debates about an issue are framed and can provide important insights into how public health may be better placed to influence and advance policy arguments about key public health issues (Miller et al., 2014, p. 503).

Miller et al's [2014) work identified that reportage around problem gambling was usually highly politicised, and framed in a way that focused more on the individual gambler and their gambling problem, rather than the broader culture in which they exist, as 'responsible' for problem gambling. Miller et al (2014) stress that the debate around gambling at the time of the 43rd parliament was highly politicised and poorly informed by public health experts, unlike debates around other public health issues such as junk food and smoking:

We believe that independent gambling coalitions should draw upon the lessons learned from action on tobacco and alcohol in recent decades, whereby coalitions of independent public health academics and health and social organisations have worked closely together to publicise the major areas of concern and identify evidence-based recommendations. These recommendations have been used to press for action, with a focus on proactive work with the media that, in turn, leads to the media calling on them for reactive comment when new evidence appears, specific events related to these problems arise, governments and politicians discuss options for action or the relevant companies respond (Miller at al, 2014, p. 534.)

Miller et al's (2014) work is significant in that it indicates the importance of media in two ways: firstly, in informing the context of the current ‘state of play' of gambling representation, and, secondly, because it implicitly acknowledges that the media is a significant enough force in society that it can, in and of itself, be harnessed as a tool to change behaviour. Media reportage also provides the frame through which individuals understand their own behaviour and the behaviour of others around them.

Media depictions of clubs and pokie machines at the time of this research presented a particular series of narratives about the roles of clubs and pokie machines in the community. Broadly, the narratives drew a straight line from clubs to pokies, and from pokies to problem gambling. Common variations upon the narrative were similarly linear, drawing explicit and direct links between pokie machines and crime, especially embezzlement of corporate or government funds.

Another narrative frequently featured in media depictions of clubs and pokie machines is that clubs and pokie machine revenue equated to influential donations to political parties, and, consequentially, to political corruption.

What these media narratives left out in their depictions of clubs and pokie machines is the way in which people and the community actually used, and use, social clubs and poker machines in their daily lives, an aspect of gambling that this thesis explores. By presenting a reductionist narrative, where clubs equal pokies, which in turn equal problem gambling and political corruption, newspaper reportage presented a simplistic analysis, lacking in the nuances and shades of grey, which characterised the role played by clubs and gambling in the community, and perpetuated a series of narratives that obscured a complex set of social relationships.