Critical Comparison of Online News Reporting: Crikey vs. ABC News
Introduction
This comparative analysis examines how two Australian news outlets—Crikey and ABC News—covered Cyclone Alfred’s impact on Australia’s infrastructure. By drawing on digital journalism concepts such as interactivity, multimediality, scannability, and editorial intent, the report evaluates the journalistic effectiveness of each article, considering platform structures, audience expectations, and user engagement.
Media Biography and Audience Profiles (Crikey)
Crikey is a digital-born independent news outlet launched in 2000 and now owned by Private Media. Positioned as a subscription-based, left-leaning alternative to mainstream Australian news, Crikey emphasizes watchdog journalism, political analysis, and institutional critique. Its operational model avoids advertising dependence, relying instead on paid memberships and newsletters. This allows for greater editorial autonomy, although it limits mass-market appeal.
Crikey targets a highly educated, urban, and politically engaged readership. According to the Private Media audience kit, its core demographic includes professionals aged 25–54, often working in law, academia, media, or government. Crikey assumes its audience is comfortable with policy discussion, longform commentary, and opinion-inflected reporting. As Bradshaw (2024) notes, digital-native platforms like Crikey often adopt an “advocacy journalism” style, using voice and framing to push reform agendas. While multimediality is limited, Crikey compensates through depth and intertextuality.
Reader engagement is supported through embedded hyperlinks, email newsletter feedback, and a functional comments section—contrary to assumptions about its limited interactivity. Usher (2016) describes such participatory spaces as essential to building “editorial intimacy,” where readers feel heard even without real-time co-creation.
Media Biography and Audience Profiles (ABC News)
ABC News is Australia’s publicly funded national broadcaster and one of the country’s most trusted legacy media institutions. Its online arm was established in the mid-1990s and has since evolved into a leading platform for news consumption, with high daily traffic across demographics and geographies.
ABC News adheres to traditional journalistic principles of objectivity, balance, and timeliness. Funded by the government but editorially independent under the ABC Charter, it offers free access to news content across web, mobile, and broadcast formats. According to Nielsen ratings, ABC News Digital reaches over five million Australians monthly. Its mass-market strategy prioritizes usability and accessibility, incorporating audience feedback through analytics tools and user-submitted materials.
ABC’s digital strategy reflects what Malik and Shapiro (2017) term “digitally adapted legacy journalism”—a hybrid model where old newsroom values coexist with new platform imperatives. Editorial analytics play a central role in content formatting and user engagement (Cherubini & Nielsen, 2016), ensuring high interactivity, scannability, and multimediality. Its focus is not on opinion, but on clarity, service, and scale.
Story Comparison – Crikey
In “‘A serious wake-up call’: Cyclone Alfred exposes weaknesses in Australia’s vital infrastructure,” Crikey contributor Cheryl Desha critiques Australia’s systemic failures in infrastructure planning and climate policy. Unlike conventional disaster journalism, this piece frames the cyclone not as a one-off event but as evidence of structural unpreparedness. Desha, an academic, brings expertise in sustainability and engineering, which strengthens the article’s authority.
The article reflects Bradshaw’s (2024) definition of “advocacy digital journalism,” using storytelling to catalyze change. Rather than organizing the story around eyewitness accounts or chronological unfolding, the narrative builds a case for proactive infrastructure reform. Multiple expert voices—engineers, local officials, and planning specialists—are cited not just for reporting, but as evidence in an argumentative structure.
Technically, Crikey’s piece favors depth over breadth. There are no embedded videos, maps, or data visualizations—weaknesses by Briggs’ (2019) standards of visual storytelling. However, the page does include hyperlinks to related Crikey investigations and government documents, which enhances source transparency and networked understanding.
Contrary to earlier assumptions, the article does support user engagement via a public comments section at the bottom of the page. Readers can post thoughts, respond to each other, and share the article on major social media platforms. This aligns with Usher’s (2016) vision of an interactive newsroom in which engagement, even asynchronously, shapes public discourse.
Scannability is modest: while the prose is clear and paragraphs short, the lack of multimedia layering may challenge casual readers. The story presumes a high level of policy literacy, catering more to returning subscribers than new users. As Bossio (2017) notes, social media and digital journalism often reinforce “niche publics”—and Crikey exemplifies this with its specialist framing and ideological coherence.
In sum, the Crikey article is a powerful editorial that succeeds in agenda-setting and policy critique. Its limitations lie not in argumentation but in visual appeal and navigability. It serves its audience well but may alienate broader publics unfamiliar with climate infrastructure discourse.
Story Comparison – ABC News
Danuta Mercer’s article for ABC News, titled “‘No quick fix’ to power outages in Qld, NSW as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred lays bare grid vulnerability,” represents a classical form of service journalism. It opens with immediate facts: locations affected, scale of outages, and government responses. The inverted pyramid structure provides high readability and is designed for broad public utility.
The article draws on official sources including power companies, emergency management authorities, and meteorological services. Quotations are used to present information, not to construct an argument. This neutrality aligns with ABC’s editorial mandate and Bradshaw’s (2024) definition of public-interest reporting in legacy institutions.
Multimediality is a major strength. The article includes a power outage map, high-quality photographs of damaged infrastructure, and links to live updates. Briggs (2019) emphasizes how such visuals enhance comprehension and engagement, especially during emergencies. These features increase trust and accessibility across diverse audiences.
From a usability perspective, ABC’s story is optimized for web and mobile. It includes functioning share buttons, a “related stories” carousel, and author byline links. According to Cherubini and Nielsen (2016), these design choices are often informed by editorial analytics aimed at maximizing time on page and user retention.
While ABC avoids editorializing, it embeds interactivity through structured participation. The site routinely solicits user-submitted photos, provides “Have Your Say” feedback portals, and aggregates reader input into its broader cyclone coverage. As Usher (2016) argues, participatory journalism in legacy contexts often works through structured input rather than open comment threads—and ABC exemplifies this method.
Scannability is excellent. Subheadings, pull quotes, and responsive design ensure that information is easy to digest across devices. However, the article omits discussion of policy context or long-term implications, leaving questions of accountability and systemic reform unaddressed. This contrasts with Crikey’s approach and demonstrates Bossio’s (2017) observation that legacy media often avoid polarizing interpretation to protect institutional trust.
In summary, ABC’s article is technically and journalistically robust. It provides essential information with speed, clarity, and neutrality. Though it lacks the depth or ideological framing of Crikey’s version, it succeeds in its mission to inform the public during crises with reliable, visually enhanced news.
Conclusion
Crikey and ABC News represent contrasting models of digital journalism. Crikey offers ideologically framed, expert-driven analysis with moderate interactivity. ABC prioritizes clarity, multimedia support, and public service. While each story reflects its outlet’s core strengths, their combined perspectives offer a fuller understanding of Cyclone Alfred’s impact and media response.
References
Bossio, D. (2017). Shifting Values, New Norms: Social Media and the Changing Profession of Journalism. In Diana. author. Bossio, Journalism and Social Media Practitioners, Organisations and Institutions (1st ed. 2017.). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65472-0
Bradshaw, P. (Data journalist). (2024). The online journalism handbook : skills to survive and thrive in the digital age (ProQuest (Firm), Ed.; Third edition.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321566
Briggs, M. (2019). Visual storytelling with photographs. In M. Briggs, Journalism Next: a practical guide to digital reporting and publishing (4th ed., pp. 153–184). CQ Press.
Desha, C. (2025, March 11). ‘A serious wake-up call’: Cyclone Alfred exposes weaknesses in Australia’s vital infrastructure. Crikey. https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/03/11/cyclone-alfred-weakness-australian-infrastructure/
FEDERICA CHERUBINI AND RASMUS KLEIS NIELSEN. (2016). Editorial Analytics: How News Media Are Developing and Using Audience Data and Metrics. Reuters Institute. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/editorial-analytics-how-news-media-are-developing-and-using-audience-data-and-metrics
Malik, A., & Shapiro, I. (2017). What’s Digital? What’s Journalism? In S. A. Eldridge & B. Franklin (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (1st ed., pp. 15–24). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315713793-2
Mercer, D. (2025, March 10). ‘No quick fix’ to power outages in Qld, NSW as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred lays bare grid vulnerability. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-10/no-quick-fix-to-qld-nsw-power-outages-as-grid-weakness-laid-bare/105031536
Usher, N. (2016). Inside the Interactive Newsroom. In N. Usher, Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code. University of Illinois Press. https://doi.org/10.5406/j.ctt1hfr048
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