The Australian mainstream media is dominated by middle-class voices, and this shapes the way working-class people are framed within the media. Working-class people have tended to be represented as responsible for their poverty, or ridiculed for their lack of sophistication. But could very small shifts be occurring, as some outlets acknowledge the impact of neo-liberalism on working-class people and point to some of the structural causes of inequality? This article looks at some examples of working-class representation in Australian newspapers, television news and current affairs programs, and considers the ways in which working-class people are presented. The article also asks whether the Australian mainstream media provides a place for working-class voices?

Why do many of the books on punk rock and hardcore punk come with punk attitude? Why are a good number of the books written from a personal perspective? What kind of value do the diary entries of Nils Stevenson in 'Vacant: A Diary of the Punk Years 1976-79' have compared to an article on the rhetoric of class by David Simonelli in the journal 'Contemporary British History'? In some respects scholarly writing on punk rock seems like a contradiction. How can music so rooted in anti-establishment sentiment be appropriated into an institutional setting? The auto-ethnographic approach found in many of the studies of punk might be an answer to this question. The writers have used their own experiences as musicians and fans to reflect on and analyse the music and scenes which arguably provides the reader with a more immediate insight. This paper argues for an auto-ethnographic approach to the writing of punk and hardcore punk and suggests that this style of writing about music offers the reader an ‘authentic’ insight into these particular music scenes.

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