The cost of privatisation to the profession: Media representation of audiology in Australia

Purpose: To investigate how the profession of audiology was represented in the media in Australia and how the increased privatisation of the profession may have shaped this representation. Methods: A systematic search of English language media records was conducted from 1 January 2000 to 17 July 2020 using ANZ News Stream, TV News, Google News and INFORMIT. Twenty-four of 1056 originally identified articles were retained. The findings were extracted and synthesised. Results: Context and content analyses were preformed, revealing a predominantly negative portrayal of Audiology as a profession in 21 (87.5%) of 24 articles. Predominant themes included: sales driven by incentives; predatory strategies and malpractice; non-regulation and privatisation of the hearing care industry; and conflict of interest. Conclusions: The media was found to highlight consumer mistrust in the profession in recent years. Increased regulation of the profession of audiology is recommended to protect the population against exploitative practices and to renew faith in the profession by the public.