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There is, we contend, considerably more complexity in the differentiated field and communicative structures delivering television news today than has so far has been acknowledged or explored. These complexities have direct bearing on debates about 'democracy', whether approached through the conceptual prisms of critical rationalism or cultural populism. This article reports on recent research which secures added empirical purchase on Australian TV journalism, and does so by analytically identifying, systematically mapping and pursuing into the production domain the repertoire of communicative frames that characterise Australian TV news. We elaborate a new conceptual framework for the study of 'communicative frames' and examine how these are deployed differentially within and across the daily news programmes delivered by the ABC, SBS, and Channels Seven, Nine and Ten. These communicative structures, we argue, prove consequential for the public elaboration and engagement of contentious issues and contending identities. They need to be taken seriously in debates about media democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about communicative architecture of television news which serves to display and deliberate conflict and consent in the contemporary world. The communicative architecture establishes the genre of television news as an internationally recognizable way of knowing for news producers, news audiences and news participants alike, practically organizing the production, communication, and reception of news. The authors conclude that the communicative architecture of television news is implicated in both structures of dominance and processes of deliberate democracy.