Category Archives: Featured

Look-at-me journalism all the rage

It’s not easy being a foreign correspondent in a crisis. They often find themselves part of the story they’re covering, so the secret is to be present but translucent, letting the story shine through their own experiences, offering their audience a guiding hand without their own voice overwhelming the narrative. Not all reporters do this well all the time and they fall victim to “look at me journalism”. Here’s a cautionary tale. Read More

The War of News Corp – Hold the front page!

When UK Minister Vince Cable declared war on News Corp, he was only playing catch-up, for Rupert Murdoch’s media empire had been at war with British, American, Australian and other governments for decades. The “Dirty Digger” is not into media ownership and empire-building for the public good or the sake of some higher moral principle. He does it for the power to make or break democratically elected governments. Read More

Don’t try this at home, children

It’s 10 years since Wikileaks dropped its first load of explosive government leaks on the world and the ripples continue. Few WikiLeaks supporters really believe the world can exist if everyone is absolutely truthful with each other; some “economy with the truth” is needed to oil the wheels of diplomacy. They know. We know. Now they know we know. It’s a brave new world of diplomacy but please, kids, don’t try this at home. Read More

The many voices of one Australia – just not inside the building please!

SBS was once renowned as “the many voices of one Australia”, but now it’s decided it doesn’t need as many in the actual building. It’s decision to outsource large parts of it’s world-famous Subtitling Unit is not just a sign of how far it has strayed from its multicultural charter but is also a clever way of chanelling taxpayer funding to the private sector. … Read More

When humour is no laughing matter

Humour is a funny thing … and sometimes it’s not. Frequent high-profile blunders and controversial cases of misfired humour in the media have failed to remind us time-and-again how tricky humour – especially satire – can be. Now, ten years on from Channel Nine’s infamous “blackface incident”, have Australian broadcasters actually learned anything? … Read More