Social media have become both a blessing and curse for traditional media but two recent cases at opposite sides of the world have shown that news managers have the ability to choose which they will be if only they have a better understanding of how social media policies relate to the ethics underpinning their core business, together with the nerve to apply that understanding when times get tough. Read More
With the continuing persecution of Julian Assange, one of our country’s and this century’s most famous whistleblowers, it is timely that all nations – but especially democracies – remind themselves that a whistleblower is not a traitor, just someone who sees something wrong, consults their conscience and exposes the wrongdoing contrary to the wishes of those with power to conceal it from their fellow citizens. Read More
Issues of freedom of speech come in all shapes and sizes, from those central to democracy to those that are just cover for personal obsessions. Two current cases in Australia are just the most recent in a seemingly endless cycle of outrage then nothing getting fixed … kicking the can. One involves government oppression of whistle-blowers and the media. The other a millionaire sportsman asked to choose between the pitch and the pulpit. Read More
Despite most young journalists now coming from universities, there still lingers among many editors, chiefs of staff and other hard news managers the view that real journalism skills can only be learned “on the job”. And they blame the dilettante intellectuals of academia for making their task harder by filling the heads of young journalism graduates with fancy ideas. How much of this is true and what can be done about it? Read More
Less than a week after SBS managing director Shaun Brown officially left the corporation’s Artarmon headquarters, one of his closest underlings, the head of SBS television and online content, Matt Campbell, announced he was quitting – the first of Brown’s executives to leave since new broom Michael Ebeid officially took over at SBS. Could this be the start of the much-anticipated shake-up of Australia’s multicultural broadcaster? Read More
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
