If there is a turning point in the Australian debate on same-sex marriage it may well be Penny Wong’s remarkable grace and honesty when answering Joe Hockey on last night’s Q&A.
Wong was asked by…
The Federal Court decision means Optus will not be able to broadcast AFL and NRL on its TV Now service.
AAP/Dan Peled
The significance of last Friday’s Federal Court decision to prevent Optus' “TV Now” service from broadcasting was made clear to me while waiting for a bus in Melbourne’s suburbs.
Earlier that day, I had…
The Convergence Review came close to understanding the nature of user-generated content but not quite.
Flickr/Bruce Clay, Inc
The Australian Federal Government’s Convergence Review, released yesterday, had a mammoth task. It was trying to establish just how to regulate the future standards, conduct, and technical aspects of today…
Dull grey tone: media organisations are "Content service enterprises", according to the Convergence Review.
AAP
The Convergence Review’s final report is remarkable for its blandness and predictability.
Despite the cries of fear and loathing from the Murdoch stable that the cold hand of government intervention was…
The Convergence review's final recommendations have fallen short when it comes to Australian content.
AAP/Dean Lewins
By Ben Goldsmith, Queensland University of Technology
The Convergence Review Final Report released yesterday appears at first blush to promise major changes to the Australian media landscape.
The report flags the creation of a new communications regulator…
Communication Minister Stephen Conroy will oversee the government's response to the Convergence Review.
AAP/Dean Lewins
I’m looking forward to the next few days.
The Convergence Review’s key recommendation to introduce a new body to “regulate” the activities of our major 15 media operators – including newspapers – is significant…
Fetishes come in many forms, and often in small packages.
MildlyDiverting
If you’re reading this, Apple thanks you. So does the Air Aroma scent marketing company and the Australian artist collective Greatest Hits.
They’re thanking you for the free advertising supplied by this…
Should Breivik's hateful diatribe be made public?
AAP/Hakon Mosvold Larsen
The trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik for the murder of 77 people has a special significance for journalists in Australia, and not just because Breivik summoned the names of John Howard, Peter…
Mark Scott, managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Welcome to In Conversation, our series of discussions between leading academics and major public figures in Australian life.
In this instalment, Mark Scott, managing director of the Australian Broadcasting…
Newsrooms are changing, and so is the business model that underpins them.
Flickr/Caroline Treadway
Despite rapid growth in the number of non-profit investigative centres in the United States and many fine examples of quality journalism by such centres, uncertainty remains over the longer-term sustainability…
Some of Mike Daisey's claims about what he saw at Foxconn were fabricated.
EPA/YM Yik
On Friday, internationally-popular US radio show This American Life retracted its “Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory” episode upon the discovery its narrator and author Mike Daisey had fabricated some of…
A new regulatory body is not what the Australian media or public need.
Instagram/sookhean
The recent Finkelstein inquiry into media regulation in Australia has suggested a new body to govern journalistic standards and handle complaints from the public, the News Media Council. But at a time…
Gina Rinehart with daughter Ginia Rinehart attend a State Reception for Queen Elizabeth II in Perth.
AAP/Lincoln Baker
The dispute between Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, and her children is more than a private squabble between relatives.
The high profile of the litigants meant the case was always going to…
Hide of a rhino: Robert Manne has taken on an organisation that buys ink by the barrel.
Some news organisations take the view that their access to a wide audience gives them the capacity to defend themselves against their critics, so they should never need to resort to the defamation laws…
Former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein spent five months considering more than 60 submissions from 22 organisations.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
An independent inquiry has found that the way media is regulated in Australia is not rigorous enough to ensure accountability and transparency. It proposes that a new statutory body, the News Media Council…
Valiant sceptics have taken on the evil dragon of climate change conspiracy.
magia e/Flickr
The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they’ve been in.
— Dennis Potter
Readers following the Australian news media’s coverage of climate change will probably have detected the conspiracy…
Murdoch and Rinehart could soon own almost all the significant newspapers in Australia.
EPA/Michael Reynolds/AAP/Tony McDonough
Australia’s wealthiest person, Gina Rinehart has bought shares in Fairfax Media. Should we be worried if she buys a controlling interest in the company that publishes the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and…
A toilet wall has more than meets the eye.
Flickr/ukslim
La Trobe University’s Dr Jan Schapper recently completed a study into signage and writing on women’s toilets in Australia. The research, just published in the international journal, “Gender, Place and…
Where does it come from?
Flickr/Allerina & Glen MacLarty
We have entered a new, digital, era in animal protection, yet one in which a legislative backlash against video exposes is stirring in parts of the US. Last week brought another revelation of animal cruelty…
Maori academics in New Zealand should be wary of talking to the non-Maori media.
Flickr/geoftheref
Maybe it’s the lot of academics to be misrepresented, but when a single incident can nearly get you sacked it makes you reconsider whether to deal with the media at all.
Last year, comments of mine about…
James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch, Kerry Stokes, John Singleton and Gina Rinehart. While Stokes and Singleton have been around media traps for a few years now, the return of a Packer, a Murdoch and the addition…
It can be hard to sort fact from fiction in the modern media environment.
Mike Bailey-Gates
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
People used to be entitled to their own opinions, but not their own set of facts…
There's not much money in newspapers, but plenty of chances to promote your views.
AAP
News that Gina Rinehart has reportedly attained a 12.8% stake in Fairfax Media (and is seeking just under 15%) is bad for the Australian media environment: it potentially puts yet another billionaire in…
Mining magnate, Gina Rinehart is trying to buy more influence by becoming Fairfax media group's largest shareholder.
AAP Image/Tony McDonough
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations.
Rinehart has already shown her desire…
When jobs are disappearing, why are we training more journalists?
flickr
By Diana Bossio, Swinburne University of Technology
It usually begins mid-way through their university career.
My office begins to fill with panicked journalism students who have seen the dismal job vacancies in their field and are starting to think their…
Mitt Romney is struggling to gain traction with the base of the Republican party. Can the media be to blame?
AAP/Jim Lo Scalzo
Despite his solid performances in the early Republican primaries, Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the Republican nomination is still facing a crisis of legitimacy.
Social conservatives have questioned his…
'Concerned scientists' say, relax, climate change not so bad after all.
Yukon White Light/Flickr
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a letter from “16 concerned scientists”, telling the world we don’t need to worry so much about climate change. Unsurprisingly, the opinion piece has been picked…
Journalist or blogger? It's a thin line.
See-ming Lee æŽæ€æ˜Ž SML
Citizen journalists everywhere should be checking the fine print of media shield laws, after a US District Court judge in Oregon ruled that self-styled investigative blogger Crystal Cox was not a journalist…
Australia's media landscape may face another shakeup with the release of the Federal Government's convergence review.
AAP
The Federal Government’s Convergence Review has released its interim report, recommending the scrapping of existing cross-media ownership rules and that commercial operators be given “certainty” around…
Australian newspapers took a largely negative view of carbon pricing.
avlxyz/Flickr
While corporate media often criticise the poor communication of others, they are reluctant to critique their own power to influence public opinion and debate. Today the Australian Centre for Independent…
Should the changing face of media be a source of despair or optimism?
Truthout.org
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of newspapers are somewhat exaggerated. But traditional media is experiencing the “perfect storm” of declining circulations, collapsing advertising revenues…
When it comes to weather, scientists and the media have different understandings of risk.
Ameel Khan
The “reasonable person” would agree that disaster risk is best avoided. Under a changing climate, how exposed people are to risk and how socially and physically vulnerable they are affects how often disasters…
Murdoch is taking more control of his Australian interests now John Hartigan is gone.
AAP/Rob Hutchison
Was John Hartigan pushed or did he leave his position as CEO of News Limited just in time? It’s likely that only a handful of people know the real answer to this question; among them will be “Harto” and…
The media can't get enough of the controversy whipped up by climate sceptics.
Mat McDermott
When announcing the media enquiry in September this year, Senator Conroy committed to regulatory processes that support “a healthy and independent media that is able to fulfill its essential democratic…
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announces the media inquiry in September
AAP/Lucas Coch
As journalists and academics got ready to outline a new media order at the Finkelstein inquiry yesterday, anti-regulationists lined up to dismiss the process with bipartisan relish.
On day one of the…
Media ownership is much more concentrated in Australia than in the UK, where it is under scrutiny.
AAP/Dean Lewins
A profound shift is underway in the global news media industries. As the extensive police investigation and judicial inquiry into the News of the World phone hacking scandal continue in the UK, News Corporation…
Chinese students may have a different take on the media, but universities in Australia can learn from them.
Flickr/badbrother
There is a vast difference between how China is reported inside and outside the country. And that extends to how media and communication is taught in China and Australia.
One of my new PhD students, who…
Australia would do better to shed light on Indian affairs. Media coverage of the country is dominated by corruption scandals, terrorism or cultural festivals like Diwali.
EPA/Sanjeev Gupta
CHOGM As Julia Gillard chairs the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Perth, she would do well to pay special attention to her Indian colleague at the table, Vice-President Hamid Ansari. Brian Stoddart…
Technology reinforces traditional power structures.
Jared Rodriguez/Truthout
Last night, SBS screened the first instalment of a three-part documentary by Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. The program attracted intense debate when broadcast in the UK earlier…
The planet is struggling to survive democracy, but the only alternative is to improve it.
Truthout.org/Flickr
The carbon tax bills passed by the Australian House of Representatives on October 12 were a small vindication of climate science. But we should be concerned about the corpses of science, reason and expertise…
ABC's The Slap investigates the complex and very personal views of those at the heart of a smacking case.
ABC
In last night’s ABC program, The Slap, an impulsive slap changed everything. A man struck someone else’s child at a barbecue provoking a legal challenge. In real life, that would be an assault, though…
Barack Obama's web campaign helped him win the presidency. Parties should learn from it.
Flickr/Scorpions and Centaurs
The increasing spread of information and communication technology has changed just about every aspect of Australian society – except democracy.
The opportunities to engage citizens in the democratic process…
Australia's classification system has been updated to ensure the audience can judge whether content is appropriate for them.
Flickr/kennymatic
By Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology
Media classification in Australia is being dragged into the digital world. At the moment it’s based on analog legislation, unsuited for today’s convergent media. But proposals unveiled today will transform…
Andrew Bolt has a presence across a variety of media platforms.
AAP
Already the Libertarian Right have begun to marshal their traditional arguments to cover Andrew Bolt’s disgrace by the Federal Court.
Bolt himself has screeched freedom of speech in the wake of his ascerbic…
Political activists and bad legislation have combined to create the extraordinary situation where eligibility for awards and prizes can’t be questioned.
Not all prizes and awards – we can still mock Wayne…
Andrew Bolt outside court in Melbourne during an earlier appearance in the case decided today.
AAP
Columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt has lost his racial discrimination case in the Federal Court.
The action under the Racial Discrimination Act had been brought by nine Aboriginal people including…
Older people are finally being consulted about the type of care they need.
EPA/Diego Azubel
Australia’s population is ageing, presenting an economic challenge to look after the most vulnerable members of our society.
The Productivity Commission released a report last month recommending a complete…
The Murdoch crisis in the UK raises many questions about media ownership in Australia.
AAP/William West
The Gillard Government’s media inquiry is to disregard the crucial issues of bias and concentration of media ownership, despite Bob Brown’s demands for wider terms of reference. This is, at best, misled…
Have we seen the last of the hard-nosed investigative reporters who break news through months of painstaking research and contact-building?
The internet has badly hurt the publishing business model that…
Self-regulation of newspapers can lead to a conflict of interest.
AAP/William West
The Gillard Government has announced it will hold an inquiry into the state of the Australian print media.
One of the key elements investigated will be the role of the Australian Press Council, the self…
At Home With Julia follows the tradition of poking fun at politicians' personal lives
ABC Television publicity
I was waiting for her to say “he touched me in nooks and in unexplored crannies I never knew I had” but it was not to be.
For the rest of the episode, however, the lead in At Home With Julia sounded like…
Julia Gillard is portrayed sympathetically in the new ABC satire.
ABC Television publicity
Does the ABC’s new hit series At Home With Julia demonstrate an unreconstructed sexism in Australian political satire? Should we be cringing at our cultural immaturity again?
If the 2010 Election (or…
Science follows certain procedures, but does the media get the signal?
CSIRO
Recently my colleagues and I announced the discovery of a remarkable planet orbiting a special kind of star known as a pulsar.
Based on the planet’s density, and the likely history of its system, we concluded…
Tony Blair pulled back the curtain on the relationship between journalists and politicians..
AAP/Julian Smith
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: On the final day of The Conversation’s series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, John Keane examines how the relationships between politicians…
Your media may not be giving you the full picture.
DeeKnow/Flickr
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Stephan Lewandowsky and Ullrich Ecker have some tips on how avoid being fooled by the media.
Bad media can do considerable harm.
Professor Stephen Kull has been keeping track…
Sections of the Australian media are tipping the debate in the wrong direction.
Digitalnative
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Natalie Latter wonders if there are some subjects that don’t really require balance.
There’s a principle of balance that applies to news reporting.
It’s important for journalists…
We should rely on scientists, not beach-goers to inform us about sea level predictions.
kennymatic
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Tim Lambert wants to know why we’re always asking a man in Speedos for his expert opinion.
There is a scientific consensus on global warming – 97% of active climatologists agree…
Sydney talkback radio has led the charge for a 'ban on the burka'
AAP
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Alyce McGovern and Elaine Fishwick look at how the impact a tabloid campaign has had on the law as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences…
Karl Rove was never far from President George W Bush's side.
AFP/Stephen Jaffe
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Anne Tiernan looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
The Australian's coverage of climate changed is seriously warped.
AFP PHOTO/ NASA - CXC/ A. HOBART
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Michael Ashley investigates the national paper’s op-ed policy.
The “event horizon” of a black hole is one of the most mind-boggling concepts in astrophysics.
The black hole’s…
Mass bleaching at the Keppel Islands in 2006. Our greatest natural asset is under threat, but you wouldn’t know it from reading Andrew Bolt.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Ove Hoegh-Guldberg dives into the media’s coverage of an Australian icon’s future.
One of the most straightforward climate change storylines is the link between global warming…
The AFL may bypass broadcasters altogether and stream games live to fans
AAP
Interesting to read AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou’s thoughts on the next broadcasting rights deal, given that the league has yet to work out how to divvy up the money from the deal it recently negotiated with…
The UN is protecting your right to express yourself in social media.
Flickr/-lucky cat-
General Comment No. 34 on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may sound like something from a bureaucratic nightmare, but it drags your right to freedom of expression into the digital…
Can political debates be won with a chequebook instead of politicians' backing?
AAP
The mining industry, led by the Minerals Council of Australia, has written to members asking for funds to under take a new advertising campaign to attack the carbon tax.
In his letter to members, Minerals…
Problems come when bodies change and brain development doesn't keep up.
Flickr/zebra404
You just have to turn on the television or catch a glimpse of a magazine newsstand to see how girls are being thrust into adulthood earlier and earlier. But does biology match societal change? Are girls…
The media needs to ask itself some tricky questions.
st bernard
Debates have raged in the media in the aftermath of recent events in News Ltd UK.
Curtailing the freedom of the press; the ethics of methods used to source stories; quality of media reporting; and the…
Would a right to privacy have helped Lara Bingle? AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Who would have predicted there would be serious talk of a statutory privacy tort in Australia, giving private individuals who feel their privacy as been breached the right to sue? But then again, who would…
Can social media temper growing public antipathy towards political parties?
Mandel Ngan/AFP
On Tuesday, the ACT government held Australia’s first virtual community cabinet using Twitter. Four ministers faced a barrage of tweets in an hour long question and answer session held with the electorate…
Norwegian soldiers stand in front the government building bombed by Anders Breivik.
AAP
The discovery of an Australian link to the horrifying murders of dozens of people by Anders Breivik in Norway has demonstrated the reach of connection in today’s globalised world.
As a result of the ability…
Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd owns 70 per cent of Australia's daily print media
AAP
While “Murdochgate” rolls on, the question of what it means for Australia has inevitably been attracting considerable attention.
In this discussion, News Ltd itself has played a leading role. For those…
A mourner takes a picture of a sign outside Amy Winhouse's north London home
AAP
It’s a cliché to say that we like em’ dying young. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin. A cliché, yes, but a beseeching one nevertheless.
Amy Winehouse’s death over the weekend – untimely…
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When injustice is done, when the innocent are threatened, a common expression of sympathy is “I am one of you”.
So, as the famous movie line goes, “I am Spartacus,” or a little more recently, “Ich bin…
The BBC is finally at one with science on climate change.
BBC One Wales
On Wednesday the BBC Trust released their report “Review of impartiality and accuracy of the BBC’s coverage of science”. The report has resulted in the BBC deciding to reflect scientific consensus about…
Guidelines say no TV for under 2s, then no more than two hours a day.
Keenen Brown
If you’ve ever sat your toddler down in front of the television to give yourself a few minutes of much-needed rest, you’re certainly not alone.
But for many parents, those few minutes of bliss that come…
As both CEO and chair of News Corp, Murdoch must accept blame for his employees' behaviour.
AAP
News Corporation shareholders would have been justifiably disturbed when James and Rupert Murdoch told this week’s UK parliamentary committee hearing that they could not be held responsible for the behaviour…
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News attracts criticism in the US for its perceived bias.
AAP
The decline and fall of Rupert Murdoch has more twists and turns than a colonoscopy: the closing of the 168-year-old News of the World; the resignation of two of his top executives and four Scotland Yard…
The way we communicate is changing and Al Qaeda have been ahead of the curve AFP PHOTO/DoD
The nature of influence is changing, yet Governments, particularly in Australia have yet to absorb it. Influence is no longer wielded by pronouncements through traditional media sources. New media has…
An ethical journalistic culture cannot be imposed from above but must develop within a news gathering organisation.
AAP
The handwritten sign hanging on the bereaved family’s door says: “No media". As a reporter, do you knock? Most journalism students yell back a resounding “No".
Okay then, what if the family has a high…
It's time to investigate the consequences of concentrated media ownership in Australia.
AAP
As international outrage increases with each new revelation in the News International phone hacking scandal, serious questions are being raised about whether Rupert Murdoch’s empire can be considered a…
Sign of the times for Rupert Murdoch's UK print media operations
AAP
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
Born and bred in the UK, I have spent my entire adult life in the company of News International newspapers.
And as a media scholar by profession, I have been critical of the Murdoch titles for decades…
Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper empire is reeling under the phone hacking scandal.
AAP
Schadenfreude is the tough-sounding word that wins my vote for describing accurately how millions of people around the world are feeling about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
For those who were long resigned…
Britain's tabloid culture is yellow journalism for the 21st century
AAP
When American newspapermen mused on their profession a century ago, they would confess, usually with pride, that it was both cruel and mendacious – and had to be. H L Mencken, among the most influential…
Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch in London last weekend
AAP
The ongoing phone hacking scandal in Britain raises a number of questions for Australia’s media and political future.
Could the practices engaged in by Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers like the News of…
The final edition of the News of the World carried a full page apology to its readers.
AFP/Ian Nicholson
The dramatic events around the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s London News of the World are unprecedented in a major news media organisation in an advanced industrial country. A newspaper closed…
Metropolitan Police officers are interviewing senior News International executives as part of their investigation into phone hacking by journalists. AAP photo
AAP
Where to begin? The closure of a 160-year-old newspaper, the arrest of the man who until recently was the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications, the revelations that the Metropolitan Police, or at…
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
The announcement that the 168-year old British newspaper title News of the World will cease to exist after this Sunday represents a landmark moment in journalism.
The British public reacted with revulsion…
Australians don't know enough about Indonesia to judge its farming practices.
AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
We need to learn more about the countries we are exporting livestock to, or swapping refugees with. Two recent publicly-funded television documentaries have revealed just how little most Australians know…
The phones of victims of the London bombings were allegedly hacked by staff at the News of the World.
AFP/Dylan Martine/WPA pool
The British newspaper The News of the World is being investigated over allegations of hacking into the phones of relatives of the victims of the bombings in London in July 2005. It’s also thought those…
Women should be allowed to have fun, without the media judging them.
AAP/Jack Tran
Wilding, a word seldom used outside of sociology, describes compounded acts of immorality. Of teenagers, apparently, running amok. In packs usually, with rage and ribaldry in their eyes.
I was thinking…
Politicians would do well to ask the people for their views on climate change.
AAP/Greg Wood
The conduct of the Australian climate change debate was probably not what John Maynard Keynes had in mind when he proclaimed “words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the…
Are talkback radio hosts or Julia Gillard leading debate in areas like immigration and the mining tax?
AAP
The release of figures today showing a dramatic fall in immigration numbers prompts the question of whether certain sections of the media are influencing government policy.
Are Australian politicians…
The Conversation wraps up Clearing up the Climate Debate with a statement from our authors: the debate is over. Let’s get on with it.
Over the past two weeks The Conversation has highlighted the consensus…
Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on June 24th 2010.
AAP/Alan Porritt
In the dying days of his own government, Gough Whitlam observed that Labor’s role in opposition was to win public support for the need for change, thereby raising expectations that would inevitably fail…
Participants in "Go back to where you came from" had their attitudes towards refugees challenged.
SBS: Go back to where you came from
Tonight, during World Refugee Week, SBS One premieres Go Back to Where You Came From. Over three nights the series plunges six Australian participants into the intense fear and desperation of the refugee…
Brown: "I'm not here to fear being bitten"
AAP and John Keane
Welcome to “In Conversation”, the first in a series of discussions between leading academics and major public figures in Australian life.
Today Politics Professor John Keane is in conversation with Senator…
Chris Lilley's Gran character is written too large to be ignored.
ABC Television publicity
Last night’s premiere of Chris Lilley’s third mockumentary series, Angry Boys, was a reminder that television comedy in Australia as we once knew it has changed forever.
In the wake of the popular successes…
Last week's Google Books ruling was a win for copyright protection.
AAP
The decision by a US Federal Court judge last week to reject a $US125 million settlement between Google Books and the publishing industry allows authors to protect their copyright and prevents Google from…
Barren: the public is being let down on climate change reporting.
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
Foundation Essay — In his recent statements on the poor state of the Australian debate on global warming (meaning discussion of its causes, and how to deal with it in policy terms) Professor Ross Garnaut…
Too much focus on balance doesn't present the true picture.
AAP
While the evidence for climate change continues to strengthen, public acceptance of the science keeps declining. Closing the gap could be a question of better communication.
At the commencement of the…
