“One sided” coverage of media inquiry : Press Council Chair 2

The press coverage of the inquiry into Australian media exemplified what was wrong, Julian Disney, the Chair of the Australian Press Council  said tonight. “It was very one sided,” he said.

Professor Disney was speaking at a forum organised in Sydney by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism to discuss the Finkelstein report. The inquiry recommended a government funded institution to require press accountability.

Julian Disney

There was insufficient information in the press about what was actually in the report, Disney said. “You had to go online to get a half way decent description of what was in it”.  There was “no significant attempt” by most news papers to get the views of ordinary people.

Distinctly different online journalism : the Global Mail Reply

Monica Attard

Australians are not so much poorly served, as minimally served, by their mainstream media, according to multi-award winning journalist, Monica Attard.

Ms Attard is a former foreign correspondent who reported on the disintegration of the Soviet Union, returning to Australia to present the national radio current affairs program, PM. She left the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to found a new, independent quality journal, the Global Mail. She was speaking in Sydney at the launch of the UTS Graduate School of Journalism.

There was a political divide in Australian newspapers between the dominant group, News Limited and the Sydney and Melbourne based Fairfax Media, Attard said.

 And then there’s the ABC, my spiritual home, beating the middle path, but with its own set of  problems…not enough cash ever to mount new programs and experiment with different forms of journalism.

Journalism research by journalists Reply

How do you reveal the best journalism practices to the very best journalism students?

After establishing a coursework journalism Masters program two decades ago, UTS this year launches Australia’s first Graduate School of Journalism. The School aims to become Australia’s premiere journalism education provider by underpinning its successful post graduate journalism teaching with research on journalism by journalists.

eJournalist : Volume Eleven, Number Two Reply

This edition of eJournalist offers an eclectic collection of contemporary journalism research.

eJournalist is a free, open access refereed academic journal analysing journalism. It was created more than a decade ago, to allow a globalised interchange of ideas.

You are free to search the eJournalist  for sources which might aid your studies or research. Copyright for all material resides with the authors. We only ask that you properly attribute their work, through references and in your bibliographies, if you choose to use it.

Alan Knight

Fusing Journalism and Information Technology Reply

Journalism and Information Technology have been fused in a new Master of Computer Science and Journalism degree offered by Columbia University.

Columbia, based in New York, said the program aimed to help redefine journalism in a fast-changing digital media environment. Graduates could be employed as a:

• Online editor/manager of information technology at a large news organization
• Data-mining expert for journalistic applications and investigative journalism
• Entrepreneur/founder of media startup
• Web designer for news site

Recognising journalism and creative writing as research Reply

You have to argue that your work matters, according to Graeme Turner.

Professor Turner chaired the 2009 review of Excellence in Research Australia which allowed Non Traditional Research Outcomes (eg journalism and creative writing) to be recognised by the Australian Research Council.

Traditional research had “off the rack” methods of research assessment, he said.

Developing disciplines needed to indicate that professional practices showed a research component.

Investigative Journalism: Using Animation

Robert Rosenthal, Center for Investigative Reporting

Animation can be used by investigative journalists to reach a wider public, according to Robert Rosenthal. Rosenthal, the Executive Director of the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIR), was speaking in Sydney at the Back to the Source Conference, organised by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. For a media innovator, Rosenthal has spent most of his working life as a newspaper journalist; at the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the San Francisco Chronicle.  One of his first jobs in journalism was at the New York Times, where he worked in a locked backroom, photo copying the Pentagon Papers.

“At the core of everything is the story,” Rosenthal said.

Investigative Journalism : How Four Corners researches stories 2

Four Corners celebrates 50 years of investigative journalism

What makes investigative journalism different from ordinary reporting? Daily reporters are deluged with transitory events which often obscure the larger issues; the gaffes, media releases, staged photo opportunities and the hot house intrigues of parliamentary politics. Pressed by deadlines, and hemmed by the size of the news hole, daily journalists often have  to ignore the stories behind the news.  Investigative journalists can go much further. If journalism is non fiction writing (news) embedded with identifiable sources, Investigative Journalism can involve finding important news someone does not want the public to know.

Reporting Disasters : Social media and the floods Reply

Social media were a mixed blessing  as authorities struggled to inform the public during the Queensland floods disaster.

That’s the interim finding of the the Queensland Floods Royal Commission, which today made a series of recommendations on how the public might be better informed during disasters. Queensland local government and the state Police Service used  Twitter and Facebook to disseminate flood warnings and information about local conditions during this year’s catastrophic floods.

Technology : Editing before computers 1

Printers ink still runs in  George Richards’ veins.

George came from a family of newspapermen, with a father, Chas, an uncle Len, and a brother, Dick in the trade before him. George was a journalist in Sydney for more than half a century and in his time, he was a sub-editor, a London correspondent,  a Chief of staff, a cadet trainer and editor of Column 8 at  Fairfax newspapers. But George Richards would help change newspapers forever, introducing computer systems which would revolutionise journalism culture.