DogBitesMan has moved!
Well, not exactly. What’s happened is that the old DogBitesMan will continue to appear at this address … but it will no longer be updated on a regular basis. Instead, a new site The News Manual … Now! (TheNewsManual.com) has been launched, using many of the old DogBitesMan articles but adding regular updates on some key issues of current concern to the media around the world. Importantly, new The News Manual … Now! articles will have direct links to one or more of the 100-plus chapters and other web pages in The News Manual: A professional resource for journalists and the media (TheNewsManual.net) so readers who want to understand more about how journalists work – or should be working – can read them from a professional journalism perspective. … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
When did we get so lazy?
When did Australians get so lazy? I don’t mean doing less demanding jobs, taking more sickies, walking less, being TV couch potatoes or even getting other people to do our thinking for us. I mean, when did we change from being independent, problem solving, effort admiring, go-out-of-our-way-to-help-people people? We still bask in the rosy glow of bush heroes portrayed in movies starring Chips Rafferty and Jack Thompson, Hugh “Australia” Jackman and even Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan; men … Read entire article »
Welcome to journalism-free journalism
Encouraged to embrace social media, are real journalists now paying too high a price for the convenience of “information everywhere all the time”? Serious journalists – i.e. those who think news should be fair, accurate and based on facts – have long been urged to integrate social media into their work. It’s a great tool for digging into events and harvesting opinions that might otherwise be “mediated out” by gatekeepers who don’t want inconvenient truths exposed. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism
Honesty still best policy for international broadcasters
Two events over the past few weeks have reinforced – if any further proof were needed – that honesty is the best policy in the complex world of international broadcasting. The first was the release of an Association for International Broadcasting analyses of rumoured plans by the recently-elected conservative government of Australia to cut off funding to the nation’s 20-year-old overseas television service, Australia Network, in its May Budget. The threat is widely seen as payback … Read entire article »
Clouds of war gather over the Internet
The Internet is approaching a crisis. Authoritarian regimes censor and manipulate it to suppress dissent, western governments pursue online whistleblowers and Wikileakers, big business wants to track consumers’ every move. Supposedly liberal governments from the United States to Australia have proved as eager as their conservative predecessors to constrain it. And the media? They have largely been silent, uninterested, distracted or disempowered by the rapid collapse of the “free Internet” dream. Government of any kind has … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media, Society
A circus, the Tank Man and a dead pop star
Irony is one of the guilty pleasures of many journalists and never more so than when it reflects badly upon opponents of a free media, especially those who try to limit our ability to expose the kind of doublespeak upon which irony itself feeds. While few governments around the world can escape accusations of hypocrisy – which is irony with boots on – journalists in Western democracies take special delight in exposing it in countries where … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media
Cheers or tears for SBS?
The champagne corks have been popping at SBS in the wake of Tuesday’s Budget to celebrate what the multicultural broadcaster says is “the most significant funding boost SBS has ever received”. But will there be a hangover once all the bubbles have burst? By any reckoning, SBS receiving $158 million in extra funding has to be great news. Admittedly it is spread over five years and it is tied to some hefty non-discretionary commitments, but in light of … Read entire article »
Trust me, I’m the Minister
As SBS makes its final preparations to absorb the National Indigenous TV channel in July, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have to take it on trust they’ll actually get a place on the SBS Board. Expressions of Interest for two Board vacancies close on Friday (11 May) and although the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy have their fingers crossed that good Indigenous candidates will apply, there is no guarantee one will be … Read entire article »
Blogroll
Recent Comments
- Bernard Sinai on Goodbye Mr Grass Roots
"With the Queen's public birthday coming up I'm just picturing how Rootsie would …" - Phil Ryan on Cheers or tears for SBS?
"I look forward to more productions of similar nature and quality to "The First A…" - Paulo Alberton on About
"Thanks David for the insights... I just discovered you and will explore more of …" - topdog on Endless war between newsroom and classroom
"The problem, Shameless, is that the academics generally see the freedoms and res…" - Shameless on Endless war between newsroom and classroom
"I cant see what the problem is. The academics say they believe in free speech an…"