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When news hounds should back off
One story has cropped up more than any other since the beginning of journalism – the behaviour of journalists. Even when reporters try to stay in the background and not become part of the story, eventually the spotlight is turned back on them and in its glare they are often accused of being rude, insensitive, aggressive, self-centred, arrogant, incompetent or demanding. Everyone’s work can be judged by the way is done rather than the outcome that is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media
Goodbye Mr Grass Roots
An era of sorts came to an end this week with the death of cartoonist Bob Browne in Port Moresby General Hospital. He was the creator of Mr Grass Roots, perhaps Papua New Guinea’s most loved comic character, which the magazine Islands Business once called “the social conscience of PNG”. Browne’s life and work could almost be read as an allegory of change in the Pacific Islands’ largest nation. Browne arrived in PNG as a British volunteer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Journalism, Media
Look-at-me journalism all the rage from Cairns to Cairo
You can tell journalists have lost the plot when they start reporting on themselves. A rash of “look what happened to me” reports has broken out amongst journalists covering the unrest in Egypt and the ham-fisted attempts by the Egyptian authorities to intimidate them and impede their work Of course, one doesn’t actually need to look so far afield for examples of reporters making themselves the news when covering major breaking disasters such as floods, cyclones and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Journalism, Media
One man’s meat …
It’s all very well – and probably necessary – to expect the peddlers of hate to bear some responsibility for Saturday’s multiple murders in Pima, Arizona, if only because of the atmosphere of hatred their rantings helped to create. It is too early yet to say what drove 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner to kill or wound 20 people, including a US Congresswoman, a Federal Court judge and a nine-year-old girl. Was it partly the crass ravings … Read entire article »
Filed under: General, Journalism, Media, Society
2010: That was the year that wasn’t
Had it not been for WikiLeaks, 2010 might have gone down as another forgettable year for the media in Australia and around the world. There were few outstanding examples of great journalism,[i] no breathtaking, game-changing technical innovations, not even any great “end-of-an-era” events at which we could pause and take stock. Admittedly, the human inclination to see the start or end of decades as somehow symbolically significant is irrational and therefore it shouldn’t surprise us when years … Read entire article »
Filed under: General, Journalism, Media
Cable leaks war on News Corp: Hold the front page!
If the first casualty in war is truth – even a war involving News Corporation – then the second casualty is Vince Cable. Ironically, they were both hit by the same bombshell. The British Government’s Business Secretary is yet another victim of a current outbreak of honesty. Perhaps it’s just his small ‘l’ liberal-democratic naivety or perhaps collateral damage from several months of WikiLeakage – 2010 will forever be known as the Year of WikiLeaks – but Cable … Read entire article »
Don’t try this at home, children
The release by WikiLeaks of tens of thousands of confidential US government emails has turned the spotlight on some serious and long-submerged issues about honesty in public life. The US Government and many others mentioned in these supposedly secret emails are genuinely embarrassed and understandably angry that they have been made public. They and their supporters outside government – including sections of the media – say it is impossible to undertake sophisticated modern diplomacy if everything one … Read entire article »
Australia failed to score – so what?
Losing the bid to host the 2022 World Cup may seem like the end of the world to Australian soccer fans, but as the teeth grinding and recriminations slowly fade, the rest of the nation issues a collective sigh of relief. Those uninterested in football – Australia still doesn’t know what to call “the world game” – will be relieved on several fronts. Of course many will tut-tut at the unfairness of the process and the insult … Read entire article »
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