Media Monopoly, by Wiretap Studios (Flickr) One ironic consequence of the new media age is that as the digital revolution threatens to splinter mainstream media businesses, the pressure for “consolidation” (read: concentration) grows around the world. It was a subject touched on by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, in his 2010 Read more…
One big story this past week exposed the media’s love of pre-fabricated templates that save them having to ask uncomfortable questions or to think outside of cosy and familiar narrative frames. While Groundhog Day for many of us, these type of “stories” nevertheless are seized upon by a media that Read more…
While the news media globally is cutting back on its facility for covering international news, it is channelling increasing resources into opinion. The economic and cultural causes of this shift are well documented, including on this blog. But what is not often canvassed are the possible consequences – not just Read more…
“The Kevin Rudd era has begun. It is expected to last a long time. Rudd offers a new brand of leadership for Australia that breaks not just from John Howard but from Labor’s past. Rudd enjoys a big majority, an unqualified mandate, a growth economy, a Labor Party invigorated by Read more…
“We’ll build a world of our own that no one else can share. All our sorrows we’ll leave far behind us there.And I know you will find there’ll be peace of mindwhen we live in a world of our own.” — The Seekers When Julia Gillard recently embarked on her Read more…
In journalism, there’s nothing like beating the opposition on a breaking story. Having juicy information before anyone else is an adrenalin-pumping, endorphin-generating sensation that is hard to come down from. In the financial wire services in the 80s and 90s, we fought more competitively than anyone, with timings of news Read more…
If you could pay directly for the work of a journalist. says Annabel Crabb in a widely applauded University of Melbourne speech on the sorry plight of her trade, you would be buying the individual journalist’s time, research and writing. “You are taking out a time share on all the Read more…
The eerie return of John Howard, more like Banquo than Lazarus, to Australian public life is doing strange things to the heads of the journalistic community. There was Jonathan Green on the ABC’s Drum today, fawning over Howard’s “steely chutzpah” and contrasting his supposed “conviction” politics with the weather vane-driven, Read more…
“Rupert Murdoch came into this business as an outsider and he continues to see himself as such, no matter that he owns everything, controls everything, and is the central person of our time. He continues to see himself as an outsider and it gives him enormous happiness, joy, and a Read more…