Media Files: ABC boss Michelle Guthrie sacked, but the board won’t say why

Former ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie looking toward a different future earlier this year at the ABC’s first Annual Public Meeting. JOEL CARRETT/AAP

Andrew Dodd, The University of Melbourne, Margaret Simons, Monash University, Matthew Ricketson, Deakin University

Authors

Andrew Dodd
Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Margaret Simons
Associate professor, Journalism, Monash University
Matthew Ricketson
Professor of Communication, Deakin University

Disclosure statement

Andrew Dodd receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a former ABC employee.

Margaret Simons is working on a book about the ABC. She is a member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, a not for profit that advocates on journalism-related issues. She received industry and philanthropic funding for research into journalism futures. It was not from the ABC.

Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council as a chief investigator on two projects. He was appointed by the federal government in 2011 to assist Ray Finkelstein QC in an Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation, which reported in 2012. Since 2016 he has been the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's representative on the Australian Press Council. He is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia.

Partners

Monash University and University of Melbourne provide funding as founding partners of The Conversation AU.

Deakin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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ABC boss Michelle Guthrie sacked, but the board won’t say why The Conversation37.5 MB (download)

The major question following the sacking of ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie is why? Why did the ABC board move so decisively and why now?

Was it just about tension between her and the corporation chair, Justin Milne, or was it about strategic direction for the national broadcaster?

In this special edition of Media Files, Monash University’s Margaret Simons and former ABC staff-elected director Matt Peacock talk to Matthew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd about what it might mean for the ABC - particularly in the lead up to a federal election.

Media Files is produced by a team of journalists and academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. It’s about how journalists operate, how media policy is changing, and how commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume.

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Theme music by Susie Wilkins.

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