tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/journalism-854/articlesJournalism – The Conversation2024-03-11T13:31:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254832024-03-11T13:31:52Z2024-03-11T13:31:52ZAcademic journalism: the concept at the heart of a conference – and The Conversation<p>The Conversation was fortunate enough to be invited to co-host <a href="https://www.ucdclinton.ie/events/epistemic-crisis-march">a conference in Dublin last week</a> which focused on the relationship between academia and journalism. This is, of course, something that we know a little about at The Conversation, having spent more than a decade bringing academics together with professional journalists to create content that’s of value and interest to a broad public readership.</p>
<p>Indeed, the opening session of the conference, held at the splendid Royal Irish Academy and organised by University College Dublin’s Clinton Institute, was titled Academic Journalism, and I was asked to say a few words to kick things off. That headline had come about without any prompting from The Conversation, but the very term “academic journalism” has long sat at the heart of our internal considerations of the work we do. <a href="https://theconversation.com/stefan-wolff-and-tetyana-malyarenko-win-sir-paul-curran-award-for-academic-journalism-their-editor-explains-why-206211">An annual award we present in the UK for excellence in the field even carries the words</a>.</p>
<p>But what is academic journalism? I sought to stress to the audience that, to me anyway, it is, and has to be, more than simply asking authors with a long list of impressive qualifications to communicate in a style one might more associate with newspapers or broadcasters. Style is part of the equation, but so is substance. And fortunately, as we discussed in Dublin, the appetite for and opportunities to create such content has grown significantly over the last decade. </p>
<h2>Significant shift</h2>
<p>Around 100,000 academics have written for The Conversation. Its articles regularly record more than 40 million views a month on this and other sites, through our open republication model. The sole purpose of this project is the production of high-value content born of the collaborative efforts of academics and our journalists. Other organisations too though, increasingly see the value of this style of content. Examples include <a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/">RTE’s Brainstorm</a> in Ireland and <a href="https://videnskab.dk/">Videnskab</a> in Denmark. </p>
<p>That’s a significant shift from the days when, as a news editor on national newspapers, I’d often be confronted with a spread on a big breaking issue of the day and think: “Ok, we have the news piece; a Q&A with another journalist; the colour write off from the ground; and, oh, there’s a 400-word space on the edge, let’s get a academic view.”</p>
<p>And we often got the same academic – probably, if it was a political matter, a psephologist to muse on potential electoral ramifications. Upon discovery of the concept of The Conversation, though, it quickly became clear to me that the academic carried the potential to play a central role in the conveyance of developments around topical and newsworthy matters, and to explain the nuances and subtleties to more people. </p>
<h2>Different style of journalism</h2>
<p>So it has proved. Since launch in Australia, and expansion around the world, The Conversation has built on this core concept of each element of its content being a collaboration between an academic and journalist. What has emerged from that has been a different style of journalism.</p>
<p>Because, despite often sharing many similar aims, the knowledge institutions of academia and journalism have significant differences in approach. Where journalists often seek answers, and quickly, academia can afford to be more deliberative. Indeed, simply describing something as being “a bit academic” can imply the hypothetical. Journalism probably embraced and magnified that stereotype somewhat over the years – hence the 400-word afterthought on the spread of the day, as mentioned above. Meanwhile, from the ivory towers, the fourth estate smacked of simplicity, and often wasn’t trusted. </p>
<p>These are extremes, but as is often the case with stereotypes there were grains of truth. Bring the two together though, and a reaction takes place that can produce content of value. Content that otherwise would not exist. You can see that value in <a href="https://theconversation.com/global">Conversation content</a> from researchers across the academy and around the world. It’s born of an approach that seeks not simply, an academic voice as a supplementary, but a research-based specialist operating in the area of their knowledge and channelling that knowledge to a non-specialist audience. Often this can be as an introduction to a subject. A strong example of this was an article titled <a href="https://theconversation.com/mystery-china-pneumonia-outbreak-likely-caused-by-new-human-coronavirus-129729">Mystery China pneumonia outbreak likely caused by new human coronavirus</a> by Connor Bamford of Queens University Belfast, first published by us in early January 2020. For many readers it would have been the first time they really learned about the pandemic. I’m glad they did so from an expert, such as Connor. </p>
<h2>Knowledge meets news</h2>
<p>Quickly bringing that knowledge to a moving news event that affected pretty much everyone on earth is a clear indication of value, and we operate in that manner daily, across our editions. Unique value is also channelled by conveying academics’ new research. Likewise, this is a regular approach taken by Conversation authors. Increasingly, we find the stories of how that research was conducted and reflections on the outcomes <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-couldnt-stand-the-pain-the-turkish-holiday-resort-thats-become-an-emergency-dental-centre-for-britons-who-cant-get-treated-at-home-224762">make compelling content</a>, whatever format they may be conveyed in. Thirdly, simply deploying a broad base of academic knowledge to assess an issue that’s topical or interesting, but not necessarily related to the news agenda can also produce content that is of value to readers and authors. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/books">Theatre and book reviews</a> (here illustrated on our Australian edition’s Books and Ideas page) are strong examples of that final approach.</p>
<p>It’s in these three approaches to delivering value to readers then, that I find a definition of “academic journalism”: analysis grounded in research, delivery of new research, knowledge sharing on topical matters – all for a non-specialist readership. The last decade has, thanks to the liberating powers of technology and dissemination on social, facilitated a democratisation and dramatic growth of such content. The next phase in its development though, promises to be even more revolutionary and disruptive. Generative AI is already changing the face of journalism and poses fundamental challenges to academia. Questions regarding veracity of information and its origins that have arisen in the past decade are becoming even more difficult to address. The opportunities to engage with and produce content are growing. The challenge will be to ensure readers can rely on certain places where they can have confidence in finding, high-value, trusted content. We, at The Conversation, seek to meet that challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
It is in three core approaches to delivering value to readers that I find a definition of ‘academic journalism’.Stephen Khan, Global Executive Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252662024-03-07T00:45:12Z2024-03-07T00:45:12ZWe don’t have to give Facebook a free ride<p>Last week we learnt that <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/meta-to-pull-70-million-from-australian-news-publishers-wind-down-facebook-news-tab/news-story/8a9ac9c1ad57cfb15ca91a241affc6c7">Facebook (Meta) is getting out of the news business</a> to avoid paying for journalism under the Australian Government’s News Media Bargaining Code. Naturally as journalists we are disappointed – jobs will go – but no one is surprised. Facebook is doing what it has always done, which is to pursue its interests ruthlessly.</p>
<p>For over a decade Facebook courted the Australian media, now it has tossed it aside. Its conduct brings to mind the old fable of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion wants to get to the other side of the river and asks a frog to carry it. The frog agrees, even though it fears the scorpion will sting. Halfway into the crossing, the scorpion stings the frog. It is in my nature, the scorpion explains.</p>
<p>So it is with Facebook, which convinced Australia’s media that it was a good idea to produce high-quality content and put it on Facebook for free. When ACCC chairman Rod Sims came up with a plan to make Facebook pay, out came the stinger. Facebook removed news from its Australian platform and threatened to withdraw from publishing news altogether. (It’s currently using the same tactic in Canada to avoid similar laws.)</p>
<p>In some markets Facebook’s popularity is waning, but it persists because it is engineered to be addictive – just like smoking and arguably as toxic. A few years ago whistleblower Frances Haugen claimed Facebook knew its products were harmful but it <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/facebook-whistleblower-warns-social-media-is-distorting-voice-debate-20231008-p5ealq">put profits above user safety</a>. That was just the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<p>Facebook has a well-documented history of allowing hate, threats and misinformation to flourish. It also allowed Cambridge Analytica to scrape data from tens of millions of users and use it to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/04/cambridge-analytica-data-breach-facebook-denies-leaks">aid political candidates</a>, including Donald Trump. Profiting from misinformation and disinformation is core to its business model. The <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/30/opinions/maria-ressa-facebook-intl-hnk/index.html">campaign of character assassination</a> on Facebook against the Philippines-based journalist Maria Ressa speaks volumes about the company’s commitment to journalism, journalists’ safety and human rights.</p>
<p>A few years ago, Facebook flatly refused to pay SBS and The Conversation for journalism under Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code. We were disappointed – the money would have allowed us to produce more fact-based journalism written by experts to inform public discourse. It could have helped us in our mission to use facts and evidence to bring people together at a time when the half-truths and propaganda circulating on social media are tearing them apart. It would have helped Facebook show it cared about fighting misinformation.</p>
<p>But perhaps we dodged a bullet. The Albanese government now has the option of “designating” Facebook under the News Media Bargaining Code to force it to pay for journalism. If it were to do so, there’s a very slim chance Facebook would pay up. More likely it would just pack up and go home. </p>
<p>Either way we’d be better off. As journalist Peter Greste wrote in his <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-metas-refusal-to-pay-for-news-affect-australian-journalism-and-our-democracy-224872">analysis for The Conversation last weekend</a> “Meta’s interests are not the same as our democracy’s. Meta doesn’t need high-quality news, particularly if its users are more interested in sharing family photos than sober reporting on inflation rates. But collectively, our society does need it.”</p>
<p>In Australian law there is a concept known as “unconscionable conduct” that describes people who trick others into believing something for profit. It’s not a bad description of what Facebook did to the Australian media over the past decade. It’s what it will continue to do to communities around the world – it’s in its nature.</p>
<p>So what can you do? Encourage anyone who gets their news from Facebook or Instagram to sign up to a reputable news service. The Conversation‘s <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?region=au&nl=au-daily">daily newsletter</a> is free and a good place to start. We also have specialist weekly newsletters, including <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?region=au&nl=au-science">Science Wrap</a>, <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?region=au&nl=au-books">Books & Ideas</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/nz/newsletters/new-zealand-weekly-58?utm_campaign=System&utm_content=newsletter&utm_medium=TopBar&utm_source=theconversation.com">New Zealand Weekly</a>. Or if you are reading us on your desktop at home or work, bookmark our homepage. </p>
<p>In Australia, at least, we don’t have to give the scorpion a free ride.</p>
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<p><em>This article will be open for comment until 5pm AEDT on Friday March 8 – we would love to hear your thoughts.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Meta is getting out of the news business to avoid paying for journalism under the Australian Government’s News Media Bargaining Code - but no one is surprised.Misha Ketchell, Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248722024-03-02T09:28:32Z2024-03-02T09:28:32ZHow will Meta’s refusal to pay for news affect Australian journalism – and our democracy?<p>When we speak of media freedom, we generally mean it in terms of freedom <em>from</em> unnecessary legal restrictions, so journalists and their sources are not threatened with prosecution for exposing the misdeeds of governments. </p>
<p>But yesterday’s announcement by Meta (Facebook’s parent company) that it will <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/meta-won-t-renew-deal-with-australian-news-media/103533874">stop paying for Australian news content</a> poses a different kind of threat to media freedom. </p>
<p>The most progressive <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-push-to-make-social-media-companies-liable-in-defamation-is-great-for-newspapers-and-lawyers-but-not-you-127513">media freedom laws</a> in the world are meaningless if news companies can’t afford to hire experienced journalists to run expensive investigations. It doesn’t matter how free the laws are if there are no journalists to do the reporting. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-37265-1_4">key part of any successful democracy</a> is a free media, capable of interrogating the powerful and holding governments to account. Even in a world overflowing with digital content, we recognise the need for good journalism, produced to ethical and professional standards, to help inform public debate and good policy-making. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-wont-keep-paying-australian-media-outlets-for-their-content-are-we-about-to-get-another-news-ban-224857">Facebook won't keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban?</a>
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<h2>It was always going to fall apart</h2>
<p>Three years ago, in 2021, under <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">the News Media Bargaining Code</a>, the government forced Meta and Google to negotiate with news organisations and pay for the right to access and post their stories. </p>
<p>The government introduced the code after <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/3/1/facebook-owner-meta-to-end-deals-funding-news-in-australia-germany-france">Facebook and Google were accused of putting news content on their platforms</a>, while denying news organisations the advertising revenues that used to pay for journalism.</p>
<p>Although we don’t know exactly who gets paid what, it is estimated that the two digital giants injected <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/1b-for-journalism-at-risk-in-new-warning-over-google-facebook-20240223-p5f78j.html">about $250 million a year</a> into Australian journalism.</p>
<p>It wasn’t enough to end the crisis in news caused by the collapse of the old business models, but it <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Regionalnewspapers/Report/Section?id=committees%2Freportrep%2F024888%2F79305">helped prop up</a> a lot of struggling companies. In some cases, it helped pay for otherwise unprofitable forms of journalism. </p>
<p>One of the big problems with the code was that it pushed media companies into inherently unstable and unpredictable deals with commercial behemoths, whose only interest in news was as a commodity to help drive profits. It was always going to fall apart, if and when news became too expensive and Facebook users became disinterested. </p>
<p>It is hard to criticise Meta for deciding the deals weren’t worth it. The company is doing what it is supposed to, making hardheaded commercial decisions and maximising shareholder returns. But Meta’s interests are not the same as the Australian public’s.</p>
<p>Or more accurately, Meta’s interests are not the same as our democracy’s. Meta doesn’t need high-quality news, particularly if its users are more interested in sharing family photos than sober reporting on inflation rates. But collectively, our society does need it. </p>
<p>High-quality news is expensive. It doesn’t cost much to send someone to report on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-taylor-swift-tickets-so-hard-to-get-the-economics-are-complicated-208567">Taylor Swift’s</a> Melbourne concert, but it is hugely expensive to cover <a href="https://theconversation.com/other-nations-are-applying-sanctions-and-going-to-court-over-gaza-should-nz-join-them-224132">the war in Gaza</a> or investigate allegations of government corruption. </p>
<p>I suspect not that many Australians have read Adele Ferguson’s reporting about the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/adele-ferguson-on-the-cost-of-whistleblowing-and-need-for-a-bank-royal-commission-20160505-gomxc4.html">corrupt practices of our biggest banks</a>. Her investigations took years of work, and cost far more than the Sydney Morning Herald would have recovered in subscriptions and advertising revenue for her stories. </p>
<p>But her reporting triggered the <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/banking">Banking Royal Commission</a> and a suite of reforms that benefit everyone with a bank account.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-third-of-australians-think-banks-do-nothing-for-the-greater-public-good-111346">One-third of Australians think banks do nothing for the greater public good</a>
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<h2>A news levy?</h2>
<p>If we accept that news is a public good, not something we can treat as a product to be traded like soap, then we have to develop economic models that somehow get the public to pay for it. It could be something like a levy – similar to Medicare’s – that recognises even if we don’t all consume news equally, we are collectively better off by having good journalism that’s free from commercial or political pressure.</p>
<p>It is a difficult conversation to have, particularly when most Australians say <a href="https://www.edelman.com.au/trust/2023/trust-barometer">they don’t trust the media</a>, and more and more of us are <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/uc-alumni-canvas/canvas-articles/posts/news-blues-over-half-of-australians-avoid-the-news">giving up on news altogether</a>. </p>
<p>And that brings us to the other truth this crisis has exposed: our consumption of media <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/media/newsroom/2023/june/digital-news-report-australia-2023-tiktok-and-instagram-increase-in-popularity-for-news-consumption,-but-australians-dont-trust-algorithms">has changed irreversibly</a>. Fewer and fewer people are reading long news stories or wading through heavy TV bulletins. Now, short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook are dominant. The news industry needs to meet audiences where they are, and accept that the ways of presenting news must also radically change.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Our ways of consuming the news have changed, with short-form videos now dominant.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This is not to suggest all journalism should henceforth be presented as TikTok videos. But forcing digital giants to prop up analogue-era news companies cements a system that is no longer fit for purpose. </p>
<p>By trying to make the big digital giants pay for content they ultimately profit from, the News Media Bargaining Code started with the right intention. But now that Meta has decided it is no longer worth it, we have a chance to radically rethink and redesign how we finance and deliver news – in a way that works for us all. </p>
<p>Our democracy depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the Executive Director of the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom.</span></em></p>Meta’s announcement it will stop paying for news poses a threat. High-quality news is expensive, but important. Do we need economic measures that somehow get the public to pay for it?Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211162024-02-28T19:14:56Z2024-02-28T19:14:56Z‘If we burn … then what?’ A new book asks why a decade of mass protest has done so little to change things<p>In 2010, in response to ongoing ill-treatment by police, a fruit vendor performed an act of self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. This set off an uprising that led to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/14/remembering-the-day-tunisias-president-ben-ali-fled">removal of dictator Ben Ali</a> and a process to rewrite the constitution in a democratic direction. </p>
<p>Inspired by this, huge demonstrations against police brutality erupted in Egypt, centred in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the protesters calling for the removal of the country’s president, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/02/hosni-mubarak-legacy-of-mass-torture/">Hosni Mubarak</a>. </p>
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<p><em>If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution – Vincent Bevins (Hachette)</em></p>
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<p>These events catalysed what Vincent Bevins calls the “mass protest decade”. The years from 2010 to 2020 saw a record number of protests around the world seeking to transform societies in broadly progressive ways. Many groups were inspired by democratic ideals. </p>
<p>These protests were truly global. Those in Tunisia and Egypt became part of the wider uprising that came to be called the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2021/jan/25/how-the-arab-spring-unfolded-a-visualisation">Arab Spring</a>”. </p>
<p>In 2013, the <em><a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/brazilian-free-fare-movement-mpl-mobilizes-against-fare-hikes-2013">Movimento Passe Livre</a></em> (MPL) or “Free Fare Movement” led to mass protests in Brazil. Initially directed against rises in transport fares, they rapidly expanded to include an unwieldy and contradictory set of groups and grievances. </p>
<p>Many other protests sprang up, including Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2014, dubbed the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/30/-sp-hong-kong-umbrella-revolution-pro-democracy-protests">umbrella movement</a>” in their first phase by the global press. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whatever-happened-to-the-arab-spring-10973">Whatever Happened to the 'Arab Spring'? </a>
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<h2>From bad to worse</h2>
<p>In his new book <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/vincent-bevins/if-we-burn-the-mass-protest-decade-and-the-missing-revolution-as-good-as-journalism-gets">If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution</a>, Bevins starts by asking “how is it possible that so many mass protests apparently led to the opposite of what they asked for?” </p>
<p>The answer he provides is suggested in the book’s title, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If5w78BrmT4">he expands</a> as: “If we burn … then what?” </p>
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<p>Aiming to make sense of the significant role of mass protest across the decade, Bevins focuses on countries where the protest movements were so large that the existing government was either seriously destabilised or dislodged: Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Hong Kong, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Yemen. His book explores why movements failed to achieve their goals and why, in many cases, things got decidedly worse. </p>
<p>In Egypt, for example, the Mubarak regime ended up being replaced by the even worse <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypts-sisi-authoritarian-leader-with-penchant-bridges-2023-12-08/">El-Sisi dictatorship</a>. In Brazil, the leftist-led protests ended up undermining the progressive government led by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dilma-Rousseff">Dilma Rousseff</a>, when groups on the right adopted similar tactics, media strategies, and anti-establishment and anti-corruption rhetoric. What ensued led to the impeachment of President Rousseff and the rise to power of far-right demagogue <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Jair_Bolsonaro">Jair Bolsonaro</a>.</p>
<p>For a significant part of the mass protest decade, Bevins was based in Sao Paulo as the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. In If We Burn, he draws on his extensive experience as a journalist, as well as his academic background. He has travelled around the world and conducted over 200 interviews in 12 countries, which he has woven into an interesting narrative history. </p>
<p>His particular focus is on the activists who conceived and enacted the protest movements. Bevins covers their experiences at the time and, later in the book, what they came to understand about the events that unfolded, and their advice for future activists. He also engages with others, such as politicians and journalists, and draws on the work of social and political theorists. </p>
<p>The narrative is slanted towards his Brazilian home base. Bevins was there to witness the Free Fare Movement and the waves of mass protest it unleashed. Caught up in the action, he experienced, among other things, tear gassing. His colleague Giuliana Vallone was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet.</p>
<p>Vallone found her picture “flying through social networks”. Her image was used as a part of the Brazilian media’s reframing of the protests from broadly bad (leftist troublemakers) to broadly good (nationalists and patriots). </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578462/original/file-20240228-28-jrhegh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Journalist Guiliana Vallone was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet during the Free Fare Movement protests in Brazil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6QVLE8PQJ8">YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The effect of this reframing illustrates the power of dominant news media. As Bevins argues, media narratives shaped how the decades’ protests were viewed around the world, but they also shaped the configuration of the protests in real time, influencing who showed up, and why.</p>
<p>The reframing turbo-charged popular support for the mass protests across Brazil – but not in ways that aligned with the goals of the originators of the protests, which were taken over by an assortment of better organised right-wing groups, including proto-Bolsonaristas. </p>
<p>In a classic right-wing tactic, one group – the <em><a href="https://reason.com/2016/10/15/free-brazil/">Movimento Brasil Livre</a></em> (MBL) or “Free Brazil Movement” – even appropriated the originators’ name. “In Brazilian Portuguese,” Bevins notes,“‘MBL’ sounds nearly identical to ‘MPL’.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bolsonaro-failed-to-overthrow-democracy-and-why-a-threat-remains-223498">Why Bolsonaro failed to overthrow democracy – and why a threat remains</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>International solidarity</h2>
<p>On June 13, 2013, while being tear gassed, the crowd in Sao Paulo chanted “love is over – Turkey is here”. They were referring to the ongoing repression of protesters in Turkey, whose <a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/10/24/legacy-of-gezi-protests-in-turkey-pub-80142">occupation of Gezi Park</a>, next to Taksim Square in Istanbul, began as a protest against the park’s redevelopment, but became a focal point for wider discontentment with the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.</p>
<p>Bevins posts the words on Twitter and is stunned to see them go viral. He receives a flood of images and messages in response. Signs pop up in Gezi Park over the following weeks reading “the whole world is Sao Paulo” and “Turkey and Brazil are one”. </p>
<p>The story exemplifies a new type of international solidarity. Facilitated by the speed of social networking sites, digitally mediated mass protests in significant public places, often squares, emulated the Tahrir Square “model”. </p>
<p>The global protests extended from Taksim Square and Gezi Park in Turkey, to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/12/occupy-wall-street-10-years-on">Zuccotti Park and Occupy Wall St</a> in the United States, to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-13551878">Plaza del Sol in Spain</a> and the <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/euro-maidan-revolution/">“Euromaidan” protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Ukraine</a>. </p>
<p>Bevins emphasises that these protests tended to share certain features: they were “digitally coordinated … horizontally structured … apparently leaderless … apparently spontaneous”. </p>
<p>He describes this phenomenon as a “repertoire of contention”. It involved a certain “recipe of tactics” that became largely taken for granted as the “natural way to respond to social injustice”. </p>
<h2>Repertoire of contention</h2>
<p>During the protest decade, this “repertoire of contention” was more successful than expected. It often put so many people on the streets that it gave protesters real political leverage. They were suddenly in a position where they could make demands and extract reforms from the political establishment. In some cases, they generated “revolutionary situations” where they might potentially take power themselves. </p>
<p>But this type of protest is, as Bevins observes, “very poorly equipped” to take advantage of the kinds of destabilisation or “revolutionary” situations that they create. In such situations, groups must either enter the ensuing power vacuum or use their leverage to negotiate with the establishment. The problem was that to do this effectively required the type of representation and organisation that had become almost impossible. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576969/original/file-20240221-28-vktr16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vincent Bevins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_by_Best_Wishes.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On one hand, Bevins says this was due to the “material conditions” existing before the popular explosions. In the North African dictatorships, for example, unions and alternative political parties had been severely weakened or suppressed. As such, the protests took the “horizontal” form characteristic of the decade.</p>
<p>But in countries with democracies, however imperfect – Brazil and Chile, for example – there were unions and alternative political parties. The horizontal nature of the protests there tended to be driven by an ideological commitment to “horizontalism”. </p>
<p>The ideal was a form of radical participatory democracy, emerging from left-libertarian and anarchist traditions, in which “everyone is equal”. Hierarchy is eschewed, as is any type of enduring formal structure of leaders or spokespeople. As the anthropologist and activist David Graeber wrote: “It is about creating and enacting horizontal networks instead of top-down structures like states, parties or corporations.”</p>
<p>Bevins reports that, at crucial moments, due to their lack of organisation and structure, key actors often replicated tactics they had learned beforehand. Their “repertoire” left them ill-prepared for both the challenges and opportunities that arose.</p>
<p>An unprecedented, technologically facilitated sense of solidarity and inspiration flowed around the world, but it happened so quickly that it led to the “cutting and pasting” of approaches into different national contexts. “Transfer of solidarity” became bound up with “transfer of tactics”. </p>
<p>This meant, in particular, that the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter-globalization">alter-globalisation</a>” movement, conceived in the democratic context of North America, had a disproportionate influence, creating a mismatch of tactics and circumstances. The hasty adoption of tactics meant most movements did not take the time to think through strategies that might be successful in their local context. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/louisa-lims-outstanding-portrait-of-a-dispossessed-defiant-hong-kong-is-the-activist-journalism-we-need-179091">Louisa Lim's 'outstanding' portrait of a dispossessed, defiant Hong Kong is the activist journalism we need</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>New strategies</h2>
<p>Bevins suggests that by taking this and other lessons on board, the deep desire for progressive change, both nationally and in the global system, might come closer to being realised in coming decades. The “mismatches” can be overcome with study and reflection on the events of the mass protest decade. More suitable “repertoires” might be arrived at. </p>
<p>The spontaneous horizontal protests, Bevins observes, “did a very good job of blowing holes in social structures and creating political vacuums”. But the power vacuums they created were filled by those who were ready. </p>
<p>In Egypt, that meant the military. The Gulf countries, especially the United Arab Emirates, were also involved in the El-Sisi coup, via their funding of the anti-Morsi <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23131953">Tamarod movement</a>. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council “literally marched in to fill in the gaps”. The Hong Kong movement was crushed by Beijing. In Brazil, Rousseff was “not removed, not immediately; but to the extent that she lost influence in June 2013, that power did not fall to the anti-authoritarian left, as the [Free Fare Movement] would have liked”.</p>
<p>Lasting progressive change, Bevins argues, requires better organisation and vehicles capable of handing down knowledge, strategy and tactics to the next generation of activists. He offers the example of Chile. </p>
<p>In Chile, the role of unions and political parties, as well as the activists engaging in institutional politics, proved more successful in producing progressive outcomes than digitally organised, horizontal, mass protests alone. </p>
<p>The powerful student unions played a strong role. The “autonomist” left-wing activist <a href="https://www.gob.cl/en/institutions/presidency/">Gabriel Boric</a>, who emerged through university politics, ended up becoming president in 2022. He was pivotal in the referendum process that sought to rewrite Chile’s Pinochet-era constitution. </p>
<p>Bevins proposes that the horizontalist left is so traumatised by the “sins of the Soviet Union” and “other revolutions” that many activists have given up “the things that work” – like organisation, structure and co-ordination. </p>
<p>“But if you refuse to use the tools that work”, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If5w78BrmT4">he points out</a>, you are “ceding your power” to those who will. It is “like showing up to a football game without a coach, strategy, or even a clear idea of who’s on your team”. Being well organised does not guarantee success, but it is essential when you enter into conflict with other well organised forces. </p>
<p>Bevins describes the decade’s dominant form of protest as being ultimately “illegible”. A key part of the problem was that “the square” was, in most of these protests, not asking for one coherent thing, or set of things. Activists, years later, often had widely divergent views as to “what the movements were all about”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/If5w78BrmT4?wmode=transparent&start=2015" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Vincent Bevins speaking at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College, October 25, 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-20-year-rule-of-recep-tayyip-erdogan-has-transformed-turkey-188211">How the 20 year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has transformed Turkey</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>American influence</h2>
<p>As the world’s dominant superpower, the United States is entwined, in complex ways, with the individual countries and the regional power-politics Bevins discusses. In 2011, for example, the US took the opportunity provided by unrest in Libya, and a brutal state crackdown in response, to invade and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/20/nato-libya-war-26000-missions">overthrow the Gaddafi regime in a NATO mission</a>. Hong Kong protesters came to believe they were “sacrificed” for the Trump administration’s ongoing “propaganda war against China”. </p>
<p>Bevins also argues that the American domination of the internet has contributed to unrealistic views about the nature of social institutions, power and social change. The techno-utopianism that has accompanied its rise, the US-centric culture and ideas that circulate on oligarch-owned social media platforms, and “online communities born in the alter-globalisation era”, such as <a href="https://indymedia.org/">Indymedia</a> and <a href="https://www.adbusters.org/about-us">Adbusters</a>, played an “outsize role” in the mass protest decade. </p>
<p>Protesters’ ideas about what was possible and how to proceed were shaped by their immersion in this media landscape. Reflecting in retrospect on the prominent use of material from The Hunger Games, V for Vendetta and Star Wars, a Hong Kong activist said: “I think it is … a little sad, and definitely very unfortunate, that we got so many of our ideas from pop culture.”</p>
<p>The simplistic faith of “liberal techno-optimists” that the internet and social media are intrinsically progressive has proved unfounded, as has the belief that “the internet would make the world more like the United States”. </p>
<p>No protest action or technology is intrinsically progressive. As Bevins points out, is has become clear in recent years that the protesters’ “repertoire” of tools and tactics can be used at least as effectively by right-wing demagogues and disinformation outfits. The shock of Trumpian politics was accompanied by a sobering realisation that “the internet was something that could be used by malevolent foreign powers to undermine the American project”. </p>
<p>Digital communication, Bevins observes, has facilitated “the existence of big protests that come together very quickly – so quickly, perhaps, that no one knows each other, people are trying to realize contradictory goals, and after the initial energy fades, nothing remains”. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTRkIY6NQhA">recent interview</a>, he paraphrases one Free Fare Movement interviewee reflecting on how events unfolded in Brazil: “all we wanted to do for eight years was to cause a popular uprising; and then we did, and it was awful”. </p>
<p>Throughout If We Burn, Bevins shows that “movements that cannot speak for themselves will be spoken for”. As an Egyptian activist reflects: “we thought representation was elitism, but actually it is the essence of democracy”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Pollard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Throughout If We Burn, Vincent Bevins shows that “movements that cannot speak for themselves will be spoken for”.Christopher Pollard, Tutor in Sociology and Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236192024-02-28T18:44:00Z2024-02-28T18:44:00ZHow audience data is shaping Canadian journalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577153/original/file-20240221-24-3j5bg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C45%2C7680%2C4265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There’s been a big shift in how journalists consider their audiences in newsrooms. That shift is largely due to audience data.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With media conglomerates <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bce-cuts-1.7108658">slashing jobs, programs</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/torstar-metroland-nordstar-1">publications</a> and growing <a href="https://www.cem.ulaval.ca/publications/dnr-2023-canada-eng/">news avoidance and perceived issues of trust</a> in journalism, finding ways to catch, engage and retain an audience has become a matter of survival for those in the news business.</p>
<p>There’s been a big shift in how journalists consider their audiences in newsrooms. That shift is largely due to <a href="https://j-source.ca/heres-how-metrics-and-analytics-are-changing-newsroom-practice/">audience data</a> — lots of audience data.</p>
<p>Journalists experience almost constant feedback about the content they create. It doesn’t matter if they’re working online, in television, radio or traditional print. They’re delivering to multiple platforms and every day they’re exposed to quantitative data — metrics that measure audience behaviour on websites and social media — and qualitative data — such as audience comments on social media.</p>
<p>As one television journalist told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You know exactly how far someone scrolls down a page, how many seconds they’re spending on a page, what device you’re using, we know so much about our audience, just like Google knows about our audience.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what impact does all of this data have on how journalists perceive their audiences and the content they publish? That’s what Colette Brin of Laval University, Stuart Duncan from Toronto Metropolitan University and I explore in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2024.2310712">newly published paper</a> examining audience-oriented journalism.</p>
<h2>Audience-oriented journalism</h2>
<p>In basic terms, audience-oriented journalism involves three specific roles:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Infotainment — journalism that uses narrative strategies and style that align with more entertainment-based media; </p></li>
<li><p>Civic — journalism that focuses on educating citizens on their rights or advocating for their demands; and </p></li>
<li><p>Service — news reports that promote products or help you solve everyday problems.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="the Toronto Star website" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577152/original/file-20240221-20-97keji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Finding ways to catch, engage and retain an audience has become a matter of survival for those in the news business.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We <a href="https://j-source.ca/a-global-study-on-pandemic-era-news-explores-the-gap-between-journalists-ideals-and-realities/">analyzed more than 3,700 stories</a> from 2020, surveyed 133 journalists in 2020 and 2021 and interviewed 13 journalists during the same time period. The news organizations we studied were the <em>Toronto Star</em>, <em>Globe and Mail</em>, <em>National Post</em>, CTV, Global News, <em>La Presse</em>, <em>HuffPost Canada</em>, TVA and CBC/Radio-Canada. Having worked in newsrooms ourselves, we were able to contextualize our results through our own experiences. </p>
<p>We found audience data has a big impact on practice in Canadian newsrooms. At the now defunct <a href="https://theconversation.com/bottom-up-audience-driven-and-shut-down-how-huffpost-canada-left-its-mark-on-canadian-media-175805"><em>HuffPost Canada</em></a>, for example, the audience was segmented into specific “types” of readers based on audience data. As one editor described, “We do X, Y and Z for this type of story for this type of person.” In essence, how a story was written depended on who it was being written for. </p>
<p>Reporters were also aware of the importance of audience data from a business perspective. As noted by one newspaper reporter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This is all algorithm stuff that I don’t entirely understand, but it does help the eggheads figure out how to customize your user experience when you go to the website. So it’s showing you stuff you’re interested in much the same way of Facebook and Twitter, which keeps people engaged with your website, which means more subscribers, which means I get to stay gainfully employed.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Responses to our survey supported the importance of audience data in the selection, development and promotion of stories and in measuring their value. Based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884913504259">other studies</a>, we also know that journalists can lowball <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884915595474">the importance of data</a> in making editorial decisions, so there could be even greater impact than we measured. </p>
<h2>Infotainment and sensationalism</h2>
<p>There is frequent critique that the ubiquity of data in newsrooms has resulted in a push for clickbait or more sensationalized stories that boost traffic at the expense of more newsworthy reportage — and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1504626">sometimes that happens</a>. </p>
<p>Sensationalism is part of infotainment. However, our content analysis revealed that a lot of what qualifies as infotainment in Canadian journalism involves descriptive language and sharing relevant, personal details about the subject being written about. Done appropriately this can give greater nuance and context to a story. </p>
<p>As well, infotainment in Canada is often combined with the “educator” part of the civic role. For example, one editor told us how they look to find the “more fun” (infotainment) aspect of a story that can give a “point of entry” to inform the public about things like rules of Parliament. </p>
<p>The civic and service roles are also often performed together, with news you can use that might impact someone’s understanding of political processes or stories about their rights as citizens. </p>
<p>Nearly 80 per cent of the stories we sampled had at least one audience-oriented role present, and almost 40 per cent had more than one. This provides strong evidence that audiences are top of mind in newsrooms. </p>
<p>Our conversations also revealed that even if newsrooms aren’t always able to <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/03/imagined-audiences-journalism-analytics-intuition.html">accurately interpret</a> what the audience wants, they’re spending a lot of time and resources trying to do so.</p>
<h2>Importance of social media</h2>
<p>Most reporters we talked to used social media — whether they wanted to or not — because they recognized it as an important tool to reach audiences, find sources and promote their work. More than 78 per cent of the journalists surveyed agreed it was an important tool to connect with audiences. </p>
<p>However, reporters also noted the downsides of social media, particularly related to political polarization. One newspaper reporter said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“While it provides a venue to find an audience, which is what we absolutely need to do, it has also created a forum with which to attack journalists and attack the free press.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>That hostile environment resulted in another reporter being careful about her choice of words so she could reach a wider audience:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I deliberately go out of my way to try to reach the people who are trying to ignore me. Like, that’s the target audience as you write. So you’re avoiding unnecessary use of terms that get spun into shit, not because we don’t deserve to use those terms … but because what you’re actually attempting to do is to reach those people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even if people might not trust news, or a certain media organization, there is evidence to show they can still recognize and appreciate <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257998">quality journalism</a>. </p>
<p>Canadian journalists have to find ways to understand and reach an audience that may not always want to listen. They’re trying hard to do so. Whether it works, and the lasting impact of their efforts on journalistic standards, remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Blanchett has received funding from Mitacs, Centre d’études sur les médias, The Journalism Research Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University, The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto Metropolitan University, and SSHRC.</span></em></p>A new study on Canadian journalism examines the impact of audience data on journalistic roles and journalists’ perceptions of their audienceNicole Blanchett, Associate Professor, Journalism, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246252024-02-28T05:53:59Z2024-02-28T05:53:59ZWith the end of Newshub, the slippery slope just got steeper for NZ journalism and democracy<p>If journalism in Western democracies has been on a roller coaster in recent decades, in Aotearoa New Zealand this week it threatened to come right off the rails.</p>
<p>Today’s <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350194958/live-newshub-set-close-end-june#tickaroo_event_id=emttUHDz5so955ycScnC">shocking announcement</a> by owners Warner Bros Discovery of the closure of <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home.html">Newshub</a> by the end of June will leave only state-owned TVNZ and Whakaata Māori providing public-interest, free-to-air broadcast news.</p>
<p>The impact on the country’s already shrinking and fragile public sphere will be considerable, as yet another tranche of sacked New Zealand journalists goes looking for work.</p>
<p>Up to 350 jobs will go, <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/media-insider-super-anxious-three-and-newshub-staff-called-to-11am-warner-bros-discovery-meeting/2OVBMDSPPRH2JFTVBFX6AU4S3Q/">about 200 of which are from the news operation</a>.</p>
<p>The brutal nature of the decision, and the apparent disregard for affected staff, echoes <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2023/03/today-fm-taken-off-air-thursday-morning-amid-rumours-the-station-is-being-shut-down.html">the closure last year</a> of Mediaworks’ Today FM radio station. It should be yet another wake-up call about the vulnerability of the country’s precious and struggling news media to global investment priorities.</p>
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<h2>Diversity and competition</h2>
<p>The news media is core infrastructure for a democracy. Any attempt at a self-governing society requires a well-informed and, to some degree, unified public.</p>
<p>Today, we understand this to mean media that act as the conduit for a significant plurality of voices, ideas and political arguments. And a healthy and diverse media ecosystem is required to enable this.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closures-cuts-revival-and-rebirth-how-covid-19-reshaped-the-nz-media-landscape-in-2020-151020">Closures, cuts, revival and rebirth: how COVID-19 reshaped the NZ media landscape in 2020</a>
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<p>Yes, television is now less central to our wider, mobile-based news consumption. But to have just one prime-time mainstream television news service for the entire country is a disaster.</p>
<p>TVNZ on its own will not be able to reflect the complex, multicultural and socially diverse country New Zealand is. Neither will it have the competition essential to doing its best work on behalf of the public. </p>
<p>And yet, despite warnings sounded since the internet began to erode news media income, the public sphere has been left to the vagaries of global markets – even more than other socially critical sectors such as education and health.</p>
<h2>Loss of trust</h2>
<p>Discovery New Zealand <a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/news-in-brief/three-owner-discovery-nz-loses-34m-in-2022">made after-tax losses</a> in 2022 of more than NZ$34 million, up $800,000 on the previous year. Hence the decision of its owner, global media behemoth Warner Bros Discovery, to take out another foundation of the already teetering local news industry.</p>
<p>Politicians murmur about how terrible it is, but argue they can do nothing to save Newshub. The impacts of that impotence are as significant as any other challenge the local media face.</p>
<p>Broadcasting minister Melissa Lee <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350194958/live-newshub-set-close-end-june#tickaroo_event_id=emttUHDz5so955ycScnC">today said</a> there would be no loss of plurality in the national conversation because of the closure. She said most New Zealanders now get their news on mobile phones.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-winston-peters-right-to-call-state-funded-journalism-bribery-or-is-there-a-bigger-threat-to-democracy-218782">Is Winston Peters right to call state-funded journalism ‘bribery’ – or is there a bigger threat to democracy?</a>
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<p>But television news also relies on social media, not just the airwaves, for its dissemination. If people are looking on their phones for news, the stories from one of the country’s most impactful newsrooms will no longer be there.</p>
<p>Emergency funding through the government’s $55 million public-interest journalism fund helped during the pandemic lockdowns. But it also triggered allegations from right-wing pundits and politicians that the media <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-winston-peters-right-to-call-state-funded-journalism-bribery-or-is-there-a-bigger-threat-to-democracy-218782">had been bought</a>.</p>
<p>Research conducted at the Centre for Media, Journalism and Democracy (<a href="https://www.jmadresearch.com/">JMAD</a>) shows <a href="https://www.jmadresearch.com/trust-in-news-in-new-zealand">public trust in news is falling</a> dramatically in Aotearoa New Zealand. Early results from this work in 2024 show that decline is accelerating. </p>
<p>The reasons for this loss of trust are complex and are under further study at JMAD. Indeed, the news media itself must look long in the mirror as it works through its trust issues. How did it lose the audience <em>so badly</em>?</p>
<p>But any attempts at rebuilding that trust and its role in a functioning democracy will be futile if the public perceives the production of news to be now largely controlled by self-interested global corporates.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/let-them-watch-netflix-what-can-be-salvaged-from-the-wreckage-of-the-failed-tvnz-rnz-merger-199502">‘Let them watch Netflix’ – what can be salvaged from the wreckage of the failed TVNZ-RNZ merger?</a>
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<h2>Journalism as a public good</h2>
<p>Poor media literacy, active conspiracy theorists, and decades of underfunding of journalism have likely all contributed to the increasing rejection of mainstream news media.</p>
<p>However, it would be foolish to think trust in democratic media can be rebuilt when the industrial forces behind it have only a financialised interest. If news is the daily record of human life, how can it be left to something as remote and disinterested as a global corporation?</p>
<p>None of this is to say the mainstream media should be viewed as entirely trustworthy. Some scepticism of everything, including news, is healthy in a democracy. We need critically thinking and politically active citizens challenging many things, including mainstream media news agendas.</p>
<p>But those serious about democracy understand the mainstream is where society is anchored, stable and productive.</p>
<p>The dangers of an increasingly fragmented and reduced mainstream media are real. It includes leaving open ground for radicalised actors to occupy and facilitate further social disharmony. If things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, as the poet <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming">Yeats put it</a>, “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.</p>
<p>The time to restore journalism as a public good and not simply a plaything for shareholders and other investors is overdue. The news in Aotearoa New Zealand today simply confirms that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Greg Treadwell is a former journalist who works at Auckland University of Technology and is a researcher in its Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy. He is currently vice-president of the Journalism Education Association of New Zealand.</span></em></p>It’s been 35 years since Aotearoa New Zealand’s first private network brought real competition in the television news market. Yesterday Warner Bros Discovery announced an end to all that.Greg Treadwell, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238292024-02-22T13:44:03Z2024-02-22T13:44:03ZHow you can tell propaganda from journalism − let’s look at Tucker Carlson’s visit to Russia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577087/original/file-20240221-18-sh4e18.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C0%2C1196%2C867&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tucker Carlson at a Moscow grocery store, praising the bread.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tuckercarlson.com/tc-shorts-moscow-grocery-story/">Screenshot, Tucker Carlson Network</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tucker Carlson, the conservative former cable TV news pundit, recently <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68223148">traveled to Moscow to interview</a> Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for his <a href="https://tuckercarlson.com/">Tucker Carlson Network, known as TCN</a>.</p>
<p>The two-hour interview itself proved dull. Even Putin found Carlson’s <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-tucker-carlson-soft-interview/">soft questioning “disappointing</a>.” Very little from the interview was newsworthy. </p>
<p>Other videos Carlson produced while in Russia, however, seemed to spark far more <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/business/media/tucker-carlson-putin-navalny.html">significant commentary</a>. Carlson marveled at the beauty of <a href="https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1757901280830505037">the Moscow subway</a> and <a href="https://tuckercarlson.com/tc-shorts-moscow-grocery-story/">seemed awed by the cheap prices</a> in a Russian supermarket. He found the faux McDonald’s – rebranded “Tasty-period” – <a href="https://tuckercarlson.com/tc-shorts-russias-version-of-mcdonalds/">cheeseburgers delicious</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08821127.2007.10678081">scholar of broadcast propaganda</a>, I believe Carlson’s work provides an opportunity for public education in distinguishing between propaganda and journalism. Some Americans, primarily Carlson’s fans, will view the videos as accurate reportage. Others, primarily Carlson’s detractors, will reject them as mendacious propaganda. </p>
<p>But closely considering these categories, and evaluating Carlson’s work in context, might deepen public understanding of the distinction between journalism and propaganda in the American context. </p>
<h2>Promoting authoritarians</h2>
<p>Carlson’s ability to secure the Putin interview was commendable. Interviewing dictators – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/12/31/pol-pot-interview-turns-into-90-minute-lecture/82248268-f801-4a46-90e0-c961fef31505/">even the most murderous ones</a>, such as Cambodia’s Pol Pot – can represent a significant journalistic achievement. </p>
<p>Yet, Carlson’s listless approach to the Russian dictator, who <a href="https://www.miragenews.com/full-text-transcript-of-tucker-carlson-putin-1171489">droned on endlessly</a>, proved a wasted opportunity. Despite Carlson’s passivity, the interview did, in fact, reveal aspects of Putin’s intentions likely unknown to many Americans. For example, <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/navalny-putin-russia-ukraine">Putin blamed Poland for provoking Hitler’s attack on the country in 1939, which sparked World War II</a> – a statement at odds with the facts. He also seemed to signal his desire to <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/navalny-putin-russia-ukraine">attack Poland, or another neighbor</a>, in the near future. Had Carlson’s trip concluded with the interview, it might have been judged journalistically worthwhile.</p>
<p>Yet, that’s not what Carlson did. </p>
<p>Producing a travelogue, Carlson toured Moscow and made videos extolling the glories of Russian society, culture and governance. The Moscow subway impressed him, while the low prices in a Russian supermarket “radicalized” him “against our American leaders.” </p>
<h2>‘Classic case of propaganda’</h2>
<p>There are numerous ways to evaluate the truthfulness of Carlson’s reports.</p>
<p>For example, if things are as copacetic in Russia as Carlson claims, then emigration out of the country should be minimal, or at least normal. Yet, since the 2022 Ukraine war mobilization, Russians have <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/sanctions-and-russias-war-limiting-putins-capabilities">fled their country in historically high numbers</a>. </p>
<p>Even those cheap supermarket prices Carlson loved are a mirage. They exist only through subsidies, and with Russia’s <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/90753">continued devaluation of the ruble in</a> 2024, combined with a planned huge increase in military spending, Russia’s government <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/90753">continues to make every Russian poorer</a> to fund its war. </p>
<p>In other words, what’s cheap to Carlson is expensive and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/putin-russian-inflation-could-near-8-this-year-2023-12-14/">getting more expensive for almost all Russians</a>. This trend will continue in 2024, as Putin recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/putin-russian-inflation-could-near-8-this-year-2023-12-14/">projected Russia’s inflation rate to be 8%</a> in 2024 – more than double <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/us-inflation-is-set-to-fade-in-2024-as-goods-prices-keep-falling">the projection for the United States</a>. In fact, a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/putin-russian-inflation-could-near-8-this-year-2023-12-14/">Russian citizen complained</a> directly to Putin in December 2023 about the price of eggs, and Putin <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/putin-russian-inflation-could-near-8-this-year-2023-12-14/">uncharacteristically apologized</a>.</p>
<p>But research shows that fact-checking Carlson’s claims <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-checking-may-be-important-but-it-wont-help-americans-learn-to-disagree-better-174034">is not likely to change</a> many people’s opinions. We know most people don’t appreciate being told their preferred information is inaccurate, and when untruthful reports accord with their perception of reality, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9548403/">they’ll believe them</a>. </p>
<p>Instead of categorizing Carlson’s Russia videos as “reporting,” “journalism,” “information” or “fake news,” we could define it instead as a classic case of propaganda. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of a headline that says 'Tucker Carlson: Moscow ‘so much nicer than any city in my country’'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577091/original/file-20240221-22-re1ejc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A headline from The Hill about Carlson’s Moscow visit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4465352-tucker-carlson-moscow-putin/">Screenshot, The Hill</a></span>
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<h2>‘Emotionally potent oversimplifications’</h2>
<p>Propaganda is communication designed to bypass critical and rational examination in order to provoke intended emotional, attitudinal or behavioral responses from an audience.</p>
<p>Public understanding of propaganda usually links it to lying, but that’s not quite correct. While some propaganda is mendacious, the most effective propaganda will interlace carefully selected verifiable facts with emotional appeals. </p>
<p>For an average American, those Russian supermarket prices really were cheap. But that’s a selected truth presented without context essential for understanding. </p>
<p>Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once described propaganda in a democracy as “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/984945-rationality-belongs-to-the-cool-observer-but-because-of-the">emotionally potent oversimplifications</a>” peddled to the masses, and that’s precisely what Carlson’s videos seem to provide. </p>
<p>That Carlson has evolved into a propagandist is not surprising. In 2022, The New York Times analyzed his Fox News broadcasts between 2016 and 2021. The paper concluded that Carlson’s program became <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-tonight.html">far less interested in rational dialogue and critical exchange</a> – by interviewing people who disagreed with him – as it evolved into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-tonight.html">a monologue-driven format</a> in which Carlson preached often <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-tonight.html">factually dubious</a> assertions to his audience. </p>
<p>At one time, early in his career, Carlson <a href="https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/tucker-carlson.php">demonstrated significant journalistic talent</a>, especially in magazine feature writing. But his dedication to accuracy – and even basic truth-telling – was exposed as a sham <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/all-the-texts-fox-news-didnt-want-you-to-read.html">when his texts</a> from the Dominion voting machine lawsuit were revealed and illustrated <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/all-the-texts-fox-news-didnt-want-you-to-read.html">his mendacity</a>.</p>
<h2>Distinguishing between Gershkovich and Carlson</h2>
<p>Carlson is not <a href="https://theconversation.com/normalizing-fascists-69613">the first American reporter</a> to travel to a foreign dictatorship and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hitler-at-home-how-the-nazi-pr-machine-remade-the-fuhrers-domestic-image-and-duped-the-world-47077">produce propaganda in the guise of journalism</a>. </p>
<p>The New York Times’ Walter Duranty <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097097620/new-york-times-pulitzer-ukraine-walter-duranty">infamously ignored</a> the Stalin dictatorship’s horrific starvation of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. The Times’ Berlin correspondent Guido Enderis specialized in “<a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/new-york-times-nazi-correspondent">puffy profiles of leading Nazis</a>” while whitewashing the regime’s <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/new-york-times-nazi-correspondent">more evil aspects</a> in the mid-1930s. </p>
<p>More recently, correspondent Peter Arnett was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/media-jan-june03-arnett_03-31">fired from NBC News</a> for appearing on state-controlled Iraqi TV in 2003 and praising the success of “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/media-jan-june03-arnett_03-31">Iraqi resistance</a>” at the outset of the U.S.-Iraq war. Although Arnett’s comments did not originally appear on NBC, they were rebroadcast widely. </p>
<p>But what makes Carlson’s actions particularly galling to some was that his propaganda appeared while Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich remains imprisoned by Putin’s regime for alleged spying, but which was really accurate reporting from Russia. When Carlson questioned Putin about Gershkovich, the dictator replied that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-swap-deal-free-wsj-reporter-gershkovich-might-be-possible-2024-02-09/">a prisoner exchange might be negotiated</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the distinction between journalism and propaganda is the difference between Gershkovich and Carlson. </p>
<p>Gershkovich sits in a Russian prison for investigating the truth about Putin’s Russia in service to the American public and his employer. Carlson flies around the world <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/01/tucker-carlson-hungary-orban-00004149">praising authoritarian leaders</a> such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, while “rooting” for dictators like Vladimir Putin when they attack their neighbors. “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/26/20983778/tucker-carlson-rooting-for-russia-ukraine-invasion-america-first">Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am</a>,” he said in 2019 about the Ukraine-Russian conflict. </p>
<p>To expose abusive governmental power and hold it accountable “<a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript">to the opinions of mankind</a>” is literally written in America’s Declaration of Independence. To travel abroad praising dictatorships for their subways and cheeseburgers while ignoring their murderousness, and to return “radicalized … against our leaders” because foreign supermarket prices are low, is certainly not journalism. It is propaganda.</p>
<p>Carlson’s videos may have one beneficial result: If enough Americans learn from them how to detect propaganda and distinguish it from ethical and professional reporting, then perhaps Carlson unintentionally provided a valuable media literacy service to the nation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Socolow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tucker Carlson’s sycophantic interview with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and his subsequent praise for Russia’s subways, supermarkets and cheeseburgers, was not journalism. It was propaganda.Michael J. Socolow, Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226772024-02-13T13:23:41Z2024-02-13T13:23:41ZSaving the news media means moving beyond the benevolence of billionaires<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574711/original/file-20240209-18-vtb36b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C5973%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Billionaire media owners can't change inhospitable market dynamics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-los-angeles-times-building-and-newsroom-along-imperial-news-photo/1211874817?adppopup=true">Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the journalism industry, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/media-layoffs-strikes-journalism-dying">2024 is off to a brutal start</a>. </p>
<p>Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong">more than 20% of its newsroom</a>.</p>
<p>Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’ billionaire owner, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/01/how-patrick-soon-shiong-made-his-fortune-before-buying-the-la-times">Patrick Soon-Shiong</a>, would stay the course in good times and bad – that he would be a steward less interested in turning a profit and more concerned with ensuring the storied publication could serve the public. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CToday's%20decision%20is%20painful%20for,%2C%E2%80%9D%20Soon%2DShiong%20said.">According to the LA Times</a>, Soon-Shiong explained that the cuts were necessary because the paper “could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year.” </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/1749890710118301751">As one X user pointed out</a>, Soon-Shiong could weather US$40 million in annual losses for decades and still remain a billionaire. You could say the same of another billionaire owner, The Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/12/19/washington-post-cut-jobs-voluntary-buyouts">who eliminated hundreds of jobs in 2023</a> after making a long stretch of steady investments. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1749890710118301751"}"></div></p>
<p>Of course, it helps if your owner has deep pockets and is satisfied with breaking even or earning modest profits – a far cry from the slash-and-burn, profit-harvesting of the two largest newspaper owners: the hedge fund <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/alden-global-capital-killing-americas-newspapers/620171/">Alden Global Capital</a> and <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/">the publicly traded Gannett</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, as we’ve previously argued, relying on the benevolence of billionaire owners isn’t a viable long-term solution to journalism’s crises. In what we call the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-the-oligarchy-media-model-81931">oligarchy media model</a>,” it often creates distinct hazards for democracy. The recent layoffs simply reinforce these concerns. </p>
<h2>Systemic market failure</h2>
<p>This carnage is part of a longer story: <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/">Ongoing research on news deserts</a> shows that the U.S. has lost almost one-third of its newspapers and nearly two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005.</p>
<p>It’s become clear that this downturn isn’t temporary. Rather, it’s a <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/12/we-will-finally-confront-systemic-market-failure/">systemic market failure</a> with no signs of reversal.</p>
<p>As print advertising continues to decline, Meta’s and Google’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-and-metas-advertising-dominance-fades-as-tiktok-netflix-emerge-11672711107">dominance over digital advertising</a> has deprived news publishers of a major online revenue source. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/the-print-apocalypse-and-how-to-survive-it/506429/">The advertising-based news business model has collapsed</a> and, to the extent it ever did, won’t adequately support the public service journalism that democracy requires.</p>
<p>What about digital subscriptions as a revenue source? </p>
<p>For years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2013.865967">paywalls have been hailed</a> as an alternative to advertising. While some news organizations have recently stopped requiring subscriptions <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/great-subscription-news-reversal">or have created a tiered pricing system</a>, how has this approach fared overall?</p>
<p>Well, it’s been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/business/media/new-york-times-q4-earnings.html">a fantastic financial success for The New York Times</a> and, actually, almost no one else – while denying millions of citizens access to essential news.</p>
<p>The paywall model has also worked reasonably well for The Wall Street Journal, with its assured audience of business professionals, though its management still felt compelled <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/wall-street-journal-shakes-up-d-c-bureau-with-big-layoffs/ar-BB1hDv9V?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds">to make deep cuts</a> in its Washington, D.C., bureau on Feb. 1, 2024. And at The Washington Post, even 2.5 million digital subscriptions haven’t been enough for the publication to break even.</p>
<p>To be fair, the billionaire owners of <a href="https://twitter.com/aidanfitzryan/status/1748098450963460180">The Boston Globe</a> and <a href="https://startribunecompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Click-here.pdf">the Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> have sown fertile ground; the papers seem to be turning modest profits, and there isn’t any news of looming layoffs.</p>
<p>But they’re outliers; in the end, billionaire owners can’t change these inhospitable market dynamics. Plus, because they made their money in other industries, the owners often create conflicts of interest that their news outlets’ journalists must continually navigate with care.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three female protestors shout, while one holds a sign reading 'Don't cut our future.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5525%2C3755&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Los Angeles Times employees stage a walkout on Jan. 19, 2024, after learning about layoffs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-times-guild-members-rally-outside-city-hall-news-photo/1945953066?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>While the market dynamics for news media are only getting worse, the civic need for quality, accessible public service journalism is greater than ever. </p>
<p>When quality journalism disappears, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1170919800">it intensifies a host of problems</a> – from rising corruption to decreasing civic engagement to greater polarization – that threaten the vitality of U.S. democracy.</p>
<p>That’s why we believe it’s urgently important to grow the number of outlets capable of independently resisting destructive market forces.</p>
<p>Billionaire owners willing to release their media properties could help facilitate this process. Some of them already have. </p>
<p>In 2016, the billionaire Gerry Lenfest donated his sole ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer along with a $20 million endowment to an eponymously named <a href="https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/about/">nonprofit institute</a>, with bylaws preventing profit pressures from taking precedence over its civic mission. Its nonprofit ownership model has enabled the Inquirer to <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/brightspots/philadelphia-inquirer-jim-friedlich-q-and-a/">invest in news</a> at a time when so many others have cut to the bone.</p>
<p>In 2019, wealthy businessman Paul Huntsman ceded his ownership of The Salt Lake Tribune to a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/04/historic-shift-salt-lake/">501(c)(3) nonprofit</a>, easing its tax burden and setting it up to receive philanthropic funding. After continuing as board chairman, in early February he announced that he was permanently <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2024/02/02/paul-huntsman-its-time-step-away/">stepping down</a>. </p>
<p>And in September 2023, the French newspaper <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/about-us/article/2023/09/24/two-major-milestones-for-le-monde-s-independence_6139073_115.html">Le Monde</a>’s billionaire shareholders, led by tech entrepreneur Xavier Niel, officially confirmed a plan to move their capital into an endowment fund that’s effectively controlled by journalists and other employees of the Le Monde Group. </p>
<p>On a smaller and far more precarious scale, U.S. journalists have founded hundreds of <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/many-small-news-nonprofits-feel-overlooked-by-funders-a-new-coalition-is-giving-them-a-voice/">small nonprofits</a> across the country over the past decade to provide crucial public affairs coverage. However, most struggle mightily to generate enough revenues to even pay themselves and a few reporters a living wage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Workers sit at a table in a large, open workspace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Philadelphia Inquirer moved to a new headquarters in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://meyerdesigninc.com/news/the-philadelphia-inquirers-hybrid-headquarters/">Jeffrey Totaro/Meyer Design, Inc.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Donors can still play a role</h2>
<p>The crucial next step is to ensure these civic, mission-driven forms of ownership have the necessary funding to survive and thrive. </p>
<p>One part of this approach can be philanthropic funding.</p>
<p><a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">A 2023 Media Impact Funders report</a> pointed out that foundation funders once primarily focused on providing a bridge to an ever-elusive new business model. The thinking went that they could provide seed money until the operation was up and running and then redirect their investments elsewhere. </p>
<p>However, journalists are increasingly calling for <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/patterns-in-philanthropy-leave-small-newsrooms-behind-can-that-change/">long-term sustaining support</a> as the extent of market failure has become clear. In a promising development, the <a href="https://www.pressforward.news/press-forward-will-award-more-than-500-million-to-revitalize-local-news/">Press Forward initiative</a> recently pledged $500 million over five years for local journalism, including for-profit as well as nonprofit and public newsrooms. </p>
<p>Charitable giving can also make news more accessible. If donations pay the bills – as they do at The Guardian – <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/10/rich-americans-more-likely-to-pay-for-news/">paywalls</a>, which limit content to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/01/11/media-startups-subscriptions-elite">subscribers who are disproportionately wealthy and white</a>, may become unnecessary. </p>
<h2>The limits of private capital</h2>
<p>Still, philanthropic support for journalism falls far short of what’s needed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/">Total revenues for newspapers have fallen</a> from a historic high of $49.4 billion in 2005 to $9.8 billion in 2022.</p>
<p>Philanthropy could help fill a portion of this deficit but, even with the recent increase in donations, nowhere near all of it. Nor, in our view, should it. Too often, donations come with conditions and potential conflicts of interest. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man wearing blue hat sits on a bench reading a newspaper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philanthropic giving hasn’t made up for the billions lost in advertising revenue over the past two decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-sitting-on-a-bench-reading-the-newspaper-news-photo/144075964?adppopup=true">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same <a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">2023 Media Impact Funders survey</a> found that 57% of U.S. foundation funders of news organizations offered grants for reporting on issues for which they had policy stances. </p>
<p>In the end, philanthropy <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/a-qa-with-phil-napoli.php">can’t completely escape oligarchic influence</a>.</p>
<h2>Public funds for local journalism</h2>
<p>A strong, accessible media system that serves the public interest will ultimately require significant public funding. </p>
<p>Along with libraries, schools and research universities, journalism is an essential part of a democracy’s critical information infrastructure. Democracies in western and northern Europe earmark taxes or dedicated fees not only for legacy TV and radio but also for newspapers and digital media – and they make sure there’s always <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4779">an arm’s-length relationship</a> between the government and the news outlets so that their journalistic independence is assured. It’s worth noting that U.S. investment in public media is <a href="https://www.cjr.org/opinion/public-funding-media-democracy.php">a smaller percentage of GDP</a> than in virtually any other major democracy in the world.</p>
<p>State-level experiments in places such as <a href="https://njcivicinfo.org/about/">New Jersey</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/20/local-news-vouchers-bill-dc">Washington, D.C.</a>, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/09/the-state-of-california-will-fund-25-million-in-local-reporting-fellowships/">California</a> <a href="https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-action-applauds-groundbreaking-wisconsin-bills-addressing-local-journalism-crisis">and Wisconsin</a> suggest that public funding for newspapers and online-only outlets can also work in the U.S. Under these plans, news outlets prioritizing local journalism receive various kinds of public subsidies and grants. </p>
<p>The time has come to dramatically scale up these projects, from millions of dollars to billions, whether through “<a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/academics-craft-a-plan-to-infuse-billions-into-journalism-give-every-american-50-to-donate-to-news-orgs/">media vouchers</a>” that <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/the-local-journalism-initiative.php">allow voters</a> to allocate funds or other ambitious <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/local-news-crisis-plan-fix-perry-bacon/">proposals</a> for creating tens of thousands of new journalism jobs across the country.</p>
<p>Is it worth it?</p>
<p>In our view, a crisis that imperils American democracy demands no less than a bold and comprehensive civic response.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can an industry experiencing systemic failure get back on its feet?Rodney Benson, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York UniversityVictor Pickard, C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216092024-02-01T19:05:28Z2024-02-01T19:05:28ZAustralian media’s Instagram posts on Gaza war have an anti-Palestine bias. That has real-world consequences<p>It’s well documented that news media influences our behaviour in all manner of ways, from how much <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1477-9552.2010.00266.x">meat we buy</a> to our attitudes towards <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/30/2/359/702489">exercise</a>.</p>
<p>Journalism does not merely hold a mirror up to reality, as some <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Whole_World_Is_Watching.html?id=00iwHPO73mkC&redir_esc=y">have argued</a>. It creates versions of reality. With every decision of which story to include and exclude, which image to show or not show, even which grammatical choice is made, our impressions are sculpted. This is especially the case with the Israel-Gaza war.</p>
<p>Research has shown, for example, that exposure to news media can induce <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174606">Islamophobia</a>. There’s also evidence of historical news media bias against <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352231178148">Palestinians</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10345329.2007.12036423">Muslims</a>.</p>
<p>As the leading organisation tracking and tackling Islamophobia in Australia through its digital reporting platform, the Islamophobia Register Australia commissioned this research to assess whether there was media imbalance in the present-day coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IRA_2023-Israel-Gaza-War-Report_Final-22DEC.pdf">Our analysis</a> found a pro-Israel bias across the surveyed outlets.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119">How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A flammable media environment</h2>
<p>The impact news media can have on our attitudes became especially pertinent when the Israel–Gaza war began on October 7 2023, and with it, sustained media coverage. From that date, reports of antisemitism in Australia <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/australian-jews-suffer-738-per-cent-spike-in-antisemitic-abuse/news-story/33ed1f60ff568d31ce399b325bbc03a2">increased 738%</a> and Islamophobia <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Website_Islamophobia-Register_28-NOV-Press-Release.docx.pdf">increased 1,300%</a>. </p>
<p>Australians brought their concerns to the Islamophobia Register Australia as anti-Palestinian racism is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13166">specific and documented</a> form of Islamophobia.</p>
<p>Our analysis was a focused, introductory study with the aim of looking for disparities in reporting on the Israel-Gaza war on the Instagram accounts of six of Australia’s most followed news outlets: ABC News, The Daily Aus, The Australian, News.com.au, 9News and The Daily Telegraph. We looked at their posts on the topic between October 7 and November 7 2023. We chose Instagram as the field of analysis, as the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3873260">latest global research</a> found social media is the main way people of all ages come across news online.</p>
<p>These outlets span commercial and publicly owned, legacy media and new media, digital-only and print-based, and national and state-based media. Outlets also needed to have more than 100,000 followers on their verified Instagram account. The amount of posts assessed varied depending on how many each outlet had posted. News.com.au had only four posts in the time period, while ABC News had published 63. </p>
<p>This is not a definitive analysis of potential bias in the Australian media. Its scope is small and doesn’t account for the outlets’ reporting on the Israel-Gaza war more broadly. This report is, however, an initial look that highlights some common areas of imbalance or inequality in the current approach.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-now-ranks-among-the-worlds-leading-jailers-of-journalists-we-dont-know-why-theyre-behind-bars-221411">Israel now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don't know why they're behind bars</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Humanising the victims of war</h2>
<p>We focused on language because it’s part of the “<a href="https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/779">covert operations of war</a>”. While we assessed all posts about the conflict during the time period (not just posts with an explicit human angle), we measured them on how humanising they were because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2005.00056.x">known impact it has</a> on the way audiences interpret conflict. </p>
<p>One specific tool we developed to assess the treatment of people in coverage was what we called the “humanising test”. To meet a minimum standard of humanising coverage, news outlets’ Instagram posts needed to include at least two of the three following criteria in their mentions of Israelis and Palestinians:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>provide at least a first name for the person</p></li>
<li><p>show their face, and/or</p></li>
<li><p>use at least some of their own words (translations were ok).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This test appears easy to pass. Outlets only needed a single post that met the criteria to be successful. However, only one of the six accounts passed the test for Palestinians, while five of the six passed for Israelis.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CzAuMbbLQQA/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Five of the six news media accounts did not include a single post that passed the humanising test about Palestinians. ABC News was the only account to provide any posts about Palestinians that passed. The Australian had ten posts about Israelis that passed the humanising test, and not one post that passed the test for Palestinians.</p>
<h2>The power of grammar</h2>
<p>We also investigated the use of “voice”, specifically the active, passive and middle voice. </p>
<p>While the distinction between active and passive voice may seem like something only your high school English teacher cares about, it matters a lot more than just clarifying prose. It highlights who an actor is in a sentence, which really matters in discussions about war. </p>
<p>Even more important is the less-discussed “middle voice”. The middle voice exists beyond the active and passive voice, and when used in a sentence, removes any possibility of an actor causing an event. </p>
<p>In an example from our study, a post by The Daily Telegraph is captioned “bombs are falling less than 100m from where [the family] are sheltering” on the Gaza strip. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CyUZLkHMtl_/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Note the word “fall” used when discussing the “bombs falling” on the family. Using the word “fall” with “bomb” as opposed, for example, to “dropped”, signifies to the audience that there was no external agent involved in the bombing. If the word “dropped” had been used, even if using the passive voice without naming the Israeli army, there remains an understanding that somebody dropped the bombs, even if they are unnamed. </p>
<p>But this use of the middle voice by saying the bombs “fall” implies that the bombs fell spontaneously from the sky without human intervention, as if it were a natural phenomenon. There is no attribution as to where the bombs came from, nor who is responsible for their presence. Thus, even the suggestion of Israel as the agent of the bombs is erased in the mind of the audience. </p>
<p>The middle voice was never used for any posts about attacks on Israel, but was used by five of six accounts when reporting on attacks on Gaza. </p>
<p>Five (ABC News, 9News, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and News.com.au) of six accounts showed bias against Palestinians in their use of the active, middle and passive voices. Meanwhile, all five accounts were more likely to use the active voice when discussing attacks against Israel. Overall, the passive voice was used more often to describe what was happening in Gaza than in Israel. </p>
<h2>Why does all this matter?</h2>
<p><em>So what?</em> you may think. But this is important, because these grammatical choices shepherd the audience – you and I – into a way of understanding the parties in the Israel-Gaza war. </p>
<p>Grammatical choices are more subtle than blatantly calling one side “the victim” or “human”, and the other side “the aggressor” and “inhuman”. Such framing therefore slips past the audience unnoticed, but creates a reflexive perception that lingers in the audience’s mind.</p>
<p>Subsequent analysis internationally has found Australian news media is not alone in its biased treatment against Palestinians. Analysis of the media in <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/palestinian-deaths-canadian-newspapers-data/">Canada</a> and the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/">United States</a> found the same imbalance in language we identified. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/war-in-gaza-an-ethicist-explains-why-you-shouldnt-turn-to-social-media-for-information-about-the-conflict-or-to-do-something-about-it-218912">War in Gaza: An ethicist explains why you shouldn't turn to social media for information about the conflict or to do something about it</a>
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<p>The discrepancies and dehumanisation we and others have found are not merely semantic squabbles. Five of the six outlets we studied (all bar The Daily Aus) were unbalanced against Palestinians in their Instagram posts in at least one of the three categories we assessed (along with humanisation and grammar, we also looked at <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IRA_2023-Israel-Gaza-War-Report_Final-22DEC.pdf">descriptive language</a>).</p>
<p>The media’s reporting on the Israel-Gaza war matters because it shapes the way the audience views the people involved in the war. These perceptions are fostered online and can translate into the way Australians view and treat each other in real life. </p>
<p>Palestinian war victims are being systematically dehumanised by large and influential parts of the media to their substantial audiences. When the media is the primary prism through which people understand the war, it must be held to high standards, and to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Carland was commissioned by the Islamophobia Register Australia to conduct this research and received research funding to complete this work. Susan Carland sits on the board of the Islamophobia Register Australia as an academic advisor. She was not part of any decision making that led to her being commissioned to conduct this research.
Susan Carland has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Churchill Trust to conduct research into Islamophobia in Australia
</span></em></p>Language has been dubbed “the covert operations of war”, such is the power it holds in shaping public opinion. Here’s what we found about the way Australian media has been framing the conflict.Susan Carland, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellow, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217022024-01-29T14:59:47Z2024-01-29T14:59:47ZThe death of Pitchfork is worrying news for music journalism – and the women who read it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570702/original/file-20240122-18-8r9xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7553%2C4253&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-wall-of-cassette-tapes-with-the-words-best-mix-on-them-q0EdUVO8K7U">Igor Omilaev/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1747693175886533044">It was recently announced</a> that renowned music website Pitchfork is to merge with GQ. Several staff members have been made redundant. The site’s apparent demise was described by other journalists as a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vcjj">“massive loss in music journalism”</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68014108">“a death knell for the record review”</a>. There has also been criticism from <a href="https://twitter.com/jabladoraaa/status/1748001866783355068">former Pitchfork writers</a> of the way staff have been treated.</p>
<p>Pitchfork seemed immune to the issues that had plagued – and often closed – its European peers. The dynamic American website, which launched in 1995, became known for its style and acumen to attract <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/18/pitchforks-absorption-into-gq-is-a-travesty-for-music-media-and-musicians?ref=upstract.com">the largest daily site audience</a> of any of the Condé Nast titles. </p>
<p>Its notorious rating system meant “<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/when-a-negative-pitchfork-review-could-end-a-career.html">death</a>” for some artists and was viciously opposed <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/9334161-DJ-Sotofett-Generic-Mix-Alternate-Mix">by at least one DJ and producer</a>. Other bands, in part, were <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/the-pitchfork-effect/">made by Pitchfork</a>. It was this power, along with its irreverent viral content and online innovation, that led the brand to be purchased by Condé Nast in 2015. </p>
<p>The layoffs that have taken place through the merger with GQ suggest great change for Pitchfork’s remit. GQ’s content is far more product and celebrity focused and rarely incites controversy. Pitchfork, however, is known for its often scathing reviews and uncompromising commentary. </p>
<p>GQ’s content is generally complimentary, verging on promotional for the brands and products it features. Listicles and recommendations dominate its homepage. Music reviews at present are similar to <a href="https://bandcamp.com">Bandcamp’s editorial</a>, an online store and community that links consumers directly to music artists. </p>
<p>The news follows the closure in 2020 of venerated British music magazine, Q, after 34 years, as well as the end of the print version of NME magazine in 2018. Such changes to these iconic publications are indicative of what journalist Chris Richards calls an “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2024/01/18/pitchfork-layoffs-gq-magazine/">ugly omen for the entirety of music journalism</a>”. </p>
<p>When Condé Nast purchased Pitchfork, its president, Bob Sauerberg, described it as “thriving”. And, according to its chief digital officer, Fred Santarpia, Pitchfork was a site bringing <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/conde-nast-buys-pitchfork-for-the-millennial-men/410341/">“a very passionate audience of Millennial males into our roster”</a>. So what went wrong?</p>
<p>These print cuts are a result of dreaded cost-cutting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354165341_Media_Convergence">convergence</a> (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354165341_Media_Convergence#fullTextFileContent">the business strategy</a> of integrating or centralising production of different products), <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347833670_Competition_Change_and_Coordination_and_Collaboration_Tracing_News_Executives'_Perceptions_About_Participation_in_Media_Innovation">increased competition</a> and falling print advertising revenue, as well as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23311886.2023.2193382?needAccess=true">changing income streams</a>.</p>
<h2>Diversity at GQ</h2>
<p>GQ (formerly Gentlemen’s Quarterly) magazine and its obviously gendered remit doesn’t seem like an obvious home for Pitchfork. After all, <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/pitchfork.com/#demographics">nearly 44%</a> of the brand’s readers are women.</p>
<p>When Puja Patel became editor in chief of Pitchfork in 2018, taking over from Ryan Schreiber, Pitchfork’s founder and longtime editor, her own story became part of the brand’s narrative. </p>
<p>A “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/business/puja-patel-pitchfork-work-diary.html">week in the life</a>” feature in The New York Times told of her taste making or breaking power, her position, her platform and the richness of her Big Apple life. Patel’s rise to prominence was allegorical to cultural shifts affirming her as a leader of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342800730_Waves_of_Feminism">new-wave feminism</a> and a success story for <a href="https://www.nctj.com/publications/diversity-in-journalism-2023/">those keen</a> to promote diversity in the industry.</p>
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<p>Women have topped Pitchfork’s album charts every year since 2018. And in the last five years, there has been a continual focus on covering musicians from diverse backgrounds, including female, queer and non-binary artists. </p>
<p>Patel’s tenure has been widely praised on social media as the unfortunate news of layoffs, including her own, broke. But as former Pitchfork writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/18/pitchforks-absorption-into-gq-is-a-travesty-for-music-media-and-musicians">Laura Snapes noted</a>, the site had fostered a forum for a range of women and non-binary writers from around 2010 onwards. Together, they reshaped the brand’s output from the male-dominated indie-music heyday of the 2000s. It was in this period that hip-hop and pop started to be covered more regularly.</p>
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<p>In bringing Pitchfork under the “Gentleman’s Quarterly” brand, Condé Nast’s leadership seems to assume that music is a predominantly male pursuit. Pitchfork is not merging with other Condé Nast titles <a href="https://www.condenast.com/brands">Vogue or Vanity Fair</a>. </p>
<p>And I find it curious that <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/">Wired</a>, (yet another media brand that is under the same ownership) and its progressively geared, environmentally conscious content, was not deemed a better fit for Pitchfork’s current audience. Where will the artistry and writing of musicians who don’t identify as men find its place in GQ? It’s not yet clear.</p>
<p>In 2021, Patel said that listeners <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2021/12/15/listeners-care-about-community-and-humanity-of-the-music-says-pitchforks-patel/">care about the “community and humanity” of music</a>. Sadly, it seems this spirit is not being upheld. As Susan DeCarava, president of the News Guild of New York <a href="https://twitter.com/nyguild/status/1747753496764391509">said</a>: “the people who make award-winning music journalism … deserve better than to be treated like disposable parts.” </p>
<p><em>GQ and Condé Nast did not respond to a request for comment.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Greenwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>GQ magazine and its obviously gendered remit doesn’t seem like an obvious home for Pitchfork. Nearly 44% of its readers are women.Michael Greenwell, Lecturer, Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210422024-01-25T16:06:00Z2024-01-25T16:06:00ZGaza: high numbers of journalists are being killed but it’s hard to prove they’re being targeted<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/17/al-jazeeras-gaza-bureau-chief-wael-dahdouh-in-qatar-for-medical-treatment">Wael Dahdouh</a>, one of the most well-known faces of Palestinian journalism in the Gaza conflict, has this week started medical treatment in Qatar. Dahdouh was wounded in December in an Israeli drone strike that killed his camera operator.</p>
<p>Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief has also lost his wife, two children and a grandchild in an Israeli raid that hit his home. This was followed by the loss of another son <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/7/hamza-son-of-al-jazeeras-wael-dahdouh-killed-in-israeli-attack-in-gaza">Hamza, also an Al-Jazeera journalist</a>, when his car was hit by an Israeli missile while on a reporting trip. </p>
<p>In the current Gaza conflict, the number of <a href="https://cpj.org/2024/01/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/#:%7E:text=CPJ%20is%20investigating%20all%20reports,began%20gathering%20data%20in%201992.">journalists killed</a> and injured continues to rise. One of the latest, as this article went to press, was <a href="https://cpj.org/2024/01/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/">Yazan al-Zuweidi</a>, a Palestinian journalist and camera operator for the broadcaster Al-Ghad, who was killed on January 14 in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza.</p>
<p>Now many international bodies, politicians and non-governmental organisations are asking the inevitable question: “Are these killings targeted?” These organisations, including <a href="https://rsf.org/en/rsf-files-second-complaint-icc-war-crimes-against-journalists-gaza-7-october#:%7E:text=RSF%20has%20urged%20the%20ICC,7%20October%2C%20currently%20totalling%2066.">Reporters Without Borders</a> (RSF) and the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ), are calling for inquiries and <a href="https://cpj.org/2023/10/cpj-calls-for-investigation-into-killing-of-palestinian-journalist-mohammad-el-salhi-in-gaza/">investigations</a>, but will these succeed in getting to the truth or securing prosecutions? </p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://cpj.org/2024/01/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/#:%7E:text=CPJ%20is%20investigating%20all%20reports,began%20gathering%20data%20in%201992.">CPJ report</a> published on January 20, 83 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead since October 2023, of which 76 were Palestinian, four were Israeli and three were Lebanese. The CPJ notes the data does not so far establish that “all of these journalists were covering the conflict at the time of their deaths”. However, it is including them all in its count as it “investigates the circumstances”.</p>
<p>RSF’s secretary-general, <a href="https://rsf.org/en/rsf-s-2023-round-45-journalists-killed-line-duty-worldwide-drop-despite-tragedy-gaza#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20annual%20round,war%20in%20the%20Middle%20East.">Christophe Deloire</a>, said: “Journalists are paying a heavy price. We’ve noted that the number of journalists killed in connection with their work is very high: at least 13 in such a tiny territory. We have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish the facts and to what point journalists were knowingly targeted.”</p>
<p>The first incident of journalists being targeted that came to international attention was on October 13, on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. Reports of cross-border shelling had drawn a group of seven journalists to the area. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/">According to Reuters</a>, this group was hit by two shells fired in quick succession from Israel. Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and AFP photographer Christina Assi was badly wounded and had to have her leg amputated.</p>
<p>At the time, <a href="https://rsf.org/en/rsf-video-investigation-death-reuters-reporter-issam-abdallah-lebanon-journalists-vehicle-was">RSF said</a>: “The reporters were not collateral victims of the shooting. One of their vehicles marked ‘press’ was targeted, and it was also clear that the group stationed next to it was journalists.” </p>
<p>Following the incident, Reuters and AFP conducted investigations. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/">Reuters spoke</a> to “more than 30 government and security officials, military experts, forensic investigators, lawyers, medics and witnesses to piece together a detailed account of the incident”. Mobile phone footage from eight media outlets was examined and shrapnel was sent for analysis to the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. </p>
<p><a href="https://rsf.org/en/killing-issam-abdallah-lebanon-four-new-investigations-confirm-rsf-s-conclusions-and-reveal-israeli">Further investigations</a> were carried out by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which, along with RSF, proposed the attacks be investigated as possible war crimes. The Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, said his government was <a href="https://www.afp.com/en/inside-afp/journalists-killed-and-injured-lebanon-afps-investigation-points-israeli-army">pursuing a complaint</a> filed with the UN security council.</p>
<p>Reuters’ evidence was presented to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), whose international spokesperson <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/">Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht</a> said: “We don’t target journalists.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/journalist-issam-abdallah-killed-by-israeli-tank-firing-in-quick-succession">Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan,</a> reiterated this point later, saying: “Obviously, we would never want to hit or shoot any journalist that is doing their job. But you know, we’re in a state of war, things might happen.”</p>
<p>While it might be possible to prove this particular case, backed by the investigative resources of international news organisations, it is going to be a lot more difficult to provide the same level of detail from within the enclosed Gaza Strip, where it is increasingly difficult to gather evidence or even operate as a journalist.</p>
<p>When questioned about the high number of journalist deaths by UK radio station LBC’s Lewis Goodall, the former ambassador and Israeli spokesperson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ufnNJjckg">Mark Regev</a> avoided answering by asserting instead that: “Israel is the only country in the region that protects and defends the freedom of the press.” </p>
<h2>Prosecuting cases</h2>
<p>So, what is the likelihood of these Gaza deaths ever being prosecuted? A previous case illustrates the difficulties.</p>
<p>A year before this latest Gaza conflict, in May 2022, Al-Jazeera’s reporter in Palestine <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2023/mar/21/the-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh-what-one-morning-in-the-west-bank-reveals-about-the-occupation">Shireen Abu Akleh was killed</a>. While covering an Israeli military operation in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, Abu Akleh’s reporting team came under fire, despite the fact they were wearing clothing and helmets that clearly marked them out as journalists. </p>
<p>In the immediate aftermath of the killing, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.html">Israeli officials</a> put out a story that it was likely the dual Palestinian-American citizen was shot by “indiscriminate Palestinian militant gunmen”.</p>
<p>This was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2023/mar/21/the-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh-what-one-morning-in-the-west-bank-reveals-about-the-occupation">later disproven</a> following the examination of mobile phone footage and investigations by human rights groups, various media companies and the UN. Four months later, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.html">IDF admitted</a> there was a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh was shot “accidentally” by an Israeli soldier. Following this, the IDF’s military advocate general’s office said it would not be pursuing <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.html">criminal charges</a> against the soldiers involved. </p>
<p>As killings of journalists continue, local reporters are increasingly the only media left in Gaza. It is out of bounds for most international reporters, except under <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-reporting-from-the-frontline-of-conflict-has-always-raised-hard-ethical-questions-217570">limited and controlled embedding operations</a> with the IDF. The danger makes it more and more difficult to cover what is going on.</p>
<p>It’s a pattern also seen following the war in Iraq in 2003, and Syria from 2011, when reporting in these locations became too dangerous for international reporters, who relied on local <a href="https://www.academia.edu/41658937/Baghdad_bureaux_an_exploration_of_the_interconnected_world_of_fixers_and_correspondents_at_the_BBC_and_CNN">journalists until eventually</a> it became too difficult for them too. In these places, and increasingly in Gaza, news becomes impossible to get out, and potentially the space for disinformation grows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Murrell receives funding from Coimisiún na Meán to research and write the annual Reuters Digital News Report Ireland (2021-2026)</span></em></p>International press freedom bodies are concerned about the high numbers of deaths of journalists reporting from Gaza.Colleen Murrell, Full Professor in Journalism, Dublin City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193572024-01-22T21:21:50Z2024-01-22T21:21:50ZThree trailblazing women in media who’ve been forgotten – until now<p>Men have had their empires. Everyone else has had the hushed, forgotten, erased or overlooked stories of the scientists, witches, explorers, artists, writers and scholars who didn’t fit the mould. </p>
<p>In the field of media studies, there are researchers, academics, journalists and public intellectuals who, often due to their gender, race or politics, have been ignored and marginalised in favour of recognising the “founding fathers” of the field.</p>
<p>Finally, these ghosts are making their way back into academic books, articles, teaching materials and popular culture. Our <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781913380748/the-ghost-reader/#:%7E:text=The%20Ghost%20Reader%3A%20Recovering%20Women's,cultural%20studies%2C%20and%20communication%20studies.">new book</a>, co-edited with Carol Stabile, reclaims the original ideas, essays and scholarship of 19 women and provides an introduction by experts in the field, along with samples of their work. From that 19, here are three we think are particularly worth knowing about. </p>
<h2>Film theory</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/filmhistory.27.1.135">Mae D. Huettig</a> from Los Angeles was the first economist to explain how the US film industry functioned as a vertically integrated factory that was less about dreams and glamour and more about vulgar capitalism. <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512812381/economic-control-of-the-motion-picture-industry/">Her book</a>, Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry: A Study in Industrial Organization (1944), revealed how Hollywood movie studios produced films cheaply and used their own network of cinemas to screen them. </p>
<p>Huettig argued that Hollywood studios, just like automobile or coal factories, used the same economic model as any industry – dominate the competition and corner the market. Her work ultimately became a part of the 1948 federal case, the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/334/131/">Paramount Decree</a>. This landmark case addressed the practice of film studios owning cinemas and controlling their film distribution. The decree ended the vertically integrated Hollywood studio system. Production studios could no longer own the cinemas that screened their films, and cinemas were no longer beholden to one studio only. </p>
<p>After a few semesters teaching at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and working at a think tank, Huettig became an activist. Following the <a href="https://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots">1965 Watts rebellion</a>, a civil rights uprising in Los Angeles, she trained minority youths on how to use film to monitor police misconduct. She also campaigned against school racial segregation, police abuse and corruption.</p>
<h2>The importance of images</h2>
<p><a href="https://archives.nypl.org/mss/6197">Romana Javitz</a> from New York was the first librarian to develop an organised, browsable collection of pictures that anyone with a library card could check out from the <a href="https://www.nypl.org">New York Public Library</a> (NYPL). </p>
<p>As the NYPL superintendent of the picture collection between 1928 and 1968, Javitz and her staff collected as many items as they could by cutting out images from old books and magazines. These included photos, paintings, ads, pop art and images of everyday people, places and things. </p>
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<img alt="A statue of a lion outside the grand entrance to the New York Public Library" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Romana Javitz worked at the New York Public Library between 1928 and 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-public-library-entrance-345087263">Ryan DeBerardinis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Essentially, Javitz foresaw the image-based browsing that search engines provide today. She also anticipated their commercial control but believed that images are an important public resource. In speeches, pamphlets and grant applications, Javitz acted by <a href="https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/wallach-division/picture-collection/romana-javitz">urging</a> libraries to steward image collections. </p>
<h2>The media and civil rights</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.aaihs.org/surveillance-state-power-and-the-activism-of-shirley-graham-du-bois/">Shirley Graham DuBois</a> from Indiana was an activist, award-winning novelist, editor, and the first black female dramatist. In 1931, she produced the first black <a href="https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/blog/finding-tom-tom">opera</a>, Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro. Graham was committed to using literacy and popular media as tools to free people from race and sex discrimination, whether Black, white, or Native American. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old sepia photo of a woman facing the right hand side of the image and looking upwards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shirley Graham DuBois played an instrumental role in civil rights activism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/079_vanv.html">Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the second world war, Graham worked on military bases giving courses on journalism and photography for black soldiers, helping them to produce their own literary magazines. She was founded the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/freedomways-1961-1985/">journal</a>, Freedomways: A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement in 1961. It provided a rare forum for discussing discrimination from the early years of the civil rights movement forward. </p>
<p>In 1961, Graham’s background in theatre and education caught the attention of the Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah. He asked her to develop the nation’s first public noncommercial, indigenous television network to promote literacy countrywide. Graham and Nkrumah were forced to leave Ghana after a military coup in 1966, before the network was completed.</p>
<h2>Digging deeper</h2>
<p>The contributions of these women, and the 16 others featured in our book, range broadly from film economics, advertising and library science, to progressive anti-racist journalism, theatre, audience researchers, and more. They show us that there has always been the possibility for progressive, inclusive, intersectional, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and gender-equal thought and action.</p>
<p>Our goal is not to create a “new” canon of media studies. Instead, the goal is for academics and lecturers to use our book in their classes to track their own tradition taking different, more inclusive, and radical routes that could provide fresh insight into the world.</p>
<p>In fact, alongside media and communication scholars such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2021.1944345#:%7E:text=This%20silenced%20avenue%20of%20enquiry,and%20editing%20of%20broadcast%20sound.">Carolyn Birdsall and Elinor Carmi</a>, the book questions the need for a canon altogether.</p>
<p>Other researchers and students need to get their hands dirty, too. They need to dig in archives, read original works and examine dismissed ideas that go against the grain. It is likely that researchers in any field will find important women (and their ideas) hidden as typists, transcribers, or editorial, lab, field, or research assistants. Sometimes they may be left out altogether; all that may be left is their name on a grant application. Finding them takes time and effort. But the results are worth it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Elena Hristova is Lecture in Film and Media at Bangor University, Wales. As part of the research for this book she received funding from the Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, and the Department of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aimee-Marie Dorsten, Ph.D. works for Point Park University and is a member of the Union for Democratic Communication. </span></em></p>Mae D Huettig, Romana Javitz and Shirley Graham DuBois were instrumental in their respective media fields but very few of us will be aware of their individual contributions.Elena D. Hristova, Lecturer in Film and Media, Bangor UniversityAimee-Marie Dorsten, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Point Park UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203642024-01-22T20:06:36Z2024-01-22T20:06:36ZSimulations with actors prepare journalism students to interview trauma survivors<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/simulations-with-actors-prepare-journalism-students-to-interview-trauma-survivors" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It’s a phone call most journalists dread to make.</p>
<p>A woman in her 20s has died after she was struck by a car while riding her bicycle.</p>
<p>“What is your favourite memory of Eleanor?” a journalist asks the woman’s father in an interview.</p>
<p>The man’s voice quivers. “I don’t have a favourite,” he says. “Every one of the moments I spent with Eleanor was my favourite. It’s hard for me to imagine that I’m not going to ever feel that again.”</p>
<p>While this exchange modelled the kind of real situation that unfolds in news reporting, it was a simulation exercise. I <a href="https://factsandfrictions.ca/portfolio-item/forced-change-simulated-solutions">designed it to help journalism students develop and practice trauma-aware interview skills</a>.</p>
<h2>Front lines of conflict</h2>
<p>Journalists often find themselves on the front lines of conflicts, natural disasters, accidents, acts of violence and other human catastrophes. </p>
<p>Many journalists are assigned to cover such stories without the benefit of training on how to approach these situations — and the people caught up in them — ethically and sensitively. They also typically lack training or support on how to take care of their own mental health and well-being.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.journalismforum.ca/taking-care-report">2022, I co-authored a study with colleagues Dave Seglins, Tracey Lindeman and Cassandra Yanez-Leyton in partnership with the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma</a>. Our study, <em>Taking Care: A Report on Mental Health, Well-Being & Trauma Among Canadian Media Workers</em>, found the vast majority of journalists working in Canada today receive no formal trauma training in journalism school. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1529546342380494853"}"></div></p>
<p>Most don’t receive training in the newsroom either. Instead, they cobble together skills by talking to others or figuring out an approach on their own, often without knowing what is considered best practice.</p>
<p>Trying to solve part of this problem was a motivating factor in the creation of a specialized <a href="https://twitter.com/mpearson78/status/1747356278563705222">speaker series</a> and course on trauma-informed reporting. </p>
<p>For the course, I developed an interview simulation exercise that saw journalism students interview professional actors who portrayed people who have experienced a traumatic event.</p>
<h2>Trauma-informed reporting</h2>
<p>Research about ethical reporting on victims of violence and trauma dates back to the 1990s, and coalesced with the creation of the <a href="https://dartcenter.org/">Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma</a> at Columbia University’s journalism school. In the decades since, researchers around the world have conducted numerous <a href="https://dartcenter.org/research">peer-reviewed studies</a> on newsrooms and traumatic stress.</p>
<p>A focus on reducing harm to trauma survivors acknowledges the potential adverse effects of news coverage on individual sources and their communities. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/decolonizing-journalism-9780190164263?cc=us&lang=en&"><em>Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities</em></a>, Anishinaabe journalist and professor <a href="https://carleton.ca/sjc/profile/mccue-duncan/">Duncan McCue</a> dedicates an entire chapter to trauma-informed reporting. The book offers interviews with Indigenous journalists and advice to help journalists proceed down a less harmful path in their interactions with and reporting assignments on Indigenous people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-decolonize-journalism-podcast-192467">How to decolonize journalism — Podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Reducing harm is also a central premise in the work of <a href="https://www.pickupcommunications.com/about">journalist and trauma researcher</a> Tamara Cherry, whose book <a href="https://ecwpress.com/products/the-trauma-beat"><em>The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-thinking the Business of Bad News</em></a> examines the impact of the media’s glare on trauma survivors.</p>
<h2>Learning to cover trauma</h2>
<p>When it comes to reporting on traumatic events or interviewing survivors, while there is no way to prevent adverse effects, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380903215275">training can help minimize them</a>.</p>
<p>The question I often pose to students or during training sessions with newsrooms is not: Do we or don’t we cover it? The question is: How do we cover it?</p>
<p>Simulation-based learning is common in the field of <a href="https://theconversation.com/simulations-with-actors-prepare-nurses-for-the-demands-of-their-profession-137975">medical education</a>, as well as in the training of teachers, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-er-simulation-helps-medical-and-engineering-students-see-new-points-of-view-175009">engineers</a> and managers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/simulations-with-actors-prepare-nurses-for-the-demands-of-their-profession-137975">Simulations with actors prepare nurses for the demands of their profession</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Simulation-based learning “allows reality to be brought closer into schools and universities” and provides learners with an opportunity to “take over certain roles and act in a hands-on (and heads-on) way in a simulated professional context,” <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320933544">according to researchers</a> who looked at dozens of studies to investigate the effectiveness of simulation-based learning.</p>
<h2>Becoming familiar with best practices</h2>
<p>Despite the evidence that classroom simulations are beneficial in the training of news professionals, they aren’t widely used. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2018.1423630">One 2016 study</a> of 41 accredited journalism schools in the United States found only three programs incorporated role-play exercises and invited trauma victims to be guest speakers.</p>
<p>Simulations allow students to engage in behaviour that approximates a real situation and react as a journalist might, while at the same time permitting the instructor to observe, coach and offer feedback.</p>
<p>Incorporating simulations can positively contribute to a journalists’ professional growth. As one student said after participating in the simulation exercise in my course: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It lets students become more comfortable with this kind of interview so that when they do eventually start doing these, they are familiar with the best practices … which means that it’s likely to go a little bit smoother than if they hadn’t done that.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A subject seen through a camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570389/original/file-20240119-29-vqaicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Incorporating simulations can positively contribute to journalists’ professional growth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/person-sitting-in-front-bookshelf-KieCLNzKoBo">(Sam Mcghee)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Case-study scenarios</h2>
<p>I developed four case-study scenarios that reflect the kind of reporting assignments an early-career journalist might receive in a newsroom, such as sudden death or critical injury. </p>
<p>Students chose which scenario they wanted to do and prepared for the interview with a professional, paid actor. The interviews, conducted and recorded over Zoom, ranged between 15 and 40 minutes.</p>
<p>Letting students choose a scenario was important because it acknowledged one of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/orr/infographics/6_principles_trauma_info.htm">the key principles of a trauma-informed approach</a>: empowerment, voice and choice. No one should feel forced to participate in a simulation that might mirror their own previous experiences or otherwise be upsetting or uncomfortable for them. </p>
<p>At the same time, I acknowledge the four scenarios all reflected incidents that could be <a href="https://www.talkspace.com/blog/types-of-trauma/">described as acute</a>. “Acute trauma” refers to a psychological trauma that occurs in response to a single, highly-stressful event such as a car crash, natural disaster or the sudden death of a loved one — as opposed to “chronic trauma,” referring to ongoing or repeated traumatic experiences, such as emotional, physical or sexual abuse or intimate partner violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person in front of a computer screen videoconferencing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570403/original/file-20240119-27-iefd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Letting students choose a scenario was important.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-woman-typing-on-laptop-keyboard-in-cafe-4126712/">(Ketut Subiyanto)</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Experience in low-stakes environment</h2>
<p>Among the important <a href="https://factsandfrictions.ca/portfolio-item/forced-change-simulated-solutions/">lessons students highlighted after the exercise</a> were increased confidence in themselves and their abilities to successfully conduct sensitive interviews. </p>
<p>Students also said the exercise underscored the importance of research, transparency, informed consent and having a self-care plan for after the interview, when emotional weight might settle in the journalist’s mind.</p>
<p>Speaking more broadly to the value of such simulation exercises as part of a journalism education, students said it was helpful to get hands-on experience in a low-stakes environment. </p>
<p>Learning by doing and then reflecting on the experience has considerable value, as does learning to manage one’s emotions, especially anxiety, in advance of trauma-intensive interviews.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Pearson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Carleton University Experiential Learning Fund. </span></em></p>Developing trauma-aware interview skills is part of teaching students how to ethically and sensitively report on traumatic events, and learn how to take care of their own mental health and well-being.Matthew Pearson, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214112024-01-19T00:37:04Z2024-01-19T00:37:04ZIsrael now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don’t know why they’re behind bars<p>Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a <a href="https://cpj.org/reports/2024/01/2023-prison-census-jailed-journalist-numbers-near-record-high-israel-imprisonments-spike/">newly released census</a> compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.</p>
<p>Each year, the committee releases a snapshot of the number of journalists behind bars as of December 1 2023 was the second highest on record with 320 in detention around the world. </p>
<p>In a small way, that is encouraging news. The figure is down from a high of 363 the previous year.</p>
<p>But a troublingly large number remain locked up, undermining press freedom and often, human rights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-one-journalist-per-day-is-dying-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict-this-has-to-stop-217272">More than one journalist per day is dying in the Israel-Gaza conflict. This has to stop</a>
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<h2>China takes out unenviable top spot</h2>
<p>At the top of the list sits China with 44 in detention, followed by Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22), and Vietnam (19). Israel and Iran share sixth place with 17 each. </p>
<p>While the dip in numbers is positive, the statistics expose a few troubling trends. </p>
<p>As well as a straight count, the Committee to Protect Journalists examines the charges the journalists are facing. The advocacy group found that globally, almost two-thirds are behind bars on what they broadly describe as “anti-state charges” – things such as espionage, terrorism, false news and so on. </p>
<p>In other words, governments have come to regard journalism as some sort of existential threat that has to be dealt with using national security legislation. </p>
<p>In some cases, that may be justified. It is impossible to independently assess the legitimacy of each case, but it does point to the way governments increasingly regard information and the media as a part of the battlefield. That places journalists in the dangerous position of sometimes being unwitting combatants in often brutally violent struggles.</p>
<p>China’s top spot is hardly surprising. It has been there – or close to it – for some years. Censorship makes it extremely difficult to make an accurate assessment of the numbers behind bars, but since the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in 2021, journalists from Hong Kong have, for the first time, found themselves locked up. And almost half of China’s total are Uyghurs from Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-final-assesment.pdf">human rights abuses</a> in its ongoing repression of the region’s mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.</p>
<p>The rest of the top four are also familiar, but the two biggest movements are unexpected. </p>
<p>Iran had been the <a href="https://cpj.org/reports/2022/12/number-of-jailed-journalists-spikes-to-new-global-record/#:%7E:text=The%20Committee%20to%20Protect%20Journalists,in%20a%20deteriorating%20media%20landscape.">2022 gold medallist</a> with 62 journalists imprisoned. In the latest census, it dropped to sixth place with just 17. And Israel, which previously had only one behind bars, has climbed to share that place. </p>
<p>That is positive news for Iranian journalists, but awkward for Israel, which repeatedly argues it is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only one that <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-709045#google_vignette">respects media freedom</a>. It also routinely points to Iran for its long-running assault on critics of the regime. </p>
<p>The journalists Israel had detained were all from the occupied West Bank, all Palestinian, and all arrested after Hamas’s horrific attacks from Gaza on October 7. But we know very little about why they were detained. The journalists’ relatives told the committee that most are under what Israel describes as “administrative detention”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-israeli-government-has-haaretz-newspaper-in-its-sights-as-it-tightens-screws-on-media-freedom-218730">Gaza war: Israeli government has Haaretz newspaper in its sights as it tightens screws on media freedom</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>17 arrests in Israel in less than 2 months</h2>
<p>The benign term “administrative detention” in fact means the journalists have been incarcerated <a href="https://www.btselem.org/topic/administrative_detention">indefinitely, without trial or charge</a>. </p>
<p>It is possible that they were somehow planning attacks or involved with extremism (Israel uses administrative detention to stop people they accuse of planning to commit a future offence) but the evidence used to justify the detention is not disclosed. We don’t even know why they were arrested. </p>
<p>Israel’s place near the top of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list exposes a difficult paradox. Media freedom is an intrinsic part of a free democracy. A vibrant, awkward and sometimes snarly media is a proven way to keep public debate alive and the political system healthy. </p>
<p>It is often uncomfortable, but you can’t have a strong democratic system without journalists freely and vigorously fulfilling their watchdog role. In fact, a good way to tell if a democracy is sliding is the extent of a government’s crackdown on the media.</p>
<p>This is not to suggest equivalence between Israel and Iran. Israel remains a democracy, and Israeli media is often savagely <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/public-trust-in-government-scrapes-bottom-amid-criticism-for-inadequate-war-response/">critical</a> of its government in ways that would be unthinkable in Tehran. </p>
<p>But if Israel wants to restore confidence in its commitment to democratic norms, at the very least it will need to be transparent about the reasons for arresting 17 journalists in less than two months, and the evidence against them. And if there is no evidence they pose a genuine threat to Israeli security, they must be released immediately. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-a-time-when-journalism-needs-to-be-at-its-strongest-an-open-letter-on-the-israel-hamas-war-has-left-the-profession-diminished-218596">At a time when journalism needs to be at its strongest, an open letter on the Israel/Hamas war has left the profession diminished</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Greste is Professor of Journalism at Macquarie University, and the Executive Director of the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom. He was also a signatory of an open letter calling for balanced coverage in the Gaza/Israel conflict and in 2006, covered Gaza for the BBC. </span></em></p>New statistics show a spike in the amount of journalists jailed in the country. To protect its democracy, Israel needs to be transparent about why members of the media are arrested.Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211382024-01-15T17:26:36Z2024-01-15T17:26:36ZAnnie Nightingale: DJ, author, presenter, mother. Raver extraordinaire.<p>Annie Nightingale, who died on January 11, was a champion of what she called “underground music”. At the age of 83, she was BBC Radio 1’s longest serving DJ. She outlasted all the male counterparts from the 1970s and – unlike most of them – she never lost her touch or went out of fashion. She was also renowned for being the <a href="https://twitter.com/ZoeTheBall/status/1745808532736274730">last person to leave any party</a>. </p>
<p>The only other DJ comparable to Nightingale was her beloved co-pilot John Peel, whose untimely death in 2004 deeply affected her. Nightingale sought out new music and was committed to the idea that a change of tempo heralded in a new music generation. Her knowledge of pop and underground music was immense, from The Beatles to Bowie, punk to rave through to techno, dubstep and grime. She loved witty, clever lyrics, beats and bass lines.</p>
<p>Annie Nightingale fought sexism to get on to the radio, and ageism to stay on it for over five decades. She was always extremely stylish and was admired and really loved by so many of her colleagues and all the musicians she supported, as well as all her thousands of fans. </p>
<p>Nightingale was born in the west London suburb of Brentford on April 1 1940. She was the only child born into what <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27506885">she described</a> as an unhappy marriage. Her parents sent her to a Catholic boarding school at the age of five.</p>
<p>She was a bright and often rebellious student and claimed that she got the idea of becoming a journalist while watching Gregory Peck driving around in sports cars and having an exciting time in the film Roman Holiday. </p>
<p>She absolutely hated being from the boring suburbs and could not wait to get away to the bright lights of the city. She persuaded her exasperated parents to let her study journalism in central London at Regent Street Polytechnic, now the University of Westminster. At the Polytechnic she gravitated towards art school students, whose world she found fascinating and liberating. It was from the art schools that the first British pop music revolution would evolve.</p>
<h2>Life as a journalist</h2>
<p>She soon found work as a journalist and became ensconced in swinging sixties London. She was already a passionate music fan.</p>
<p>At the age of 19, Nightingale ran away to Brighton with a married man, which was scandalous at the time. The couple eventually married and had two children.</p>
<p>In Brighton, Nightingale started working on the Brighton Argus writing a music column covering the bands that came to play in city. She befriended many of the musicians, most notably The Beatles and she was especially close to Paul McCartney. Her marriage however fared less well and ended in divorce.</p>
<p>When the BBC launched Radio 1 with an all-male line up, Nightingale became obsessed with joining the station – she wrote to them repeatedly asking for a job.</p>
<p>In the end she claimed they only hired her in 1970 because she was a music journalist and the station needed to abide by the strict needle time regulations. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/radio-reinvented/launch/#needletime">Needle time</a> was a restriction negotiated by the musicians’ union with the BBC in an attempt to stop the playing of records replacing “real” musicians performing on radio. With her music journalism credentials, she could supply information about the bands and talk about the music in a way that none of the other DJs who just played records could.</p>
<p>Nightingale was awarded an OBE 2002 and CBE in 2020 for services to radio broadcasting. In 2012 she was made an <a href="https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/honorary-awards/honorary-awards-2012">honorary doctor</a> by the University of Westminster, which was the only occasion I got to speak to her in person. She was wearing such high platform shoes I was astonished she was able to walk – in contrast I was wearing my Dr Martens boots under my gown.</p>
<p>As a specialist DJ, Annie Nightingale created her own style and her own path. She chose to work on the evening sessions because she wanted to play music she liked and to champion new music and new artists. Although daytime presenters know a lot about music, they are not always specialists. </p>
<p>What is remarkable about Annie Nightingale is that she renewed her specialism with each new musical scene. She added constantly to her knowledge of underground music and when that music went overground, she went on her way again. She was extraordinary in that she was never nostalgic and never looked back. </p>
<p>There can never be another Annie Nightingale, she made a path for all of us women working in music to travel on and for that we will be forever grateful.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Anne Gross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What is remarkable about Annie Nightingale is that she renewed her specialism with each new musical scene.Sally Anne Gross, Reader in Music Business, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183792024-01-08T17:43:43Z2024-01-08T17:43:43ZMisinformation: how fact-checking journalism is evolving – and having a real impact on the world<p>“Fake news” loves a crisis. It’s clear now that false information has played a role in recent events around the world from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-election-marked-by-disinformation-networks-says-carter-center-2022-11-05/">divisive elections</a> to <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/misinformation-covid-19-what-did-we-learn-2023-02-21_en">the COVID pandemic</a> to <a href="https://edmo.eu/2023/10/17/edmo-preliminary-analysis-of-the-israel-hamas-conflict-related-disinformation/">the conflict roiling Israel and Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>It is important to counter false claims and false narratives. And research now shows a lot more clarity about how to do this.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/business/media/fact-checkers-misinformation.html">a rather downbeat article</a> in September 2023, the New York Times (NYT) reported that “the momentum behind organizations that aim to combat online falsehoods has started to taper off”. It reported that the number of fact-checking operations around the world had “stagnated”, after rising <a href="https://reporterslab.org/tag/fact-checking-database/">from 11 in 2008 to 424 in 2022</a> and dropping slightly to 417 today.</p>
<p>The NYT report captured some of the well-known challenges fact-checkers face. But it offered a distressingly narrow picture of the work they actually do every day, how the fact-checking community’s approach to countering false information has evolved, and the different ways their work can make a difference in the world. </p>
<p>On numbers alone, the picture is more complex than was presented. <a href="https://africacheck.org/who-we-are/our-team">Africa Check</a>, the first fact-checking organisation in Africa, has grown from a team of two in 2012 to a staff of 40 with offices in four countries today. </p>
<p>The same is true of <a href="https://maldita.es/quienes-somos">Maldita</a> – which started as a Twitter account run by two TV journalists and <a href="https://maldita.es/quienes-somos">today has a staff of more than 50</a>. In some regions, the number of operations has fallen back. In others, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, it is still growing.</p>
<p>A second challenge is one of scale. Since fact-checkers around the world started contributing to a database of checks operated by Google, known as <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/factcheck">Claim Review</a>, they had, as of late September 2023, verified almost 300,000 true and false claims. </p>
<p>That is an impressive number but tiny by comparison with the scale of the problem, which may, of course, be worsened by AI. Groups such as UK fact-checking charity <a href="https://fullfact.org/">Full Fact</a> are <a href="https://fullfact.org/blog/2021/jul/how-does-automated-fact-checking-work/">developing AI</a> to help spot false claims and boost the reach of fact-checks.</p>
<h2>Does fact-checking work?</h2>
<p>A series of studies published over recent years have shown that, while fact-checks will, of course, not alter an individual’s long-held worldview, they can and do have “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2019.1668894">significantly positive overall influence</a>” on reader’s factual understanding and “<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2104235118">reduce belief in misinformation, often durably so</a>”. </p>
<p>What’s more, two recent studies have shown that so-called “warning labels” attached to online content “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X23001550?dgcid=author">effectively reduce</a> belief and spread of misinformation” and do so <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t2pmb/">“even for those most distrusting of fact-checkers”</a>.</p>
<p>The problem, correctly identified by the NYT, is that this success “is inconsistent and contingent on many variables”. A first challenge is that those who see and believe misinformation are, often, not the same as those who see and believe the subsequent fact-checks. The two audiences often do not cross over. </p>
<p>Fact-checkers also understand the limits of information as a tool for countering misinformation. They see daily evidence in emails and comment threads that, while some appreciate their work, others reject it. Like countless journalists, fact-checkers accept that their work doesn’t reach everyone it should. Most argue that exposing falsehoods and hoaxes is worth the effort, nevertheless.</p>
<h2>Correcting the record</h2>
<p>But informing the public is only one way fact-checking organisations make a difference. First, research <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/21568/Nyhan%20Reifler%20AJPS.pdf">confirms</a> what many fact-checkers see firsthand: knowing someone is checking will often push politicians to <a href="https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-923X.12898">be more careful</a> with their claims. </p>
<p>Obvious <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/10/meet-bottomless-pinocchio-new-rating-false-claim-repeated-over-over-again/">exceptions aside</a>, many public figures will quietly drop a claim after it’s been debunked – or even issue a mea culpa. This happened this year in Kenya when police apologised “unreservedly” after fact-checkers at AFP news agency caught them using unrelated images of one protest to hunt down those involved in another.</p>
<p>Many operations take a direct approach, contacting media outlets or political campaigns to ask them to <a href="https://fullfact.org/about/interventions/">correct</a> the <a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/this-fact-checker-got-several-news-outlets-to-correct-a-false-story-about-a-mini-ice-age/">record</a>. And in many countries, fact-checkers <a href="https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/blog/blog-fact-checking-doesnt-work-way-you-think-it-does">intervene at a structural level</a> to promote a culture of accuracy in key institutions. </p>
<p>British lawmakers last month voted <a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/parliamentary-corrections-process-opened-up-to-mps">to change House of Commons rules</a> on correcting the official record, following a campaign by the <a href="https://twitter.com/FullFact/status/1716845679325155561">fact-checkers Full Fact</a>.</p>
<p>In some regions, fact-checkers work with statistical agencies, advocate for open government, <a href="https://factsfirst.ph/about">operate broad coalitions against misinformation</a> and run media literacy programs. In the Arabic-language world, the Jordan-based <a href="https://arabfcn.net/en/about-us/">Arab Fact-Checkers Network</a> trains media in in-house fact-checking, to reduce the spread of false information prior to publication. In Europe, the <a href="https://eufactcheckingproject.com/">European Fact-Checking Standards Network</a>, has a team who work on public policy – something not possible in many parts of the world.</p>
<p>This growing breadth of approaches reflects how our understanding of false information has changed. </p>
<p>As Tom Rosenstiel of the University of Maryland <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/">noted in 2017</a>: “Misinformation is not like plumbing, a problem you fix. It is a social condition, like crime, that you must constantly monitor and adjust to.” It also reflects the different organisational cultures of operations set up by media companies, and by civil society and academic institutions.</p>
<p>The picture, in summary, is more complex than was suggested, and in many, if not all, parts of the world, more hopeful too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Cunliffe-Jones is a member of the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), based at the Poynter Institute, founder of the fact-checking organisation Africa Check, and was senior advisor to the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) in 2023. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Graves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Artificial intelligence is likely to make the ‘fake news’ problem worse. But it can also be used to help us counter misinformation.Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Visiting Researcher & Co-Director Chevening African Media Freedom Fellowship, University of WestminsterLucas Graves, Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183332024-01-04T13:48:10Z2024-01-04T13:48:10ZPundits: Central to democracy, or partisan spewers of opinion who destroy trust<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565215/original/file-20231212-27-v6t3dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C5%2C3508%2C2047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two pundits – Jonah Goldberg, left, and Paul Begala, second from right – discuss politics with journalists Kristen Holmes and Jake Tapper.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Walter Lippmann, who lived from 1889 to 1974, was an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10457090109600716">early and prime example of the public intellectual as pundit</a> commenting on news of the day. </p>
<p>Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote a syndicated column on national and international affairs. He advocated a philosophy in which honest reflection on common experiences would lift citizens out of their parochial worldviews. </p>
<p>A pundit is someone who offers commentary in the media on a particular subject area. A gallery of legacy newspaper pundits would include a more raucous wing. Turn a corner and the cranky “Sage of Baltimore,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/hl-mencken-predicted-a-moron-in-the-white-house">H. L. Mencken</a>, appears. The satirist and cultural critic, who was born in 1880 and died in 1956, lived for most of his life in a neighborhood of old West Baltimore. </p>
<p>He was suspicious of representative democracy and predicted in 1920: “On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” </p>
<p>The syndicated humorist <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/R/M/au5427740.html">Mike Royko</a> would bring a more working-class sensibility to his targets. He began writing columns for a U.S. Air Force newspaper in 1955 and would eventually produce more than 7,500 daily columns for Chicago newspapers. Among his targets was Frank Sinatra, whom the columnist once accused of commandeering Chicago police for personal security. </p>
<p>Molly Ivins appears next, promising in 2003 “even more bushwhacking.” She co-wrote <a href="https://knopfdoubleday.com/?s=molly+ivins">“Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America”</a> in conjunction with newspaper columns that were frequently critical of the president, a fellow Texan. </p>
<p>Holding politicians and institutions accountable often requires combative voices. What kind of commentary is needed now, though, when so much political talk is degrading and divisive? I ask this question as a former editorial writer who studies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10584609.2022.2045401">how journalism operates as a political institution</a>. I want to suggest that pundits support democracy when their combat is driven by ideas rather than tribal identities.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman working in a home office at her desk with a cat on her shoulder, seen from her back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564524/original/file-20231208-17-wllymv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rear view of newspaper columnist Molly Ivins working at a computer as her pet Siamese cat hangs over one shoulder in her office.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rear-view-of-newspaper-columnist-molly-ivins-working-at-news-photo/50469187?adppopup=true">Mark Perlstein/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Pundit proliferation</h2>
<p>Punditry became a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Sound_and_Fury.html?id=u5JZAAAAMAAJ">more central feature of democracy</a> with the expansion of mass media in the 20th century. While Lippmann emphasized the civic value of commentary, punditry would prove its commercial value, too. </p>
<p>Mass media in the 1950s featured <a href="https://web-p-ebscohost-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=13&sid=f8bbd7ef-5211-4413-b69b-825d6c454075%40redis">radio hosts who delighted in browbeating callers</a>. Those hosts were rewarded with increased ratings. Radio and television punditry also helped stations to fill air time with relatively modest production costs. </p>
<p>The New York Times is not representative of mainstream newspapers, but <a href="https://voegelinview.com/the-public-intellectual-between-philosophy-and-politics/">its expansion of opinion journalism</a> over the last few decades is illustrative. The paper published just two columnists in the early 1950s. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107769901008700204">By 1994, the Times featured eight</a>. A similar expansion occurred at The Washington Post and many regional newspapers across the country. </p>
<p>The rise of a television pundit class in the 1960s established a <a href="https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2003052">new type of celebrity</a>, thanks largely to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/nyregion/29buckley.html">William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line,” which ran from 1966 to 1999</a>. Leaning back in a chair, clipboard in hand, eyes darting, the conservative author typically treated guests politely on the public affairs show. </p>
<p>Lippmann’s vision of the pundit as public intellectual sought to preserve “the traditions of civility” during the advent of broadcast media. The aspiration was hardly a source of inspiration for “The McLaughlin Group” and other <a href="https://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=3356">shout shows</a> launched in the 1980s. Shout shows are televised, short-form debates. Conversations quickly turn into confrontations. </p>
<h2>Incentives to punch up</h2>
<p>Columnists cannot replicate the visceral experience of the shout shows, although <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/news-grazers/book237055">the ability of readers to graze online</a> heightens the incentive to punch up punditry. Deadlines, of course, are another barrier to high-minded commentary. Lippmann explained that a column is produced by a “puzzled man” who draws “sketches in the sand, which the sea will wash away.” </p>
<p>Punditry today carries a negative connotation, as it conjures “talking heads” spewing opinions. Turn on CNN or Fox News any time of day to see examples. The term “pundit,” though, is derived from the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/pundit-2016-02-24">Sanskrit word “pandrita,” meaning “learned</a>.” </p>
<p>Many pundits are not trained in journalism. Instead, they bring expertise from many other realms. However, when they appear in a journalistic setting, they can be evaluated based on the principles that responsible journalists adhere to: <a href="https://newsliteracymatters.com/2019/10/25/q-are-pundits-journalists/">verification, independence and accountability</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The McLaughlin Group’ was one of the first ‘shout shows’ that began on television in the 1980s.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The same historical forces that add to the diversity of candidates during election cycles have put <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/arts/02iht-02pund.11607826.html">pressure on cable channels to diversify</a> the pundits they feature. Punditry has become democratized but also institutionalized. University communications staff offers experts on just about any topic. Think tanks with ideological agendas make their own experts available to provide analyses that appear considered and neutral. </p>
<p>Cable news, online news and the legacy press offer punditry to <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/news-grazers/book237055">distracted and increasingly fragmented audiences</a>. As a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/journalism/michael-mcdevitt">scholar of political communication</a>, I believe punditry is likely to become more specialized in catering to particular interests. This trend works against Lippmann’s principle of commentary that offers reflection on common experiences. </p>
<h2>Pundits and democracy</h2>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-social-and-political-trust-9780190274801?q=oxford%20handbook%20of%20social%20and%20political%20trust&lang=en&cc=us">Trust in politics</a> is preserved when citizens perceive that leaders, institutions and fellow citizens abide by the rules of the game. Commentary that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10584609.2022.2045401">oversimplifies policy disagreement</a> erodes the trust that citizens have for each other, especially when opponents are belittled. </p>
<p>Lippmann was prescient about what scholars today describe as “<a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050517-114628">democratic backsliding</a>,” a process marked by the failure of government to solve problems accompanied by decline in the quality of political discourse. </p>
<p>Pundits contribute to democratic backsliding when they cultivate dystopian views of politics. The best example is the relentless negativity that characterized commentary on presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016. As media scholar <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-general-election/">Thomas Patterson</a> wrote, “When everything and everybody is portrayed as deeply flawed, there’s no sense making distinctions on that score, which works to the advantage of those who are more deeply flawed.”</p>
<p>In an influential 2005 study, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/new-videomalaise-effects-of-televised-incivility-on-political-trust/093762E57EF0CFA2E4A0328572DE0009">Diana Mutz and Byron Reeves</a> asked: “Is watching politicians and pundits hurl insults at one another on television merely a harmless pastime, or does it have consequences for how people think about politics and government?” </p>
<p>The authors staged experiments in which professional actors played congressional candidates sitting together in a television studio. Participants in the study watched different versions of the mock talk show. Candidates expressed the same issue positions, using the same words, and in the civil version were always polite. In the uncivil version, raised voices, rolling of the eyes and gratuitous asides demonstrated candidates’ lack of respect for each other. </p>
<p>The authors reported that “political differences of opinion do not, in and of themselves, harm attitudes toward politics and politicians. However, political trust is adversely affected by levels of incivility in these exchanges.” Participants exposed to the uncivil exchanges scored lower for trust in politicians, Congress and the political system. </p>
<h2>Supporting democracy</h2>
<p>What are the alternatives, then, to the polarizing pundit? Many political theorists insist that there is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ct/article-abstract/16/4/411/4098648">democratic value in heated commentary</a> that calls out injustice. </p>
<p>Media scholar <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093650220921314">Patricia Rossini</a> suggests that in evaluating political expression, people should be concerned not so much about tone as tolerance. </p>
<p>Audiences should also keep in mind the incentives of pundits, especially when commentators use their platforms to nurture relationships with <a href="https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1475-6765.12502">politicians who undermine democracy</a>. </p>
<p>Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” regularly featured the celebrity candidate Trump in 2015. The Washington Post took notice of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/12/10/the-many-times-donald-trump-and-morning-joe-yukked-it-up/">“many times Donald Trump and ‘Morning Joe’ yukked it up”</a>. Scarborough would later feud with Trump, but at the time, Trump was useful in attracting viewers. </p>
<p>Pundits can play a productive role by focusing on issues rather than identities.
Americans are divided not so much by policies as <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/U/bo27527354.html">mega-identities</a> that combine the political with race and religion. Recent scholarship has demonstrated that issue polarization is less of a problem as long as opponents see <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15205436.2022.2119870">humanity in the other side</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike McDevitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pundits are everywhere, giving their analyses of current events, politics and the state of the world. You’ll hear a lot more from them this election year. Is their rank opinion good for democracy?Mike McDevitt, Professor of journalism and media studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204182024-01-01T03:26:03Z2024-01-01T03:26:03ZThe world has lost a dissenting voice: Australian journalist John Pilger has died, age 84<p>John Pilger, a giant of journalism born in Australia in 1939, has died at the age of 84, according to a statement released online by his family.</p>
<p>His numerous books and especially his documentaries opened the world’s eyes to the failings, and worse, of governments in many countries – including his birthplace.</p>
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<p>He inspired many journalists, and journalism students, with his willingness to critique the damaging effects on ordinary people’s lives of capitalism and Western countries’ foreign policies, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>But his campaigning approach to journalism also regularly provoked controversy. That was partly because of his trenchant dissent from official stances, and partly because in aiming to reach the broadest possible audience, he tended to oversimplify issues and overstate his views.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-one-journalist-per-day-is-dying-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict-this-has-to-stop-217272">More than one journalist per day is dying in the Israel-Gaza conflict. This has to stop</a>
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<h2>‘I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian’</h2>
<p>The English journalist, Auberon Waugh, who clashed with Pilger on more than one occasion, invented the verb “to pilger” which he <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/185430.In_the_Name_of_Justice">defined</a> as “to treat a subject emotionally with generous disregard for inconvenient detail, always in the left-wing cause and always with great indignation”.</p>
<p>Whatever the merits of Waugh’s criticism, they are, in my view, outweighed by the breadth and depth of Pilger’s disclosures in the public interest.</p>
<p>Pilger never hid behind the safety of the “he said, she said” approach to journalism, which New York University professor Jay Rosen has famously <a href="https://pressthink.org/2010/11/the-view-from-nowhere-questions-and-answers/">called</a> the “view from nowhere”.</p>
<p>Pilger, however, rejected the label of crusader, telling Anthony Hayward for his book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/185430.In_the_Name_of_Justice">In the Name of Justice: The Television Reporting of John Pilger</a>: </p>
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<p>I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian and forever sceptical of anything the agents of power want to tell us. It is my duty, surely, to tell people when they’re being conned or told lies.</p>
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<h2>Telling the stories of ordinary people</h2>
<p>Pilger was <a href="https://johnpilger.com/biography">born in Bondi</a>, Sydney. Like many of his generation, he moved to the UK in the early 1960s and worked for The Daily Mirror, Reuters and ITV’s investigative program World in Action.</p>
<p>He reported on conflicts in Bangladesh, Biafra, Cambodia and Vietnam and was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/31/john-pilger-campaigning-journalist-dies-aged-84">named</a> newspaper journalist of the year in Britain in 1967 and 1979. </p>
<p>He made <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos">more than 50</a> documentaries. His best known is <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos/year-zero-the-silent-death-of-cambodia">Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia</a>, which in 1979 revealed that as many as two million of the seven million population of the country had died as a result of genocide or starvation under Pol Pot’s brutal regime.</p>
<p>His documentaries garnered numerous prizes, including the prestigious Richard Dimbleby award for factual reporting, a <a href="https://johnpilger.com/biography">Peabody award</a> for <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos/cambodia-year-ten">Cambodia: Year Ten</a> and a Best Documentary Emmy <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/journalist-and-filmmaker-john-pilger-dies-aged-84-20231231-p5eufs.html">award</a> for <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos/cambodia-the-betrayal">Cambodia: The Betrayal</a>.</p>
<p>He also made several documentaries about Australia, including one in 1985, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438974/">The Secret Country</a>, about historic and continuing mistreatment of First Nations people that thoroughly irritated the then Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke.</p>
<p>When the US government of George W. Bush reacted to al-Qaeda’s murderous 9/11 terrorist attacks by invading first Afghanistan, in late 2001, then Iraq in March 2003, Pilger made <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos/breaking-the-silence-truth-and-lies-in-the-war-on-terror">Truth and Lies: Breaking the Silence on the War on Terror</a>. </p>
<p>It sharply criticised not only Bush’s actions but those of the most ardent members of the “coalition of the willing”: UK Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, and Australian coalition prime minister, John Howard.</p>
<p>No doubt, if Pilger was still alive he would condemn the absence of the National Security Committee’s papers from the 2003 cabinet papers<a href="https://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-2003-howard-government-sends-australia-into-the-iraq-war-217812"> released today</a> by the National Archives of Australia. </p>
<p>They <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/01/australia-went-to-war-in-iraq-based-on-oral-reports-to-cabinet-from-john-howard">show</a> Howard’s cabinet signed off on the controversial – in hindsight disastrous – decision to endorse the Bush administration’s plan to invade Iraq based on “oral reports” from the prime minister, rather than full cabinet submissions.</p>
<p>Pilger wrote or edited 11 books, including <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/tell-me-no-lies-9781407085708">Tell Me No Lies</a>, an anthology of outstanding investigative journalism, and perhaps his best regarded book, <a href="https://johnpilger.com/books/heroes">Heroes</a>, which hewed to what one of his favourite journalists, Martha Gellhorn, called “the view from the ground”. </p>
<p>He did this by telling the stories of ordinary people he had encountered, whether miners in Durham, England, refugees from Vietnam, or American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War – not to parades, but to lives dislocated by the silence and shame surrounding the war’s end.</p>
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<h2>The world has lost a resolutely dissenting voice</h2>
<p>Phillip Knightley, a contemporary of Pilger who was also born in Australia and went to Fleet Street to become a celebrated investigative journalist and author himself, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/185430.In_the_Name_of_Justice">summed up</a> his compatriot’s work in 2000:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was certainly among the first to draw international attention to the shameful way in which Australia has treated the Aborigines [sic] […] John has a slightly less optimistic view than I have. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://johnpilger.com/videos/welcome-to-australia">Welcome to Australia</a> [Pilger’s 1999 film], he concentrated on the bad things that were happening but not the good. He would say that’s not part of his brief and it’s covered elsewhere. He’s a polemicist and, if you want to arouse people’s passions and anger, the stronger the polemic, the better.</p>
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<p>Pilger made fewer films in the 2000s, focusing much of his energy on supporting Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Assange continues to suffer in Belmarsh prison in England while appeals against his extradition to the US to answer charges under the 1917 Espionage Act grind interminably on.</p>
<p>Whatever flaws there are in Pilger’s journalism, it feels dispiriting that on the first day of a new year clouded by wars, inaction on climate change and a presidential election in the US where democracy itself is on the ballot, the world has lost another resolutely dissenting voice in the media.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-time-of-anxiety-the-depressing-new-reality-for-local-journalists-in-conflict-zones-95878">'A time of anxiety': The depressing new reality for local journalists in conflict zones</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s representative on the Australian Press Council.</span></em></p>Pilger inspired many with his willingness to critique the damaging effects on ordinary people’s lives of capitalism and Western countries’ foreign policies. But he also provoked global controversy.Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195832023-12-27T20:25:43Z2023-12-27T20:25:43ZNew Zealand newsrooms saw the rise of ‘mob censorship’ in 2023, as journalists faced a barrage of abuse<p>New Zealand consistently <a href="https://theconversation.com/nz-report-card-2022-some-foreign-bragging-rights-but-room-for-improvement-at-home-194626">ranks well</a> in global monitors of democracy, media freedom and open government. But high rates of abuse and threats directed at journalists put us at risk of “mob censorship” – <a href="https://www.comminit.com/media-development/content/mob-censorship-online-harassment-us-journalists-times-digital-hate-and-populism">citizen vigilantism</a> that seeks to discipline journalism.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2289913">recently published study</a> documents newsworkers’ experiences of abuse and violence at New Zealand’s largest news organisation, Stuff. </p>
<p>The research reveals just how widespread online and physical abuse towards journalists has become – and how this is changing the news and who is covering it. </p>
<h2>A ‘festering heap of toxicity’</h2>
<p>Not one of the 128 journalists and visual journalists surveyed was untouched by abuse, threats or violence related to their job, most commonly delivered via work email on a daily or weekly basis. One respondent described her inbox as a “festering heap of toxicity”. </p>
<p>Women journalists bear the brunt of online abuse, primarily related to their gender or ethnicity (53%) and physical appearance (32%) (such as “ugly bitch” or “Pakeha ugly c***”), compared with 20% of men. </p>
<p>Attempts to discredit them were also reported by 45% of women as opposed to 34% of men. All threats of sexual violence captured in our survey were made towards women.</p>
<p>Overall, men tended to experience more “offline” threats (44% compared to 23% of women) and actual physical violence (16% men compared to 12% women). Nearly 40% of all those experiencing physical violence were visual journalists, showing up to photograph emotionally-charged events such as accidents and protests. </p>
<p>When we further analysed our findings by ethnicity, it was our small subset of Māori women who reported the very highest rates of offline threats and actual violence. These journalists represented the intersection of both gender and ethnicity – increasing their likelihood of being a target of abuse. </p>
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<h2>Targets for writing about race</h2>
<p>As well as capturing the <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/24-11-2019/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-maori-journalist">high levels of abuse and threats</a> directed at Māori women journalists, our survey documented ways in which the content of news itself was at risk from mob censorship. </p>
<p>Simply writing stories about race or racism triggered abuse for the writer, whatever their actual or perceived identity. </p>
<p>A self-described “white-passing Māori” explained how, after reporting on the dawn raid apology, she received messages calling her things like “white apologist bitch”. Several Pākeha women were abused as racists or traitors for using te reo Māori in stories or writing about racism. </p>
<p>While a handful of male journalists reported abuse in the vein of “<a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124982207/being-stale-pale-and-male-doesnt-mean-youre-obsolete">pale, stale, male</a>” – an equally unhelpful development – it was much more common for male respondents to observe greater levels of abuse directed at female colleagues for writing similar stories. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/campaign-trail-threats-and-abuse-reinforce-the-need-to-protect-nzs-women-politicians-before-they-quit-for-good-214828">Campaign trail threats and abuse reinforce the need to protect NZ’s women politicians – before they quit for good</a>
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<p>Extensive and detailed reports of gendered abuse provide clear evidence that simply being female puts women journalists at risk in New Zealand, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10776990221088761">as it does elsewhere</a>. </p>
<p>One participant wrote that “comments about being female are pretty much the common thread of all toxic messages I’ve received” – a pattern that Stuff journalist <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018881208/kids-and-consultants-media-run-the-rule-over-opposition-policy">Michelle Duff has argued</a> was “designed to silence”. </p>
<p>Several women said they turn down opportunities to write opinion pieces. As one said, “I just cannot believe the feedback women get if you express <em>any</em> opinion”.</p>
<p>Similar patterns have been <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/06-09-2017/why-do-i-have-to-put-up-with-this-shit-women-journalists-in-nz-share-their-stories-of-online-abuse">documented by journalist Charlotte Graham McLay</a>. Unsurprisingly, a good proportion of women journalists (22%) contemplated leaving the profession, compared to 4% of men.</p>
<p>But abuse affects all journalists, at least indirectly. Some 71% of our participants adjusted their online behaviours, including closing social media accounts, and 24% indicated they had consciously altered a story. As one person said, “there are [controversial or divisive] stories I’d be less likely to pursue”, including to protect vulnerable sources. </p>
<h2>Accepting abuse is not the answer</h2>
<p>More than three-quarters of our respondents considered abuse and threats to be just part of the job. There was, though, concern this feeds a “dangerous” and “outdated” professional culture that shuts down frank discussion and causes anxiety. </p>
<p>One female reporter who had experienced on-the-job violence wrote of being “extremely worried” that she or a colleague “will eventually be singled out by an extremist to be attacked or killed”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-attacks-on-female-journalists-are-increasingly-spilling-into-the-real-world-new-research-150791">Online attacks on female journalists are increasingly spilling into the 'real world' – new research</a>
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<p>Some journalists in our study saw value in responding to abusive emails from readers. As one respondent said, “once I engage with someone (generally) they are apologetic and start interacting like a normal human being”, and exchanges “have morphed into positive experiences for both parties”. </p>
<p>But this emotional labour is an additional burden in under-resourced newsrooms. </p>
<p>Furthermore, some participants were sceptical about the extent of employer commitment to addressing the problem, given the adoption of branding practices such as publishing photo bylines and email addresses, which tended to ramp up online abuse. </p>
<h2>Muted watchdogs</h2>
<p>Globally, the news industry hasn’t done a good job of training, supporting and <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380618">protecting its journalists</a> in the digital era. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2020.1811743">Research from the United States</a> suggests that receiving regular abuse entrenches journalists’ “us versus them” mentality. This deepens the rift between news organisations and the communities they serve, fuelling mistrust. </p>
<p>Clearly, democracy itself is undermined by any intimidation or disincentive that stops journalists from performing their watchdog duties. </p>
<p>Supporting journalists to do their jobs as safely and free from abuse as possible needs to be the industry’s top priority for 2024. It’s vital not only for them, but also for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309956959_Journalism_beyond_democracy_A_new_look_into_journalistic_roles_in_political_and_everyday_life">our democratic future</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was written with the assistance of Dr. Catherine Strong, a consultant journalism educator and former journalist. Strong is editor of the American academic journal Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication</em>.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Fountaine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows being a woman or part of a minority as a journalist can increase the likelihood of being targeted with online abuse. The waves of abuse can influence who and what gets covered.Susan Fountaine, Associate Professor of Communication, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182272023-12-19T13:16:11Z2023-12-19T13:16:11ZMore city hall news coverage isn’t enough to revive local news outlets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565903/original/file-20231214-17-z4n2w3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3267%2C2551&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will local election coverage help news organizations win back readers and viewers?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/politics-headlines-collage-i-royalty-free-image/157565743?adppopup=true">Allkindza/E+/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s a new round of journalist layoffs or further consolidation into the hands of a few owners, the problems confronting local media in the U.S. are easy to see. </p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uVtvgVkAAAAJ&hl=en">political</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7u0KfyUAAAAJ&hl=en">scientists</a> who study how the decline of local news affects American politics. In past work, we showed that these changes hamper the ability of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12560">local newspapers</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000965">television stations</a> to cover their communities. We also wrote about how they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-019-09556-7">limit what the public can learn about politics from local news</a>.</p>
<p>Many of these problems have an underlying source: Fewer people are watching and reading local news. Media consumers have far more options than in the past, and this has <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/all-politics-is-national-because-all-media-is-national/">reduced the size of the local news audience</a>.</p>
<p>Instead of watching local TV news, people can tune in to cable TV focused on national politics. Rather than subscribing to a local newspaper, they can find out about community events on social media. Researchers have linked this decline in attention to local news to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy051">increased polarization</a> and more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000829">party-line voting in state and local elections</a>. </p>
<p>The economic pressures on local news have implications that go beyond politics. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12560">Large staffing cuts</a> in the newspaper industry included reporters covering the statehouse or city hall. But those cuts also included sizable numbers of journalists covering local sports, community events and lifestyle beats. These changes chip away at the types of local, nonpolitical stories that drew many consumers to local media in the first place.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person in a checked jacket holding a ballot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565908/original/file-20231214-15-brvgou.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A poll worker holds a ballot at the Trinity Christian Fellowship Hall polling place in Biglerville, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2022Pennsylvania/180321d9407f44729a96ee63a2b5b7f2/photo?Query=polling%20place&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=&totalCount=113&currentItemNo=29">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span>
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<p>How can local news organizations win audiences back? </p>
<p>One potential solution that’s been offered by those trying to reverse the decline of local journalism is to increase local political reporting. This ranges from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/home-style-opinion/646C3D86BDCB2E370CEB0A5D51083171">changes to editorial practices</a> so that national issues receive less coverage in local news sources to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/07/1198029284/macarthur-knight-journalism-news-press-forward">large-scale philanthropic funding of local news coverage</a>. Implicit in many of these efforts is the idea that focusing on local political events can attract more readers and viewers by demonstrating to them the value that local news organizations provide. </p>
<p>Increasing local political coverage is one of many ideas aimed at providing a sustainable path forward for local journalism. But very few of them will work – including, we believe, this one.</p>
<h2>News consumption during mayoral elections</h2>
<p>In a forthcoming article in <a href="https://joshuamccrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Local-News-Demand-Final.pdf">Political Science Research and Methods</a>, we consider whether events that shift attention to local politics, and which do not receive much national media coverage, increase local media use. This builds on prior evidence that people are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/news-hole/86C7B8933122EB6EC229E4B05BBAA27C">more interested in local news</a> when they are reminded about the important role of local government in their lives.</p>
<p>In our research for the article, aimed at understanding whether local political events can increase local media use, we examined how local media use changed during over 500 mayoral elections happening in small, midsized and large cities across the United States between 2013 to 2021. </p>
<p>Mayoral elections are a promising place to look for shifts in news use due to their ramifications for an entire community. In our article, we also show that these elections are also a time of increased attention to local politics among the public and media. </p>
<p>Using television transcripts and Google Trends data, we found that, compared to communities without an upcoming mayoral election, there is more discussion of local politics on local TV news programs and more internet searches for information about local politics in communities with active mayoral campaigns. </p>
<p>But this increased interest does not translate into more news use. </p>
<p>Compared to their counterparts in communities without an election, monthly web traffic to local newspaper websites does not increase as mayoral elections approach. Traffic falls slightly after the elections conclude. The local television news viewership is slightly lower during the peak of the election compared to the time periods before and after. When looking at either total web traffic or TV viewership, there are limited changes in use of the local media outlets covering mayoral elections compared to those in areas without one. </p>
<p>The analysis includes some noncompetitive elections and races where the influence of local politics could be overwhelmed by other elections at the same time, such as when a mayoral race coincides with a presidential election. </p>
<p>But here’s the bad news: Even when focusing on close mayoral elections or races in years without federal elections, we fail to find beneficial changes in the audiences of local media outlets covering mayoral elections in their community.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people standing at lecterns and a studio monitor showing nine different pictures on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566048/original/file-20231215-17-2tv4nk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Studio monitors show images of Denver mayoral candidates Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston, as well as moderators and reporters, during a Denver mayoral runoff debate in the studios of Channel 7 News on May 23, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/monitors-in-the-studio-show-images-of-denver-mayoral-news-photo/1492759787?adppopup=true">Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Hard to expand local news audiences</h2>
<p>A surge in interest and coverage of local politics is not enough to elevate local news consumption. Our finding shows the difficulty of growing local news audiences.</p>
<p>Other recent studies have found that even <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4502329">providing free newspaper subscriptions</a> to those who do not consume local media <a href="https://osf.io/8x46u/">fails to increase local news use</a>. Together, this evidence paints a dire picture for the long-term survival of local news outlets.</p>
<p>While our research doesn’t identify a fix, we believe it has implications for thinking about the problem of local news demand. Recent efforts supporting local media aim to increase the amount of attention these news sources devote to local politics. </p>
<p>Keeping local news organizations alive is a valuable goal with important political consequences. But our work suggests efforts aimed at generating more local political coverage will be insufficient to increase the size of the local news audience. </p>
<p>In its heyday, local media encouraged incidental learning about politics by bundling political news together with coverage of sports, community events or lifestyle news. Even if the goal of efforts to support local media ultimately stems from the valuable civic information it provides, this older approach suggests efforts to attract audiences may need to look beyond political news and instead emphasize the nonpolitical coverage local news organizations could produce. </p>
<p>Many discussions of the problems facing local media center on their ability to produce news coverage. Our study shows the added importance of distinct efforts to ensure local news consumers are there to see it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are lots of ideas about how to save local news. One of them is that increasing coverage of local politics will bring back readers and viewers. Research shows that it doesn’t.Erik Peterson, Assistant Professor of American Politics, Rice UniversityJosh McCrain, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of UtahLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201322023-12-19T00:04:10Z2023-12-19T00:04:10ZHow to improve social cohesion<p>For 16 years now the Scanlon Foundation has been producing an <a href="https://scanloninstitute.org.au/publications/mapping-social-cohesion-report/2023-mapping-social-cohesion-report">index of social cohesion</a> in Australia. The most recent figures came out last month and they were the worst ever recorded. Since then, cohesion has continued to fray in the wake of October 7 and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.</p>
<p>What’s going wrong? One factor is the ubiquitous technology that primes us for intolerance. Social media rewards strong positions and self-righteous anger. The smartphones in our pockets claim to increase our connections with “friends” but they are optimised for moral grandstanding. It’s making us lonely and miserable.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be that way. Real social cohesion comes from the slow and unglamorous work of listening to people carefully, paying them respect and giving them the benefit of the doubt. </p>
<p>It comes from the sort of morally attentive conversation the philosopher <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-rai-gaita-and-the-moral-power-of-conversation-217670">Raimond Gaita so generously creates</a>. It also comes from the work of mission-driven organisations like The Conversation. We see the role of the media as creating a better world, not just a more profitable one.</p>
<p>In our case, collaboration is both the means and the ends of everything we do. Our work is made possible by thousands of thoughtful and generous readers who see the value of reliable information, and who care enough to help us provide it.</p>
<p>My deepest thanks to every academic who gave up something else important to write an article for The Conversation. Sincere thanks also to our passionate and attentive readers, our university partners and philanthropic funders who work so hard to make a positive difference. </p>
<p>Thanks also to the volunteer board members and my colleagues, a team of professionals in editorial, administration and technology, who are smart, passionate, humble and fun.</p>
<p>A very special thanks to the 800 people who became monthly donors in December and the thousands more who supported us throughout the year. If you haven’t donated yet in 2023 and would like to, <a href="https://donate.theconversation.com/au?utm_source=theconversation.com&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=24donationsmini">you still can</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, from everyone here at The Conversation, we wish you a socially cohesive Christmas full of friends, family, reading, reflection and affection. </p>
<p>I’m looking forward to working with you again in 2024 to fight the worst impulses of social media and hopefully play a small part in getting those Scanlon Foundation social cohesion numbers moving in the right direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Real social cohesion comes from the slow and unglamorous work of listening to people carefully, paying them respect and giving them the benefit of the doubt.Misha Ketchell, Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2188262023-12-17T19:17:07Z2023-12-17T19:17:07ZGhosts, grit and genius: the most gripping podcasts of 2023<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565059/original/file-20231212-21-kwukxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C6000%2C4535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE1596465">State Library of Queensland</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite <a href="https://slate.com/business/2023/12/podcasts-layoffs-spotify-heavyweight-stolen-amazon.html">downturns</a> at the corporate end of town, podcasts again this year proved to be a powerful medium for new voices and previously overlooked stories.</p>
<p>As a judge of the Walkleys and New York Festivals, I listened to a lot of content. I was struck by how open this medium is still to newcomers, and how a passion project can outgun the big names (some of whom were <a href="https://freelancecafe.substack.com/p/why-i-left">victims this year of their own hubris</a>). </p>
<p>Lovers of imaginative audio will be disappointed by the recent cancellation of the “documentary adventures” show <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000176d">Lights Out</a>, produced by small but stellar UK company <a href="http://www.fallingtree.co.uk/about/">Falling Tree</a>. Falling Tree has been an exceptional mentor of new talent such as this <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rgzz">luminous reflection</a> on family and loss by Talia Augustidis. Happily, nascent outlets such as <a href="https://www.audioflux.org/">Audio Flux</a> and <a href="https://www.soundfields.org/about">Sound Fields</a> promise fresh artistic delights. </p>
<p>Here, then, are my podcast picks of 2023 for your summer listening pleasure.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/michelle-obama-podcast-host-how-podcasting-became-a-multi-billion-dollar-industry-142920">Michelle Obama, podcast host: how podcasting became a multi-billion dollar industry</a>
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<h2>1. First Eat with Nakkiah Lui</h2>
<p>Even for a versatile playwright/actor/director such as Nakkiah Lui, this podcast has a challenging remit: to investigate how Lui’s food habits and body image as an Indigenous Australian might link to identity and impacts of colonialism. </p>
<p>She and producer Nicola Harvey stitch together a sprawling narrative that digs into Lui’s family history and draws on global academic research to traverse Australia, creating vivid aural landscapes. </p>
<p>The podcast’s excavation of exploitation and cultural erasure evokes shades of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ remarkable opus, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/reparations/">The Case for Reparations</a>. </p>
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<h2>2. Dying Rose</h2>
<p>Dying Rose investigates in forensic detail how poorly the justice system treated the deaths of six young First Nations women. Host Douglas Smith from the Adelaide Advertiser puts his Indigeneity explicitly in the frame, telling listeners: </p>
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<p>our normals are not the same […] I’ve been to more funerals of relatives than I can count. Sometimes it feels like these deaths in our community get written off.</p>
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<p>Smith gains deep and empathetic access to the bereaved families. Being an Indigenous journalist starkly informs his frustrated interactions with police.</p>
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<h2>3. Nobody Dies Here</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ohmydogpodcast.com/nobodydiesherepod">Nobody Dies Here</a> takes us inside Melbourne’s medically supervised injecting room, perhaps not the most appealing premise. </p>
<p>What makes this podcast so good is its total absence of judgment or earnestness. The genuine curiosity and empathy of host/producer Michelle Ransom-Hughes humanises both addicts and healthcare workers, making us lean into their stories, rendered even more engaging by assured production. </p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/3vgS2jnyCyY1enq3pC9CWD?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>4. The Lawyer, the Sniper and the NSW Police</h2>
<p>Authenticity is a buzzword in podcasting and <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-lawyer-the-sniper-and-the-nsw-police/id1652022946">this indie offering</a> has it in spades. </p>
<p>The hosts are real people, not media professionals, telling gripping stories of the injustice they suffered as police workers: former police lawyer Lina Nguyen was raped by a cop she trusted; Mark Davidson was a sniper at the Sydney Lindt Cafe siege in 2014. </p>
<p>Their powerful testimony is beautifully shaped and sound designed by former ABC operatives Gretchen Miller and Judy Rapley.</p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/2kVSWiIIQdgap6BQ6j0YzN?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>5. Rupert, The Last Mogul</h2>
<p>Our very own podcast version of Succession, <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/contributor/rupert-the-last-mogul">Rupert, The Last Mogul</a>, may not have the snarling Brian Cox and his codependent kids, but host Paddy Manning of Schwartz Media convincingly traces the evolution of Rupert Murdoch from rebel to ruthless autocrat via insightful interviews and chilling archival evidence of his geopolitical manoeuvrings. </p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1C0gyy5SA2kYTfc1yd5Xu3?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>6. The Kids of Rutherford County</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/podcasts/serial-kids-rutherford-county.html">The Kids of Rutherford County</a> by Serial Productions and the New York Times investigates the shocking incarceration of mostly black children in Tennessee, some kept in solitary confinement for trivial misdemeanours due to the crusading arrogance of a white judge. </p>
<p>The judge is taken on by a likeable, shambolic lawyer, Wes, in a classic underdog battle narrated by Meribah Knight of Nashville Public Radio in what has become Serial Productions’ trademark host-heavy style. </p>
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<h2>7. The Retrievals</h2>
<p>That style is also evident in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/podcasts/serial-the-retrievals-yale-fertility-clinic.html">The Retrievals</a>, a jarring exploration of malpractice at a fertility clinic at Yale, linked to opiate addiction. Host Susan Burton eschews the chatty trope established by Sarah Koenig in the original Serial, opting for a more <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/08/retrievals-serial-podcast-nyt-review.html">clinically detached tone</a> that foregrounds patients. </p>
<p>The exposition can be dense, such as an 18-minute monologue in episode four when Burton recounts observations by staffers and others who won’t go on tape. Despite such obstacles, the series builds a shattering picture of how women’s suffering is downplayed, even by educated, privileged women such as those undergoing egg retrievals at this elite institution.</p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5eeRTW5Mxsi104smDTO9qw?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>8. The Girlfriends</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-girlfriends-118226591/">The Girlfriends</a> begins frivolously with a bunch of women reminiscing about their ill-fated romance with the same rich, charming and seemingly eligible bachelor, Bob. </p>
<p>It shifts gears to unpack a psychopath and his coercive control of first his wife and, after her suspicious death, these women: the eponymous girlfriends. One of them, a psychologist called Carole, narrates with real heft. </p>
<p>The storytelling is elevated by well-crafted production by UK network Novel, which includes a moving choral tribute to victims of domestic violence. </p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1OSSUxqvqJ6wP09i7aBduL?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>9. You Didn’t See Nothin</h2>
<p>From the opening 20 seconds, where we hear Obama embracing victory in 2008 while host Yohance Lacour listens from jail, <a href="https://invisible.institute/ydsnpodcast">You Didn’t See Nothin</a> is special. A Chicago playwright who did ten years for selling weed, Lacour revisits the bashing of a black boy in the city’s South Side in 1997 and interrogates racism, power and his own life story with a particular poetry and presence. </p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/2JEyfwiDUzqWetmvLhFQdp?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<h2>10. The best quick listens</h2>
<p>For seasonal fun, <a href="https://wondery.com/shows/ghost-story/">Ghost Story</a> is narrated with panache by British journalist Tristan Redman, whose wife’s great-grandmother may have been murdered in the house next door to where he grew up. </p>
<p>For an unsettling twist, try <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/793/the-problem-with-ghosts/act-one-9">Ghost Industrial Complex</a>, a mini-episode of This American Life by Chenjerai Kumanyika, hip-hop artist, academic and host of award-winning podcast Uncivil, a Black rewriting of the US civil war. It sees Georgia ghosts through historically questioning eyes. </p>
<p>Staying with departed souls, in a year where we have lost, far too soon, two sublime poet-musicians, Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor, marvel at one who is left. <a href="https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/mccartney-a-life-in-lyrics">McCartney: a Life in Lyrics</a> is an <a href="https://bingeworthy.substack.com/p/one-celebrity-podcast-too-many-how?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share">accidental podcast</a> made by the Beatle with Irish poet Paul Muldoon that captures the sheer wonder that still drives this musical genius, now into his 80s. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-pogues-shane-macgowan-perhaps-proved-himself-the-most-important-irish-writer-since-james-joyce-218038">With The Pogues, Shane MacGowan perhaps proved himself the most important Irish writer since James Joyce</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh was a judge with the Walkley Foundation, which awarded the Walkley award for Audio Long Form Journalism to Dying Rose in 2023. She has had academic exchanges with podcast host Chenjerai Kumanyika and worked at the ABC with sound engineer Judy Rapley.</span></em></p>Podcasts again this year proved to be a powerful medium for new voices and previously overlooked stories.Siobhan McHugh, Honorary Associate Professor, Journalism, Consulting Producer, The Greatest Menace, Walkley-winning podcast, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180302023-12-05T19:23:52Z2023-12-05T19:23:52ZFact-bombing by experts doesn’t change hearts and minds. But good science communication can<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563530/original/file-20231205-30-fhevw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C2389%2C1577&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/rock-formation-during-night-time-167843/">Pixabay / Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A stir went through the Australian science communication community last week, caused by an article with the headline <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-communicators-need-to-stop-telling-everybody-the-universe-is-a-meaningless-void-215334">Science communicators need to stop telling everybody the universe is a meaningless void</a>. In meetings and online back channels we cried “not ALL science communicators!” </p>
<p>As experts in science communication, we think the article got a few things right but also that this isn’t the whole story. As science communication researchers have <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/23674">recognised</a> for <a href="https://royalsociety.org/%7E/media/royal_society_content/policy/publications/1985/10700.pdf">decades</a>, some people who communicate science don’t really take their audiences into account. Instead they rely on the “<a href="https://oxfordre.com/communication/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-1396">deficit model</a>”, which wrongly suggests you can change people’s beliefs and behaviours simply by giving them facts to fill perceived gaps in their knowledge.</p>
<p>However, this isn’t the norm. Science communicators are not evangelists for the science-only worldview of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism">scientism</a>. Many science communicators think very deeply about what values matter to people, and how to reach their audiences.</p>
<p>Good science communicators put a lot of work into understanding audiences. Sometimes we undertake research programs to understand attitudes, values and worldviews so we can communicate empathetically with audiences, not just transmit information. Yet much of this work is invisible to the public – and clearly it isn’t widely recognised.</p>
<h2>What is science communication?</h2>
<p>Science communication is sometimes characterised as science marketing, but many of us would reject that label. We love to share our passion for science, but we are not uncritical cheerleaders for it. </p>
<p>We see science as part of humanity’s grand project to solve many challenges. We are not ignorant of the broader social context. Most of us do not believe science is everything, and we talk about its limitations. We also recognise the need to provide hope even in the face of catastrophic predictions.</p>
<p>Many of us would agree some science popularisers (we use the term deliberately) should stop telling people their values-based intuitive beliefs are proved pointless by science. For one thing, telling people their beliefs are wrong is a thoroughly ineffective way to communicate science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-key-drivers-of-good-messaging-in-a-time-of-crisis-expertise-empathy-and-timing-135866">especially in a crisis</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a protest in favour of science" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563532/original/file-20231205-27-9eemqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Science has a crucial role to play in informing the public and decision makers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/group-of-people-with-signages-nKNrOZ5MXZY">Vlad Tchompalov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most science communicators work behind the scenes, supporting scientists to share their work, or running campaigns to counter misinformation. Some of us are translators, making information more accessible to decision-makers. Others are interpreters, helping define meaning and relevance of scientific ideas. Some of us are professional storytellers of science. </p>
<p>Being influential behind the scenes means we sometimes struggle to be recognised as experts in our own right, to have our qualifications and specialist training valued, and to have a seat at the table when governments and other organisations make decisions involving science communication.</p>
<p>There is some debate over whether science communication is <a href="https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/Jcom0903(2010)C04/">a discipline in its own right</a>. Regardless, we know through practice and research that fact-bombing by experts has never been an effective way to engage communities in science. </p>
<h2>What makes a science communicator?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21548455.2022.2136985">For some</a>, the key to what makes one a competent science communicator lies in education and training in “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_knowledge">threshold concepts</a>” which include</p>
<ol>
<li><p>audience-centred communication (which relies on understanding your audience)</p></li>
<li><p>shifting from deficit model-based communication to engagement.</p></li>
</ol>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-key-drivers-of-good-messaging-in-a-time-of-crisis-expertise-empathy-and-timing-135866">Three key drivers of good messaging in a time of crisis: expertise, empathy and timing</a>
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<p>Scientists themselves may not have been exposed to these concepts. While some universities teach these skills within science degrees, the depth and orientation of these courses vary. </p>
<p>In Australia, there are only two Masters-level programs in science communication (compared with the Netherlands, which has seven). These programs aim to develop professional skills but are also informed by the history, philosophy and sociology of science, so communicators can reflect deeply and critically on the choices they make. </p>
<p>So-called <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1075547019847484?journalCode=scxb?">values-based communication</a> is central to these programs.</p>
<h2>At the core, it’s about audience</h2>
<p>Values-based communication requires communicators to recognise that audiences have a range of knowledge bases, attitudes, perceptions, experiences and values. All of these influence how they relate to different scientific issues. </p>
<p>A science communication professional will take their audiences’ value systems into account when considering the purpose of their communication.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/god-and-illness-for-some-south-africans-theres-more-to-healing-than-medicine-176180">God and illness: for some South Africans, there's more to healing than medicine</a>
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<p>A science communicator might decide to point out to some audiences that a virus doesn’t care who we are, so as to emphasise personal risk and responsibility. A different approach may be needed for an audience who believe <a href="https://theconversation.com/god-and-illness-for-some-south-africans-theres-more-to-healing-than-medicine-176180">illness is due to the will of a god</a>. </p>
<p>It’s the communicator’s responsibility to balance the potential harm their communication may cause with the benefit in supporting various audiences. One size definitely does not fit all.</p>
<h2>Good communicators understand human values</h2>
<p>Many people working in science communication do not have an education or qualifications in science communication. However, the vast majority do communicate with empathy and transparency about their own values. They acknowledge the limitations of science and its interplay with politics, culture, history and economics. </p>
<p>We reflect deeply on the ethical issues arising from our activities and, for those of us working with particularly controversial or contentious sciences, only time will tell whether we have been effective.</p>
<p>There is no doubt some sections of the science community do communicate without taking people’s values in mind. However, this is counter to current scholarship and best practice. </p>
<p>Most science communication professionals carefully take these things into account. We do it because that is the best way to get better societal outcomes, and to do better science that actually reflects the needs of the communities we live in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Carruthers is a freelance communications specialist working with clients including Science in Public. He is the co-president of the Australian Science Communicators, and adjunct lecturer in science communication at UWA.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Bray is the Coordinator of the Master of Science Communication at the University of Western Australia and is involved in both teaching and research in science communication. She is a current member of Australian Science Communicators. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Nurse is an associate lecturer of science communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU. He has previously received Research Training Program funding from the Commonwealth Government. He is a current member of Australian Science Communicators. </span></em></p>Science communication has to start with values – and most of the time it does.Tom Carruthers, Co-president, Australian Science Communicators, and Adjunct Lecturer, Science Communication, The University of Western AustraliaHeather Bray, Senior Lecturer in Science Communication, The University of Western AustraliaMatthew Nurse, Associate lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185222023-11-30T19:03:44Z2023-11-30T19:03:44ZThe news is fading from sight on big social media platforms – where does that leave journalism?<p>According to a <a href="https://newsmediauk.org/blog/2023/11/02/editors-warn-of-existential-threat-to-journalism-from-big-tech/">recent survey</a> by the News Media Association, 90% of editors in the United Kingdom “believe that Google and Meta pose an existential threat to journalism”. </p>
<p>Why the pessimism? Because being in the news business but relying on social media platforms and search engines has become very risky. The big tech companies are de-prioritising news content, making it harder for citizens to find verified information produced by journalists.</p>
<p>It is arguable the threat isn’t necessarily existential. News companies are also <a href="https://www.inma.org/blogs/research/post.cfm/the-un-conscious-uncoupling-of-platforms-and-news-publishers-is-happening-quickly">leaving social media platforms</a>, potentially claiming back some control and building resilience into their revenue models. </p>
<p>Leading New Zealand digital publisher Stuff, for example, recently decided to stop <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300988705/stuff-group-withdraws-from-x-formerly-twitter">posting its content</a> on X (formerly Twitter), “except stories that are of urgent public interest – such as health and safety emergencies”.</p>
<p>But as I describe in my new book, <a href="https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/from-paper-to-platform/">From Paper to Platform</a>, news organisations that continue to conduct their news business via these platforms will have limited control. As social media companies and search engines change the terms of their services at will, news companies are left to deal with the consequences. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/breaking-news-making-google-and-facebook-pay-nz-media-for-content-could-deliver-less-than-bargained-for-196030">Breaking news: making Google and Facebook pay NZ media for content could deliver less than bargained for</a>
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<h2>Risks of ‘platformed publishing’</h2>
<p>Platforms such as Google and Facebook play various roles in the modern media ecosystem. Consequently, their actions create multiple risk points for news media. The impacts differ, of course, depending on each news company’s own goals and strategies.</p>
<p>As one <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849211031363">Scandinavian study</a> of media risk management noted, “platforms pose a competitive threat to news organisations”. But that threat varies, depending on how news organisations respond, and how reliant they are on those platforms for audience reach or funding.</p>
<p>News companies distribute their content on platforms such as Facebook or X because that’s where their audience is – at least a large proportion of it, anyway. But news is poorly promoted by those platforms, and Google and Facebook admit news makes up only a tiny fraction of their overall content.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-experts-struggle-to-tell-which-social-media-posts-are-evidence-based-so-what-do-we-do-217448">Even experts struggle to tell which social media posts are evidence-based. So, what do we do?</a>
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<p>Furthermore, the visibility of news within these platforms is rapidly declining. The result is described by the authors of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-power-of-platforms-9780190908867?lang=en&cc=us">The Power of Platforms</a> as “<a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/power-platforms">platformed publishing</a>”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a situation where some news organisations have almost no control over the distribution of their journalism because they publish primarily to platforms defined by coding technologies, business models, and cultural conventions over which they have little influence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a recent <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-is-giving-up-on-news-again/">Wired article observed</a>, “Facebook is done with news”: its parent company Meta is “killing off the News tab in France, Germany and the UK”, having already temporarily blocked access to news content in Australia in 2021 and more recently in Canada where the blackout continues.</p>
<p>Instagram’s new Threads app (also owned by Meta) has no appetite for hard news, Google’s search results offer <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/google-core-update-news-search-october-2023/">less news</a>, and X has stopped showing news headlines and links on tweets.</p>
<h2>Weakening democracy</h2>
<p>The New Zealand news publishers I spoke to generally believe platform algorithms don’t prioritise factual news content. As <a href="https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/from-paper-to-platform/">one observed</a>, the “platforms have the control over algorithms”. Another noted how platforms “can bury or promote you as they like, their tweaks in algorithms determine your fate”.</p>
<p>This has real consequences beyond the impact on media metrics and advertising revenue. Platforms have an influence on democratic processes – including elections.</p>
<p>The same News Media Association survey quoted at the start of this article also reveals 77% of UK editors believe platform antics such as news blackouts will weaken democratic societies. </p>
<p>When people cannot access (or have limited access to) verified and trusted news, other things fill the void. The Israel-Gaza conflict, to take just the most recent example, has seen an <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/11/eus-thierry-breton-gives-elon-musk-24-hour-ultimatum-to-deal-with-israel-hamas-misinformat">increase in disinformation</a> on X – to the extent the European Union’s digital rights chief warned owner Elon Musk he was potentially breaching EU law.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/41-us-states-are-suing-meta-for-getting-teens-hooked-on-social-media-heres-what-to-expect-next-216914">41 US states are suing Meta for getting teens hooked on social media. Here’s what to expect next</a>
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<h2>Terms of payment</h2>
<p>There has been some cause for optimism recently due to Google and Facebook becoming funders of journalism and news, having been either mandated or coerced to pay publishers for their content. </p>
<p>Australia was first to introduce a law requiring platforms to compensate news companies, followed by Canada. The previous New Zealand government introduced a <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCEDSI_SCF_FC7FAAC0-2EC0-4E47-7AB5-08DB9EBB2302/fair-digital-news-bargaining-bill">similar bill</a> to parliament, but there is no certainty it will become law under the new administration. </p>
<p>In Australia and Canada, the platforms implemented news “blackouts” in their services as a response to these laws, effectively making news invisible to their users.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-google-and-meta-owe-news-publishers-much-more-than-you-think-and-billions-more-than-theyd-like-to-admit-216818">Why Google and Meta owe news publishers much more than you think – and billions more than they’d like to admit</a>
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<p>And while these platform payments have brought additional revenue to many news publishers, the terms of the payments are not public. It’s hard to estimate how much Google and Facebook have actually paid for news content, but it has been <a href="https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/logic-behind-australias-news-media-bargaining-code">estimated in Australia</a> to be A$200 million annually. </p>
<p>If that sounds substantial, consider this: <a href="https://policydialogue.org/publications/working-papers/paying-for-news-what-google-and-meta-owe-us-publishers-draft-working-paper/">a recent US study</a> suggested Google and Meta should be paying far more than they do, estimating Facebook owes news publishers US$1.9 billion and Google US$10-12 billion annually.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see those platforms agreeing to such figures, or increasing any payments for news. More likely, the payments will gradually dwindle as Google and Meta continue prioritising other services and products over news. </p>
<p>Newsrooms will likely have to say goodbye to platformed publishing and social media news distribution. It’s clear it isn’t working as well as many hoped, and it will almost certainly not work in the long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merja Myllylahti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media platforms are abandoning news – which is bad news for traditional media organisations that have come to rely on them for consumers.Merja Myllylahti, Senior Lecturer, Co-Director Research Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185962023-11-28T02:14:47Z2023-11-28T02:14:47ZAt a time when journalism needs to be at its strongest, an open letter on the Israel/Hamas war has left the profession diminished<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562011/original/file-20231128-19-vlf74t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C6%2C4059%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pov-female-war-journalist-correspondent-wearing-1982400632">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The journalists who signed an <a href="https://form.jotform.com/233177455020046">open letter</a> to Australian media organisations last week calling for ethical reporting on the war in Gaza have succeeded in intensifying the dispute over whether the coverage has been fair. At the same time, they’ve called their own impartiality into question.</p>
<p>At last count, the letter had attracted 270 signatories from journalists at a range of institutions including the ABC, Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Conversation and Schwartz Media.</p>
<p>At the Herald and The Age, both owned by the Nine company, senior editorial executives, including the papers’ editors, have <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/sydney-morning-herald-says-journalists-who-signed-gaza-petition-now-unable-to-participate-in-any-reporting-related-to-the-war/news-story/6a5acb546faea77a7da974c6cfe29a36">banned those staff</a> who signed the letter from having any role in covering the war.</p>
<p>The ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, did not go that far, but <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/journalist-union-meaa-backs-scepticism-campaign-against-israel/news-story/c7932eabaa30edbf1eb5765ed4618b02">warned his staff</a> that if they signed the letter, their ability to cover the story impartially may be brought into question.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-chief-is-right-impartiality-is-paramount-when-reporting-the-israel-gaza-war-218100">ABC chief is right: impartiality is paramount when reporting the Israel-Gaza war</a>
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<h2>Addressing journalist deaths</h2>
<p>The signatories to the letter, in addition to the individuals, were the journalists’ section of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and its house (branch) committees at the ABC and Guardian Australia. It is not clear exactly under whose auspices the letter was written, but it is clear it has the endorsement of the union. </p>
<p>The letter raises two main issues. </p>
<p>One is that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has killed <a href="https://cpj.org/">at least 53</a> journalists in the course of the present conflict and has a history of targeting journalists. </p>
<p>The letter provides links to reputable organisations – Reporters Without Borders, the International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists – each of which provides substantial detailed evidence making a strong case against the Israeli Defence Force.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1727942697162506380"}"></div></p>
<p>The letter states: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around Australia, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families and apparent targeting of journalists by the Israeli government, which constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions.</p>
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<p>That much of it can be defended as an attempt to stand up for press freedom and hold the Israeli forces to account.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-one-journalist-per-day-is-dying-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict-this-has-to-stop-217272">More than one journalist per day is dying in the Israel-Gaza conflict. This has to stop</a>
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<h2>Clear implications of pro-Israel bias</h2>
<p>However, the letter then goes on to argue in a veiled but unmistakable way that the Australian media’s coverage of the war has been pro-Israel. </p>
<p>This is achieved by a series of what, on the surface, look like journalistic motherhood statements:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We call for […] Australian newsroom leaders to be as clear-eyed in their coverage of the atrocities committed by Israel as they are of those committed by Hamas.</p>
<p>The immense and disproportionate human suffering of the Palestinian population should not be minimised.</p>
<p>Apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas […] The Israeli government’s version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The clear implication is that this is not being done, and that taken together they add up to a pro-Israel bias that needs to be corrected. </p>
<p>That is a highly contestable proposition and it needs evidence, but none is provided.</p>
<p>The letter goes on to urge that “adequate coverage be given to credible allegations of war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid”.</p>
<p>The position taken by the ABC on the use of these terms was <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-chief-is-right-impartiality-is-paramount-when-reporting-the-israel-gaza-war-218100">set out</a> ten days ago by its managing director and editor-in-chief, David Anderson. He said the ABC would report other people’s use of them but would not adopt them for itself.</p>
<p>This is the conventional way for impartiality to be applied when such politically charged language is used. When they are reporting atrocities of the kind perpetrated by both sides in this war, on what authority do journalists take it upon themselves to apply these definitions?</p>
<h2>Messy fall-out amid messy messaging</h2>
<p>A further question concerning impartiality then arises: does signing this letter disqualify a journalist from being involved in covering the war? Does it justify the action taken by the Herald and The Age?</p>
<p>Those two newspapers have traditionally taken a strict line on these issues, and their decision this time is consistent with that tradition. Many years ago, a Herald reporter was taken off the reporting of state politics when he declared his membership of the Labor Party.</p>
<p>The reason given by the editorial executive who made this decision was not that his coverage had been biased but that there would be an apprehension among those who knew of his affiliation that his coverage might be biased.</p>
<p>A strict line on impartiality is fine, if it is applied impartially, but Crikey has <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/11/03/australian-journalists-politicians-trips-israel-palestine/">drawn attention</a> to an uncomfortable fact: that three of the four editorial executives at Nine who imposed the ban have participated in trips to Israel sponsored by pro-Israeli groups.</p>
<p>You might think the handling of these problems by the media industry and the journalism profession couldn’t get much messier, but it could.</p>
<p>On November 11, a group of journalists calling themselves MEAA Members for Palestine <a href="https://overland.org.au/2023/11/meaa-members-in-solidarity-with-palestine/">published a separate letter</a> in Overland magazine, and in this there was nothing veiled about the position they took.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-just-find-it-very-hard-to-talk-about-it-without-getting-emotional-top-journalists-reveal-their-trade-secrets-to-leigh-sales-211426">'I just find it very hard to talk about it without getting emotional': top journalists reveal their trade secrets to Leigh Sales</a>
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<p>They condemned the Australian government’s support for what they called Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, called on the government to demand that Israel withdraw its forces and stop the bombing in Gaza, and condemned “the silencing and intimidation that our members experience when expressing support for, or reporting on, Palestine”.</p>
<p>They called on the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance to support the Palestinian solidarity movement and join with trade union action across the world to “end all complicity and stop arming Israel”.</p>
<p>As a trade union, the alliance undoubtedly has the right to take sides, even in a war. But doing so is irreconcilable with the professional ethical obligations of its members to report impartially. </p>
<p>The Overland letter and the more restrained open letter to the media organisations might be two separate documents but it would be naïve in the extreme not to think that the first was parent to the second.</p>
<p>The whole episode, including the obvious hypocrisy of the Nine editorial management, has left the profession and the industry diminished at a time when Australian society needs them to be at their strongest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of Australian journalists signed an open letter to news organisations calling for better coverage of the war. It calls their impartiality into question.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.