The death of much-loved improviser extraordinaire Robin Williams at his own hand seems to have given some newspapers a green light to “go off on one” – delving into his psyche with gay abandon, detailing…
How to cover suicide has always been a contentious issue for journalists.
EPA/JANOS MARJAI HUNGARY OUT
While fans were in collective mourning over the untimely death of Robin Williams, American TV channel Fox News’ Shepard Smith was making profuse apologies for calling the comedian a “coward” after his…
The ethical questions raised by publishing material from WikiLeaks are not new, but can come with heightened stakes in the digital age.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
The journey of whistleblower website WikiLeaks was traced by, among others, Professor Gerard Goggin, chair of the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. In an analytical narrative…
The Guardian and ABC’s case to publish information about Australia’s phone tapping is a defensible one.
EPA/Adi Weda
Were The Guardian Australia and the ABC ethically justified in publishing leaked classified material showing Australia tapped the telephones of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife…
If a comet was heading for earth, would you just go about your life?
Mark Mathosian
Breaking news: scientists have discovered a comet that will collide with Earth in 30 years. Its impact will be devastating, killing millions, flooding coastal cities and disrupting civilisation as we know…
How much of a role did the media play in the political demise of Julia Gillard as prime minister?
AAP/Tony McDonough
An integral power of the media is that of portrayal: the act of determining how people, events, ideas and organisations are described to the public, and therefore how they are perceived by the public…
The sensationalist coverage of the domestic violence inflicted in public on celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has the potential to normalise the behaviour.
EPA/Sebastien Nogier
There is something concerning about the media coverage of Charles Saatchi’s violence against his wife, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. It is the willingness of the news media to reproduce images of Lawson’s…
Covering school shootings raises ethical dilemmas for much of the mainstream media.
AAP/Andrew Gombert
As Newtown tries to come to terms with the execrable, it isn’t clear if television news has been a help or a hindrance. According to the New York Times, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has acknowledged the challenges…
There has been an outpouring of grief over the death of British nurse Jacintha Saldanha.
EPA/Andy Rain
When you make money by being infamous, as 2DAY FM does, the odds are that eventually your infamous behaviour will land you in serious trouble. That has now happened with the hoax phone call to the King…
Southern Cross Austereo CEO Rys Holleran has expressed “sorrow” at the death of Jacintha Saldanha, but who is to blame?
AAP/Joe Castro
This past weekend, we saw the media – old, new, and social – trying to digest the indigestible. The death of Jacintha Saldanha, the British nurse who apparently took her own life after being caught up…
2day FM is in hot water after a prank call to Kate Middleton’s hospital went terribly wrong.
AAP/Warren Clarke
The dreadful death of Jacintha Saldanha after she transferred a prank call from 2Day FM to a fellow nurse is a harrowing example of the hurt that can be caused when ordinary people get caught up in media…
2Day FM hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian must be held to account by ACMA.
AAP/Southern Cross Austereo
Sadly, few of those outraged over the Kate Middleton hospital prank will understand that the presenters responsible are not journalists but entertainers. For that role they are covered by the Australian…
British Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected Leveson’s ecommendation for a statutory body to oversee the new independent press regulator.
AAP/ EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA
Lord Justice Leveson has released the recommendations of the Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, which was prompted by the Murdoch press phone hacking scandal that erupted last…
Julia Gillard has repeatedly answered questions about her role with the AWU, but it’s not enough for some journalists.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Every time Prime Minister Julia Gillard repeats statements that she’s “done nothing wrong” in the AWU slush fund scandal story, it seems another journalist joins the fray. No one covering the story has…
Former Canberra Raiders player Brad Clyde speaking at the R U OK? Day morning tea in 2011.
AAP
Today is R U OK? Day – an initiative kicked off in 2009 by marketing executive Gavin Larkin and television producer Janina Nearn after the death of business management consultant Barry Larkin who took…
Headlines can scare, but media reports on new medical treatments often overstate the benefits.
AAP
The “spin” sometimes found in media reports emphasising the benefits of new medical treatments has more to do with the abstracts of studies published in scientific journals than misrepresentation by the…
Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, AMREP Department of Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne & Senior Medical Oncologist and Palliative Care Physician, Melbourne Oncology Group, Cabrini Haematology and Oncology Centre, Wattletree Road, Malvern, Monash University