Yesterday, the Courier-Mail put the gruesome murder of Indonesian transwoman Mayang Prasetyo, killed by her partner Marcus Volker, on its front page. The article is breathtaking in its prurience and voyeurism…
Cases involving mental health are mostly heard in Victoria’s Supreme Court. They are complex, costly - and rare.
Smith, Johnson/ Wikimedia Commons
Few things cause more public alarm than the notion of the “crazed killer” walking our streets. A common figure in newspaper headlines and current affairs shows, he (occasionally she) is often accompanied…
Is the Yes camp having all the fun online?
http://frannleach.com/daily-docs-65/
As Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling went head-to-head for the last time on Monday August 25, both sides were already pre-empting the following day’s media coverage of post-match analyses, and talk of…
While African Australians can express themselves in ethnic events such as Sydney’s Africulture festival, they still have almost no presence in mainstream media debate, even when it’s about them.
AAP/Newzulu/Teresa Parker
Recent debates about freedom of expression in Australia have largely neglected the ethnic minority media sector. These debates came to a head in the lead-up to the federal government’s recent decision…
Did the grim story of dapper real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay’s calculated murder of his wife Allison in April 2012, played out recently in a Brisbane court with a life sentence, make you feel afraid…
While Victorian opposition leader Daniel Andrews faces demands for answers from The Age, the newspaper hasn’t addressed the ethics of recording off-the-record conversations.
AAP/Julian Smith
It is a sad day when senior political figures steal a journalist’s recording device and destroy its contents, as we have been told happened at this year’s Victorian Labor Party conference. But it is an…
How do you know the people billed as science experts that you see, hear and read about in the media are really all that credible? Or have they been included just to create a perception of balance in the…
Kids playing video games isn’t as bad as we think it is.
Flickr/Sean Dreilinger
In a hunting society, children learn by playing with bows and arrows. In an information society, they learn to play with information. Despite this excellent advice from media scholar Henry Jenkins, it…
An interesting media flip-flop took place this week. Cameroon went from being forced to investigate match-fixing claims made in German news magazine Der Spiegel to FIFA saying there was no evidence of…
It’s worth considering how seemingly open language can be exclusionary.
Wagner Macedo
At first blush, the increased visibility of sexual minorities in popular culture would appear to reflect a growing openness and acceptance of non-heterosexual forms of sexuality. Since the late 1990s…
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…
Media representation of people with a disability is often embedded within familiar models of “tragedy” and “hero”.
Jonathan Kos-Read
The headlines said it all. Back to work: Disability support pension on the scrapheap, screamed Melbourne’s Herald Sun. Beating the bludgers will help the disabled was the lead on The Sunday Telegraph…
Tim Blair inadvertently created an honourable list of women who’ve made a contribution to Australian life.
philippe leroyer
I got the phone call about 6pm on Tuesday night. “Mum,” said the voice. “Mum, are you OK?” Turns out that one of my children had stumbled across a few sentences written by the Daily Telegraph blogger Tim…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has commenced defamation proceedings against several Fairfax newspapers over the ‘Treasurer for sale’ story.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Treasurer Joe Hockey’s decision to sue Fairfax Media for defamation over the now-notorious front-page story “Treasurer for sale” raises interesting questions about politicians suing to protect their reputation…
Suspects are protected - but what about victims and witnesses?
Image via Shutterstock
A campaign is at large to secure statutory anonymity for all young people under 18 who are accused of crime. Lawyers, criminologists, judges, sociologists, academics, and politicians are in on it. It is…
By Stephen Khan, Editor, The Conversation UK On April 8 2013 Margaret Thatcher died. I had recently finished working on the news desk of The Guardian, and it was strange to be simply observing a news event…
The media landscape has been transformed in so many ways … and yet …
JD Lasica
Many of the men I knew who ran newsrooms in the 80s and 90s were womanisers, drunks, bullies, and gropers. Some were just sleazy. And any woman, of almost any ambition, was cold or bossy or had too many…
Loss of the service will impact Australia’s international image, media diversity in the region and coverage of news from the Pacific.
dithern
The termination in the 2014 budget of the ABC’s international television broadcasting contract to run the federal government’s Australia Network service, barely a year into its ten-year term, was hardly…
How did the media cover treasurer Joe Hockey’s first federal budget?
AAP/Lukas Coch
In the lead-up to the Abbott government’s first federal budget, there was one standout headline that stole attention from “exclusive” pre-budget leaks: WHY I’VE GOT A PACKER UP MY CLACKER In terms of tabloid…