Weekly Wrap 5

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. I didn’t intend for this to be my only post this week, but that’s how it turns out sometimes.

Articles

Podcasts

Media Appearances

[Photo: Waiting for Conroy“, taken at Senator Stephen Conroy’s ministerial media conference at the offices of NBN Co Ltd, North Sydney, 8 July 2010.]

Viocorp Future Forum: The Future of News Reporting

I’m one of the panellists on Viocorp’s Future Forum The Future of News Reporting next Friday 9 July at midday Sydney time.

The other panellists are: Angelos Frangepoulos, CEO, Sky News Channel; Eric Beecher, publisher of Crikey; Mark Hollands, Chief Executive of PANPA; and Sam North, Media Director at Ogilvy Public Relations. The moderator is the redoubtable Mark Jones.

Now I’m a little worried about the topics listed, because some of them seem like we’re revisiting that tired old “bloggers are not journalists” (non-)debate. I thought we’d moved on from there. And “citizen journalism”? Haven’t we killed that term yet? Truly, I’ll end up stabbing someone. So I intend to derail proceedings at the earliest opportunity. Oh. Don’t read that bit, Mark.

In case you’re late to the party, some of my thoughts on this can be found in my presentation to Media140 Sydney and my Journalism in a hyperconnected world from late 2008. Maybe I need to do an update piece.

It’s a webcast thingy, so do please watch. And tell your friends. Unless they’re bloggers. Or journalists.

The future of “quality” journalism

Crikey logo

Amazing! A bunch of media people gathered at the ABC’s Sydney headquarters last week to discuss the future of journalism, and not one of them whinged about those awful bloggers. Hurrah! Unlike July 2008, when journos were still looking for someone to blame, the debate has finally moved on.

That’s how my piece for Crikey today begins. It’s an overview of the ABC forum I was at the other day.

Quotes from Crikey publisher Eric Beecher, Alan Kohler, News Limited’s Campbell Reid, UTS journalism lecturer Wendy Bacon and former leader of the Libery Party, John Hewson.

Quality Journalism: How to pay for it? Does it matter?

Photograph of Geraldine Dougue

ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra is holding a forum this evening: Quality Journalism: How to pay for it? Does it matter? And I’ll be there.

Host Geraldine Dougue (pictured) will be joined by Eric Beecher (Publisher Crikey and Business Spectator), Wendy Bacon (Centre for Independent Journalism, UTS), Alan Kohler (Publisher, Business Spectator and Eureka Report), John Hewson (Liberal Party Federal Leader, 1990-1994) and Campbell Reid (Group Editorial Director, News Ltd).

I’m reporting on it for tomorrow’s Crikey email, and of course it’ll be broadcast on Saturday Extra on Saturday morning 11 April.

If you want a preview, follow my Twitter stream from 6pm this evening Sydney time.

Sunday Thoughts about Journalism

“Oh no, here we go again!” I can hear you say. “Stilgherrian’s kicking off about ‘the awful journalists’ again.”

No. This is just me pondering five stories about journalism this week. Grab yourself a cuppa and follow the links before tackling my discussion, because this’ll be a long, meandering essay — one in which I’m exploring my thoughts rather than reaching any conclusions. Yet.

  1. Veteran columnist Frank Devine used the pages of The Australian to attack Crikey publisher Eric Beecher in Keep Beecher from the hack lagoon (yes, every newspaper headline must be a pun, or the sub-editors are whipped), and Beecher responded in Beecher v Devine: The threat to public trust journalism.
  2. Another veteran journalist Mark Day (interestingly, also in The Australian) regurgitated a variation of the standard journalism versus blogging debate in Blogs can’t match probing reports. Stephen Collins’ excellent response is The Hamster Wheel.
  3. I was taken to task for my “unbalanced” commentary on Senator Stephen Conroy’s keynote speech at the Digital Economy Forum. Read the comments.
  4. The Rocky Mountain News was taken to task for (mis-)using Twitter to report a child’s funeral.
  5. The MEAA held The Future of Journalism conference in Brisbane yesterday, and from first reports the usual journalists vs bloggers “debate” emerged.

OK, back? Cool. Here we go…

Continue reading “Sunday Thoughts about Journalism”

Links for 12 September 2008 through 14 September 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 12 September 2008 through 14 September 2008, arranged thanks to a raspberry muffin:

  • Beecher v Devine: The threat to public trust journalism | Crikey: Crikey publisher Eric Beecher’s response to Frank Devine’s attack. Today’s class exercise: compare and contrast the two styles of argument, with particular reference to the “straw man” argument and other logical fallacies.
  • Keep Beecher from the hack lagoon | The Australian: Estimable columnist Frank Devine attacks Crikey publisher Eric Beecher. Today’s class exercise: identify and describe all of the logical fallacies and rhetorical techniques he uses.
  • The Future Of Journalism | TPN :: GDay World: One take on yesterday’s Future of Journalism conference in Brisbane. Here Cameron Reilly makes the point that the industry is changing mnot because of a technological revolution but an economic revolution.
  • 2008 NSW Local Council Elections | ABC: Full raw results for the NSW local government elections held yesterday. Enough votes counted so far to indicate trends, but thanks to proportional representation preferential voting most councils’ results won’t be known officially or a week or two.
  • Semi Automatic Ground Environment | Wikipedia: Wikipedia’s artice on SAGE, the first computer-assisted nuclear defence system.
  • On Guard! The Story of SAGE | Internet Archive: A lovely 15-minute promotional film about SAGE, the Semi Automatic Ground Environment, the first computer-assisted nuclear defence system. Be astounded by the technological breakthrough of the Visual Display Unit!