Others in the schoolyard created this radio bully
Sydney radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands shows all the signs of being a classic bully, but it is hard to argue he is an entirely self-made one. For although he’s bright enough to be a successful bully – just bright enough to be dangerous, as the saying goes – he has had considerable help along the road to being a thoroughly unlikable tormentor. One does not need to probe his childhood, ask whether he was picked on … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media, Society
Media generals leading from the rear
If the price of freedom really is eternal vigilance, then many in the media are not paying their dues. Admittedly, the arrest of journalist Ben Grubb by Queensland police and the confiscation of his iPad sent momentary frissons of outrage through parts the Australian media establishment, but almost all of them just as quickly doused their fury in favour of business as usual. Yet in the New Information Age, the incident should have remained one of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media
The end of humanity? Maybe it’s time to shoot the messenger
Ask scientists, economists, sociologists, futurologists and most other expert-ists what is the greatest single threat facing the human race and the overwhelming response is likely to be “climate change”. There are plenty of other contenders; financial crises, international terror, religious fundamentalism/atheism, poverty, pandemics, overpopulation, nuclear disaster, moral decline, the list is long. But when push comes to shove, when Torquemada applies the thumbscrews for an answer, climate change is the one most experts choose. With only a … Read entire article »
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When news hounds should back off
One story has cropped up more than any other since the beginning of journalism – the behaviour of journalists. Even when reporters try to stay in the background and not become part of the story, eventually the spotlight is turned back on them and in its glare they are often accused of being rude, insensitive, aggressive, self-centred, arrogant, incompetent or demanding. Everyone’s work can be judged by the way is done rather than the outcome that is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, General, Journalism, Media
Goodbye Mr Grass Roots
An era of sorts came to an end this week with the death of cartoonist Bob Browne in Port Moresby General Hospital. He was the creator of Mr Grass Roots, perhaps Papua New Guinea’s most loved comic character, which the magazine Islands Business once called “the social conscience of PNG”. Browne’s life and work could almost be read as an allegory of change in the Pacific Islands’ largest nation. Browne arrived in PNG as a British volunteer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Journalism, Media
Look-at-me journalism all the rage from Cairns to Cairo
You can tell journalists have lost the plot when they start reporting on themselves. A rash of “look what happened to me” reports has broken out amongst journalists covering the unrest in Egypt and the ham-fisted attempts by the Egyptian authorities to intimidate them and impede their work Of course, one doesn’t actually need to look so far afield for examples of reporters making themselves the news when covering major breaking disasters such as floods, cyclones and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Journalism, Media
One man’s meat …
It’s all very well – and probably necessary – to expect the peddlers of hate to bear some responsibility for Saturday’s multiple murders in Pima, Arizona, if only because of the atmosphere of hatred their rantings helped to create. It is too early yet to say what drove 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner to kill or wound 20 people, including a US Congresswoman, a Federal Court judge and a nine-year-old girl. Was it partly the crass ravings … Read entire article »
Filed under: General, Journalism, Media, Society
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Endless war between newsroom and classroom
March 19th, 2012 | 3 Comments
There has long been hostility between media academics and conservative journalists, but the Finkelstein review has opened up a new and bitter war of words between the two camps. Why has it come to this and can they both be wrong? The story so far: Acting on growing complaints and spurred on by the News of the World phone hacking scandal in Britain, an Australian inquiry chaired by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein recommends, among … Read entire article »
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