Watch this Space: The Future of Australian Journalism (2010) is part of the
Australian Encounters series by Cambridge University Press, Monash University,
and the National Centre for Australian Studies.
Some
people think the contemporary and alternative mediascape – of citizen journalism,
such as blogs and twitter – has lost sight of the core values and quality of
journalism. And that readers are now more interested in ‘celebrity news’ rather
than ‘serious news.’ Deitz quotes Todd Gitlin, an American media academic, who
said that journalistic approaches “cover the event, not the condition; the
conflict, not the consensus; the fact that advances the story, not the one that
explains it.” Hence Dietz examines these traditional ‘virtues’ – objectivity
and balance, quality control, ethics, and fact-checking.
Deitz
begins by referring to the demise in 2008 of The Bulletin, an Australian weekly magazine established in 1880, after
128 years in business. Its first 20 years boasted “half Australia writes it,
all Australia reads it.” It was also interactive – in much the same way that media
is today. But it had run its course of relevance – and will current social
media do the same in the next 10, 20, or 128 years? Are we all journalists now,
she asks.
Dietz
discusses corporate and state-owned media, alternative media, counter-culture,
and the business models of news and journalism providers. She also examines
what makes news? And what defines news? Are the lines between ‘serious news’
and entertainment blurring? Is the need to get the news online as quickly as
possible, with frequent updates, eroding its quality?
Deitz
believes the new technology and social media is restoring the partisan
plurality of perspectives by including more people, ideas, causes and genres. “In
an era when mainstream media and political communication often degenerate into
sound bites, infotainment and spin doctoring, a willingness to blend
once-distinct genres and vehicles into previously unimagined combinations is
surely cause for optimism.”
In
summary, Dietz thinks the changes in journalism are returning it to its radical
and democratic roots. “After all,” she concludes, “democracy is another word
for the media.”
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