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Section: Media

  • MEDIA

    Uprooting fake online activism

    • Fatima Measham
    • 03 October 2011
    7 Comments

    Much marketing deceives. The problem with the fake grassroots activism known as astroturfing is that it artificially inflates numbers to provide a semblance of legitimacy. This is why it has become the strategy of choice for propagating fringe views such as climate denialism.

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  • MEDIA

    Bolt beyond the pale

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 30 September 2011
    36 Comments

    The Federal Court found that fair-skinned Aboriginal people were likely to have been 'offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated' by Bolt's articles. Bolt lamented the passing of free speech in Australia. But free speech cuts both ways, and no freedom is absolute.

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  • MEDIA

    Media Inquiry won't go far enough

    • Tim Dwyer
    • 21 September 2011
    1 Comment

    In arriving at its negotiated position with the Greens, the Government has shied away from any explicit examination of media concentration, arguably the main reason behind the widespread calls to examine the structure of the Australian media in the first place.

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  • MEDIA

    Sex discrimination by the book

    • Ellena Savage
    • 16 September 2011
    4 Comments

    Women are prevalent among book buyers, editors and writers, yet largely absent from major literary pages and prizes. The Stella Prize, Australia's proposed new women's-only literary prize, is best viewed not as 'affirmative action' but as social mobility with a feminist face.

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  • MEDIA

    Steve Jobs' gift to the Church

    • Michael Kelly
    • 02 September 2011
    5 Comments

    Co-founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, played a pivotal role in the shaping of the publishing and media landscapes in recent decades. The developments initiated by Jobs and Apple are of profound significance for the Church — for better and for worse.

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  • MEDIA

    Reality trumps Japanese horror stories

    • Stephen Alomes
    • 23 August 2011
    7 Comments

    All too often anxiety trumps reality. In Melbourne in recent years, we received emails from friends overseas worried that we might be affected by the Queensland floods or NSW bushfires, hundreds of kilometres away. Japan has problems, but Japan it is not a disaster zone.

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  • MEDIA

    Abbott's budgie-smuggler blues

    • Moira Byrne Garton
    • 19 August 2011
    12 Comments

    Politicians are always pitilessly represented in cartoons. Just ask Kevin 'Tintin' Rudd and Julia 'Nose' (or 'Bottom') Gillard. Portrayals of Tony Abbott in Speedos are not part of a plot to undermine him. The public is able to recognise cartoons as exaggerated political commentary.

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  • MEDIA

    The commercialisation of the ABC

    • Paul Collins
    • 05 August 2011
    22 Comments

    Increasingly the ABC is 'outsourcing' material to commercial production companies. Interest group Friends of the ABC describes this as 'privatisation by stealth' and is calling for a public inquiry. All who value the ABC and its role as a public broadcaster need to support this call.

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  • MEDIA

    Julia Gillard vs Kim Jong-il

    • Alan Austin
    • 29 July 2011
    21 Comments

    North Koreans admire their glorious leader and his visionary ministers, despite their poor economic and human rights record. By contrast, most Australians despise the current Labor Government, despite the high esteem with which it is regarded internationally. How can this be? 

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  • MEDIA

    Consumers rule in Murdoch's evil empire

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 22 July 2011
    14 Comments

    The public was quick to claim ignorance and condemn the theft of private information by News of the World. But ignorance is no longer an excuse, especially in these post-Princess Diana years where the role of the paparazzi, traitorous friends and dodgy journalists is well-known. 

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  • MEDIA

    Getting the media we deserve

    • Justin Glyn
    • 21 July 2011
    8 Comments

    It is easy to wring our hands and blame the media for bias and shoddy practices. But the truth is we like our fix of gossip and outrage, viewed through our favourite political spectacles, and are not always concerned how we get it. That is why tabloids sell.

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  • MEDIA

    My News of the World shame

    • Alan Gill
    • 13 July 2011
    5 Comments

    As a teenager in Britain I thought Catholic clergy were a pure and undefiled lot, while their Protestant counterparts were hopelessly scandalised. The source of this information? The News of the World. I'm ashamed to admit I was once myself seduced into writing for this unrepentant scandal ship.

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