The ABC will work with Deakin and Griffith universities over the next three years to determine how the public broadcaster can best support regional news sustainability.
ABC Far North front office. ( - ABC)
ABC News Strategy Research Lead, Dr Angela Ross, said reduced revenue and closures have led to
“fewer regional issues, stories and perspectives being reported and worryingly, less accountability reporting at the local level”.
Dr Ross said the ABC had been able to fill some local news gaps with around 60 additional journalists placed in regional locations through funding from 2021 commercial agreements with Google and Facebook.
Lead researcher, Deakin’s Professor Kristy Hess, said rural and regional communities wanted and deserved access to reliable, original and quality local news and information.
“Ultimately this is about helping to secure the long-term sustainability of a sector that has struggled in a period of digital disruption to ensure rural and regional audiences have access to genuinely local news,” she said.
The ABC offers local quality and reliable news services across many parts of Australia, but it’s essential that it be properly funded to do this work.
“At a time when the ABC is constantly forced to scratch around to find savings, its capacity to enhance its news services to people in rural and regional communities will depend very much on the government’s willingness to offer more funding”, ABC President, Cassandra Parkinson, said.
And we mustn’t forget that thousands of Australians rely on these services in times of crisis.
The 2022 Parliamentary Inquiry into Regional Newspapers called for the ABC and SBS to increase their efforts to support regional news sustainability through partnerships.
The research team – which also includes Deakin Professor Matthew Ricketson, Professor Susan Forde of Griffith University and the ABC’s Victorian Regional Editor Hugh Martin - will identify the challenges faced by regional broadcast, print and digital news providers, particularly in communities underserved by local media. It will then recommend the best ways in which the ABC can support the local news sector.
The researchers will also consider existing partnerships between the ABC and groups such as the Local and Independent News Association (LINA) and First Nations Media Australia (FNMA).
If anyone delivering local news to regional and rural communities would like to be consulted as part of the project, please contact Angela Ross via email at [email protected] or Professor Hess at [email protected].
Sophie Arnold
E-news Editor