In June this year a group of distinguished Australians gathered in Hobart to mark the publication of Australia’s first truly independent newspaper in Hobart on 4 June 1824. Two hundred years after Andrew Bent published his newspaper, the media industry, and public interest journalism in particular, are subject to enormous pressure and rapid change.
The business model of mainstream media has been broken. Traditional media organisations are struggling to finance quality journalism. Many, particularly young Australians, no longer rely on mainstream media for news and entertainment. Our society is becoming increasingly polarised. We may be losing society’s ‘grey area’ – the place in which meaningful and respectful debate, based on largely shared perspectives about what constitutes reality, can take place.
While trust in established institutions and once-shared values is eroding, polarisation is being exacerbated by social media and the power of the algorithms that drive it, creating echo chambers in which notions of the most dubious and dangerous kind have credence.
Panellists
Greg Barnes
Greg Barnes SC is a barrister and weekly columnist with the Hobart Mercury. He is a former Chair of the Australian Republican Movement and of the Australian Lawyers Alliance. He is chair of the Tasmanian Prisoners Legal Service. Greg teaches in the JD program at RMIT University. He is the author of Rise of the Right: The War on Australia’s Liberal Values (Hardie Grant 2019) and is an adviser to the Australian Assange Campaign.
Julianne Schultz
Julianne Schultz AM FAHA was founding director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and founding editor of The Griffith Review. She’s worked as a journalist and held senior management positions at the ABC, as well as serving on its Board. Julianne is currently Emeritus Professor of Media and Culture at Griffith University and writes a regular column for The Guardian. She is a member of the board of the Sydney Writers Festival, and a former chair of The Conversation and the Australian TV and Radio School. She’s written extensively on Australian media society and is the author of Reviving the Fourth Estate and the acclaimed The Idea of Australia - A search for the soul of the nation, which is currently being produced as a four-part TV series by Blackfella Films, for SBS.
Michael West
Michael West is a Walkley-award winner and Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences.
After eight years as a commentator with The Australian and another eight years with the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and editor, Michael founded Michael West Media to focus on journalism of high public interest.
Alan Whykes
Alan Whykes is a former Australian correspondent for an Indonesian daily and current Chief Editor of community-based independent newsmagazine Tasmanian Times.
Rowan Wylie
Secretary
ABC Friends Tasmania