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Journalism: Is There A Future?

3 March 2010 4 Comments

The Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens at the Adelaide Writer's Week

Georgia Kelly-Bakker

On the 2^nd of March, in the picturesque Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens, swarms of like-minded readers gathered to hear the voices of four journalists discuss The Future of Quality Journalism.

Attending with high expectations, industry professionals Michael Cathcart, Malcolm Knox, Alice Pung, and Ian Townsend, helped continue the mood of excitement for the already successful Adelaide Writer’s Week, with their thoughtful discussion.

Acting as a panel, all four journalists voiced their similar and differing concerns but also their excitement for what is to become of the news, it’s inevitable transition from traditional media to the Internet.

Much to the relief of many avid print readers, the journalists were not convinced that newspapers were on there way out in the near future. Malcolm Knox assured readers that they will continue to find what they cannot obtain from elsewhere in the newspapers.

Even with this optimism it was made obvious that due to the loss of revenue, it was going to be a case of what’s going to survive and what’s going to go under.

Due to the loss of monetary funding, Knox admitted that journalists were being forced to do more for less. But as Ian Townsend said journalists will sacrifice their own time for a story.

But even with the journalists fighting for integrity, Michael Cathcart spoke about how “a journalism that is based on fear is easy to sell”, which made publishing fear more attractive than a story of true substance.

Even with the current financial state, all four writers assured that for them quality was still their main objective, Alice Pung guaranteeing, “the readers are still the most important thing”.

Cathcart, although mostly positive, then spoke about the integrity of the ABC. But voiced his concerns that “it mustn’t be compromised”, admitting at times, especially during the Howard era, it was hard.

On a lighter note, Knox discussed that we still have quality journalism. “The ABC is allowed freedom because it is owned by the people”, he said, but pleaded to all billionaires to help fund a whole ecosystem of independent newspapers.

Adelaide’s Writers Week is part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and is set to finish on the 5^th of March.

4 Comments »

Connor O'Brien said:

I found it a little disheartening that the entire talk was, essentially, dominated by discussion of content providers, while content *creators* (the individual journalists themselves) were ignored. I don’t remember once hearing a member of the panel tell us about their favourite journos, while a great hunk of time was spent discussing how brilliant the ABC is. The future of quality journalism lies with great bloody journalists, not in ensuring outdated methods of distribution are maintained.

# 4 March 2010 at 10:54 pm

Liam Mannix said:

Interesting argument, Connor.
However, I think there are a lot of great journalists out of a job (predominantly in America) because of the failure of their distribution methods.

I don’t think you can isolate the journalist from the distribution system very easily. Radio tells a story differently to print, and differently again to the internet. A talented journalist is one who understands his medium, his distributor, and makes the most out of it.

As a journalist, its a great time to be alive. The industry has accepted the impending failure of the old models, and is searching en masse for a new way of communicating. Its a time of great freedom, great oppertunity and great creavity, and debates like the one you attended are a key part of that.

BTW, is this the same Connor O’Brien who edits On Dit?

# 5 March 2010 at 5:48 pm

Connor O'Brien said:

‘Tis indeed, bro.

I think a lot of journalists have lost their jobs following the collapse of the smaller US dailies. But I’d strongly disagree that a lot of *great* journalists have lost their jobs. I’m only speaking from my own experience as a news junkie, but all my favourite American and Australian investigative journos and columnists are still getting published, and are still getting paid. As in all fields, if you’re highly competent, you’ll remain employed.

Obviously, from an editor’s perspective, I do agree that content distributors are hugely important. My gripe is that I worry that we’re coming to a popular conception of journalists as mere cogs in the greater media machine – little typing monkeys whose job it is to crank out articles endlessly, day in and day out. Murdoch really pushed that notion back when he was buying up his papers, of journos as replaceable labourers. His idea was, “Cheap journalism equals higher profit margins.” And now, as that notion is coming unstuck, I think we have a prime opportunity, like you say, for us to re-assess how we understand journalism.

I’ll stop before I start sounding too douche-y.

# 8 March 2010 at 12:25 am

Georgia Kelly-Bakker said:

I agree that the discussion was too heavily focused on the likes of the ABC. It was a little frustrating, but they gave us some interesting information. But in all honesty I wasn’t surprised because although most journalists are great at what they do, a lot of them don’t seem to be great at getting to the point. Sometimes myself included.

# 8 March 2010 at 7:10 pm