If journalism is the first draft of history, what will it say about COVID?
The UTS Centre for Media Transition will examine how the pandemic changed journalism in a panel discussion at UTS on Tuesday 22 August. It will take Pandemedia as its launch site, a collection of essays edited by ABC journalists Gavin Fang and Tracey Kirkland, that pulls back the curtain to reveal how journalism changed during the pandemic.
Certain issues already underway deepened during the pandemic, such as the weaponisation of disinformation and growing mistrust of the media. But other problems – including lockdowns – meant journalists had to find enterprising ways of telling stories, many of them about data. And at the same time, when politicians were refining how to dodge transparency, journalists faced criticism for demanding that politicians disclose the reasoning behind their decisions, amongst them extended lockdowns. In other words, audiences no longer expected journalists to ask questions, which is arguably the sum of the job.
Audiences may have swarmed to news media for information during the pandemic. Unfortunately, they tuned out as fast as they had tuned in, exhausted by the relentless tolls and doomsday alarm. Journalists who lived and worked through COVID were exhausted too.
Pandemedia explores it all.
We’ll bring you more information on our event soon. In the meantime, you can read more on Pandemedia here and even purchase your own copy! Author royalties proudly support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
Alexia Giacomazzi, CMT Events and Communications Officer
This article is from our fortnightly newsletter published on 16 June 2023.
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