This week sees the launch of the 2023 Digital News Report (DNR) which many in the journalism industry and scholarly world look forward to. The Australian report is produced each year by the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre, in collaboration with the Reuters Institute for Journalism at Oxford University.
The 2023 report has some interesting findings. The number of us paying for online news is up 4 percentage points on 2022, well above the global average although as the University of Canberra team point out, the challenge is holding on to subscribers because news avoidance is increasing, and we are more and more concerned about mis and disinformation. The report also produces data to evidence what has become increasingly obvious to many – that those with a leftist disposition appreciate our public broadcasters more than others. In fact, the data shows 74% of those on the left think the ABC and SBS are important to them personally, compared to just 43% on the right.
CMT also had the pleasure last week of launching Dr Chrisanthi Giotis’ first book. Chrisanthi wrote Borderland: Decolonizing the Words of War, based on her PhD research, whilst she was a post-doctoral fellow here at the CMT, which makes us doubly proud. Like the DNR, Chrisanthi’s book is well worth a read, as she argues for a new global narrative around the reporting of war and the people it displaces, as well as for foreign correspondents to challenge their own biases and the lazy tropes that we, as media consumers, often see in reportage.
And a final plug – if I may – for Fourth Estate on 2SER. Fourth Estate is a show about journalism and last week, it featured investigative reporter Chris Masters, who with Nick McKenzie from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald won a defamation suit brought by Victoria Cross medal recipient Ben Roberts Smith. Chris unravels how he and Nick went about their 5 year-long investigation of Roberts Smith’ soldiering whilst in Afghanistan, the perils and benefits of journalists being embedded with military in conflict zones, and the personal impact on journalists who are sued for defamation.
Also this week, Michael looks at whether it's fair for journalists to now refer to Ben Roberts Smith as a ‘war criminal’ whilst Sacha delves into the ethics of journalists using the social media profiles of those who died in the Singleton bus crash last weekend, ahead of their identities being revealed by police. Enjoy the reading.
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Monica Attard, CMT Co-Director