CMNS3420: Journalism Blog

Fake news is changing the media. Image. Fake news is clearly not a new phenomenon and its roots can be associated with propaganda throughout history. What is new, however, is the intensification of fake news being published online. Anyone with an internet connection is able to publish content online, which effectively can be read by anyone else across the globe. On the back of web 2.0 and the rise of social media, the ability for such content to be amplified to extended audiences in an often viral capacity, is now common place. The lead up to the 2016 United States of America election is a key reference point for the analysis of fake news. Indeed, it highlights the potential impact of fake news on the democratic processes of society. Journalists operating in the age of digital media will increasingly have to work with types of fake news and presented material. Furthermore, technology is becoming increasingly advanced and developing the ability to distort potential truths. The ...

Times are changing in Australia media. Image Issues derived from Australia’s 19 th ranking on World Press Freedom Index – an assessment of the freedom of a country’s media – include shield laws and media concentration. Incredibly, two Australian states – Queensland and South Australia – along with the Northern Territory, don’t have Shield Laws. This means journalists’ sources aren’t protected in those jurisdictions. This leaves journalists working in those areas with incredible ethical and legal decisions to make. If compelled to reveal a source in those areas, a journalist will either bring damage to themselves or the source. The major implication being ‘possible informants may be deterred from providing information to them’ in the future (The Australian Collaboration, 2015). This gap in media protection leaves the freedom of Australia’s press with plenty of food for thought. With recent changes to Australia’s media ownership regulation, concerns over a concentrated ...

Could the death of the newspaper industry spell the end of healthy democracies? Image The public interest has been described as: ‘in having a safe, healthy and fully-functioning society ’ (Ethical Journalism Network, n.d.), in which the interests of public services and their provision to the public are of importance (Ethical Journalism Network, n.d.). It is providing the information in order for members of society to take part in the democratic process (Ethical Journalism Network, n.d.). A privacy test can aid the justification for seeking information into someone’s private affairs. Journalists must consider whether it is in the ‘public interest’ for potential information to be attained and later publicised. An impact test weighs this consideration against the potential benefits to wider society if it is publicised (Ethical Journalism Netowork, n.d.). The Ethical Journalism Network (n.d.) casts the suggestion that:  ‘ publications should seek to correct significant w...

Earlier this year,  the government was considering legislation  which would see financial reward provided to those who come forward and expose corruption in large corporate companies (Bagshaw, 2017). On the back of the whistle-blowers helping expose 'worker exploitation at 7-Eleven' and ' widespread tax evasion' and 'systemic financial misconduct at the NSW RSL' (Bagshaw, 2017), the legislation proposes corporations be forced to compensate the whistle-blowers salaries and potential promotion bonuses. Government rewards could also be included for certain cases (Bagshaw, 2017). Such a system, would help to alleviate the potential consequences whistle-blowers suffer after revealing information including: loss of family and friends, employment scrutiny or termination, inability to attain further employment, reputation suffering etc. ( Dreyfus et al , 2013). It would be interesting to see the effect of such a system on the amount of leaks and whistle-blower’s motiv...

Social media has brought and everlasting change to journalism . Image Around 62% of adults have been found to use social media as a new service in the U.S - Tutorial presentation, Hudson Fallon (Pew Research Center, 2016).   One of the pitfalls of journalists ‘live-tweeting’ their stories is the fact it’s stopping people clicking on their websites or buying their publications. Twitter, essentially becomes users' portal for news. No longer are people required to go out and buy a publication or even visit a website.  How this is managed into the future will be an ongoing concern for media organisations. For example, if I photograph a section of a newspaper and tweet the image – thereby allowing all my followers and others to read it without purchasing the publication – am I breaching copyright laws? How does the media organisation stay on top of this? They don’t. It’s like photocopying the newspaper and handing it out to 100 people for free. Isn't this exa...