What do we expect from our media?
There’s a fierce contemporary dialogue about the news media, and I don’t think journalists are coming out on top.
Nine Newspapers economics editor Ross Gittins talked about journalism’s trust problem in a recent lecture.
Gittins says the media focuses too much on competitors (other media) and not enough on customers (the audience).
Daily ‘pandemic pressers’ beamed into our homes have undoubtedly been a gift to our politicians. But the sparring and cut-and-thrust of questioning between the news deliverer and the gatherer of news have not built trust. For the journos anyway.
Some journalists are stepping down from platforms like Twitter, citing bullying and abuse – trolling is particularly vicious towards women.
I’m no apologist for online bullying; I loathe it. But as Margaret Simons writes in The Age there is a difference between abuse and legitimate critique.
The mainstream media is not itself always right, fair, or unbiased.
Tim Dunlop says, “Abuse on social media is given disproportionate attention by journalists, but the abuse, sexism, misogyny, and racism that is structurally embedded in the mainstream media is given little attention at all.”
From right-wing shock jocks, crude breakfast radio presenters, News Corp columnists, and yes, sometimes, Our ABC, poking the collective bear gets results.
Why do they do it? Because drama sells. Controversy gets clicks.
I’m a news junkie. I don’t demonise Twitter but do mute extreme and abusive voices. I try to avoid falling into my own echo chamber where I only see the posts with one point of view. It’s how I’ve discovered strong, progressive, independent voices like Ronni Salt and David Milner and the (mostly) measured, often conservative mainstream media views expressed there.