We trust everyone reading our newsletter here in Australia is staying warm.
There’s been a lot of media movement in the past fortnight. The ABC was able to boast its return to the number one online news brand spot, held most recently by News Corp’s News.com.au. According to the latest Ipsos Iris data, the ABC had almost 12.6 million unique visitors in June, a resurgence presumably reflecting activity in the news cycle, especially international news.
Sport did some heavy lifting (Wimbledon Championship, the Euro Football Championship and the State of Origin). But there was also the search for British TV presenter Michael Mosely, sadly found dead; a Presidential debate in the US and the fallout from it, and the lead up to a contentious general election in the UK, all of which – along with the cold weather – seemed to have Australians flocking to the ABC. That the ABC was the site of choice indicates that when it comes to international events, Australians gravitate towards the national broadcaster. Hopefully, the ABC will take the hint and revisit the diminished number of foreign correspondents it has in the field as a result of budget cuts, and its decisions to ‘hub’ international reporting.
In the meantime, journalists at Nine newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been on strike over a pay deal, the same week as the Paris summer Olympics got underway. The dispute surely invites the observation that the TV side of Nine Media seems to be doing pretty well, with traditionally higher salaries unimpeded by any business contractions and reports of extravagant spending in Paris for those covering the Olympics, whilst their newspaper cousins have experienced cutbacks and redundancies. Not that family relations are any happier over at News Corp: dozens of journalists there have been made redundant whilst their owners quibble over an inviolable trust that Rupert Murdoch is seeking to alter to ensure his chosen pick for Tsar of the empire keeps his crown when the elder passes. Its making for fascinating copy.
This newsletter, Gary Dickson takes a close look at what might be some good news for journalism the final report of the Productivity Commission on the question of removing some of the barriers that prevent registered charities from accessing deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
Kean Wong gives you a peek at the Information Integrity Forum which is wrapping up at CMT as you receive this newsletter in your inbox! We have brought 16 editors from India, The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to UTS to talk about the problems they’re facing in their newsrooms with mis- and disinformation. We’ll let you know what those challenges are in our next newsletter.
Michael takes a look at the use of deep fakes in political campaigns and the corrosive impact of its normalisation (should that occur), whilst Miguel D'Souza brings you the latest news in the world of generative AI. By the way, if you’re curious about how Australian editors have been thinking about the use of genAI, have a read of our 2023 report here.
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Monica Attard, CMT Co-director