Enlightened Media

And so here we are. It’s mid-December, and this is the final CMT newsletter for 2025. Which leaves me no choice but to cue the Chariots of Fire theme and share the following montage of CMT highlights. 

In January … well, in January we were at the beach or the tennis. But in February we sharpened our pencils, and in March the publications flowed, including: Julie Eisenberg’s research into global regulatory interventions; and Michael Davis’s forensic analysis of Australia’s failed misinformation bill. In April the team flew to Bayreuth for a workshop on co-regulation in the digital platforms era, before Heather Ford and Michael published research into ChatGPT’s impact upon knowledge integrity on Wikipedia. In November, after Derek Wilding had lamented Australia’s concentration of media ownership, ABC chair Kim Williams visited CMT to deliver a keynote prompted by our Generative AI and Journalism report. Monica Attard and Michael then penned a genAI and journalism paper for Studies in Communication and Media, followed by Alena Radina’s ‘Echoes and parallels of Trumpian populism: Australian media coverage of the 2025 federal election’, due to be published any minute now by the Australian Journalism Review. 

There was much more, of course, including the newsletters. In today’s edition, Julie Eisenberg unveils the latest CMT report, an impressive and important exploration of how governments and others are funding public interest journalism. The report is particularly timely given the current round of consultation on the News Bargaining Incentive. Also, Kieran Lindsay (who, sadly, is leaving CMT) examines the legal challenges to Australia’s social media ban for youngsters based on Australia’s implied and idiosyncratic freedom of political communication. Finally, we launch The Year in Media Transition 2025 on our Double Take podcast, in which Sashka Koloff and Joe Hildebrand talk journalism, AI and ethics. 

But first, a word about the horrific events at Bondi Beach on Sunday. In recent years, researchers have explored how journalists can cover such events in ways that don’t re-traumatise those involved, as well as audiences more widely. In 2022, the CMT’s Countering Violent Extremism report addressed the issue. Just last month, a conference presentation by Renee Barnes, Christina Driver and colleagues analysed the reporting of last year’s Bondi Junction stabbings in terms of content warnings, sensationalism, language, imagery, and more. They found ‘protocols for traumatising events are lacking or inconsistently applied … [indicating] an urgent need for the universal adoption of trauma-informed editorial standards in newsrooms, supported by evidence from mental health research ...’ Their paper is forthcoming. 

It isn’t just journalists. In such times, we all need to think about how we’re consuming, sharing and engaging with the news. In The Conversation this week, researcher Tara-Lyn Camilleri identified three evidence-based ways the wider public can help mitigate group trauma: reduce unwanted exposure, including by not sharing graphic material or amplifying fear; slow down information consumption and sharing, which will help sift out misinformation; and avoid group blame, which can undermine recovery. 

On Sunday night, one of our colleagues was at home in Bondi Beach, locked inside, windows and shutters drawn for hours. She’s safe, but traumatised. ‘Our friends and neighbours were at the scene and some did not survive,’ she says. ‘On the night we were sheltering, we lit extra Chanukkiah (candle holders) for the first night of Chanukah to shed extra light into the darkness. Last night we added another Chanukkiah and tonight we will add others. More and more and more light against darkness and evil.’ 

As 2026 winds down, here’s wishing everyone light, light and more light. 

References:

1. https://iicintermedia.org/vol-53-issue-1/finding-a-way-forward-for-the-news-in-australia-and-beyond/
2. https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/1323238X.2025.2466862
3. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Implications_of_ChatGPT_for_knowledge_integrity_on_Wikipedia
4. https://theconversation.com/the-australian-media-is-more-concentrated-than-ever-here-are-the-3-moments-that-got-us-here-266470
5. https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centres/centre-media-transition/projects-and-research/gen-ai-and-journalism-toward-common-principles
6. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/190864
7. https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2025-718159
8. https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centres/centre-media-transition/projects-and-research/countering-violent-extremism
9. https://aanzca.org/conference-event/aanzca-2025-conference/
10. https://theconversation.com/after-mass-violence-trauma-spreads-socially-here-are-3-ways-you-can-help-reduce-it-272050