Category: Media analysis

Facebook’s news ban – what was that all about?

Nothing better demonstrates the irrelevancy of  Facebook’s news ban than this tweet from elder statesman Everald Compton. “My friends in Parliament tell me that meeting between #CraigKelly and #Barnaby was to create new #conservative party with Barnaby as leader. They will be joined by Christensen and Canavan and sit on the cross benches. #Morrison will lead minority government. Happy Days.” Compton, who many would know through his long-running blog, Everald at Large, posted the 45-word…

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Journalism and Bees In a Bottle

One of those ubiquitous news portals this week outed The Australian Women’s Weekly for a string of what we in the journalism business used to call ‘howlers’. The AWW meekly apologised for mis-naming TV personality Richard Wilkins as ‘ Rachael’ in its front cover feature, one of several glaring errors. The knife job from Mumbrella (the news portal to which I originally referred), drew sharp comments from (ex) journalists. As the auld wifies used to say…

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Bushfires, Methane and the Climate Crisis

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You’d think those with an interest in promoting the climate crisis would have made more of James Murdoch quitting the family media business. While there is much to be wary of when considering Murdoch Jnr’s defection, he did make it crystal clear that he and his wife Kathryn disagreed with News Corp’s climate agenda. The first real signs of family business friction emerged last year. James accused News Corp of promoting climate denialism during its…

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The Listener and The Discerning Reader

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One of my research assistants asked this week if I wanted his back issues of The Listener. I’m now regretting my luke-warm response, given that it is barely two months since the owner, Bauer Media, closed down New Zealand’s 81-year-old current affairs magazine. German-owned Bauer Media had been trying to sell its magazines in Australasia for a while. Things came to a head with COVID-19, as magazines were not considered “essential” under NZ’s strict level…

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