Helen Vatsikopoulos began her career as a TV journalist in the 1980s. Watching a new ABC drama set in this world brought her a sense of deja vu, with one caveat.
- Lecturer in Journalism, University of Technology Sydney
As we face a growing tide of unregulated hate speech, the media is crucial in normalising diversity. Yet progress here has been slow. Even the ABC has failed to meet some of its own targets for hiring a diversity of employees.
Soft power is a country’s ability to gain influence through attraction. Australia’s soft power in the Pacific began waning when it axed the Australia Network in 2014. And China is filling the gap.
The Walkley Award’s decision to axe the award for international reporting comes at a time when the skills and roles of international journalists are under threat from a changing media landscape.
A generation on from revelations about the lack of diversity in the Australian media at the dawn of the digital era, what is pushing this concern now? And what’s changed since then?
The ABC’s new chief, who took over last week, has identified improving diversity at the broadcaster as a top priority. This is long overdue - the BBC has already tackled the issue from the top down.
A memorial unveiled in Canberra this week honours the work of Australian war correspondents, but a new Pentagon “Law of War” manual identifies journalists in conflict zones as “spies and belligerents”.
In an age of radicalisation, there needs to be a radical rethinking of which stories the media tells, and how.
Nordic Noir fans are currently indulging in a prolonged festival of Scandinavian culture. The SBS and the ABC are both broadcasting Wallander, the Swedish and British television series based on crime novelist…
When Miranda Tapsell called for more diversity in Australian television in her Logies speech, she hit the nail on the head. It’s time for Australian producers to take colour-blind casting seriously.
Journalism schools are full of first-generation students that fit the SBS charter’s directive to ‘make use of Australia’s diverse creative resources’ and ‘reflect the changing nature of Australian society’.
Last month, Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry delivered a defiant middle finger to a Spanish journalist who asked if his designs were “just about spectacle”. It’s a criticism that has dogged Gehry…
Australia’s national broadcaster this week launched a rebranding campaign for its flagship television channel, ABC1, that features Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds. But if you look at the…
Australia has moved up in the world – to seventh place on the 2013/14 Soft Power Survey published in the December/January issue of Monocle magazine. The Soft Power Survey is conducted yearly by Monocle…
Denmark’s award-winning cultural export, Borgen, is back on our screens for a second series following the fortunes of its fictional female Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg. Denmark need never resort to hard…
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