Economic stories

So it's back. The economy is heading back towards a recession. We're once again "entering a dangerous place" and are in a "danger zone".

It's as if we've learnt nothing, and the media must have a role in all of this. So many news stories on the state of the economy come from the reserve bank and institutions very similar to it. All are partially responsible for it, and somehow we expect to find out the truth and maybe even some blame?

After the 2008 collapse and woeful 2009 the only US source I know actually pressing people involved was Jon Stewart, particularly going after CNBC for their coverage of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. You know, the part where they said you should buy their stock.

I can't help but notice in so much of the coverage we are finding out how much the stock market dropped that day, but not many reasons why...

We need decent satire!

Oh dear, it's from the controversial scene.
Now I didn't watch this particular scene from 'At Home With Julia' but I can say I did try and watch the episode. I'd say it was about 3 minutes or so before I turned it off. Honestly, it wasn't a very good show... although I did like the idea of Wayne Swan frantically searching through receipts.

Australia deserves better than this, where did shows like Frontline go? Or the old Shaun Micallef programme. At least we have the Chaser, but then again that's every few years. I'm not just saying this because I'd like to be entertained more by local content, but because I really believe gripping and compelling satire can sometimes provide better commentary on the news than any columnist ever could. Although not definitive for sure, a 2009 poll had Jon Stewart as the most trusted name in US news, to be competitive is surely saying something.

In Australia we are always up to date with national news, there is always some commentary for what you agree with, but I think we are lacking people's positions being scrutinised indiscriminately. And this can help further the nation's discourse and even provoke questions and investigations from journalists which might not have ever been thought of without satire.

I haven't warmed to Twitter

The title sums it up really. I understand how it is important for journalists and news organisations, but only for after a news story and it really only fills a headline. But for me, I see it as Facebook's status update feature and not much else. Most of the Twitter updates I've ever seen are generally whatever that person is thinking at that point in time, often not very enlightening, and to be honest I doubt anything I would say would be either.

Don't get me wrong, I still think this picture is the greatest thing to ever come from Twitter. Within minutes of the plane's crash it was on Twitter for the world to see, pretty fantastic.

US Airways Flight 1549 pictured on Twitter

The only time I can think of when I could have provided these kind of updates was this years flood when it washed through my suburb of Graceville. And well I did on Facebook. But until I'm an employed journalist I think Twitter can wait. If I even want to be a journalist!

Blogs I understand more, but then I find huge problems of how to be objective and that's a whole other story.

Twitter, blogs, Facebook and all the others provide all new outlets for Journalists but pose serious questions about their usage which I don't believe have been answered yet.

Anyway, for now I think I might skip the 160 character world...

How to make a story fill a narrative

Every year we seem to have common themes in the news about the reality of the society we live in. This ranges from sports stars private lives to politicians to the economy. This year in Australia one of the main narratives for the economy is that retailers are struggling and are in need of help. A result of this is the Australian Retailers Association recommending retail shop employees take a 10% pay cut and reduced hours (those minimum wagers have had a free ride too long).

But then last week one of Australia's biggest retailers, Myer, posted a net $159.7 million profit. Not bad. Especially considering they're doing it tough despite it being 138% increase on the previous year's profit. ABC did a good job here, these facts are impressive, though it would have been nice if they could have gotten Myer to elaborate why retailers were doing so badly...
(Note: this was on the front page just in the top stories section with no images)

On the other hand Ninemsn seemed determined to actually go along with the belief that retailers are doing bad and therefore Myer must be too. It's story was featured much lower on their homepage and was titled "Myer expects profit dip of up to 10%". Up to 10% lower after a 138% increase, emphasis on "up to". The actual story reads similarly to the ABC one but the set up, in particular the video, make it seem much worse for Myer.

Please watch the video in the Ninemsn link for a bit more context, unfortunately they don't appear to allow it to be embedded on here.

Let's see how the media inquiry goes

This week the Federal Government announced it will be holding an inquiry into the nation's print and online media organisations. Of course the coalition and News Limited were not pleased with this (a coincidence, just like all the other times they agree I'm sure).

Personally I hate the idea of the government investigating the way the media works. Theoretically it should be the other way around. But how can people really get the facts when 70% of newspapers are owned by a single company in this country. This would have been a bigger problem 10 years ago because they were more prominent before internet news took off... wait, why wasn't this a problem of public interest?

Unfortunately I find online news in this country may also have significant issues with reporting the news so maybe the inquiry might help a little bit. The media organisations probably aren't too worried anyway, News Limited has until the end of February to come up with a reason why the whole thing was useless to discredit it.

At the end of all this it seems like it won't be a thorough inquiry, despite it being needed. I'm sure that before the phone hacking scandal in the UK became realised no one thought it was possible or even happening. I can't help but wonder what is happening here.

Journalism, war and objectivity

Journalists battle constantly to remain objective when reporting the news and they are almost always criticised for being bias whether they are or not. It's even more difficult when they find themselves as part of the story. This is what happened to Rana Jawad, the Tripoli Witness. Her's is a case where the story she was following on the Libyan uprising meant a significant change in the way she had to live her life. She seamlessly reports what happened in Tripoli over the past 6 months by describing what happened to her and what went through her mind. She went from reporting what was happening in the country to what was happening on a personal level to the people of the country. An additional and complementary angle to the news coverage.

Personally I don't find this to be subjective, her experiences would appear to be accurate from other sources and plus it helps give understanding as to why the UN intervened. Similarly is the case of the journalists trapped in the Rixos hotel.

Trapped journalists in Rixos (Reuters)

As the rebels were taking the city a band of journalists were trapped inside the Rixos hotel by Gaddafi loyalists. They became the story. But these are professionals and they collectively gave an insight into not only the situation but the mindset of the remaining Gaddafi supporters. The lines were blurred but the outcome wasn't.

This is a good measure of a journalist, it helps when the sides are so clearly defined in war but the emotional toll and stress of being in this situation is immense. I just hope local journalists are this good.