Past Programs
Press Freedom - 2008
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003 | 2002
The Foreign Correspondent
04/12/2008
The role and nature of the foreign correspondent is undergoing a significant change and even the BBC - arguably the world's largest provider of international news content - is rethinking its approach to sending journalists abroad.
Leading with the trailer
20/11/2008
What makes for a good cinematic trailer? Can a good trailer save a bad film or will it just leave the movie-going audience feeling cheated when they finally get to see the full length production?
Ethical labelling and the web
06/11/2008
You've heard of 'fair trade' coffee. Well what about 'fair trade' media. Is it possible to develop a labelling system that would give people confidence in the ethical values of the sites they view?
Local Voices
16/10/2008
A project called Local Voices has been operating for several years now in four developing countries: India, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. And the focus of the project is on training journalists to better cover issues relating to HIV and AIDS. Local Voices is run by the media development agency Internews and the organisation's Resident Journalism Advisor in Ethiopia is Sonya Di Masi.
Mankind is no Island
09/10/2008
Jason Van Genderen is the director of a very short film called 'Mankind is no Island'. Shot on a mobile phone - and a shoe-string budget - the movie has just won both the 'People's Choice' and 'Best Film' category at the New York Tropfest short film festival.
Spinspotter
02/10/2008
Todd Hermann is the Seattle-based developer of a new online application called SpinSpotter which uses an algorithm to detect and highlight examples of 'spin' in online news stories and news sites.
Civility online
25/09/2008
Town square or playground of the keyboard warriors? Why does so much online interaction end up aggressive, polarised and anything but enlightening?
A taxonomy of blogs
25/09/2008
Author and media analyst Margaret Simons takes a stab at defining the different types of blogs that currently exist.
The Media and the Dame
18/09/2008
The second instalment in our irregular series dealing with historic figures in the Australian media industry. Today we're looking at the media and Dame Enid Lyons. Enid Lyons is best known for being the first Australian woman to become a federal MP -- back in the early 1940s -- and she was also the first woman to be given a position in Cabinet. She was a skilled media performer and practitioner having a secondary career, of sorts, as a broadcaster and columnist.
Scorched
28/08/2008
In the spirit of highlighting edgy and innovative new media initiatives, let's talk about 'Scorched'. What's interesting about it is that it's actually much more than a simple telemovie, it's a hybrid TV/online initiative.
A POOL of creative commons
21/08/2008
Those who seek a middle way between junking copyright altogether on the one hand, and slavishly trying to enforce it on the other, often talk about what's called 'Creative Commons' licensing. Even large media organizations are starting to look at this innovative form of licensing. In fact the ABC has just launched a new online collaboration site called POOL, which gives contributors the option of using just such an arrangement. The Executive Producer of POOL is Sherre Delys...
Cyber war or cyber riot?
21/08/2008
The Georgians maintain they've been the victims of cyber-warfare, but there is division within internet security circles about whether what is happening is in fact 'cyber-warfare', whether the Russian government is actually involved and also how significant the event really is.
Tabloid Man
14/08/2008
Sandra Hall talks with us about her new book Tabloid Man: The Life and Times of Ezra Norton.
Norton was a Titan of the Tabloids back in the first half of the twentieth century. He built up the Truth stable of papers in the 1920s and 30s and established the now defunct Daily Mirro in Sydney in the 1940s.
From reporter to refugee
17/07/2008
Edison and Sonny are journalists. They fled the bloodshed of Sierra Leone to start a new life in Sydney. But the past is always with them—and explaining and documenting it is now the core of their work here in Australia.
Reasons to be cheerful
26/06/2008
The uncertainty caused by the rapid growth of online activity seems to have convinced many journalists that the profession isn't just in a state of realignment, it's actually going to hell in a hand-basket. But according to Paul Bradshaw, a senior lecturer in Media at Birmingham City University in the UK, there are many aspects of new media practice that should make today's journos optimistic about the future. He recently published a list of ten reasons why journalists in 2008 should be cheerful.
'On the record' with David Butorac
19/06/2008
'On the record' with David Butorac, the Managing Director of WIN. The corporation owns Australia's fourth largest commercial TV network and it has plans for expansion.
The size of the spin
12/06/2008
There's lots of anecdotal evidence that we live in a world of spin. But rarely do we get statistical information on the size and scope of the various spin machines that work for those in power. Recently, the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, was asked in parliament to detail the size of her government's media machine. And in the response she gave, she conceded that her administration employs in excess of 360 full-time media and public relations officers.
For his perspective on this, we talk to Bob Burton, the Hobart-based author of a recent study into the public relations game in Australia. It's called 'Inside Spin: The dark underside of the PR industry'.
Checking Australia's web 2.0 pulse
12/06/2008
Ross Dawson is a media strategist specialising in online applications and innovations. Next week, he'll be involved in the launch of the second annual list of Australia's top 100 web 2.0 applications, held in collaboration with the finance magazine, BRW.
So without giving the results away, how does he assess the overall health of the Australian dotcom community at the moment?
Here is the Prime Minister...
05/06/2008
Staff at the National Film and Sound Archive have been sorting through their extensive collection of material looking for all manner of film and audio relating to Australia's 26 prime ministers.
Tokyo Vice
05/06/2008
Jake Adelstein spent more than a decade covering crime for a major Japanese newspaper. Now a Yakuza boss wants him out of the way. So why is he writing a book about his experiences?
Online collaboration
22/05/2008
New York University's Clay Shirky on the power and peril of online collaboration. He has a new book out called 'Here Comes Everybody'.
Perceptions, preconceptions and visibility - part two
15/05/2008
Dr Gail Phillips and Julie Posetti talk about the Reporting Diversity Project and their research into the representation of minorities in the Australian media.
Food and the media
10/04/2008
From gourmet blogs to Maeve O'Meara to Gordon %#?*! Ramsay. Join us as we explore the symbiotic relationship between food and the media.
The State of the Media 2008
20/03/2008
The Project for Excellence in Journalism's 2008 'State of the News Media' report.
SLUM TV
20/03/2008
We look at an innovative and edgy film project under way in Kenya, called SLUM TV, which aims to provide poor Kenyans with a media voice.
Mad crocs and Englishmen
20/03/2008
The British media and its hunger for weird aussie animal stories. We're joined by three UK correspondents Downunder.
The Dart Center
21/02/2008
For the past decade the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has offered an annual Ochberg Fellowship to about 10 media representatives from around the world. The Fellowship offers a week of intense discussion and the opportunity to attend the international conference for traumatic stress studies in the US. The ABC's Lisa Millar was among the latest intake.
Journalists and their information
21/02/2008
A closer look at journalists and the information they gather... where they get it... who tries to stop them getting it... and how some can be shaped by what they see and experience. First up an interview with the Guardian's Nick Davies, who has a new book called 'Flat Earth News'.
The Melbourne Museum of Printing
14/02/2008
Take a journey to the Melbourne Museum of Printing and meet its curator Michael Isaachsen - a man with one hell of a collection and one almighty storage problem.
The Murdoch-Packer deal
14/02/2008
Media and business writer Glenn Dyer updates us on the proposed $3.3 billion media deal between Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer.
The Bulletin and its legend
31/01/2008
Historian and author Sylvia Lawson helps us unpack the legend of The Bulletin. After 128 years the journal is no more. But what made it so special? And did its most recent incarnation really have any connection to the original publication and its founder's aims?
Covering the great US horse-race
31/01/2008
Washington-based journalist John Shovelan gives us the low-down on the way the US primaries are being covered and how the candidates themselves are faring.
Three perspectives on China and the media
24/01/2008
We hear from three academics who've been closely studying areas of the Chinese media. All three of our China watchers were speakers at a 2007 China/East Asia Media Conference organised by the Queensland University of Technology.
(This program was first broadcast on 12 July 2007)
A conversation with Jim Lehrer
10/01/2008
Today, we revisit one of our most popular programs of the past twelve months, a frank and revealing interview with one of the icons of American media, Jim Lehrer from the PBS News Hour.
(This program was first broadcast on 10 May 2007)
