PIJI Research Coordinator James Costa reflects on the lessons learned at this year’s JERAA conference.
In early December, PIJI attended the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia’s annual conference at Sydney’s University of Technology (UTS).
The conference covered a wide range of current and emerging issues facing journalism both in Australia and worldwide, including on media freedom, professional journalism standards and the impacts of artificial intelligence on news production and misinformation.
In a session on ‘Voice, listening and citizen journalism’, PIJI saw presentations from researchers providing insight into the state of local Australian news, as well as the difference in coverage across regional and metropolitan news outlets.
In the UTS Centre for Media Transition’s paper, ‘Navigating policy narratives in regional media in Australia: Insights from Murray Darling River and Alice Springs’, authors Professor Monica Attard, PIJI’s Head of Research Gary Dickson and Dr Ayesha Jehangir examined regional media’s coverage of two policy narratives, the Murray Darling River and alcohol bans in Alice Springs, and whether or how it influenced metro-based outlet coverage.
The report, the second in an annual series, found that there was no evidence of narrative movement on the two issues from regional media across to metropolitan news ecosystems, that regional reporters were ‘sidelined’ by politicians in favour of those with larger platforms, and that there was a general decline in the level of metropolitan coverage of regional and rural issues.
While it found that the regional media landscape had changed significantly after the introduction of entrepreneurs and start-up news outlets, these were adversely affected by a lack of government advertising and policy intervention.
In a presentation on a forthcoming article, Deakin University’s Professor Kristy Hess (also a member of PIJI’s Expert Research Panel) and Dr Alison McAdam discussed the detrimental myths surrounding local newspapers, including that print is dead, traditional advertising models are collapsing and the lack of employment opportunities in journalism.
The paper argues that these myths do not accurately represent many local news markets and can ‘cloud discussions’ around the best approach to sustain local news futures.
Finally, Deakin’s Professor Kristy Hess, Dr Angela Ross, Professor Matthew Ricketson and Griffith University’s Professor Susan Forde presented on ‘The Australian Local News Resilience Project’, a collaboration with the national broadcaster to understand the role the ABC has in addressing the local news crisis.
This ongoing project will explore how partnerships between the ABC and existing local news providers can support public interest journalism in regional and rural areas, with an aim to develop targeted and effective policies and solutions.
PIJI was pleased to have the opportunity to attend the conference, and heartened by the serious attention journalism academics are giving to the sustainability of Australian local news markets – a key focus of PIJI’s research.