The Public Interest Journalism Initiative will receive $800,000 in additional funding from the Federal Government to continue its essential work mapping and monitoring the health, diversity and plurality of Australia’s public interest news landscape.
The funding announcement was made yesterday by the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, Minister for Communications, at the first of PIJI’s Future Focus Roundtable series in Sydney focusing on Local News Markets.
It brings PIJI’s total funding received by government to $1.7 million, recognising the value of PIJI’s work to date, the value it adds in informed policy and industry development and the need for this work to continue into the future.
PIJI CEO Anna Draffin said the funding will mean PIJI’s work mapping the sector and reporting on its health can continue uninterrupted.
“We are grateful to Minister Rowland and the Federal Government for recognising the importance of both our work and also the health of the public interest news sector, which is crucial to the function of Australian democracy,” she said.
PIJI’s Future Focus Roundtable: Local News Markets brought together delegates from across Australia’s public interest journalism landscape for a frank and fearless discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing the local public interest news market.
At the event, PIJI unveiled a new research report commissioned from Monash Business School entitled, Socio-economic determinants of Public-Interest Journalism in Australia. The research reveals two key trends vital to understanding local news in Australia.
The first is that the size of the local market – readership and consumer base– is crucial to the viability of local news outlets. The second is that there appears to be a correlation between the presence of large companies in primary (mining) or secondary (manufacturing) sectors and a robust local news media market.
“Since PIJI began monitoring news production in Australia in 2019, the industry has seen a significant and steady decline in news production and availability. The release of this research from Monash Business School complements PIJI’s news tracking and measurement activities and adds to our understanding of why local digital and print news production ceases in particular areas,” Draffin said.
The second piece of research released at the roundtable, produced by the Centre for Media Transition, focuses on the attitudes towards generative AI in news production and steps being undertaken by Australian newsrooms to prepare for its possible deployment.
The Centre’s investigation found that newsrooms are cautiously experimenting with the new technology, acknowledging the strong upsides for news production, particularly around the absorption of menial tasks that have arisen with digitalisation. Editors are attuned to the significant downside of the use of generative AI if accuracy, authenticity and bias are not adequately dealt with.
“Generative AI has changed the game for journalism worldwide and presents numerous new challenges. The results of CMT’s investigation into the attitudes of Australian newsrooms towards generative AI’s use in news production reveal how news producers are rising to those challenges. PIJI will continue to monitor news production in Australia as the industry confronts the changes brought by AI and makes sense of the potential opportunities and threats generative AI offers,” Draffin said.
Speaking at the Roundtable, Minister Rowland also announced the Government is opening a consultation into the News Media Assistance Program (News MAP). PIJI looks forward to engaging with its key industry stakeholders ahead of making a submission to the consultation, which closes on 22 February.
The News MAP aims to establish clear policy objectives to guide effective policy development, identify measures to support the sector and improve the evidence base needed to assess the state of public interest journalism and media diversity.
The Government announced it will also spend $10.5 million over four years to deliver the ACMA Media Diversity Measurement Framework, publishing its first report under the new measurement framework by the end of next year. It will then produce a report every two years. PIJI also welcomes the news of a further $6 million in Federal Government funding for national newswire Australian Associated Press.