Journalism

Canberra.
Another day at ANZCA 2010, another keynote: we're starting this last day of the conference with a keynote by John Keane, whose theme is monitory democracy. He begins chronologically, in 1945 - when there were only 12 parliamentary democracies left in the world. Democracy was a beleaguered species.

John himself is in search of a 'wild category' - a category that provides a new way of seeing conventional wisdom, provides alternatives to traditional ways of ordering thought. We need a new term for describing the dynamics, changes of language, shifts in institutions, of democracy - and monitory democracy is the term he offers. We need a new term to describe these novel trends (which exist all over the world, especially also outside the traditional democratic countries), and in particular to better understand the intersections of democracy and communication forms.

Canberra.
The final ANZCA 2010 paper for today is presented by Felicity Biggins and Christina Koutsoukos, whose focus is on journalism education. There have long been calls for journalists to adapt to a changing media environment in which anyone can be a journalist - so what is the value of journalism education? Online, citizens can participate in unprecedented ways - and are sometimes called citizen journalists, as opposed to 'professional' journalists - in the case of major events, anyone with a mobile phone can become a journalist. If the value of journalism comes from the underlying value of journalistic activity, that value is now near zero, some contend.

Canberra.
The next presenter an ANZCA 2010 is Jennifer Robinson, whose interest is in interfaces to journalistic content. An interesting case study for this is the cable finance news channel Bloomberg TV, which presents its viewers with multiple concurrent information streams - apparently contradicting the view that there are natural limits to how much information the human brain can process at any one time.

There are different forms of viewing television, for example: staring (over 15 seconds, and not taking in much information); engaged looks (5-15 seconds); orienting (1.5-5 seconds); and monitoring (less than 1.5 seconds). Features that impact on information processing on the screen are clutter (and perceived clutter), intrusiveness of content (e.g. pop-up ads), and the content itself (edits, cuts, sounds, etc.).

Canberra.
I'll admit that I've skipped the ANZCA AGM to check out the (excellent) Museum of Australian Democracy in the front wing of Old Parliament House - well worth a visit, and I can now say that I've crossed the floor in both houses of parliament. The next session at ANZCA 2010, then, starts with a paper by Anna Daniel, whose focus is on computational journalism: a response to the changes in news consumption and production through the greater use of software and technologies that support journalistic work. The belief is that this approach can benefit the quality of journalistm, and in doing so set apart papers which use it from their competitors.

Canberra.
We're now about to start the second day at ANZCA 2010, in a still very chilly Canberra. First up is the second conference keynote, by Robyn Archer. She begins with the question of what drives change - such as individual aims and ambitions; collective needs gathered in democratic processes or popular revolutions. Conservative powers will resist such change - and the mechanisms of mass communication will provide a stage for such struggles to be conducted. The matter of change still depends on how we act on the information we receive, and the technology at our disposal. This is as true for arts and culture as it is for politics.

Canberra.
The final speaker at ANZCA 2010 for this session is Myra Gurney, whose interest is also in Australian political debate; she notes the increasing intensity of judgment of politicians' public utterances and the fast dissemination of any soundbite. Speaking plainly, spontaneously, and unambiguously has become a risk for professional politicians, and is increasingly kept in check by their media minders.

Kevin Rudd has been pilloried for his sometimes overly verbose and prolix expression - and this hints at the perceived need for a vigorous control of political statements, as well as at the perception that politicians cannot be trusted and speak with forked tongues. This is not confined to Australia, nor to politics, but certainly highly noticeable here, too. Democracy is drowning in distrust, as John Faulkner has said. The politics of ideology and philosophy have been replaced by the politics of pragmatism and personality.

Canberra.
The next speaker at ANZCA 2010 is Geoffrey Craig, whose focus is on the public image of (now former) Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Rudd has been widely criticised for an often somewhat stilted public persona. This ties into Bourdieu's concept of habitus, the permanent manners of being, seeing, acting and thinking, and the schemes of perception, conception, and action. These are also situated in fields of action which bestow individuals with authority and power once they understand and negotiate the norms and rules of the specific game.

Canberra.
The final session at ANZCA 2010 today starts with Libby Lester, whose focus is on online media in the 2010 Tasmanian state elections. She begins by describing the election tally room, at the Hobart casino (!); there tends to be little cross-traffic between the tally room and the rest of the casino. Tallying is still a very traditional process, with updates being made physically on boards, and state and local journalists going about their business, with a few national journalists thrown in. The general public is allowed in to observe the process, but without simultaneous access to broadcast media it is difficult to understand what is happening.

Canberra.
The final speaker in this session at ANZCA 2010 is Georgie McClean from SBS, whose focus is on cultural participation in a multicultural context. SBS has a brief to enhance cultural exchange and understanding, and with the move from public service broadcasting to public service media there are new opportunities for this through the use of new participatory media platforms. However, while some barriers to access are lowered, many constituencies can still be left out of the process - those already engaged may be those most likely to profit from new forms of engagement, too.

Canberra.
The first paper session at ANZCA 2010 starts with a presentation by Tim Marjoribanks, whose interest is in media representations of Sudanese people in Australia. He begins by pointing to the societal context of debates over discrimination against African Australians; the Australian Human Rights Commission reported on this recently and found evidence of discrimination and resultant social exclusion across many aspects of their lives. Negative representations in the mainstream media were partly blamed for this, too. The experiences of Sudanese people living in Australia have been especially highlighted in this context, especially also as they are the largest groups of humanitarian arrivals from Africa into Australia.