#margaret simons

[ilovedamsels1962]

1957

[remembranceof]

Oh! Tired, irritated, sure of arriving at nothing through this desparate appeal to philosophy - and yet I want it, I owe it to myself to do it.

from Simone de Beauvoir’s diary, quoted from Margaret Simons in “Philosophical Writings”

[hollyhutchinson-blog]

Media Enquiry - Interview with Margaret Simons

Last year an independent media inquiry was held at Sydney University and headed by Ray Finklestein the inquiry is being held as the the Leveson Inquiry into the practices of the News of the World will finally be concluded this month in the UK.

Margaret Simons, award-winning author, freelance reporter and Director of the Centre for Advanced Journalism at Melbourne University, attended the inquiry, and she joined me to talk about the independent inquiry and what she saw as the key issues for Australian Media that came out of it.

There are a number of recent issues that have come up in Australian media that have prompted debate about journalism practices here, but what prompted the Independent media inquiry into media practices?

Well I think it was a combination of things, including some political opportunism, obvioulsly the revlelations of the News of the world abuses in the UK created a bit of a window of opportunity here, but the reason that poltoicailans dives through that window is because of a perception that certain sections of the media, pert news ltd papers are conducting a campaign against the governemnt. I dont this that its any sercret that that's the impetus of the inquiry, I hope personally that it will have a good outcome, despite its murky beginnings

John Hartigan, the CEO of News Ltd, said that he believed that the media inquiry was aimed squarely at his company, and was based on the false allegations that phone hacking was practised in their company, as it has been in the Murdoch-run press in the UK. Is it the case that News Ltd is being accused of phone hacking practises?

Well, the head of the inquiry, Ray Finkelstein, has said a number of times that that's not the case, that the inquiry is not aimed at News Ltd. Every serious media commentator has said that they don't think phone hacking is an issue here in Australia.

What role does the Australia Press Council currently play in Australian media, and how might this change after the inquiry?

If you'd asked me 18 months ago, I would have said that the Australia Press Council should probably be put out of its misery. It's an industry self-regulation scheme that was set up by the publishers back in the 70's, when there was concern that the governmment might seek to regulate media - these concerns arise periodically -and it's being used in a sense, as a justification for not looking for a more legal regulation of the media. It has several functions, but the one which is perhaps highest profile is to take complaints from the public and to adjudicate on them, and the publisher members have agreed to publish the adjudications. It also has set sadnards for media contact in areas like proivacy, and most of the major publishers have agreeed to abide. Wehther they do or not is what the enquiry is investigating.

One of the key areas of concern for the leveson enquiry in process in the UK is how members of parliament and public figures were intimidated by News of the World and feared that there would be smear campaigns against them if they spoke up against the newspaper. There have been allegations of smear campaigns here as well, such as the Australian’s campaign against former chief commissioner Simon Overland, and Former Queensland senator Bill O’Chee claims that he was offered a ''special relationship'' with News Ltd in exchange for crossing the floor on a vote to ban any new television stations for 10 years. What part did claims such as these instigate the inquiry?

Whether they do or not, we'll have to see. But the campaign concerning Simon Overland I think was of particular concern. The way the media has inserted itself into police politics, including the politics of corruption is very worrying. The media obviously has a role in exposing corruption and that's one of the reason we need a free media. But sometimes the media is so keen to get a scoop that they take the story without thinking sufficiently about the motive of the person who is linking them to them

One of the issues Finkelstein questioned you on during the inquiry was what capacity the internet could contribute to investigative journalism. Given the fact that Australia's total online audience is 16.6 million, how do you see new media’s role in supporting quality journalism?

I think new media, if we look on the positive side first of all, new media has the potential to create closer and healthier relationships between journalists and the public. There's a well-known chestnut in journalism originally coined by Jay Rose that the audience always knows more than the journalist.

If you imagine a reporter, for example, covering medicine who is actually able to engage with the doctors, the nurses, the patients who are in our hospitals and tap into that knowledge that each of them have individually, and actually get the overview

That creates the possibility for a very powerful kind of investigative journalism that we haven’t really had before, in a sense.

So that's the positive side on the negative side, there's no doubt that the internet has led to the destruction of the business model which has supported journalism. And investigative journalism is the hardest and most expensive kind of journalism, and the first one to show stress, and we're seeing that at the moment. I have to say that our major newspapers are maintaining their commitment to investigative journalism, but if we see our big media companies shrink to perhaps a few dozen journalists, rather than a few hundred, then certainly investigative journalism will be at risk.

But there is sustainable model in niche media, that is media outlets online which have low cost bases and which are engaging specialist-interest audience. They will have smaller but more intensely engaged audiences, which raises that possibility that the journalist will the better informed by their audiences, so I think in the long term, as the issues around the business models sort them self out, I think the future is quite optimistic, but I think we're going to go through a bloody time before we get there.