Battle of the Big Thinking part 2; Giving voice to bloggers; Trust and the human voice; Closing SBS to fund journalism
Yesterday saw the APG’s Battle of Big Thinking. The second session covered big storytelling ideas.
Speaker: Antony Loewenstein, Writer
Topic: Why the western press is failing to use alternative voices
Quote: “A lot of people in the corporate press are not so much afraid as unimaginative.”
His argument:
He told the audience how when he worked at Fairfax he talked to one of the foreign editors. He said: “The Iraq war had just started and I remember asking why there had never been Iraqi voices in the paper. She said ‘I never thought of that’.
“If you are a media organisation you would think about publishing articles from voices you never hear. In my view bloggers can fill that gap. It seems so obvious and yet it’s not happening.
“It does not require big budgets and more money. It’s easy to speak to individuals in their own countries and hear their voices.
“In the vast majority of world events, to find out what goes on, the last place to look is the corporate media.”
My take: He’s right. It’s a simple source that papers should make more use of. But some do already. Famously The Guardian used blogger Salam Pax as an Iraqi voice during that conflict.
Speaker: Tim Noonan, Vocal Branding Australia
Topic: The importance of the voice
Quote: “When you look at something you are looking at reflections from the surface but when you hear something then what you are doing is hearing things from the inside.”
His argument:
Noonan introduced himself to the audience as “a blind dude”, which he indeed is, before setting out the relationship between the human voice and persuasion.
My take: It was a fascinating argument in favour of simply listening.
Speaker: Tim Dick, Opinion editor, Sydney Morning Herald
Topic: Why the SBS should be closed and the money spent on funding more journalism
Quote: “We should use the SBS slush fund to uncover unknown stories”
His argument:
He told the audience that he believed that the original purpose of SBS – to bring foreign language news to first generation Australians otherwise unable to hear it – was now superfluous because of the internet.
He said: “We can now tune into Italian radio online, we can read Indian newspapers before Indians thanks to the time advantage. $200m is a lot of money and I think it should be for generating news. There’s a better way to use the money we give to SBS.”
He argued for what he described as “another form of state sponsorship of media” to fund news-gathering via journalist-employing not profit organisations, where the market is failing to provide it.
My take: Nice idea, but it ain’t gonna happen
My vote: Tim Dick
The voting result: First Tim Noonan (54%); second Tim Dick; third Antony Loewenstein
Was thinking about Tim Noonan’s terrific ‘voice of business’ example afterwards, and what a dickhead I must sound like in every presentation I’ve ever done.
Thought you gave Tim Dick short shrift though, Tim. I reckon his main point was for public funding for local and investigative journos (outside the ABC). Axeing SBS wasn’t really the main point – it was just how he dramatized his argument.
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Why outside of the ABC and SBS David? We have public funding of journalism within those organisations already.
How about we fine tune those operations and support them to do just that with the funding they already have.
Why support another layer when two massive infrastructures (free market and public) for journalism already exist?
The problem isn’t really the funding, it’s the doing and it’s a bit rich for Fairfax to suggest killing SBS (or the ABC if your name is Rupert) to support something they won’t really commit to.
Maybe if Fairfax and News laid off the Bingle and Ga Gaa stories and actually put their money where their mouths are…..
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Tim Dick had one of the only true ‘Big Ideas’ of the day… Dick, or the guy from We Are Hunted should have won the day, in my book.
Curious that the guy who won the entire day made us all ‘feel’ something, but didn’t actually have a big, new idea at the core.
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Not aware of much funding infrastructure available for local news at the suburban level, Phil.
Most independent local papers are getting snatched up by News Ltd divisions like the Cumberland group, aren’t they?
Local news bloggers are springing up, but again I’m not aware of any public system of support for them either. Would be happy to be wrong, though.
As for investigative journalism, any more support for it – be it through existing organisations or new programs – is surely to everyone’s benefit, and needs to be thrown higher up the agenda.
These was his main points, I thought – the axing of SBS was just a facetious way to make them. I don’t think commercial versus public news models really entered into it.
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