NineMSN to media inquiry: yes to self regulation, no to media subsidies
NineMSN has submitted a proposal to the government’s media inquiry team in which it pushes for the self-regulation of online content, and challenges the view that the decline in print media has meant a fall in quality journalism.
Self regulation should mean that online media publish their editorial standards, have a complaints handling system in place, and regularly report these complaints to an industry body, the submission proposes.
It reads:
The fast evolving nature of digital media and the complex jurisdictional questions thrown up by a globalised environment make self-regulation the most appropriate means of promoting media independence. The Australian Government has been unable to keep up with the challenges of internet technologies and any regulatory response is likely to be problematic.
We submit that any self-regulatory standards for digital media should primarily be centred on the need to protect and promote a free press. Secondly, all such standards should be made explicit and transparent and be the subject of regular reporting.
We would suggest that a self-regulatory regime for the online world should primarily be focused on ensuring that online media organisations have published appropriate editorial standards, have complaints-handling systems in place and report to an appropriate industry organisation on the number of complaints and how they are resolved. The adequacy of these measures should then be reviewed after a reasonable implementation period and an assessment made as to whether an additional external complaints handling mechanism is required.
The submission also suggested that although blogs and social media can not always be seen as trusted sources of news, they are central to how quality journalism will increasingly be defined.
We think that the concept of what is ‘quality’ in journalism will evolve. It will evolve in keeping with the needs of our growing audience – not with what a government regulator wants journalists to produce. Our readers will still want news content which is accurate and fair, and includes professional analysis, interpretation, criticism – creating understanding and knowledge. To produce that content our journalists will still require good training, research and analytical skills and lots of experience. But in the converged environment the audience is no longer passive and trust is increasingly engendered by transparency and involvement of audience in the production and distribution of the content. For ninemsn it will be critical that we integrate our readers into the processes and tools of news gathering. As long as publishers are able to continue to innovate by embracing the collaborative power of new technologies and re-invent their production and distribution strategies around their audience journalism will thrive in the age of convergence.
NineMSN also proposed that the subsidisation of media in Australia is “neither necessary nor desirable”, as it props up “broken business models that are clearly past their shelf life”.
If there is to be any subsidisation it should be in a “platform-agnostic way” so that platforms that attract the most audience are most likely to succeed, the submission read.
