My commentary on the current situation in the Australian media has been printed this week by Green Left Weekly.
Check it out at http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/767/39554
Also, just a couple of follow up articles on the Fairfax Strike...
Green Left Weekly's Margarita Windisch interviews MEAA Spokesperson Mike Dobbie here
Solidarity Online interviews a member of the Fairfax union house committee here
Showing posts with label media crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media crisis. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Media Workers Protest Mass Sacking
Strking Workers at the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Newcastle Herald an the Illawarra Mercury, have today been joined by other journalists and members of the public in actions against Fairfax's mass sackings. In Sydney, the actions directly confronted Fairfax boss, David Kirk.
See a video of the action here
In other related news...
All papers have continued publication with the assistance of scab workers...
Mike Carlton has been sacked for refusing to submit his column for this Saturday's SMH. Fairfax management has decided that columnists can not strike. The Workplace ombudsman is currently investigating the case and a petition in support of Carlton can be signed here
Although AMWU print workers have promised to not cross any picket line, it is still uncertain whether picket lines will be set up to disrupt the production and delivery of the weekend newspapers.
There could be legal trouble ahead for the MEAA. This is due to the current workplace laws that make any strike taken without a secret ballot illegal.
Another industry set to suffer from the Fairfax fallout are in-house Media Law Professionals. This is despite the fact that outsourcing this work will cost more and will limit the flexibility to report, especialy on latebreaking news.
The campaign can be followed at http://www.fairgofairfax.org.au/
The facebook group can be accessed here
See a video of the action here
In other related news...
All papers have continued publication with the assistance of scab workers...
Mike Carlton has been sacked for refusing to submit his column for this Saturday's SMH. Fairfax management has decided that columnists can not strike. The Workplace ombudsman is currently investigating the case and a petition in support of Carlton can be signed here
Although AMWU print workers have promised to not cross any picket line, it is still uncertain whether picket lines will be set up to disrupt the production and delivery of the weekend newspapers.
There could be legal trouble ahead for the MEAA. This is due to the current workplace laws that make any strike taken without a secret ballot illegal.
Another industry set to suffer from the Fairfax fallout are in-house Media Law Professionals. This is despite the fact that outsourcing this work will cost more and will limit the flexibility to report, especialy on latebreaking news.
The campaign can be followed at http://www.fairgofairfax.org.au/
The facebook group can be accessed here
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Fairfax Workers Strike Kicks Off
Fairfax media workers have not taken the attack on their industry lying down. Today workers, in newspapers like the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review, have decided to strike until Monday.
Already this has resulted in a sharp fall in the Fairfax media share price. But the cost for the 550 workers, including a substential number of editorial positions, is clearly going to be a lot larger.
Regional Papers, like the Newcastle Herald and the Wollongong Mercury, are likely to proportionally be the hardest hit. It is perhaps a sign of the times ahead that today the Age and SMH featured stories from their respective cities zoos on their front page.
Already this has resulted in a sharp fall in the Fairfax media share price. But the cost for the 550 workers, including a substential number of editorial positions, is clearly going to be a lot larger.
Regional Papers, like the Newcastle Herald and the Wollongong Mercury, are likely to proportionally be the hardest hit. It is perhaps a sign of the times ahead that today the Age and SMH featured stories from their respective cities zoos on their front page.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Media Crisis Hits Australia
One week after announcing a massive 47% rise in net profits, to $372 million; Fairfax Media (owner of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald) has sacked 550 employees across Australia and New Zealand.
The mass sackings included The Age's editor in chief, Andrew Jaspan. ABC Radio National's The Media Report has revealed that Jaspan had a "difference of opinion" with the management in Sydney. The sacking of Jaspan, who had served as editor for the last four years, has been seen by many as a first step in the further rationaliation of the newspaper.
Chris Warren, of the MEAA(Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance), has remained tightlipped on the possibility of industrial action. Warren instead used the opportunity to play Fairfax off against the Murdoch press. The problem with this, is that it not only unnecessarily promotes the idea that the Murdoch press is actually any kind of bastion for journalism. But it also ignores the fact that change is not needed by any single entity, but to the whole media landscape if we are to not only survive, but thrive out of the current crisis.
The mass sackings included The Age's editor in chief, Andrew Jaspan. ABC Radio National's The Media Report has revealed that Jaspan had a "difference of opinion" with the management in Sydney. The sacking of Jaspan, who had served as editor for the last four years, has been seen by many as a first step in the further rationaliation of the newspaper.
Chris Warren, of the MEAA(Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance), has remained tightlipped on the possibility of industrial action. Warren instead used the opportunity to play Fairfax off against the Murdoch press. The problem with this, is that it not only unnecessarily promotes the idea that the Murdoch press is actually any kind of bastion for journalism. But it also ignores the fact that change is not needed by any single entity, but to the whole media landscape if we are to not only survive, but thrive out of the current crisis.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
CIA GOES RECRUITING FOR JOURNALISTS
The history of the CIA in the journalism profession is long and illustrious. The spy agency have played a role in compromising journalism and putting journalists unneccessarily in harms way.
It is therefore unsuprising that the CIA sees journalism conferences as great recruiting ground. Particularly if they can find a way to compromise minority communities by doing so.
Recently, NPR (USA) reported on the CIA's activities at the recent Unity 08 conference. A particularly interesting point in the context of the current media crisis, though it is heartening seeing the resistance of many journalists to the CIA deciding to recruit at their events.
More Here
It is therefore unsuprising that the CIA sees journalism conferences as great recruiting ground. Particularly if they can find a way to compromise minority communities by doing so.
Recently, NPR (USA) reported on the CIA's activities at the recent Unity 08 conference. A particularly interesting point in the context of the current media crisis, though it is heartening seeing the resistance of many journalists to the CIA deciding to recruit at their events.
More Here
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
6,000 U.S. Newspaper Jobs Lost!...Now What?
Today, DemocracyNOW! features an interesting roundtable on the media crisis .
The roundtable involves Linda Jue, former head of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter; Chris Hedges, a former reporter for the New York Times and now with the Nation Institute; and Bernie Lunzer, the new president of the Newspaper Guild.
One of the biggest issues to come out of the discussion was the question of how new media models currently being promoted on the intenet can be funded in order to be able to offer competitive high level journalism.
Chris Hedges, while clearly very pessimistic about the future of journalism, understands the importance of decent budgets in being able to provide high quality journalism. The mainstream media has straggled at the sight of new technology, while alternative sources are held back by lack of resources.
The question is ultimately around what value will our society put into journalism in the future. Will either corporations or governments make the important investments needed to provide this and what will they expect in return?
These are all important issues that need to be discussed within the media reform movement as we fight towards a better (quality, structured and funded) media environment.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/29/newspapers_suffer_spate_of_layoffs_decline
The roundtable involves Linda Jue, former head of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter; Chris Hedges, a former reporter for the New York Times and now with the Nation Institute; and Bernie Lunzer, the new president of the Newspaper Guild.
One of the biggest issues to come out of the discussion was the question of how new media models currently being promoted on the intenet can be funded in order to be able to offer competitive high level journalism.
Chris Hedges, while clearly very pessimistic about the future of journalism, understands the importance of decent budgets in being able to provide high quality journalism. The mainstream media has straggled at the sight of new technology, while alternative sources are held back by lack of resources.
The question is ultimately around what value will our society put into journalism in the future. Will either corporations or governments make the important investments needed to provide this and what will they expect in return?
These are all important issues that need to be discussed within the media reform movement as we fight towards a better (quality, structured and funded) media environment.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/29/newspapers_suffer_spate_of_layoffs_decline
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